Dr. Didem Alkan joined the Department of Languages in 2020. She has a Ph.D. in French along with graduate certificates in African Studies and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies from Boston University. She participated to the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), which is designed to train feminist scholars and teachers. Her M.A degree is in French Studies from Boston College.

Didem teaches all levels of French language and Contemporary Francophone Film and Literature classes (African, Caribbean, Indian Ocean) on the topics related to gender, sexuality, history, memory.

She regularly presents and publishes her work on Contemporary Francophone Cinema and Literature. Her research interests include Postcolonial Studies, African Studies & African Diaspora, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Film Studies, in particular the representation of violence, trauma, gender, identity, and race.