Mary Sloan Morris

Mary Sloan Morris

  • Major: French (with a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor)
  • Hometown: Greenville, SC
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Although Mary Sloan claims that she came to Furman “without any idea of what she wanted to do,” her passion for French and Francophone studies had been maturing for several years. In high school, she was president of the French Honors Society and a member of the French Culture Club. This interest guided her in her early Furman trajectory. She enrolled in several French courses, declared the French major, and embarked on one of her biggest adventures—studying abroad in Versailles, France in the fall semester of her sophomore year. This experience was transformative for Mary Sloan on many levels. Not only was she traveling abroad for the first time, she experienced full immersion in the language and culture while living with a host family, attending courses at the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, and engaging in an intensive study of the country's architecture during group excursions throughout the country. Since then, Mary Sloan has worked as an associate in our Modern Language Center. Beyond welcoming the public and ensuring that everything runs smoothly, her duties included tutoring lower-level students of French. Mary Sloan’s third- and fourth-year pathway expanded her interdisciplinary engagement as she took advanced courses ranging from “French Cinema” to “Literatures in French: Writing Across Worlds.” In the summer preceding her senior year, Mary Sloan was awarded a Summer Research Fellowship. She spent eight weeks investigating the representation of illegal migration in contemporary French literature under the mentorship of Dr. Bessy. During this undergraduate research experience, Mary Sloan co-authored an article titled “Representing the Twenty-First Century Migrant Experience: Adam and Fleutiaux’s Problematic Empathy” and laid the groundwork for an upcoming conference presentation at the 91st South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Mary Sloan plans to continue her French studies in graduate school after Furman and hopes to become a professor.

In her own words...

“Studying abroad and researching French literature helped me develop the written and oral communication and teamwork skills I will need to achieve my goal of being a professor. I am excited to continue to explore my passion, both professionally and personally. I want to help students explore and expand their interests the way my Furman professors have.”

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