Kevin Bongiorni

Kevin  Bongiorni 

Associate Professor

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Ubaye Valley Professor of French Studies
Lillian Defelice and Sampson J Petit Professor in French for Business

Phone: (225)578-6627

E-mail: kbongiorni@lsu.edu

Office: 423 Hodges

Biography

Kevin Bongiorni is LSU Ubaye Valley Professor of French Studies and the Lillian DeFelice and Sampson J. Petit Professor of French for Business and Associate Professor of French and Italian at Louisiana State University. He is Director of the LSU in Paris and LSU in the French Alps programs. He has published articles and lectured on a number of eclectic subjects including: the benefits of study abroad; Agnès Varda’s film Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse and Georges Bataille’s La parte Maudite; Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, and Paolo Sorrentino’s La grande bellezza; the semiotics of Diego Velazquez’s painting Las Meninas as well as the semiotics of cosmetic and plastic surgery and the legacy of the natural sign. His current research includes a book-length project on Fellini’s La dolce vita.

Area of Interest

French and Italian Language, Literature, Film and Culture
19th and 20th Century French and Italian Literatures
Literary Theory and Criticism
Theories of Semiotics
Literature and other disciplines

Selected Publications

"Globalized Learning Through Service: Study Abroad and Service Learning," Currents in Teaching and Learning (Spring 2020)

"The New Wave and Fellini Projects: Teaching culture through Film Study, Practice, and Experiential Learning," Modern Language Studies (Fall 2019)

"Michael Heneke’s Amour in the Light of Italian Neorealism," Pacific Coast Philology. (Spring 2016)

"Open City and Iraq: Understanding Occupation Through Rossellini’s Lens," In Films With Legs: Crossing Borders With Foreign-Language Films. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (December 2011)

"La dolce vita and Lost In Translation: Federico Fellini and Sofia Coppola take on meaningful human relationships. Can they exist in this day and age?," Cincinnati Romance Review (Spring 2010)

“Velazques, Las Meninas: Painting the Reader,” Semiotica (April 2003)

"Balzac, Frenhofer, Le Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu Ut Poesis Pictura,” Mosaic (June 2000)

“Don Fabrizio’s Walk in the Garden,” American Journal of Italian Studies (Fall 2000)

Courses Taught

  • French 4031-The French Film
  • French 4003: Senior Seminar: The New Wave and New Novel in France (Spring, 2021)
  • French 4100 (LSU in Paris)-Communication and Culture Through Service in Paris (Summer, 2019)
  • French 4031: The French New Wave (Spring 2013)
  • French 3090: WWI Literature, Art and Culture in France (Summer 2011)
  • French 4003: Senior Seminar: The Fantastic
  • French 3090: WW I Literature, Art and Culture in France (Fall 2005)
  • French 4031: French Film (Spring 2004)