Instructor Bio

Holly Engel

Part-Time Instructor in the Department of World Languages & Cultures – French

Education

• B.A., The College of Wooster
• M.A. & Ph.D, The Ohio State University

About

Holly has spent her life in Ohio, where she grew up by the shores of Lake Erie and in the blustery snow belt. She completed her B.A. in French and English at The College of Wooster, where she also had the opportunity to study abroad in Nantes, France for a semester and learned a love for French cinema. Her studies continued at The Ohio State University, where she completed her dissertation, "Possessed, Haunted, and Bitten: Monstrosity and Patriarchy in French Horror Cinema." Branching from recent trends in monster theory, the project analyzed three popular monster archetypes in French horror--the Devil, the revenant, and the vampire--reading each monster in the context of patriarchal power dynamics inherent in French society and culture.

Teaching the French language is a passion of Holly's, and she engages students in task-based learning that emphasizes communication and cultural knowledge. Her background as a film scholar influences her teaching style as well, as she often looks for ways to incorporate a variety of media into her courses to encourage students to interact with different facets of French-speaking cultures. She is excited to be at Ohio Wesleyan, where she aims to grow as both an educator and a scholar.

In her free time, Holly enjoys spending time with friends, reading, knitting, going to the movies, exploring the outdoors, and ghost hunting. Her favorite French horror movie that she's watched this year is Un jeu d'enfants (Child's Play, 2001).