Kinga Zawada PhD

Dr. Kinga A. Zawada is Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She joined Ryerson in 2007 after receiving her PhD. in French Literature from the University of Toronto. Her areas of expertise include French and Francophone contemporary theatre, theories of otherness in literary discourse, French gastronomy in literature and Second Language Acquisition. Her monograph Personnage fou au théâtre du XXe siècle (external link)  focuses on the construction process of fictional characters by readers/spectators and the perception and reception of madness by contemporary audiences. She has published extensively on eccentric, “hors-norme”, strange figures in Tremblay’s work, and adaptations of Dionysian myths (god of wine, theatre and madness) in Camus’ writing.

Having lived in various francophone environments such as Belgium and France, she relishes teaching French courses and raising student awareness about cultural aspects of language acquisition. Her passion for language pedagogy incited her to pursue further part-time graduate studies in the field of Second Language Acquisition and complete an additional Masters’ Degree in “Didactique des langues et cultures : français langue étrangère et seconde” at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in partnership with CAVILAM in 2013. She is particularly interested in methods of integrating sociocultural competences in the teaching and learning process.

Her current research focuses on French gastronomy and cultural identity, its representation in literature and inclusion in FSL curriculum. Her most recent co-edited collection Francijas Garša: Gastronomija un Kultūra. Goût de France: Gastronomie et Culture (external link)  invites the reader to experience taste as a phenomenon of reception and evaluation of cultural otherness, explore gastronomy as a component of cultural identity, and examine its place and its influence in literature, theatre, poetry and other arts.