User:MyriamZNG/Mame-Fatou Niang

Mame-Fatou Niang is a Franco-Senegalese lecturer who teaches French and Francophone literature at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) and who is interested in urban issues in contemporary French literature, as well as study of the black diaspora in Europe ,.

Biography
During her masters degree in English at the University of Lyon II and working on her thesis on Virginia Woolf, she is doing an exchange semester at Brown University (Rhode Island):"'I did a piece on black laughter, comparing it with Jean Miché Kankan, a comedian I loved when I was little. And I was offered to stay. College offered me a scholarship and I did a dissertation on the function of black laughter and joy and how they got from Africa to America. I then did my doctorate there on the representation of the peripheries in contemporary French literature and cinema, with a focus on the study of the suburbs and the representation of black women.'.".

She then noted the weakness of French studies on the question of blacks in France: "While working on my thesis, I realized that I could find more information by typing research in English rather than in French. She then noted the weakness of French studies on the question of blacks in France: "While working on my thesis, I realized that I could find more information by typing research in English rather than in French.“In research, we have to borrow American words, when we are not at all in the same reality and the same history as the Anglo-Saxons." In 2017 he said: “I am very critical of the United States as well, but the ease with which I was able to study and the support I received revealed a lot of questions that I had by compared to France.

In April 2019, with Julien Suaudeau, she initiated a petition to remove a fresco by the painter Hervé Di Rosa on the theme of the abolition of slavery in the National Assembly because the representation of slaves under caricatural features (big lips, etc.) is considered racist by the petitioners,. In May 2020, they renewed their call to take into account the representations conveyed by this fresco.

Mariannes noires
Elle soutient une thèse, intitulée De l'autre côté du périph' : les lieux de l'identité dans le roman féminin de banlieue en France, à l'université d'État de Louisiane, puis devient documentariste et professeure à l’université Carnegie-Mellon de Pittsburgh. In 2015, she directed, with one of her students, Kaytie Nielsen, the film Mariannes noires, which deals with the question of the representation of black women in France. first to illustrate her lessons:"We can make them read theory, but it's a visual civilization so we need work through images." Sometimes perceived as coming from elsewhere, when their hearts beats first for France, the seven people questioned are women"all original, all strong and ultimately all very banal. And it was important for me to show it". "'The first question is often: why this title? A spectator intrigued and a little exasperated asked us: why add this adjective 'black' to a symbol of the Republic which is supposed to be neutral? Officially, the Republic has no race, no color. And I find this question quite symptomatic of an evil that I tried to point out in my documentary. Because the Republic has a color. Marianne has had a color since its creation'".

In 2017, Mariannes noires was screened at the 7th edition of the International Festival of African Diaspora Films (Fifda) in Paris then at the Cinébanlieue festival in Saint-Denis.The film has been shown in nearly 20 countries, and is on the program of around forty universities in France, the United States, England, and even Brazil. Her second film must be called "Teri".

Publications

 * Identités françaises : Banlieues, féminités et universalisme, Brill, 2019 (ISBN 978-90-04-40722-0)
 * « Des particularités françaises de la négrophobie », dans Omar Slaouti et Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, Racismes de France, La Découverte, 2020
 * « Des particularités françaises de la négrophobie », dans Omar Slaouti et Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, Racismes de France, La Découverte, 2020

Références

 * Interventions dans le film Polémiques et scandales – Et l'art dans tout ça ? Réalisation Katrin Sandmann 2020 (Arte)
 * Page sur le site de l'université Carnegie Mellon
 * Présentation du film Mariannes noires
 * Interventions dans le film Polémiques et scandales – Et l'art dans tout ça ? Réalisation Katrin Sandmann 2020 (Arte)
 * Page sur le site de l'université Carnegie Mellon
 * Présentation du film Mariannes noires