Timothy Lomeli

Why FSU?

I chose FSU for the Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. The institute brings so many contemporary creators from French speaking countries to Tallahassee to speak with, engage, and inspire students and the community at large. As someone who works in the contemporary period, I find the experiences that Winthrop-King cultivates unmatched anywhere else in the country. The institute also has generous funding for graduate students in French, including fellowships that top-up the teaching stipend, research funds for French graduate students, conference grants, and summer doctoral fellowship to complete the prospectus without any teaching obligations. Because of these opportunities, I felt that I would be well supported at FSU and in this program.

Motivation to pursue a graduate degree

I decided to pursue graduate school because I wanted to see what else Francophone studies could offer me. Studying French at the undergraduate level does not give an accurate idea of what scholars in French can do. I completed my master's at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and during that time I met the Haitian author Kettly Mars. It was this opportunity to meet and engage deeply with her novels that inspired me to purse a PhD and write my dissertation on her work.

Importance and/or impact of research and work

This is a great question because everyone always wonders: why study literature? But the truth of the matter is that anything is as important as the value we give it. I study literature, which is one type of media. Media is a reflection of our culture and vice versa; therefore, to study media is to study how representations inform our understanding of people and how our understandings of people inform our creation of media. In my research, I look at how Haitian Vodou is a spiritual practice, but more specifically, it is a way of understanding the world. So I look at Vodou and identity formation/construction in the novels of Kettly Mars because she writes these experiences authentically and includes all aspects of Vodou in her novels. She includes practical (medicinal practices, kinship formation) aspects of Vodou, as well as contact with the spirits (or lwa) and even the mystical (sorcery). Media from the Global North tends to focus on the latter, and its importance is way overstated, as only a very small percentage of Vodouisants will ever seek out mystic services. My ultimate goal is to highlight Kettly Mars, her work, and her representations of Vodou in hopes of diminishing the negative stereotypes that surround this popular religion that provides people a way to live in and understand their world--just like any other modern-day religion.

Career aspirations

I am pretty open to whatever opportunities will be available! I hope to be able to continue to research and teach after I finish my degree here at FSU. However, I think working for organizations that work with Haiti or do work around my research interests would be interesting as well. It will depend strongly on the job market and availability of opportunities when I graduate.

Advice for anyone considering graduate school

First, go to graduate school because you are interested in your topic. Do not go because you are looking for a job or because you aren't sure what to do. You need to have the intrinsic motivation to finish, and that only comes from being inspired by what you work on. Second, make sure you have multiple professors in your department whose work you like and who are also genuinely good people. We are so lucky in French, because all of our professors genuinely want to help students succeed and will advise and mentor them beyond what may be required of them.

Accomplishments during graduate career

I am honored to have recently been awarded the Marilyn Yarbrough Dissertation/Teaching Fellowship at Kenyon College. In recent years, I was also awarded the Dean's Award for Doctoral Excellence, the Winthrop-King Summer Doctoral Fellowship, and the Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowship.

I've done a lot of extracurricular work here at FSU that I'm proud of! With the Winthrop-King Institute, my colleagues and I have organized two conferences, Writers in Residence: Naomi Fontaine and Gisèle Pineau (Spring 2024) and Women's Words: Caribbean Worlds (Spring 2023). I will publish a translation I worked on with Tiffane Levick of Gisèle Pineau's Ady, soleil noir (Ady, Black Sun) with Liverpool University Press. My colleagues and I are also currently working on a special issue for a journal around the work of Gisèle Pineau. I am also really proud of my teaching and seeing my students go on to become majors and minors as well as becoming the IP-Paris Program assistant (July 2022 & 2023). I have really enjoyed being able to mentor students in a different capacity outside of normal classes through encouraging them in these programs.

What are some of your hobbies outside of school?

I really love to read (obviously this is a requirement in my field), but I like to read books that are completely independent from my field. Doing so allows me to turn my brain off and remember what reading can/should be like and that not everything has to be approached with a critical mind. I also love to play video games, watch TV shows (I may be part of the small group of people who still watch Grey's Anatomy weekly on ABC), run, swim, and hang out with my friends!