French Concentration

Sheila M. Turek, PhD, 1985

Sheila Turek began her long-standing connection with Mason as an undergraduate. Following her graduation, she spent an academic year teaching English to French students at two secondary schools in Montpellier and later returned to Mason, pursuing an MA in French while working as a TA in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. She accepted a teaching job in Wisconsin and received her PhD from the University of Maryland College Park, where her interdisciplinary research focused on the cultural implications of subtitles in French films representing marginalized groups.

Sheila is now a tenured professor of French at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she heads the French program and works closely in international education. She has published three articles and delivered numerous conference presentations, serves as Vice President of Pi Delta Phi, the national French honor society, and received the Martha Saunders Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Humanities in 2016. She has also led travel study classes that culminate in a 10-day stay in Paris.