Academics

Bio

Dr. Secor specializes in teaching French language, literature and culture. He received his Ph.D. in Romance Philology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and taught five years at colleges and universities in Washington State and Pennsylvania before coming to Morehead State in 1988. His research interests have included 12th-century short narratives in Old French, 14th-15th-century Medieval mystery plays, numismatic iconography of the French Revolution, experiential strategies in the teaching of 17th-century drama, and 20th-century French poetry and cinema. More recently, Dr. Secor has worked extensively on SubSaharan authors, especially works treating child-soldiers in West Africa, on hybrid language in Québecois novel, and on the Haitian émigré novelist, Dany Laferrière. Drawing on a strong background in French phonetics and music, he has authored over one hundred poems in French, which he is preparing for publication.

Dr. Secor teaches regularly with the Kentucky Institute for International Studies, particularly in Paris (his spiritual home). His teaching assignment in June 2011 will be his 20th trip to France, and he is not happier than when running students around Paris by bus and on foot to see remnants of the fortifications of King Philip Augustus or taking a few minutes in one of his several favorite bookstores to add to his collection. At Morehead State, Dr. Secor has also taught beginning Italian, Latin, and Spanish, Honors 102, Humanities (Medieval Culture), International Studies and First Year Seminar (French Culture). He has served as supervisor for five undergraduate student teachers in French and Spanish, and has worked with fifteen first-year teachers in the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program. In his role as Campus Representative with KIIS, he recruits, advises and encourages students to study abroad in over twenty programs on four continents.

In September 2010, Dr. Secor was honored with the Kentucky World Language Association "Lifetime Achievement Award," for nineteen years of continuous service on the Board of Directors, including twelve years as Editor and Publisher of the Bluegrass Bulletin.