Maria Hernández

Maria Hernández is a Visiting Assistant Professor of French at Lafayette College since August 2018. Previously, she served as Assistant Professor of French and Spanish at Rowan University. Born and raised in France to immigrant Spanish parents, she has a multicultural background, fluency in French and Spanish, and residency experiences in France, Spain, the UK, and the USA. She is a first-generation scholar with degrees from the Université de Provence (B.A. 2010, M.A. 2012) and Rutgers University (Ph.D. 2018). Her research focuses on 16th–17th century literature, the evolution of the Western epistolary novel in Spain and France, and women writers. Notable achievements include a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in the U.S. and an Erasmus scholarship for studies at Middlesex University, UK. She holds additional certifications in Women’s and Gender Studies and Leadership from Rutgers.

Her academic contributions include an annotated translation of the 16th-century Spanish epistolary novel Processo de cartas de amores into French, forming the core of her doctoral dissertation. She teaches French and Spanish literature, grammar, composition, and civilization courses. Her work bridges interdisciplinary scholarship, emphasizing gender studies and cross-cultural literary analysis.

• Awards: Fulbright Scholarship, Erasmus Scholarship
• Education: Ph.D. in French Literature (Rutgers, 2018), M.A. in English (Université de Provence, 2012), B.A. in English/Spanish (Université de Provence, 2010)
• Professional Background: Teaching roles at Lafayette College and Rowan University, French Teaching Assistant (Willamette University)