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Franck Andrianarivo Rakotobe

Franck Andrianarivo Rakotobe

Assistant Professor

  • Department: French Studies and Modern Languages
  • Office Hours: 
    By Appointment.

Professor Andrianarivo Rakotobe joined the American University of Paris from Emory Universitywhere he receivedhis PhD in Frenchin 2021. He also studied atthe Université de La Réunion, the University of Sheffield, andthe Université François Rabelais of Tours, where he obtained an MA in English studies.Before beginning his doctoral work at Emory, Andrianarivo taughtfor six years at Harvard University as a Teaching Assistant in French.

Andrianarivo’s researchinterests include Francophone Indian Ocean, African, and Caribbean literatures, cultures, and films. His current book project investigatesfamadihana, an ancestral exhumation practice from Madagascar, which he employs metaphorically as a framework for analyzing multigeneric insular narratives of La Réunion, Tromelin, and Martinique, which he studies alongside Madagascar. Using a minor transnational approach to connect these islands with a shared history of transoceanic migration, he analyzes stories of unburials in contemporary fictions, poetry, bande dessinée, and films, in which authors exhume the bodies of insurgents, revolutionaries, slaves, and maroons from the desecrated tombs of oblivion so as to transfer their remains into a new, textually constructed burial site. His articles appear in peer-reviewed journalsFrench ForumԻL’Esprit Créateur.



Education/Degrees

  • PhD, French, Emory University.
  • MA, English, Universitéde Tours.
  • Licence (BA), English, Universitéde La Réunion.

Research Areas

  • Indian Ocean Studies
  • Caribbean Studies
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Francophone African Cinemas
  • Migration and Diaspora Studies
  • Gender Studies
  • Popular culture