Sophie Marinez
Program Advisor
Modern Languages
EMAIL: smarinez@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: S-601R
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 220-1444
Sophie Maríñez is a professor of modern languages, cultures, and literature at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, where she recently won a Distinguished Teaching Award and currently serves as Program Advisor. She is also an affiliated professor at The Graduate Center and regularly teaches for the M.A. in the Study of the Americas at City College’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies. Recently taught graduate courses include “Slavery, Gender, and Resistance in Ayiti/Hispaniola,” “Postcolonial Caribbean Thought and Aesthetics,” and “Francophone Caribbean Literature.” At BMCC, she has taught all levels of French language and literature. In the fall of 2024, she will offer a course in Creative Writing in Spanish at BMCC and an Introduction to Caribbean Studies course for the M.A. in Liberal Studies and the Africana Studies Certificate Program at The Graduate Center.
Professor Maríñez is an interdisciplinary, comparatist scholar whose research lies at the intersection of literature, history, and cultural studies from the Caribbean and its diasporas, the Francophone world, and the Americas with a focus on Afro-diasporic post-colonial/decolonizing thought and aesthetics, collective memories, and cultural productions that challenge dominant notions of race, ethnicity, gender, and national identity. Her work has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies.
Her new book, Spirals in the Caribbean: Representing Violence and Connection in Haiti and the Dominican Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, August 2024), intervenes in recent debates on human rights, citizenship, and anti-Black racism, contributing less explored cultural productions that transcend dominant notions of race and national identity. Maríñez’s scholarship builds on a long trajectory of research on Afro-Latinx writers and artists from the Caribbean, including interviews and profile articles she published in the late 1990s and the first academic article applying Caribbean philosopher Edouard Glissant’s concept of Relation to the work of a Dominican-American writer. Her most recent article, “Troubled Men: Sex, Gender, and “Human Residues” in Luis ‘Terror’ Días’s Music,” is forthcoming in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism.
Born in France to a French mother and a Dominican father, she is also the author of Mademoiselle de Montpensier: Writings, Chateaux, and Female Self-Construction in Early Modern France (2017), which draws from her doctoral dissertation, winner of the Carolyn G. Heilbrun Prize to “an outstanding feminist dissertation in the humanities.” She also coedited, with Daniel Huttinot, Jacques Viau Renaud: J’essaie de vous parler de ma patrie (Mémoire d’encrier, 2018), which she presented in Port-au-Prince, Paris, London, Dakar, New York, and Montreal. A former visiting scholar at El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies at the University of Connecticut, she now serves as the Caribbean Series Editor at Brill. Her next project, also funded by the ACLS, expands her research to explore transatlantic relations between France and Latin America.
Professor Maríñez is also a poet, a writer, and a literary translator. Her essays and poetry have appeared in The Boston Review, Small Axe Salon, The Caribbean Quarterly, the Caribbean Writer, and The Cincinnati Romance Review. She has published several children’s books with McGraw-Hill and has translated into French the poetry of Julia Alvarez, Jacques Viau Renaud, and Frank Baez, among others.
Prior to her tenure at CUNY, she held a visiting faculty position in French and Francophone Studies at Vassar College for two years. Her academic work has been influenced by her global perspective as an immigrant with French and Dominican roots and her earlier professional experience as an actress, translator, journalist, and diplomat. As a journalist, she interviewed and published profile articles on, among others, Dominican-American writers Junot Díaz, Julia Alvarez, Nelly Rosario, and Loida Maritza Pérez, the Dominican composer Luis ‘Terror’ Días, the Mexican writer Carlos Monsiváis, and the Nobel Prize of Literature José Saramago. From 1997 to 2000, she served as a cultural counselor at the embassy of the Dominican Republic in Mexico.
Expertise
Series Editor of the Caribbean Series at Brill.
Degrees
Ph.D. French, The Graduate Center, CUNY. With Honors. 2010.
M.A. Liberal Studies, Empire State College, SUNY, 2003.
B.A. Translation (English, French, and Spanish), Universidad APEC, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1992.
Courses Taught
- This course includes a review of grammar plus the study of French civilization and selected readings in French literature.
- This course involves intensive oral work consisting of discussions of French/Francophone films. Communicative activities and drills in pronunciation, intonation and rhythm are included as well as several oral presentations throughout the course. A wide variety of topics ranging from everyday life problems to major social and cultural issues will be discussed. Readings, written work, and discussions will be in French. Prerequisite: FRN 200 or departmental approval
- While reviewing advanced grammar, students are trained in literary analysis through the works of modern French authors.
Prerequisite: FRN 200 or departmental approval - This course explores literature written in French from countries outside of France. Works from French Canada, the Caribbean islands (Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Haiti) as well as North and West Africa will be included. Themes highlighting cultural and social differences with France will be discussed. Readings, written work, and oral reports will be in French.
Prerequisite: FRN 300, or any FRN 400 level course (except FRN 476), or departmental approval - 3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.FRN 430 (French Literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th Century)
- The chronological evolution of French literature and its relation to French culture, history, and ideas are studied. Major works by representative authors from the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries are read and discussed with emphasis on ideas and style. Written and oral reports are required.
Prerequisite: FRN 300, or any FRN 400 level course (except FRN 476), or departmental approval - This course concentrates on the literature of the Enlightenment and the 19th century as reflected in the poetry, fiction, and essays of a variety of authors in connection with ideas and styles developed during this period and/or with France’s historical relations across the globe. Written and oral reports are required. This course may be taken before French V.
Prerequisite: FRN 300, or any FRN 400 level course (except FRN 476), or departmental approval - The course reviews advanced grammar and syntax and includes composition exercises, with emphasis on developing advanced oral and written proficiency in French. Through the close analysis of texts on a wide range of cultural and social issues, students will learn strategies for writing organized, compelling essays. Students are expected to complete extensive grammar exercises, participate in discussions in class, and write short essays. Readings, written work, and discussions will be in French.
Prerequisite: FRN 210 or departmental approval - The objective of this course is to continue developing advanced oral and written proficiency in French through critical analysis of different texts covering a wide range of contemporary cultural and social issues. Emphasis is placed on writing persuasive and argumentative essays. Students are expected to keep a journal, a vocabulary log, actively participate in discussions in class, and write
short essays. Readings, written work, and discussions will be in French.
Prerequisite: FRN 300, or any FRN 400 level course (except FRN 476), or departmental approval - This course covers literature of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti as well as their respective diasporas across the globe, in English translation, with a focus on ideas and literary movements developed in connection to the colonial and post-colonial contexts. Readings, discussions and written work are conducted in English, but students who wish to read and write in French will be encouraged to do so.
Prerequisite: ENG 101 - This course examines the literary works of prominent French-speaking women writers, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, with an emphasis on fiction, poetry and essays on the question of women’s condition in different periods and geographical locations. While key female authors from continental France are included, the course also explores writings by women from various French-speaking locations across the globe. Readings and classwork conducted in English.
Prerequisite: ENG 101 - Study in this course includes a review of grammar and reading plus discussion of selected works by modern authors. Self-expression through oral and written reports is emphasized.
Prerequisite: SPN 106 or SPN 121 or departmental approval - This course focuses on advanced composition skills and writing techniques. It helps students to fine tune their grammar and develop their own creative voice through the reading of representative and contemporary authors and the writing of a variety of personal narrations, both fictional and non-fictional such as memoirs/mini-autobiographies, short stories and blogs.
Prerequisite: SPN 300 or any SPN 400 level course (except SPN 476) or departmental approval
Research and Projects
Watch my presentation of Dr. Anne Eller’s book Soñemos juntos: La independencia dominicana, Haiti y la lucha por la libertad en el Caribe (2021) here (starts at minute 37:30).
Check out this PODCAST a conversation with Matthew Boyd about Haitian-Dominican relations on Ask A Professor, Podbean.com, May 2019.
Watch HERE this keynote conference on Haitian-Dominican poet Jacques Viau Renaud (1941-1965), given on September 28, 2019, Asociación de Escritores Dominicanos en Estados Unidos (ASEDEU), New York City. (In Spanish, starting at minute 9:00).
Watch HERE, this keynote talk for the conference on Art and Literature in Contemporary Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas, given at the Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center, March 15, 2018.
Watch HERE this talk on the Haitian-Dominican Human Rights Crisis given at a Black Lives Matter event organized at Hunter College, CUNY, November 2014 (Video recording credit to Mariana Goycoechea).
Publications
BOOKS
Spirals in the Caribbean: Representing Violence and Connection in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024.
Mademoiselle de Montpensier: Writings, Châteaux, and Female Self-Construction in Early Modern France. Brill/Rodopi, 220 pages. See introduction here.
EDITED VOLUMES
Jacques Viau Renaud: J’essaie de vous parler de ma patrie. Edited with Daniel Huttinot and the collaboration of Raj Chetty and Amaury Rodríguez. Montréal: Mémoire d’encrier, 2018. 152 pages.
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
“Du massacre de 1937 à la sentence 168-13: conflit fatal ou solidarité? Notes d’un parcours littéraire des rapports entre Haïti et la République Dominicaine.” Chemins Critiques, Revue Haïtiano-Caraïbéenne. Eds. Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis and Franklin Midy, 6.1 (2017): 71-90.
“Le massacre de 1937 en République Dominicaine: distorsions littéraires.” Revista Mexicana del Caribe 22 (2016): 21-55.
“Mito y feminismo en Marassá y la Nada de Alanna Lockward.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 40.2 (2016): 437-454.
“Alegorías de una hermandad atormentada: Haití en la literatura dominicana.” Memorias: Revista Digital de Historia y Arqueología desde el Caribe 12.28 (2016): 61-92.
“Straighten Those Curls! Style, Gender, and Morality in Seventeenth-Century French Treatises of Architecture.” Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature 49:76 (2012): 13-33.
“Poética de la Relación en Dominicanish de Josefina Báez.” La Torre: Revista de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. 10: 35 (2005): 149-160.
BOOK CHAPTERS
“Haitian Literature and the Dominican Republic.” The Cambridge History of Haitian Literature. Eds. Kaiama Glover and Marlene Daut. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
“Prólogo,”Soñemos juntos: La independencia dominicana, Haití, y la lucha por la libertad en el Caribe. Editorial Bonó, 2021, 19-25.
“Jacques Viau Renaud: Icon of Solidarity between Haiti and the Dominican Republic,” The Border of Lights Reader: Bearing Witness to Genocide in the Dominican Republic. Eds. Megan Jeannette Myers and Edward Paulino. Amherst College Press, forthcoming.
“The Quisqueya Diaspora: The Emergence of Latina/o Literature from Hispaniola.” The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature. Eds. John Moran and Laura Lomas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 561-581. (This volume won the 2018 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title).
“80 aniversario de la masacre de 1937 en República Dominicana: nuevas posibilidades.” Masacre de 1937: 80 años después. Eds. Matías Bosch, Amaury Pérez and Eliades Acosta. Fundación Juan Bosch, 2018, pp. 295-301.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES
“Michèle Voltaire Marcelin.” Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography. Eds. Henry L. Gates, Jr., and Franklyn W. Knight. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
“Hermaphrodites.” Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. Eds. Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Jamsheed Choksy, Judith Roof and Francesca Sautman. New York: Thomson Gale, 2007.
“Alvarez, Julia.” Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Eds. Suzanne Oboler and Deena J. González. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
“Díaz, Junot.” Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Eds. Suzanne Oboler and Deena J. González. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
“Dominican Writers in the United States.” Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Eds. Suzanne Oboler and Deena J. González. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
“Espaillat, Rhina.” Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Eds. Suzanne Oboler and Deena J. González. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
BOOK AND FILM REVIEWS
shee tongue cut out: slavery, gender, and resistance, review of Ana-Maurine Lara’s Konhjehr Woman (2017), Small Axe Salon 37 (2021)
Review of Christian Flaugh and Lena Taub Robles, eds. Marie Vieux Chauvet’s Theatres: Thought, Form, and Performance of Revolt. Brill, 2019. Journal of Haitian Studies 26.1 (Spring 2021): 144-148.
Review of Anne Eller, We Dream Together: Dominican Independence, Haiti, and the Fight for Caribbean Freedom. H-Haiti, H-Net Reviews. September, 2018.
Review of Sara Galletti, Le palais du Luxembourg de Marie de Médicis, 1611-1631. Sehepunkte 13:12 (2013).
Review of Alanna Lockward, Marassá y la Nada, a novel. Hoy, August 17, 2012.
Review of Nelly Rosario, Song of the Water Saints, a novel.Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario March 24, 2002: 3.
Review of Giovanni Savino, Bachata: Música del Pueblo, a documentary. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario September 8, 2002: 3.
Review of Aaron Matthews, My American Girls, a documentary. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario June 24, 2001: 12.
Review of Josefina Baez, Dominicanish. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario June 17, 2001: 10. Reprinted in Agulha Revista de Cultura.
NON-FICTION (essays on culture)
“Looking for Solidarity.” The Boston Review, May 24, 2019.
“Anclas en la tinta: de cómo la lectura resguardó mi identidad francesa.” Memorias del VII Coloquio Internacional de Latino Artists Round Table: Repercusión de la lectura y otras formas de arte en nuestra vida y nuestra obra. Editorial Campana, 2018.
“Nuevas posibilidades,” an essay on the dynamics between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. ViceVersa Magazine, October 23, 2017.
“Noche retrospectiva en honor a Luis Días en Nueva York: ¡Ay, qué guachimán tan buenmozo!” 7días.com.do, May 25, 2015.
“Teatro y Danza en la Segunda Semana Cultural Dominicana en México.” Review. Revista Archipiélago, México, February 1999.
“El cine dominicano en los noventa: la diáspora en busca de un sueño.” Revista Archipiélago, 2:16 (1998): 53-55.
“México: un nuevo horizonte para la cultura dominicana.” La Vida, Sección del Listín Diario, October 23, 1998: 7C.
POETRY
“The Drake’s Pub’s Wall,” Caribbean Quarterly 65:1 (Spring 2019): 158-160
“La Camiona” and “In El Batey, My Father’s Foot Lit a Fire,” The Caribbean Writer 31 (2017): 91-93.
“Sentencia del Infierno I: Poema a los desterrados” and “Sentencia del Infierno III: Soñando en Marassá,” in Circum-Caribbean Poetics, a special issue edited by Jana Braziel and Nicasio Urbina. The Cincinnati Romance Review 40 (2016): 264-267.
“Carnival Day in Santo Domingo.” Small Axe Salon 18 (2015).
“Thaël quitta sa maison.” A poem in tribute to Édouard Glissant. Mondes Francophones. February 2011.
LITERARY TRANSLATIONS
“Je veux être,” “La nouvelle forteresse,” “Mère,” translation into French of Jacques Viau Renaud’s poems “Quiero ser,” “El nuevo torreón,” “Madre.” Jacques Viau Renaud: J’essaie de vous parler de ma patrie. Eds. Sophie Maríñez and Daniel Huttinot. Montréal: Mémoire d’encrier, 2018.
“Deux pays: une île,” translation into French of Julia Alvarez’s poem “Two Countries: One Island.” In Chemins Critiques, Revue Haïtiano-Caraïbéenne. Eds. Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis and Franklin Midy, 6.1 (2017): 175-185.
“La Marilyn Monroe de Saint-Domingue,” translation into French of Frank Báez’s poem “La Marilyn Monroe de Santo Domingo.” In K1N, a Journal of Literary Translation, University of Ottawa (Fall 2015).
Camarade Le bonheur ne joue pas, translation into French of Josefina Baez’s Comrade Bliss Ain’t Playing. Published on Blurb.com, 2011 (available only at Vassar College libraries).
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
La casa de la Güera. McGraw-Hill School Division, 2000.
Aventura en la Loma Verde. McGraw-Hill School Division, 2000.
La clase de máscaras. McGraw-Hill School Division, 2000.
INTERVIEWS
“Nelly Rosario: Escritora dominicana en Nueva York.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, April 28, 2002.
“Julia Alvarez: En el nombre de Salomé fue como recuperar mi pasado.” Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, October 15, 2000: 9.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Ingrid Madera, artista visual.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, February 19, 2000: 19C.
“José Saramago Premio Nobel de Literatura 1999: El conquistador de almas.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, January 8, 2000.
“Guillermo Santamarina: Director del Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual de México.” Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, December 11, 1999.
“Carlos Monsiváis.” Interview. Rumbo, February 8, 1999: 58-60.
“Altagracia Carrasco, artista visual.” Interview. Rumbo, May 3, 1999: 58-59.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Loida Maritza Pérez, escritora.” Interview. Rumbo, March 8, 1999: 56-57.
“He querido dar el punto de vista de los pequeños seres.” Interview with Julia Álvarez. La Vida, Sección del Listín Diario. Oct. 26, 1998: 2C.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Julia Álvarez, escritora.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario March 9, 1997: 9. Republished unedited in Vetas, 1997: 19-21.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Félix Limardo, director de cine.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, February 23, 1997: 3.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Junot Díaz, escritor.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, February 9, 1997: Front page and page 4.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Claudio Mir, actor y artista visual.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, February 2, 1997: 7.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Mateo Gómez, actor.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, January 19, 1997: 7.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Adán Vázquez, arpista.” Interview. Ventana: Sección Cultural del Listín Diario, December 15, 1996: 7.
“Dominicanos en Nueva York: Luis Días, músico.” Interview. Periódico Hoy, November 16, 1996.
PERSONAL INTERVIEWS
J’essaie de vous parler de ma patrie, by Jacques Viau Renaud, a “Haiti in Translation” interview with Sophie Maríñez, Amaury Rodríguez, and Raj Chetty, by Siobhan Marie Meï & Nathan H. Dize. H-Haiti.
#WomenInTranslation: An Interview with Sophie Maríñez, Poet and Translator. Esendom August 29, 2017. Reposted in Repeating Islands.
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
2023-2024
Mellon/ACLS Community College Humanities Initiative Research Grant.
2022-2023
Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in the Dominican Republic (selected as a finalist, alternate candidate)
PSC-CUNY Traditional B Research Award
2021-2022
NEH Summer Stipend Award
Visiting Scholar, University of Connecticut
Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship
2020-2021
BMCC 2021 Distinguished Teaching Award
MLA’s Executive Council’s appointment to its Community College Committee (2020-2023).
CUNY William P. Kelly Research Fellowship.
BMCC Faculty Development Grant.
2019-2020
CUNY Fellowship Award.
PSC-CUNY Traditional B Research Award.
2018-2019
BMCC Faculty Leadership Fellowship.
PSC-CUNY Traditional B Research Award.
2017-2018
BMCC Faculty Development Grant.
PSC-CUNY Traditional B Research Award.
2016-2017
The Graduate Center’s Center for Place, Culture and Politics’ Faculty Fellowship.
2015-2016
CUNY Faculty Fellowship Publication Program.
2014-2015
PSC-CUNY Traditional B Research Award.
2013-2014
PSC-CUNY Traditional B Research Award.
2012
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend.
2010
The Graduate Center, Women’s Studies Certificate Program’s Carolyn G. Heilbrun Dissertation Prize to “an outstanding feminist dissertation in the humanities.”
2008-2009
The Graduate Center’s Dean K. Harrison Tuition Fellowship.
2007-2008
The Graduate Center’s Carole & Morton Olshan Dissertation Fellowship.
Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amérique (SPFFA), Marandon Fellowship.
The Graduate Center’s Doctoral Student Research Grant.
2006-2008
CUNY Writing-Across-Curriculum Fellowship.
2006
Etha Sigma Phi’s National Latin Exam, Summa Cum Laude Gold Medal.
2004-2006
The Graduate Center’s Magnet President Fellowship.
Additional Information
Photo credit: Louis Chan
