Blase Provitola's research lies at the intersection of feminist and gender studies, postcolonial studies, and 20^th- and 21^st-century francophone studies (with a focus on transnational France as well as the Maghreb and its diasporas). Their work examines the impact of race and class on sexual identity and community formation in contemporary France-based lesbian and queer cultural production by putting literature in dialogue with activism. They have published on queer and lesbian activism and identity, postcolonial literature, non-binary French, and transgender-inclusive pedagogy.

Prof. Provitola’s scholarly interest in postcolonial and feminist studies drives them to draw upon cultural and literary course materials that represent a multiplicity of francophone cultures as well as foregrounding the West's colonial past and present. In addition to language and survey courses, they have taught seminars on literature and social movements, Western political philosophy, intersectional feminisms, and contemporary Franco-Maghrebi cultural production.

curriculum vitae

Articles and book chapters:

• “‘Notre solidarité n’est pas une solidarité de salon’: le lesbianisme politique décolonial des Lesbiennes of color (LOCs) face aux nationalismes sexuels” [The Lesbiennes of color collective’s decolonial political lesbianism in the face of sexual nationalisms]. Genre, sexualité & société (special issue on decolonial queer theory, Spring 2024).
• “TERF or transfeminist Avant la Lettre? Monique Wittig’s Complex Legacy in Trans Studies.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 3 (August 2022): 387–406. 
• “Laborious Intimacies: Sexual Identity as Work in Mireille Best’s Il n’y a pas d’hommes au paradis.” In Siham Bouamer and Sonja Stojanovic (eds.), Taking up Space: Women at Work in Contemporary France (2022, University of Wales Press, French and Francophone Studies series).
• “Teaching French Feminisms from an Intersectional Perspective.” In Siham Bouamer and Loïc Bourdeau (eds.), Diversity and Decolonization in French Studies: New Approaches to Teaching (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 151–163.
• “‘Faut-il choisir?’: non-binarité et transidentité dans les cours de langue française” (updated and expanded translation of English H-France Salon article below). In Louisa Mackenzie and Vinay Swamy (eds.), Devenir non-binaire en français contemporain (Becoming non-binary in contemporary French, Éditions Le Manuscrit, 2022).
• “‘Faut-il choisir ?’: Transgender Access to the French Language Classroom.” H-France Salon, vol. 11, issue 14 (2019).
• “In Visibilities: The Groupe du 6 Novembre and the Production of Liberal Lesbian Identity in Contemporary France.” Beyond Gay Liberation: France's Other Sexual Minorities, special issue of Modern & Contemporary France, vol. 27, no. 2 (April 2019): 223–41.
  
• “Feminism in the ‘Father Book’: Complicating the Emancipation Narrative in Assia Djebar’s Nowhere in My Father’s House.” Romanic Review, vol. 106, no. 1–4 (November 2015): 71–92.

Select conference presentations and invited talks: