Rate My Professor Marie-Magdeleine Chirol

Marie-Magdeleine Chirol is a Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Whittier College, where she also coordinates the French Cultural Studies program. She earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Maryland at College Park. Chirol's research focuses on the artistic and literary motif of ruins across 19th to 21st-century literature and on French and African cinema, with secondary interests in foreign language pedagogy and computer-assisted language instruction. Her scholarly output includes two monographs: Gaston Kaboré, Conteur et visionnaire du cinéma africain published by Presses Universitaires de Lyon in 2011, and L’imaginaire de la ruine dans A la Recherche du temps perdu de Marcel Proust from Summa Publications in 2001. She also published her dissertation, Ruins and Imaginary Ruin in Twentieth Century Novels: Marcel Proust, Alejo Carpentier, Camilo José Cela, Marguerite Duras, Hubert Nyssen, Raymond Jean, in 1991. Notable refereed articles include “Ruin and renewal in Idrissa Ouédraogo’s Yaaba” in the Journal of African Cinema (2009), “Figures de style cinématographiques dans Moi et mon blanc de Pierre Yaméogo” in Figuration et mémoire dans les cinémas africains (2010), and “Histoires de ruines: Calomnies de Linda Lê” in French Forum (2004). Chirol has contributed pedagogical materials such as film dossiers for The French Review and entries in the AATF Allons au Cinéma series.

In recognition of her achievements, Chirol held the Hazel Cooper Jordan Endowed Chair in Arts and Humanities from 2013 to 2019. She was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government in 2012, received the Presidential Award for inspiring Faculty-Student Collaborations on Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity in 2015, and was awarded the American Association of Teachers of French Dorothy S. Ludwig Excellence in Teaching Award at the post-secondary level in 2019. Serving as Vice President of Communication for the Southern California chapter of the AATF, she actively promotes French studies. Every fall during National French Week, Chirol brings a Paris-based theatre company to Whittier College for performances of works such as Samuel Beckett’s La dernière bande, Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos, and Eugène Ionesco’s La Leçon, establishing an annual tradition valued by the campus and the Los Angeles French-speaking community. Her teaching spans elementary language courses to stylistics, business French, cinema, introductory literature, and literary seminars.