I am an associate professor of French at the University of Texas at Arlington and I am holding my youngest pei, Kaïa. When we was a few months old, she  kept me company during summer office hours. She kept me from getting work done, barked at students, generally wreaked havoc in the department and made a mess of my office. We had a great time.

This is Kaia all grown up. She comes to work with me occasionally. She takes treats that I supply in abundance from students and my colleagues and is still working on socialization. Her she is now:

I received my Ph.D from UCLA and came to Texas as an associate professor in 1995. I teach everything from soup to nuts and have been graduate advisor as well as French section head. I am currently chair of Modern Languages and chair elect of our faculty senate. My area of research is centered around the eighteenth up until 1829, particularly women’s writing, Exotisme, parody and the novel. A second field of studies in Postcolonial literature has drawn my attention; I have recently been working on literature of the Antilles in addition to continuing with research into the eighteenth century. A new project on which I am currently working about how French represent créoles or colonists in XVIII and early XIX novels happily merges the two areas.

Kaïa is currently attending adolescent training in day care and having a great time…