Antonio Candau
1962 – 2013
Associate Professor of Spanish, Department Chair
Antonio Candau was an Associate Professor of Spanish and an outstanding scholar of Iberian Studies. He completed his Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics and Literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1991 and joined Case Western Reserve University in 2001. Before that, he taught at the Southwest Texas State University from 1991 to 2001. He was Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures from 2008 to 2013.
He published two books, Las provincias de la literatura (Valladolid: Universitas Castellae, 2002) and La obra narrativa de José María Merino (León: Diputación Provincial, 1992), and more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals and book chapters. He also edited the book Miguel Delibes. Viejas historias de Castilla la Vieja. La mortaja. La partida. (Madrid/Frankfurt, Iberoamericana/Vervuert. 2007), and prepared a textbook/study–guide for the teaching by correspondence of the Spanish language.
Besides his prolific career as a scholar, professor Candau also stood out because of his commitment toward his advisees –being those students or faculty. This commitment was expressed not only by the hundreds of students he served as adviser since his arrival to CWRU, but also by the continued teaching of SAGES seminars. At the same time, he participated in various national and international academic conferences every year, worked as a translator and reviewed several books.
Antonio Candau was an extraordinary and valuable academic; he was loved and well respected not only within the Department but also at the University level and within his field of specialization worldwide. This recognition was endorsed by the many responsibilities Professor Candau held during his academic career. Among those responsibilities: Reviewer for PMLA, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Castilla, University of Virginia Press; Reviewer of Research Grants for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Editorial Board member for Siglo XXI. Literatura y cultura españolas, La nueva literatura hispánica, Aula lírica, and Member of Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, just to name a few. He was also honored with different awards, such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Southwest Texas State University Center for International Education, and the International
Programs Professor of the Year.
Professor Candau was passionate about his profession through his research, teaching, and service activities, and he was devoted to his students and his colleagues. His work and constancy were inspiring to the rest of the academics and students who were in contact with him. He made the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the University a better place for working and loving our careers.
Read about Antonio’s memorial tribute in the daily.
Publications:
Christine M. Cano
1962 – 2022
Associate Professor of French
Christine M. Cano (Ph.D. Yale University) was an Associate Professor of French with teaching and research interests in modern and contemporary France. An alumna of Smith College, she spent her junior year in Paris (Université Paris-Sorbonne) and was interested in the history of study abroad. She was an accomplished scholar whose contributions to the French studies field on Marcel Proust are remarkable and recognized. She is the author of Proust’s Deadline (University of Illinois Press) which was listed among “Books of Critical Interest” by Critical Inquiry. She published articles on book reception histories, journalism, and political travel writing. Before joining the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Case Western Reserve University, she taught at Bates College and Virginia Tech. She taught a range of language, literature, and culture courses at CWRU, including courses on French cinema and the contemporary novel. From 2015-2021, she served on the national senate of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
Christine’s recent publications included “Daniel Guérin’s The Brown Plague: Reports from Nazi Germany” (Contemporary French Civilization, vol. 45, no. 1, 2020). An article on the literary representation of Venice, “Séjours à Venise: Proust et Cocteau” (Bulletin Marcel Proust, no. 72, 2022) was forthcoming at the time of her death. In addition, she began a research project on the transnational reception of René Clair which was very promising.
Christine was a kind soul who deeply cared about and tirelessly worked for the betterment of the department, the quality of our research, and our students’ advancement. Christine was respectful, polite, and generous. She probably knew more about the by-laws and all the university policies than anyone else and was always willing to share her knowledge and advice. Such knowledge reflected her profound respect for the university’s shared governance values.
Christine was meticulous with everything that she did.
The department has lost not only a great colleague, professor, and scholar but also an extraordinary human being and a dear member of our DMLL family. Her lessons on humility, kindness, and work ethic will inspire us and allow us to remember her with a smile on our faces.
Read about Christine’s memorial tribute in the daily.
Publications:
Gilbert Doho
1954 – 2023
Associate Professor of French, Section Head, Program Director of Ethnic Studies
Gilbert Doho (Ph.D., University of Sorbonne, Nouvelle, Paris III) was an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies Section Head in French and founding Program Director of Ethnic Studies. His areas of specialization were Twentieth Century French Drama, Francophone Studies, African Performing Arts, and Cinema.
He published articles in Présence Africaine, Présence Francophone, Research in African Literatures, Signs, Matatu. A theater critic and playwright, he published Théâtre populaire et réappropriation du pouvoir au Cameroun (SHERPA, 2002), and contributed in writing chapters in The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre Volume 3: Africa (Routledge, 1997), Le Dictionnaire des ouvres littéraires d’Afrique francophone (Bethesda, ISP, 1996), The Dictionary of African Biography (ed. Henry-Louis Gates. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
His published plays comprise Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon (in collaboration with Bole Butake, 1998), Noces de Cendres (Wedlock of Ashes, 1996), Le Crâne (The Skull, 1995), the censured version of his Au-dela du lac de nénuphars (Beyond the Lily Lake). He was working on urban theater as a powerful tool of minority empowerment in the U.S. when he passed.
Gilbert’s publications include People Theater and Grassroots Empowerment in Cameroon (Africa World Press, 2006), Poésie et luttes de libération au Cameroun (Poetry and Liberation War in Cameroon. Yaoundé: Ifrikiya, 2007), Désastre a Fodong (Disaster in Fodong. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2012), Le Chien noir: La Confession publique au Cameroun (Black Dog: Public Confession in Cameroon. Paris : L’Harmattan, 2013), La Cicatrice. New Jersey: Africa World Press, Second Edition, 2013.
Research Projects in Progress
Régime de l’Indigénat ou fondements des états autocratiques en Afrique francophone. In order to control the indigenes, the subjects in its colonies, France conceived and published a number of ‘laws’, almost always, arbitrary executive orders by brutal and merciless administrators. Veritable instruments of torture and enslavement these executive orders functioned in the same way as did the infamous “Black Code” proclaimed by Louis XIV.
Postcolonial Strategies: New Technology and Publishing in Africa. Among the major instruments for the spread of the colonial ideologies were books. They not only served in poisoning the mind of the colonized, but most subverted the psyche in order to make of them, assimilated hybrid, the other, the good savage eternally at the margin of the empire. These books were conceived and fabricated in the Metropole, far away from the consumers, the indigenes, the subjects. He who controls book market controls the mind of the other.
Consequently, to decolonize the minds the periphery has to take control of this major economic subfield. This has been made possible with the advent of new technologies. They have enabled the surge of new writers, new publishing houses which question the hegemony of Center based publishing Corporations such as Nathan, Oxford University Press, Harmattan, Hatier, Seuil.
Read about Gilbert’s memorial tribute in the daily.
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