Christopher Rivers

Professor of French
Chair of French
Specialization
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French novels and culture; literary translation; physiognomy; boxing
 
Christopher Rivers spent a recent sabbatical in Paris researching Georges Carpentier, the celebrated French boxer of the pre- and post-World War I era and light heavyweight champion of the world from 1920 to 1922. Rivers plans to write a book on Carpentier, using the story of the 1921 bout in which Carpentier challenged Jack Dempsey for his world heavyweight championship as the book's centerpiece.

Rivers is the author of Face Value: Physiognomical Thought and the Legible Body in Marivaux, Lavater, Balzac, Gautier, and Zola (University of Wisconsin Press,1994). He recently edited Mademoiselle Giraud, ma femme (Modern Language Association of America, 2002) and also translated it into English. Rivers has also published numerous articles and book reviews, many of which focus on sexuality in literature during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Rivers teaches both language and literature courses, including introductory and intermediate French; a senior seminar on literary translation; a topics course on the figure of the prostitute in French literature and culture entitled Love for Sale; and the intermediate-level Introduction to Contemporary Culture and Media of France and the French-Speaking World. His students consistently praise him as a "wonderful teacher!" One student notes that Rivers "made [her] love French again," while another states that he is "the best choice" one could make when choosing a professor.

In addition to his research and teaching, Rivers was dean of international affairs from 1997 to 2000. During his time as dean, Rivers established a new junior-year abroad program, sponsored by Mount Holyoke, in Montpellier, France. He also created academic exchange programs with Hong Kong University, Japan Women's University, University of Potsdam, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris ("Sciences Po"), among others.

News Links:

"Rivers Uncovers Jack Johnson Memoir," Office of Communications, October 12, 2007

"The Sparring Scholar: Looks Can Deceive," Vista, winter 2003

"Mount Holyoke to Sponsor New Study-Abroad Program in Southern France," College Street Journal, August 28, 1998

"All the Way to Hell and Back Again with French Professor Christopher Rivers," College Street Journal, March 1, 1995