Catherine Khordoc

Professor and Deputy Provost (Academic Operations & Planning)

B.J.(Honours),M.A.(Carleton),Ph.D.(Toronto)
Email Catherine Khordoc

Biography:

When I joined Carleton’s French Department in 2003, I felt like I was coming home in more ways than one. While Ottawa is my hometown, I also obtained two of my degrees at Carleton. I was at Carleton in the late 80s, studying for a degree in Journalism with a minor in French. I went on to work at CBC Radio in Québec City for a few years before coming back to Carleton to study for a Master’s degree in French. My M.A. thesis examined how humour is created in the famous comic book series, Astérix le Gaulois . As a Ph.D. student in French at the University of Toronto, I wrote a dissertation on the tower of Babel myth in contemporary francophone literature. Since then, I spent a few years living in Switzerland and I taught French literature (sneaking in a few Québécois novels into my courses when possible!) at the University of Limerick in Ireland.

Shortly after coming back to Carleton, I founded the Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis (CTCA) with two other colleagues, Sarah Casteel who is in the English Department, and Ming Tiampo in Art History. Together, we seek to create a network of scholars who share common interests and to stimulate research and debate on transnational objects of study.

My current research interests focus on transcultural writing in France and Québec as well as migrant writing in Québec and Canada.

Research Interests

contemporary Québécois literature with an emphasis on “écriture migrante” and transnational writing
the works of Monique Bosco
francophone literature
transcultural writing
plurilingualism
the Tower of Babel in contemporary literature
Literature and math in francophone literature

Recent Publications

Books

Tara Collington, Catherine Khordoc and Karin Schwerdtner, eds. Traversées et franchissements de frontières. Hommage à Janet M. Paterson. Éditions David, 2025.

Translation of Baldwin, Styron, and Me by Mélikah Abdelmoumen, Biblioasis, 2025. (Translated from the French)

“Cryptographie et poésie : Dimensions mathématiques dans Incendies et Ciels de Wajdi Mouawad.”
Études littéraires. Vol 50 n^o 2 (2021): 67-80.
(Awarded the Prix Jean-Cléo Godin 2021, Association canadienne de recherche théâtrale)

Tours et detours: Le mythe de Babel dans la littérature contemporaine. Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, 2012.

Marie Carrière et Catherine Khordoc, eds. Comparing Migration: The Literatures of Canada and Québec / Migrance comparée: Les Littératures du Canada et du Québec. Bern: Peter Lang, 2008.

Translations

Baldwin, Styron and Me, by Mélikah Abdelmoumen, Biblioasis, 2025. (Translated from the French)

Special Journal Issues

“Littérature et mathématiques” (with Dominique Raymond); special issue of Études littéraires. Vol. 50 n^o2. 2021.

“Reading Intertextual Networks in Contemporary Québécois Literature” (with Christine Duff); special issue of Québec Studies. Vol. 69. Spring 2020.

Co-editor of special issue of Nouvelles études francophones. « Les pratiques scripturales de la migrance littéraire. » (with Marianne Bessy) 27.2 (Printemps 2012).

Chapters in edited books

“« Si tu t’imagines, fillette, fillette, si tu t’imagines » : Refrains et autres répétitions dans l’œuvre deMonique Bosco.” La Répétition dans les textes littéraires du Moyen Âge à nos jours. Loula Abd-elrazak et Valérie Dusaillant-Fernandes, eds. Bern: Peter Lang, 2020. 193-205.

(with Marie Carrière) “For Better or for Worse: Revisiting écriture migrante in Québec.” The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature. Cynthia Sugars,New York : Oxford University Press, 2015. 621-638.

“Vers une reterritorialisation de la tour de Babel. Deux exemples tirés de la literature québécoise.” Déterritorialisation: Effet de mode ou concept pertinent? Christiane Albert et Abel Kouvouama, eds. Pau, France: Presses de l’Université de Pau et des pays de l’Adour, 2013. 97-106.

“Constructions américaines de la tour de Babel dans la littérature contemporaine.” La tour de Babel. Arras: Artois Presses Université, Collection “Graphè”, no 21, 163-175.

“Le camouflage autobiographique dans L’algarabie de Jorge Semprún.” Les Réécrivains: Enjeux transtextuels dans la littérature moderne d’expression française. Patrick Bergeron et Marie Carrière, eds. Bern: Peter Lang, 2011. 121-37.

“Looking Beyond the Elephant: The Mexican Connection in Francine Noël’s La Conjuration des bâtards”, Canada and Its Americas. Winfried Siemerling and Sarah Casteel, eds. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010. 231-245.

with Marie Carrière, “Introduction.” Comparing Migration: The Literatures of Canada and Québec / Migrance comparée: Les Littératures du Canada et du Québec. Marie Carrière and Catherine Khordoc, eds. Bern: Peter Lang, 2008.1-16.

Articles in refereed journals

“Comment? Lamentations essayistiques chez Monique Bosco. ” Canadian Jewish Studies, vol 32 (2021): 70-85.

“Cryptographie et poésie : Dimensions mathématiques dans Incendies et Ciels de Wajdi Mouawad.” Études littéraires. Vol 50 n^o 2 (2021): 67-80.
(Awarded the Prix Jean-Cléo Godin 2021, Association canadienne de recherche théâtrale)

“Nœuds intertextuels au féminin: Lectures de Monique Bosco.” Québec Studies 69 (Spring 2020): 49-68.

“Visibility Graphs and Blindspots: Wajdi Mouawad’s Incendies and Its Mathematical Poetics,” French Cultural Studies. 30.4 (2019): 307-316.

“Worlded Literature in Québec: Wajdi Mouawad’s Le Sang des promesses cycle,” Journal of Canadian Studies. 53.3 (2019): 495-513.
(Awarded Best Essay Prize in 2020 by Canadian Studies Network)

“ ‘Éclipse de Dieu’: Allusions et contestations bibliques dans l’œuvre de Monique Bosco.” Studies in Canadian Literature 42.2 (2017): 48-65.

“From Migrant to Transnational: Contemporary Québécois Literature.” Québec Studies, 63 (Spring 2017): 77-96.

“Traversing Traversing the Borders of Écriture Migrante –Transnational Writing in Québec.” CLCWeb : Comparative Literature and Culture, 18.4, December 2016.

“Introduction: Plaidoyer pour l’analyse des pratiques scripturales de la migrance dans les littératures contemporaines en français. ” Nouvelles études francophones (Special issue edited by Marianne Bessy and Catherine Khordoc, « Les pratiques scripturales de la migrance littéraire ») vol 27 n^o 1 (2012): 1-18.

“The Anti-Tower of Babel: A Critique of Multiculturalism in Ainsi parle la tour CN by Hédi Bouraoui.” TransCanadiana: Polish Journal of Canadian Studies. Vol 2 (2009): 51-65.

“Oublier le passé ou inventer la vie : Autobiographie et fiction, mémoire et oubli dans l’œuvre de Monique Bosco.” Nouvelles études francophones. vol 24 n^o 2 (Automne 2009) : 145-155.

Recent Graduate Supervisions

Co-supervisor, PhD dissertation in Cultural Mediations, Kevin Pat Fong, “Reframing Racial Passing in Asian Diaspora Comics”, defended April 2024.
Supervisor, MA research paper in Canadian Studies, Vanessa Hodge, completed August 2022.
Supervisor, PhD dissertation in Cultural Mediations, Joanna Pimentel, “Transcultural Bodies: A Comparative Approach to Dissident ‘Minor’ Women’s Writings in Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish defended June 2018.
Johnny Alam, Ph.D. dissertation in Cultural Mediations, Institute for Comparative Study in Literature, Art and Culture,“Making or Breaking Nations: Traveling Memory in Contemporary Art and Photography: History, Commemoration, Nostalgia, and Humanitarian Interventions,” defended April 2017.
Mélanie Martin, “Artistes rebelles: La révolte de la danseuse dans trois roman contemporains,” (2011-13)
Anna Brousseau, “Le pouvoir du silence dans les romans de Marie-Célie Agnant,” (2010-12)
Emily Hazlett, School of Canadian Studies, “Redefining Excellence: ‘Canadian-ness,’ Cultural Values and Canada Reads,” (2010-11)
Morgan Faulkner. “Langue et mémoire: le plurilinguisme dans La femme aux pieds nus de Scholastique Mukasonga,” (2008-10)
Rebecca Hammond, School of Canadian Studies: “Canadian Fiction: A Forum in Which the Voiceless Begin to Speak” (2007-08)
Laura Grace Conlon, L’emprisonnement dans deux romans d’Andreï Makine (2005-06)