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Deborah Reisinger

Professor of the Practice of Romance Studies
Romance Studies
Allen Building, Room 114, Durham, NC 27708
421 Chapel Drive Rm 114, Box 90050, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Deb Reisinger, Ph.D., is Professor of the Practice in Romance Studies and affiliate faculty in the Duke Global Health Institute. She is Director of Duke's Language Outreach Initiatives, overseeing the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) program and the Shared Course Initiative for Less Commonly Taught Languages with UVA and Vanderbilt. She currently serves as Dean of Undergraduate Education for Trinity College.

Deb is lead author of Affaires globales: S'engager dans le monde professionnel en français - niveau avancé (Georgetown Press, 2021), co-author with Joan Clifford of Community-based Language Learning: A Framework for Educators (Georgetown Press, 2019), and author of Crime and Media in Contemporary France (Purdue Press, 2007). She has published numerous articles on language pedagogy, community-based learning, and French for Specific Purposes. 

Deb teaches courses in service-learning, global displacement, and French for Specific Purposes, including global health, public policy, and marketing. Her current research focuses on transformative learning and community-based pedagogies.

She chaired the College Board's World Languages Academic Advisory Committee from 2016-2023 and served as co-chair of the AP French Language and Culture Exam development committee from 2018-2021. From 2013-2018, she served as Chair of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) Commission on French for Specific Purposes. 

Deb regularly directs Duke summer study abroad programs, including Duke in ProvenceDuke in Provence-virtualDuke in Aix-en-Provence, Duke in Montréal, and Duke in Paris.  

In 2022, she was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Republic.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor of the Practice of Romance Studies · 2023 - Present Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Director of Language Outreach Initiatives · 2023 - Present Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Dean of Undergraduate Education · 2024 - Present Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Affiliate, Duke Global Health Institute · 2013 - Present Duke Global Health Institute, University Institutes and Centers

In the News


Published August 20, 2024
Trinity’s New Undergraduate Curriculum to Focus on Values
Published January 26, 2023
The Making of the First Malagasy Course at Duke
Published December 5, 2022
Deborah Reisinger Receives Official Knighthood from French Government

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Recent Publications


Service Learning and Community Engagement in the L2 Curriculum

Chapter · May 19, 2025 The Routledge Handbook of Language Program Development and Administration is essential reading for practicing second language program administrators at the post-secondary level, in-service and pre-service second language instructors, ... ... Cite

SERVICE LEARNING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN THE L2 CURRICULUM

Chapter · January 1, 2025 Service-learning and community-engaged (SLCE) courses offer language students ways to interact with and learn with local communities. SLCE courses offered in world language programming provide key opportunities to develop communicative language competencie ... Full text Cite

Transformative Learning and Critical Consciousness: A Model for Preclerkship Medical School Substance Use Disorder Education.

Journal Article Acad Psychiatry · April 2023 OBJECTIVE: Preparing medical students to provide compassionate person-centered care for people with substance use disorders (SUD) requires a re-envisioning of preclerkship SUD education to allow for discussions on stigma, social determinants of health, sys ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite
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Recent Grants


2023 Cohort of United-States University French-speaking career forums and fairs project

ConferencePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by American Association of Teachers of French · 2023 - 2024

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Education, Training & Certifications


University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · 2001 Ph.D.

External Links


Faculty profile