Dr. Nell is Professor of French and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities.
Dr. Nell has served as dean of the School of Arts and Humanities since 2012. Prior to joining the faculty at St. Edward's, she served as Director of the Comparative Literature Program at Texas Tech, as Chair of Modern Languages and Literatures, and as Associate Dean at Loyola University Maryland. A specialist of 17th- and 18th-century French literature, she has taught a wide variety of French courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Nell has published numerous articles on topics from the early modern period to Proust. Her book, _Lucrece and Brutus: Glory in the Land of Tender_, an edition and translation of texts by 17th-century French woman writer and salonnière Madeleine de Scudéry, was published in 2021 by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies in Toronto.
In the arts and humanities, we foster reflection, creativity, and highly-developed skills that transfer to the professional world. Our students are trained to be problem-solving critical thinkers whose nimbleness of mind will make them successful in the multiple career paths in which they will engage during their lifetimes.
Ph.D. (French): Rice University, 1989. Dissertation title: French Rococo Poetry and Metrical Convention.
M.A. (French): University of Houston-University Park, 1981. Thesis title: Évolution et structure du désir dans un passage d’A la Recherche du temps perdu.
B.A. (French): University of Houston-University Park, 1977. Cum laude.