Dr. Cynthia Running-Johnson is a professor of French and has a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Her specialty is in modern and contemporary French literature and women’s studies.  Professor Running-Johnson teaches French literature, culture, and language, including courses on French film and society, and she directs the WMU study abroad program in Besançon, France. 

Since 2003, she has been head of WMU's Department of Foreign Languages, where she enjoys working with students and professors from all of the languages areas in the department.  Her publications over the past five years include “French Identities in Film: An Interdisciplinary Approach to French Culture,” Modern French Literary Studies (with Judith Stone, New York: Modern Language Association, 2004), and “Ben Jelloun, Genet and Cultural Identity in The Street for Just One: Alberto Giacometti,” College Literature 30.2 (2003).

Centre de Linguistique Appliquee, Besançon, France program profile