An Interview with Françoise Lionnet. Crossing Boundaries, Thinking Intersectionally: Pedagogy, Methodology, and the Challenges of Relationality

In this conversation with Emmanuel Bruno Jean-François, literary scholar and critic Françoise Lionnet (Harvard University) discusses both the epistemological implications and methodological challenges of transdisciplinary approaches and transnational frameworks. With direct references to concepts such as métissage, transcolonialism, and minor transnationalism—that have emerged from her own intersectional approach to Francophone studies, postcolonial studies, Comparative Literature, Creole (Creolization) studies, and Gender studies—she exposes the structural limitations of the Area Studies model and its subsequent disciplinary arrangements, to focus on comparison and relationality as critical methodological principles for nurturing more inclusive and interactive readings of literary and artistic expressions across historical and cultural contexts.