Expertise

Narratology, 18th Century, Early Modern

Biography

What would I like you to call me? 

• In English: “Dr. Baker,” “Ben,” or "Dr. B"
• In French: “Monsieur Baker” (muh-syuh beh-ker) or “Benjamin” (ba-zha-ma)

What pronouns do I use?

• he/him

Where am I from?

• Born in Portland, Oregon
• Went to high school in Austin, Texas
• Went to college in Grinnell, Iowa
• Spent my third year of college in Nantes, France
• Lived in Paris 2006-2008
• Living in Philadelphia since 2008

What is my teaching philosophy?

I aim to help my students develop the skills they use for critical engagement with the world. For that reason, cultivating awareness of variation within and between cultures is an integral element of my teaching philosophy.

To that end, I valorize the diversity that exists within the classroom, and I prioritize diversity in my course materials. I proactively counter the assumption of uniform prior student experience, and I emphasize the internal complexity of French society as well as the cultural variation of the wider Francophone world.

Through collaborative classwork and individual research projects, I help students prepare themselves to confront the world confidently and with a deep appreciation of the relationships between their own cultural background and those of the people they meet. 

Selected Publications

• “Reconsidering Narrative Closure in Eighteenth-Century Prose Fiction: Transfictionality in Mauvillon’s Continuation of Prévost’s Mémoires d’un honnête homme,” Itinéraires. 2016: 2. http://itineraires.revues.org/3473, DOI: 10.4000/itineraires. 3473.
• “Distant parts and the whole world: Intertextuality and Pseudoworks in the Abbé Prévost’s Voyages de Robert Lade,” Cadernos de Literatura Comparada, no. 30, 2014, pp. 71-80.

Courses Taught

• FREN 1001
• FREN 3101
• FREN 3240
• FREN 4240