Marilyn Matar

Marilyn Matar is an Assistant Clinical Professor of French and Director of the Language House Living Learning Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a Ph.D. in Modern French Studies (2014) from UMD, focusing on literary representations of the Lebanese civil war. Prior to her current role, she served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Catholic University of America (2015-2020), where she designed courses in French and Francophone Studies, European Studies, and Islamic World Studies. She has also taught at George Washington University and the Alliance française in DC.

Her research expertise spans Film Studies, French and Francophone literatures, and Middle Eastern cultural studies. She has published in Contemporary French and Francophone Studies and contributed a module to Entre-Textes: Dialogues littéraires et culturels, analyzing works by Wajdi Mouawad and war/identity themes in Francophone Mashrek literature.

Matar’s academic leadership includes roles as Honors Humanities Faculty Fellow in the College of Arts and Humanities, French department affiliate, and former coordinator of French Teaching Assistants at UMD. She emphasizes experiential learning through the Language House program, which integrates language immersion with cultural engagement.