D. Brian Mann, Ph.D.
Area(s) of Expertise: French, Francophone, and Hispanophone languages, cultures, and pedagogy; French literature and 20th century narrative of France and Latin America
Overview
After serving 18 years leading the successive Departments of Modern and Classical Languages (91ÁÔÆæ), Modern Languages, and Languages & Literatures (NGCSU), Dr. Mann returned to full-time teaching in July of 2023. He currently serves as President of NASILP (National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs) the 91ÁÔÆæ Institutional Research Board (IRB), and other committees. He has also served as a member of the MLA Forum & Task Force on Language Change, Site Director of the University System of Georgia’s European Council study-abroad program in Paris, and Co-Director of the USG’s dual-enrollment study-abroad program for Atlanta Public Schools students at 91ÁÔÆæ.
Courses Taught
Education
- Ph.D., Modern Languages (French and Spanish), University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 1999
- M.A., French and Spanish, University of North Texas, 1986
- B.A., French and Spanish, University of North Texas, 1983
Research/Special Interests
Modern French & Latin American literature; administration and pedagogy of the Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL’s); using online asynchronous discussion threads to build writing and speaking proficiency; the unlikely origins of well-known literary movements; French films and their American remakes.
Publications
Refereed, invited journal article/translation: “Rodrigues’ unsigned preface to the French edition of Saint Simon’s Nouveau Christianisme” (by Olinde Rodrigues). Sociological Origins. 6.2 (Fall 2010): 65-68.
Above also to be included in the full-text translation of New Christianity, published by Sociological Origins. Forthcoming.
Refereed, invited, critical review of: “Raymond Queneau, Letters, Numbers, Forms: Essays, 1928-1970.
Translated Jordan Stump.” H-France Review 8.117 (September, 2008): 468-72. http://hfrance. net/vol8reviews/vol8no117mann.pdf.
Refereed journal essay/book review: "Jobs, Richard Ivan. Riding the New Wave: Youth and the Rejuvenation of France after the Second World War." The French Review 81.5 (April 2008): 49-50.
Refereed journal essay/book review: "Irvine, William D. Between Justice and Politics. The Ligue des droits de L’homme, 1898-1945. The French Review 81.3 (February 2008): 604-605.
Refereed journal article: "Les Liaisons Dangereuses: The Devil and the Cinema of Cruelty come to the aid of an 18th -Century Literature course." A.A.T.F. National Bulletin (American Association of Teachers of French) 32.4 (April 2007) 49-51.
Refereed journal essay/film collection review: “The Battle of Algiers (La Bataille d’Alger + interviews & other ancilliary materials; 3 DVD’s).” Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo. 1966. Rialto Pictures, 2004. The French Review 79.1 (October 2005): 180-82.
Refereed journal essay/book review: "Spang, Rebecca L. The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture." The French Review 76.5 (April 2003): 1017-19.
Refereed journal article/translation: “A French Perspective on George Elliot Howard’s A History of Matrimonial Institutions.” Sociological Origins 2.2 (Winter 2000): 81-86.
Refereed journal article: “Walled from the Wild: (Sub)urban Enclosure in Raymond Queneau’s Le Chiendent and other novels.” International Fiction Review 26.1-2 (1999): 46-57.
Dissertation: Constructive Criticism; the Poetics of Space and Enclosure in Selected Novels of Raymond Queneau. Director: Dr. Jordan Stump.
Work Experience
University of North Georgia
- Intensive, pandemic-induced training and practice in online pedagogy, administrative tasks, and integration of D2L with a 91ÁÔÆæ-authored online elementary French textbook: 2020 - present
- Head, Department of Modern & Classical Languages. January 8, 2013 - June 30, 2023
- Head, Division of World Languages and Cultures. January 8, 2013 - June 30, 2023
- Faculty and Site Director for the USG European Council's Paris study abroad program. 2015 – 2020
- Professor of Modern Languages. Fall 2009 – present.
- Interim Head, Department of Language & Literature. July 2005 – May 2006.
- Associate Professor of Modern Languages. Fall 2004 – summer 2009.
- Assistant Professor of French & Spanish. Fall 1999 – spring 2004.
- Co-Director, Joint-Enrollment Study Abroad Exchange Program in Toulouse, France (in collaboration with the Atlanta Public Schools). 1999-2010.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Modern Languages
- Interim Coordinator of Graduate French Teaching Program, Graduate Teaching Assistant, and Assistant Language Lab Director
Southeast Community College, Department of Humanities
- Part-time Instructor of Spanish
Western State College of Colorado, Gunnison, CO
- Instructor of French and Spanish
Boulder Country Day School, Boulder, CO
- Instructor of French
University of North Texas, Denton, TX
- Graduate Teaching Assistant
Personal Information
Dr. Mann was born and raised in Boulder/Denver area of Colorado, graduating from Boulder High School where his major interest was jazz music performance in trumpet & drums, in 1976.
He survived the rest of the 1970's as a not very exemplary university student at the University of Colorado-Boulder, semi-professional musician, rare coin dealer, and bon vivant before returning to undertake a degree in music at UNT in 1980.
It was the 4-semester language requirement in this failed academic venture that led him to his love affair with languages, which continues to this day.
His other domains of study and interest include music, philosophy, gastronomy, food science, cooking, physics, engineering, biomechanics, exercise physiology, meteorology, and tinkering with things until they work.