Hanna Laruelle

Hanna is currently completing her dissertation entitled “The Spectacle of Cruelty: Uncanniness and Cruel Humor in French Fantastic Cinema” under the direction of Prof. Philippe C. Met. Her research focuses primarily on the relationship between cruelty and dark humor, and analyzes the influence of the French fantastic genre on the representation of the spectacle of cruelty in French fantastic cinema.  She is also interested in the interplay between the writing of laughter, the representation of the stranger, and the creation of the French Republic narrative in French and Francophone literature, visual arts, and cinema. Hanna has experience teaching French language (elementary, intermediate, and advanced) and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, UC Irvine, and the Alliance Française. She has also co-taught cinema courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, she has worked as a Teaching Assistant at Hamstead Hall Community Learning Center (Birmingham, UK), and as a Research Assistant for Prof. Andrea Goulet (University of Pennsylvania). Hanna has also served as FIGS co-president and FSS co-organizer at UPenn, and as organizer of the “Table Française” at UC Irvine.