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Dr Amy Hubbell

Senior Lecturer

School of Languages and Cultures
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
a.hubbell@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 56890

Overview

Amy is a specialist in Francophone autobiographies of exile and trauma. She is author of Remembering French Algeria: Pieds-Noirs, Identity and Exile (U of Nebraska P, 2015), and A la recherche d'un emploi: Business French in a Communicative Context (Hackett, 2017) and co-editor of "Distance/Proximité" (Australian Journal of French Studies, 2016 with Dr Joe Hardwick), "Self and Stuff: Accumulation in Francophone Literature and Art" (Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Literatures, 2014), The Unspeakable: Representations of Trauma in Francophone Literature and Art (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), and Textual and Visual Selves: Photography, Film and Comic Art in French Autobiography (U of Nebraska P, 2011). She is currently working on her new project, "Hoarding Memory: Covering the Wounds of the Algerian War" and a translation of the trauma testimony in the film La Valise ou le cercueil (the Suitcase or the Coffin) with her students.

Research Interests

  • Terrorism Testimony
    I am analysing written testimony from terrorism survivors of the Algerian War (1954-1962) and more recently the Charlie Hebdo and 13 November attacks in Paris (2015) to understand what remains and what can be said after unspeakable terror occurs.
  • Hoarding Memory
    Although I am interested in the psychological and social aspects of hoarding, I am specifically studying how some survivors of traumatic events collect fragments of their past and metaphorically layer over the wounds they have endured. This type of hoarding appears in visual artwork that includes photos, film and memorabilia, as well as in literary accounts that are repeated and enmeshed within each other, and historical texts that gather archival pieces in such a way that the trauma they attempt to represent is rendered inaccessible.
  • Exile and Nostalgia
    How does exile from one's home country result in nostalgia for the past? How is the former homeland recreated through literary expression and fixed in time? These are questions I address in my 2015 book Remembering French Algeria: Pieds-Noirs, Identity and Exile.
  • Memory and Trauma Studies
    How is memory relayed through autobiography both immediately and many years after a traumatic event? These are the main themes underlying my research about French Algeria and Pied-Noir literature.

Research Impacts

My current research focusses on how traumas from war, migration and terrorism are articulated in Francophone literature and art. In many instances the artists and authors who speak out about their own and their community's suffering have accumulated numerous fragments from what they have endured. In their attempts to preserve and share the trauma memory, repeating and layering occurs, often resulting in the reverse effect of covering over what they set out to lay bare. If these stories are not shared and received, healing for the individual and for the community cannot be completely achieved.

Qualifications

  • Ph.D. Romance Language and Literature: French, MICH.
  • Master of Arts French, MICH.
  • Bachelor of Arts French, Truman State University

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

  • Traumatic Experience and Repressed Memories in SocioCultural and Political Community: Text and Image Analysis in the Work of Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy and Frida Kahlo

    Doctor Philosophy

  • "But new connections begin, new traps arise and new pains": Visions of transculturation in recent Indian sub-continental English novels

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Feminist Voice and the Aesthetics of 'the Woman' in Contemporary Ghanaian Cinema

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Accumulating Algeria: Recurrent images in Pied-Noir visual works

    Hubbell, Amy (2015). Accumulating Algeria: Recurrent images in Pied-Noir visual works. In Natalie Edwards, Ben McCann and Peter Poiana (Ed.), Framing French Culture (pp. 209-227) Adelaide, South Australia: University of Adelaide Press.

  • Separation and return in the intellectual work of the Pieds-Noirs

    Hubbell, Amy (2013). Separation and return in the intellectual work of the Pieds-Noirs. In Christopher Hogarth and Natalie Edwards (Ed.), The Contemporary Francophone African Intellectual (pp. 71-92) Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • The words that say it: Pied-Noir women confronting Algerian memory

    Hubbell, Amy L. (2013). The words that say it: Pied-Noir women confronting Algerian memory. In Anna Rocca and Kenneth Reeds (Ed.), Women Taking Risks in Contemporary Autobiographical Narratives (pp. 103-116) Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • Transmitting the unspeakable through literature and art

    El Nossery, Névine and Hubbell, Amy (2013). Transmitting the unspeakable through literature and art. In Névine El Nossery and Amy L. Hubbell (Ed.), The Unspeakable: Representations of Trauma in Francophone Literature and Art (pp. 1-20) Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • Unspoken Algeria: Transmitting traumatic memories of the Algerian war

    Hubbell, Amy (2013). Unspoken Algeria: Transmitting traumatic memories of the Algerian war. In Nevine El Nossery and Amy L. Hubbell (Ed.), The Unspeakable: Representations of Trauma in Francophone Literature and Art (pp. 305-324) Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • Introduction: Textual visual selves

    Edwards, Natalie, Hubbell, Amy L. and Miller, Ann (2011). Introduction: Textual visual selves. In Natalie Edwards, Amy L. Hubbell and Amy Miller (Ed.), Textual and visual selves: Photography, film and comic art in French autobiography (pp. 1-15) Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.

  • L'Algerie recurrente et l'Algerie errante dans l'ecriture des Francaises d'Algerie

    Hubbell, Amy L. (2011). L'Algerie recurrente et l'Algerie errante dans l'ecriture des Francaises d'Algerie. In Anna Rocca and Névine El Nossery (Ed.), Frictions et devenirs dans les écritures migrantes au féminin: Enracinements et renégociations (pp. 29-47) Saarbrücken, Germany: Éditions Universitaires Européennes.

  • Viewing the past through a ‘nostalgeric’ lens: Pied-Noir photo-documentaries

    Hubbell, Amy L. (2011). Viewing the past through a ‘nostalgeric’ lens: Pied-Noir photo-documentaries. In Natalie Edwards, Amy L. Hubbell and Amy Miller (Ed.), Textual and visual selves: Photography, film and comic art in French autobiography (pp. 167-187) Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.

  • Dual, Divided, and Doubled Selves: Three Women Writing between France and Algeria

    Hubbell, Amy (2010). Dual, Divided, and Doubled Selves: Three Women Writing between France and Algeria. In Natalie Edwards and Christopher Hogarth (Ed.), This 'self' which is not one : Women's life writing in French (pp. 35-46) Newcastle, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • Returning to the Baobab fou: (Dis)integrating roots in Ken Bugul’s and Marie Cardinal’s autobiographies

    Hubbell, Amy (2009). Returning to the Baobab fou: (Dis)integrating roots in Ken Bugul’s and Marie Cardinal’s autobiographies. In Ada Uzoamaka Azodo and Jeanne-Sarah de Larquier (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on Ken Bugul: From alternative choices to oppositional practices (pp. 81-99) Trenton, N. J.: Africa World Press.

  • Slipping home in Marie Cardinal's Ecoutez la mer

    Hubbell, Amy (2008). Slipping home in Marie Cardinal's Ecoutez la mer. In Natalie Edwards and Christopher Hogarth (Ed.), Gender and Displacement: "Home" in Contemporary Francophone Women's Autobiography (pp. 34-45) Newcastle, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Journal Article

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Traumatic Experience and Repressed Memories in SocioCultural and Political Community: Text and Image Analysis in the Work of Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy and Frida Kahlo

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • "But new connections begin, new traps arise and new pains": Visions of transculturation in recent Indian sub-continental English novels

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Feminist Voice and the Aesthetics of 'the Woman' in Contemporary Ghanaian Cinema

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone literatures, immigrant, exile, and feminist autobiography, fiction

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: O-9090-2015

ORCID: 0000-0001-9174-2365

Scopus ID: 26029434800

Google Scholar ID: 2O4SIb4AAAAJ

Personal Profile: Link

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