Manal El Khalfaoui

Manal El Khalfaoui holds an M.A. in French and Francophone Studies from Mississippi State University, as well as an M.A. in Aerospace Engineering from Mississippi State University and a B.A. in Aerospace Engineering from the Université Internationale de Rabat.

As a Ph.D. candidate in French with a minor in Linguistics, Manal’s research explores the literature of the Harki community, focusing on works by the second generation. Drawing on critical theories from Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Achille Mbembe, her work examines how power dynamics, historical erasure, and state violence have shaped the Harki experience. She explores themes such as disciplinary power and biopolitics to understand how the Harki community’s identity has been controlled and marginalized, both under colonial rule and in post-colonial France. Manal also engages with Agamben’s state of exception and naked life, analyzing how Harkis were rendered politically and socially invisible, and Mbembe’s necropolitics to investigate how state power determined the value of their lives. Through literature, these authors resist historical silences, reclaiming agency and offering alternative narratives of survival, trauma, and identity.

In 2023, Manal received a teaching award from the Department of World Languages and Cultures and earned a certification in Online Teaching in 2020. She has taught both beginner and intermediate French courses, in-person and online, and has also served as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.

Email: melkhalf@vols.utk.edu

Education

M.A. in French and Francophone Studies from Mississippi State University
M.A. in Aerospace Engineering from Mississippi State University
B.A. in Aerospace Engineering from the Université Internationale de Rabat