In this inaugural episode of the Lateral Humanities Podcast at the University of Colorado Boulder, Malick LO interviews Professor Emerita Mildred Mortimer about her decades-long engagement with Francophone literatures. The episode traces Mortimer’s intellectual journey, her work on women’s writing and the Algerian War, the role of literature as counter‑archive, encounters with memory and trauma, translation challenges, and the importance of teaching and mentorship. Particular attention is given to her book, Women Fight, Women Write: Texts on the Algerian War (University of Virginia Press, 2018) which offers a critical re-evaluation of women’s roles in the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962).

Mortimer, Mildred P. Journeys Through the French African Novel. Heinemann; J. Currey, 1990.

Mortimer, Mildred P. Maghrebian Mosaic: A Literature in Transition. L. Rienner, 2001.

Mortimer, Mildred P. Women Fight, Women Write: Texts on the Algerian War. University of Virginia Press, 2018.

Mortimer, Mildred P. Writing from the Hearth: Public, Domestic, and Imaginative Space in Francophone Women's Fiction of Africa and the Caribbean. Lexington Books, 2007.

Bâ, Mariama. Une Si Longue Lettre. Nouvelles éditions africaines, 1980.

Cassin, Barbara, et al. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon. Princeton University Press, 2014.

Assia Djebar, La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua

Fatima Sissani, documentary works on memory and women’s narratives

Nassima Guessoum, documentary works on Algerian women’s testimonies

Blow Up by Karol Beffa

Source: KAROL BEFFA: Blow-up, pour quatuor de vents et piano (2008).

Les mots du récit by Felwine Sarr

Source: Les mots du récit

Jaamu Africa by Ismael LO

Source: Jaamu Africa

Production

Recorded and produced by Malick LO

Podcast Logo Design: Lulu Heffernan