Cheryl Toman
- Email: catoman@ua.edu
- Title: Professor of French and Chair
- Department: Modern Languages and Classics
- College: Arts and Sciences
Bio
My area of research is African women’s writing with a special emphasis on authors from Gabon, Cameroon, and Mali. I also have a secondary interest in women in the Arab world, specifically of the Middle East. My last book, Women Writers of Gabon: Literature and Herstory discusses the perceived “invisibility” of women writers and focuses on the major contributions of Gabon’s first generation of female authors. My first book, Contemporary Matriarchies in Cameroonian Francophone Literature concentrates specifically on women’s empowerment using African constructs to interpret tradition. I am currently working on a comparative analysis between Malian women’s writing and Wassoulou music and I also am continuing a virtual museums project focusing on women artists in Cameroon.