The Daily e-mailed faculty a short questionnaire that strayed beyond their work at Stanford. Here is a glimpse into the personalities behind your professors.

Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi

Hometown: Mikalayi, Democratic Republic of Congo

Grad school: doctorate in Romance languages and literatures at National University of Zaire in Lubumbashi

Hobbies: reading, singing

#1 on your playlist: Jean Ferrat’s “La Montagne”

Favorite book: Azade Seyhan’s “Tales of Crossed Destinies: The Modern Turkish Novel in a Comparative Context”

Favorite movies: three novels: Andre Schwartz-Bart’s “Le Dernier des Justes,” Jean-Marie G. Le Clezio’s “Onitsha,” Simone Schwarz-Bart’s “Pluie et vent sur Telumee Miracle”

If you could live in any time period, it would be: XXth century

You have never: taken a cruise on the Mediterranean Sea

If you hadn’t gone into academia, you’d be: a singer or a painter

Department: French-Italian and comparative literature

Primary research interest/project: Research interests: history and memory in literature, cultural relations. Project: memories of the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian Revolution and its representation in literature and iconography in order to show how the past and what about the past is inscribed in the Haitians’ creative imagery and imagination. Critical analysis of “textes fondateurs” and “textes de representation” highlight the role of textual production (political, iconographic and literary) in shaping historical memory