Dr. Laura Dennis teaches French language, literature, and culture at all levels along with selected courses in Spanish at University of the Cumberlands. She began her career as an Associate Instructor at Indiana University, then was named Future Faculty Fellow at Indiana University East. Upon receiving her PhD, Dr. Dennis spent an additional year as Lecturer at Indiana University East before coming to what was then Cumberland College in 2001. Now Professor of French and Chair of the Department of World Languages, she currently moderates the Lambda Gamma chapter of the Pi Delta Phi National French Honor Society and serves on the International Studies and Promotion and Tenure committees. Dr. Dennis has presented her research on cinema, women and aging, feminist geography, and the depiction of international adoption at conferences in the United States and abroad. An avid reader and writer of creative nonfiction, she has published scholarly articles, book reviews, and personal essays in the Kentucky Philological Review, French Review, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, and Mom Egg Review, to name a few. When not working, reading, or writing, Dr. Dennis plays piano, spends time with her three children and many rescue animals, and volunteers as blog manager and occasional blogger with the Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN), a non-profit agency that aids families and children affected by early childhood trauma.

PhD French Literature with Concentration in Spanish, Indiana University, 2000
MA in French Literature, Indiana University, 1995
BA in French, Nazareth College of Rochester, 1993
Certificat pratique de langue française, Université Rennes II, 1992

Dennis, L. (2021, Jul. 19-22). International Adoption as Cultural Immersion in Belgian and French Bande Dessinée. AATF Convention, New Orleans.
Dennis, L.  (2021). On Paris and Loving (a) Language in The Namesake and Apatride. Editor’s Choice, Kentucky Philological Review, 33-34 double issue.
Dennis, L. (2020). A Day at the Lake. BWG Roundtable, Featured Author, 60. 
Dennis, L. (2020). It’s Not Always Headline News. MER Vox Quarterly, Spring 2020.
Dennis, L. (2018, Oct. 25-27). Lost Between Worlds? Intercountry Adoption in Shumona Sinha’s Apatride. Annual Interdisciplinary Conference in the Humanities, University of West Georgia.
Dennis, L. & Geddes, L. (2017, Dec. 2-5). Cultivating Appetites for Deep Learning: Instructional Practices that Generate Deep, Satisfying Learning. SACSCOC Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX.
Dennis, L. (2017, Mar. 3-4). Does The Class Have a Chinese Exception? Language, Identity, and l’école républicaine as seen by François Bégaudeau. KPA Annual Conference, Eastern Kentucky University.
Dennis, L. (2017) Presidential Address:When Fish Are Late, or the Pleasures and Perils of Language. Kentucky Philological Review, 31, 1-8.

  • French Literature
  • French Language
  • Spanish
  • International Adoption

Contact

606-539-4441


Office

Bennett Building 032