Odile Cazenave is the Chair of the Department of Romance Studies at Boston University and is Professor of French Studies in Romance Studies, African Studies, and the Center for the Study of Europe. Her publications include Femmes rebelles: naissance d’un nouveau roman africain au féminin (L’Harmattan, Paris 1996), Afrique sur Seine. Une nouvelle génération de romanciers africains à Paris (L’Harmattan, 2003)–both are available in translation (Rebellious Women (Lynne Rienner, 1999), and Afrique sur Seine A New Generation of African Writers in Paris; Lexington Books, 2005)), and Contemporary Francophone African Writers and the Burden of Commitment (University of Virginia Press, 2011, co-written with Patricia Celerier, Vassar College). She has edited and co-edited a number of special issues: Présence Francophone 58, ‘Francophonies, Ecritures et Immigration,’ Cultures Sud, 172 L’engagement au féminin, (with writer and philosopher, Tanella Boni), Présence Francophone 85 «Vingt ans après le génocide des Tutsi du Rwanda : regards sur la production artistique», (with Célérier) She just finished co-editing (also with Célérier) a special issue on African and Afro-diasporic documentaries.
She directed the Section African Literature for the Dictionnaire universel des créatrices (Editions des Femmes, 2013) and has been contributing to the series LittérAfrique (at Hachette International) geared to junior high and high school students in Francophone African countries, especially with an Anthology of the short story in African literature.
Odile Cazenave has held visiting appointments at Brown University, Harvard University, M.I.T., Wellesley College, and has taught in the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies. She is a core faculty for the African Studies Center, the Center for the Study of Europe, and is part of World Languages and Literature, Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and Cinema and Media Studies.