Christina A. Lord

Christina Lord is Associate Professor of French in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. She has lived, worked, and studied in Québec and France. As an interdisciplinary scholar of science fiction (sf) studies and French and francophone studies, she often writes about literary and visual representations of aliens, animals, and posthuman beings in both francophone and anglophone works from the late nineteenth century to the present day.

In summer 2023, Liverpool University Press published her first book, "Reimagining the Human in Contemporary French Science Fiction," which studies the works of four storytellers of French sf literature and film through the lenses of posthumanism, transhumanism, and the Anthropocene. Her current research focuses on transnational and transmedial processes of circulation, recycling, and adaptation of sf imagery and narratives. Projects-in-progress include the filmic aesthetic of Québécois filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s English-language sf films (e.g. "Dune" and "Arrival") and the iconography of mid-twentieth century French comics, "Valérian et Laureline" by Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin.

Education

PhD in French and Francophone Studies, University of Kansas
MA in French and Francophone World Studies, University of Iowa
BA in French (Culture and Civilization), University of Iowa

Specialization in Teaching

Dr. Lord teaches at all levels of the French curriculum:

Introductory and Intermediate French
Advanced Grammar and Composition in French
Contemporary France
French Conversation
Introduction to French Cinema
Introduction to French Literature
French and American Science Fiction

Research Interests

Representations of nonhuman beings in 19th, 20th, and 21st century French science fiction literature, film, television
Alien-contact narratives and spiritual contact events
Franco-Belgian comics and science fiction
Intellectual history of humanism, posthumanism, and transhumanism
20th and 21st century Franco-American cultural exchange
Cultural production and history of science/technology during the "Trente glorieuses" period (1945-1975) in France

Professional Service

Country Representative for France, Science Fiction Research Association
Member, Editorial Board (Comité scientifique), ReS Futurae, open-access, peer-reviewed journal in French on science fiction
Co-editor with Paul Scott (University of Kansas), special issue of "European Comic Art," vol. 18.1, 2025, on French comics "Valérian et Laureline"
Contributing editor, “Speculative Studies in French” section, "The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies," Brill Publishers (Leiden, Netherlands)

Honors & Awards

UNCW Innovation Initiative: Advancing Teaching and Learning with Artificial Intelligence (AI), 2024
UNCW Quality Enhancement Plan Large Team Grant, “Ports, People, and Profits: An Interdisciplinary Understanding of International Trade and Exchange,” 2024
UNCW College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts Travel Award, 2024
UNCW Quality Enhancement Plan Small Team Grant, "Enhancing Critical Thinking through Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Figure of ‘the Other’ and ‘the Alien’ in French and Francophone Studies," 2023
UNCW Faculty Fellow, Research Community in International Trade and Exchange, 2023-2024
University of Kansas Spencer Research Library Travel Award, 2023
UNCW Research Momentum Funds, 2022
UNCW College of Arts and Sciences Summer Research Initiative Award, 2022
James Madison University Faculty Fellow, Colonial Academic Alliance for Civic Learning, 2021-2022