Tracy Heranic

Biography

"Tracy Heranic is currently teaching two sections of French 112 for the Romance Studies Department. After completing her undergraduate degree at Mercyhurst University, Tracy Heranic earned her MA Culture, Language and Communication with a focus on discourse analysis, semantics and pragmatics at the Université de Nantes, in Nantes, France. She is set to defend her dissertation on discursive lexical meaning and pragmatic competencies and the influence of speaking a foreign language in January 2016, also at the Université de Nantes. Her recent research interests have been primarily focused on uncovering and comparing semantic representations of culturally charged lexemes in French and English, using semantic and pragmatic approaches to then compare the influence that speaking a foreign language well can have on one’s perception of the same cultural object in the native as well as in the foreign language. She has enjoyed teaching foreign languages at various levels and varying audiences for the past 11 years both in the US and in France and is thrilled to be joining the BU Romance Studies Department this year."

Research Interest

Uncovering and comparing semantic representations of culturally charged lexemes in French and English, using semantic and pragmatic approaches to then compare the influence that speaking a foreign language well can have on one’s perception of the same cultural object in the native as well as in the foreign language.