Faculty Profile
Mireille Rebeiz
(she/her/hers)Associate Professor of French & Francophone and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies (2018)
Contact Information
Bosler Hall Room 218
Bio
I am Chair of Middle East Studies and Associate Professor of Francophone Studies & Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. I received my first Doctorate (PhD) in Francophone Studies from Florida State University and my second doctorate (SJD) in International Law from Penn State Dickinson Law. I also hold a Master’s degree in International Law and Human Rights from Université de Rouen in France, and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Université Saint-Joseph in Lebanon. My teaching and research are interdisciplinary and focus on the intersectionality of law, gender, sexuality, oral history, and trauma in the context of armed conflicts with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. I have written and successfully published monographs, peer-reviewed essays in French and English, and editorials in national and international presses. My second book "Hezbollah in International Law" is forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press in March 2025. It examines Hezbollah's legal status as a State or non-State actor in armed conflict (with Israel and in Syria). It also studies Hezbollah's unlawful activities in Lebanon since 1982 and State responsibility. My first book, "Gendering Civil War. Francophone Women’s Writing in Lebanon", for which I earned the AAUW American Fellowship, appeared with Edinburgh University Press in 2022. Nominated for the John Leonard Prize, this book examines French-language narratives published between the 1970s and the present day by Lebanese women authors writing on the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1991. My most recent research project focuses on the Beirut barracks bombing of 1983 that killed 241 American servicemembers and 58 French parachutists. In this project, I explore gaps in Lebanese, French, and American histories and write veterans’ oral stories.
Education
- B.A., Université Saint-Joseph Jésuite, Lebanon, 1999
- M.A., Université de Rouen, France, 2004
- Ph.D., Florida State University, 2012
2024-2025 Academic Year
Fall 2024
FYSM 100 First-Year Seminar
The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a "community of inquiry" by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will:
- Critically analyze information and ideas
- Examine issues from multiple perspectives
- Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one's own views, with clarity and reason
- Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and
- Create clear academic writing
The small group seminar format of this course promotes discussion and interaction among students and their professor. In addition, the professor serves as students' initial academic advisor. This course does not duplicate in content any other course in the curriculum and may not be used to fulfill any other graduation requirement.
WGSS 100 Intro to WGSS
This course offers an introduction to central concepts, questions and debates in gender and sexuality studies from US, Women of Color, queer and transnational perspectives. Throughout the semester we will explore the construction and maintenance of norms governing sex, gender, and sexuality, with an emphasis on how opportunity and inequality operate through categories of race, ethnicity, class, ability and nationality. After an introduction to some of the main concepts guiding scholarship in the field of feminist studies (the centrality of difference; social and political constructions of gender and sex; representation; privilege and power; intersectionality; globalization; transnationalism), we will consider how power inequalities attached to interlocking categories of difference shape key feminist areas of inquiry, including questions of: work, resource allocation, sexuality, queerness, reproduction, marriage, gendered violence, militarization, consumerism, resistance and community sustainability.
Spring 2025
MEST 200 Middle Eastern Francoph Cinema
Cross-listed with FMST 210-04 and FREN 305-01. This class provides a general overview of Francophonie in the Maghreb (North Africa) and the Mashreq (Levant). It focuses on the relationship between previously colonized Arab countries like Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and their former colonizer France. It examines literary and film productions from these countries and aims to show the way by which French and Arabs are represented in these narratives. It also seeks to study the human rights issues raised during the colonial and postcolonial areas, such as women's rights, legal and illegal migration, war, resistance to oppression and terrorism, cultural and religious identities.
MEST 200 The Good Invisible Soldier.
Cross-listed with WGSS 201-01. This course examines American veterans' stories of deployment in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It studies veterans' war stories and experiences upon returning to civilian life in the United States of America. The course focuses on memoirs, short stories, and other literary forms written or produced by veterans; it references popular media sources (film, television, political cartoons, and more) and includes discussions with veterans and enlisted members of the United States military. Through an intersectional lens, this course seeks to answer questions related to gender, violence, and disability. For instance, how do veterans tell war stories? Do women veterans have different experiences than men during and after deployment? How does the military view masculinity and disability in its various forms? What are some of the challenges veterans encounter integrating civilians life? How are veterans represented in popular media?
WGSS 201 The Good Invisible Soldier
Cross-listed with MEST 200-01. This course examines American veterans' stories of deployment in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It studies veterans' war stories and experiences upon returning to civilian life in the United States of America. The course focuses on memoirs, short stories, and other literary forms written or produced by veterans; it references popular media sources (film, television, political cartoons, and more) and includes discussions with veterans and enlisted members of the United States military. Through an intersectional lens, this course seeks to answer questions related to gender, violence, and disability. For instance, how do veterans tell war stories? Do women veterans have different experiences than men during and after deployment? How does the military view masculinity and disability in its various forms? What are some of the challenges veterans encounter integrating civilians life? How are veterans represented in popular media?
FMST 210 Middle Eastern Francoph Cinema
Cross-listed with FREN 305-01 and MEST 200-02. This class provides a general overview of Francophonie in the Maghreb (North Africa) and the Mashreq (Levant). It focuses on the relationship between previously colonized Arab countries like Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and their former colonizer France. It examines literary and film productions from these countries and aims to show the way by which French and Arabs are represented in these narratives. It also seeks to study the human rights issues raised during the colonial and postcolonial areas, such as women's rights, legal and illegal migration, war, resistance to oppression and terrorism, cultural and religious identities.
FREN 305 Middle Eastern Francoph Cinema
Cross-listed with MEST 200-02 and FMST 210-04.