About Dr. Lewis Cusato
Dr. Lewis Cusato is Associate Professor and Director of French & Francophone Studies at Ohio Wesleyan University and Founding Co-Director of the Global Studies Institute and Palmer Global Scholars Program.
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With her experience building and designing programs and workshops for students and faculty alike; her enthusiasm, success, and affinity for grant writing and fundraising; and her eagerness to address the need for professionalization and rebranding work in the Humanities, Mary Anne is increasingly enthusiastic about endeavors formally connecting classroom and career with a focus on the Humanities. Indeed, this has been a focal point for her for over 10 years.
Mary Anne is eager to continue her work in cultural engagement and global studies and to develop strategy, content, partnerships, and programming to bridge the work of the scholar and the pursuit of a meaningful, ethical career.
Born and raised in Houston, Texas alongside her five brothers, Mary Anne Lewis Cusato attended St. Thomas Episcopal School from first to eighth grade, and it was here that her love and formal study of such subjects as French, Latin, and writing were born.
Mary Anne attended Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart as a high school student. She literally invested in herself and her education by working several jobs throughout to pay for books and fees. At Duchesne, Mary Anne grew intellectually, and her teachers instilled in her a commitment to rigor, ethics, social justice, and a love of beauty.
At the University of Notre Dame, Mary Anne could be seen at the Mendoza College of Business, where she studied Accounting; O’Shaughnessy Hall, where she took courses in French and Francophone Studies; and in Cavanaugh Hall, where she lived, socialized, and wrote for The Observer student newspaper.
Mary Anne spent her sophomore year in Angers, France and was awarded both the Parnell Award for Excellence in International Studies as well as a Fulbright Teaching position upon graduation.
After working as a Credit Analyst, Mary Anne went on to complete her M.A. in French Literature at the University of Minnesota.
In 2008, Mary Anne arrived at Yale to begin her doctoral work at the Yale University Department of French.
Mary Anne’s dedication to professionalization led her to become a Fellow in the Graduate Career Services Office of the Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in 2010. By 2011, she was promoted to Director of Graduate Programming, and she launched her workshop series “Turn that Ph.D. into a J-O-B!”
In 2013, she earned her doctoral degree from the Yale University Department of French and was chosen unanimously by the Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to represent the Humanities at Commencement in May of 2014.
Dr. Lewis Cusato has worked at Ohio Wesleyan University since 2013, was promoted and granted tenure in 2019, and she received the Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for the Encouragement of Teachers, one of Ohio Wesleyan University’s greatest honors, in the spring of 2020.
Dr. Lewis Cusato teaches French language courses at all levels, as well as courses on the French-speaking world beyond France, with a particular emphasis on francophone Africa.
She publishes regularly, and her work has appeared in Contemporary French & Francophone Studies: SITES, Expressions maghrébines, The Journal of North African Studies, The Chronicle: Vitae, Inside Higher Ed, and the edited volume The Limits of Cosmopolitanism: Globalization and Its Discontents in Contemporary Literature.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Lewis Cusato has worked closely with many students through independent study projects on such topics as the cultural and economic impacts of local markets in France, African film and criticism in French, cultural representations of terrorism in France, representations of race in literature in French, and translation studies.
Dr. Lewis Cusato regularly directs departmental honors thesis projects and supports advanced student work through grant development and experiential learning, research, and travel experiences.
She has traveled with students to the French-speaking Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe; the African Film Festival held in New York City; and to Paris, Marseille, and Lourmarin thanks to Ohio Wesleyan University's "Theory-to-Practice" (TPG) grants.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Thomas E. Wenzlau (TEW), and TPG grants have also facilitated her travel and work in Montreal; Paris, Bordeaux, Aix-en-Provence, and Marseille; Marrakech, Agadir, and Essaouira; an NEH Summer Institute; and conferences throughout the United States and Europe.
Dr. Lewis Cusato is a co-founder and co-director of OWU's Global Studies Institute and The Thomas W. Palmer ‘69 and Susan Palmer Global Scholars Program, generously endowed in January of 2020. She works enthusiastically to make study abroad accessible and transformative and to support faculty in their efforts to include global expertise in their curricula.
Media Features
OWU TALKS Chuck Norris in Algeria
WATCH VIDEO
OWU CONNECTION France
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PALMER Global Scholars Program
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MALC In The Numbers
$106,500
Over $106,500 in research & curricular grants awarded.
800
Over 800 students taught.
25
Over 25 conference presentations & invited talks.
21
Largest number of majors declared in a program led by 1 faculty member.
21%
Percentage of faculty trained to incorporate professionalization into their classes.
15
Courses taught.
14
Publications to date.
Explore Courses
Dr. Lewis Cusato regularly teaches introductory and intermediate language & culture courses as well as a variety of upper level courses.
See Publications
Dr. Lewis Cusato writes daily and publishes regularly in two veins: Cultural studies of the French-speaking world and Connecting curricular work to careers.