Dr Elyse Ritchey

    French Studies, School of Modern Languages

    Lecturer, Research Co-Ordinator (On Leave 2022)

    Biography

    My primary research interests are in language endangerment and revitalisation, with a particular focus on the Occitan language of southern France. I also work in the fields of discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and critical toponymy. My teaching interests include synchronic and diachronic French linguistics and sociolinguistics and French language pedagogy. I have a particular attachment to southern France and studied in Aix-en-Provence as an undergraduate. In 2016, I received a Chateaubriand HSS Fellowship from the Embassy of France in the U.S., which enabled me to do fieldwork for my thesis as a visiting scholar at the Université de Toulouse-Jean Jaurès. I completed my Bachelor of Arts degree (Magna cum laude) in Photography and French at the University of Arizona in 2004. After graduating with a Master of Arts in French from California State University, Los Angeles in 2008, I earned my PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019. My thesis, ‘Lenga nòstra? Local discourses on Occitan in southwestern France’ explores portrayals and perceptions of Occitan in public discourse in two rural towns. Before coming to Maynooth, I worked as a Lecturer of French Linguistics at Queen’s University, Belfast for one year.

    Peer Reviewed Journals

      Year Publication
    2017 'Multiculturalism from the inside out: Occitan and Toulouse'
    Ritchey, Elyse (2017) 'Multiculturalism from the inside out: Occitan and Toulouse'. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 5 (2):39-63 [Details]

    Conference Contributions

      Year Publication
    2018 'Il y a 800 ans en Occitanie’ : La nation occitane historique imaginée dans la presse.
    Ritchey, Elyse (2018) 'Il y a 800 ans en Occitanie’ : La nation occitane historique imaginée dans la presse. [Oral Presentation], 8n Obrador Lingüistica Occitana, Pau, France [Details]
    2018 The promise and limits of civil society organisations in language revitalisation: The case of Occitan.
    Ritchey, Elyse (2018) The promise and limits of civil society organisations in language revitalisation: The case of Occitan. [Oral Presentation], Eighth Cambridge Conference on Language Endangerment, Cambridge, UK [Details]
    2017 Regional Romance outside Europe.
    Ritchey, Elyse (2017) Regional Romance outside Europe. [Conference Organising Committee Member], Romance outside Europe, Berkeley, California, USA [Details]
    2017 Teaching French Listening Comprehension and Cultural Awareness through Regional Variation.
    Ritchey, Elyse (2017) Teaching French Listening Comprehension and Cultural Awareness through Regional Variation. [Invited Lecture], Berkeley Language Center Fellows Forum, Berkeley, California, USA [Details]
    2017 French and Occitan: didactic and ideological functions of code-switching with a regional language in a press corpus.
    Ritchey, Elyse (2017) French and Occitan: didactic and ideological functions of code-switching with a regional language in a press corpus. [Oral Presentation], UC Davis Symposium on Language Research, Davis, California, USA [Details]
    2015 The history of street names in southern France.
    Ritchey, Elyse (2015) The history of street names in southern France. [Oral Presentation], Linguistic Landscape 7, Berkeley, California, USA [Details]
    2015 Caught between heritage and utility: Bilingual French-Occitan street names.
    Ritchey, Elyse (2015) Caught between heritage and utility: Bilingual French-Occitan street names. [Oral Presentation], Linguistic Landscape 7, Berkeley, California, USA [Details]

    Honours and Awards

      Year Title Awarding Body
    2017 Professional Development Fellowship Berkeley Language Center, University of California, Berkeley
    2016 Chateaubriand HSS Fellowship Embassy of France in the U.S.

    Professional Associations

      Association Function From / To
    Modern Language Association Member /

    Committees

      Committee Function From / To
    School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Research Committee Member /

    Employment

      Employer Position From / To
    University of California, Berkeley Graduate Student Instructor 13-AUG-12 / 16-AUG-19
    California State University, Los Angeles Part-time Lecturer of French 07-JAN-08 / 12-JUN-09
    Queen's University Belfast Temporary Lecturer of French Linguistics 17-SEP-19 / 31-AUG-20
    California State University, East Bay Part-time Lecturer of French 02-JAN-12 / 15-JUN-12

    Teaching Interests

    Variation in French, French Language and Linguistics, History of the French Language, Sociolinguistics, Endangered Languages, Language Revitalisation, Discourse analysis, Romance Linguistics, History of the Romance Languages