Christa Jones
World Languages and Cultures
Professor
Contact Information
Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 10:30-1:30 and by appointmentOffice Location: MHC 228
Email: christa.jones@usu.edu
Educational Background
PhD, French Literature, Washington University in Saint Louis, 2006
M.A., French Literature, Washington University in Saint Louis, 1996
B.A., French and English Literatures, Universität des Saarlandes, 1994
Dr. Christa Jones holds a Master’s degree and a PhD in French from Washington University in St. Louis. Before joining Utah State University in 2008, she built an international career in journalism and communications, working as a translations editor for Sportal in London, an international content manager for Monster in Bad Homburg, and a financial news reporter for Market News and Thomson Financial in Frankfurt/Main. She then worked as a stock-market reporter for AFX News in Zurich and Geneva, where she covered companies listed on the Swiss Market Index and the Swiss Performance Index as well as the Swiss National Bank monetary policy.
At Utah State University, Dr. Jones enjoys mentoring students and getting them ready for an increasingly competitive job market by teaching all levels of French language and culture in courses such as French Culture and Civilization, France Today, the Francophone Short Story, French Fairy Tales, the French Graphic Novel, French Conversation and Advanced Conversation, French and Francophone Music, Business French, and a variety of special-topics courses.
Her research on colonial and postcolonial North African Francophone literature, folklore, and film has appeared in over fifty edited collections and academic journals, including Al-Raida, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Dalhousie French Studies, Expressions maghrébines, Francofonia, French Review, Humanities, Jeunesse, Nouvelles Études Francophones, Research in African Literatures, Studies in Travel Writing, The Journal of North African Studies, Regards, and Women’s Studies Quarterly. She is the editor of Djeha, the North African Trickster (2023); coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Fairy Tales (2026); coeditor of North African Folktales (2025), Algerian Filmmaker Merzak Allouache (2017), New Approaches to Teaching Folk and Fairy Tales (2016), Women from the Maghreb: Looking Back and Moving Forward (2014); and author of Cave Culture in Maghrebi Literature: Imagining Self and Nation (2012). In 2017, she participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar at Oregon State University. In Fall 2025, she was a Resident Fellow at the IAU/American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France. She also enjoys taking students abroad, in particular to Paris, Annecy, Antibes, and Perpignan.
Business French (FREN 3510)
French Culture and Civilization (FREN 3550 DHA)
France Today (FREN 3570)
French Conversation (FREN 3060 CI)
Advanced French Conversation (FREN 4060 CI)
Il était une fois: French and Francophone Fairy Tales in Text and Film (FREN 4630 DHA)
The Contemporary French and Francophone Short Story (FREN 4620)
On connaît la chanson: Le Hit-parade de la chanson française (FREN 3700 CI)
Recipient, Resident Fellowship, AIU/ACM Aix-en-Provence ($6,000), Fall 2025
Recipient, $1,067 Publication Subvention Fund College of Arts and Sciences, Fall 2025
Recipient, Teaching Scholar Certificate, Empowering Teaching Excellence, August 2025
Recipient, Researcher of the Year, Department of World Languages and Cultures, 2024
Recipient, Travel Grant, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, USU, to fund travel to the
23rd Annual Mediterranean Studies International Congress at the University of Gibraltar,
$1,000 Travel Grant, 2020 (conference postponed to 2021)
Participant, “S’initier au français des affaires/français du tourisme,” Stage de français
professionnel, sponsored by the CCI Paris Île-de-France, the French Embassy in
Washington D.C., and the University of Nevada, 2018
Recipient, Researcher of the Year Award, LPSC, Utah State University, 2017
Participant, NEH Summer Seminar, “Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia: The Voices of Women in
Literature, Cinema and Other Arts Since since Independence,” Oregon State University, 2017
Recipient, Travel Grant, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, USU, to fund travel to the
African Studies Association Convention at Yale University. Invited talk. $1,300, 2017
Recipient, CARE Award, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Utah State University, to
fund research project to interview filmmaker Merzak Allouache in Paris, $1,902, 2017
Recipient, Travel Grant, Center for Women and Gender Studies, USU, $500, 2013
Recipient, Grant from Dean’s Office to set up new Study Abroad Program, $2,500, 2013
Recipient, Grant from the Office for Global Engagement, Utah State University, to set up
new Summer Study Abroad Program, $2,000, 2013
Recipient, Researcher of the Year Award, LPSC, Utah State University, 2011
Recipient, Advisor of the Year Award, 2009, LPSC, Utah State University
Recipient, GEM Seed Grant, Utah State University, 2009, $5,000
Recipient, Travel Grant, WGRI, Utah State University, 2008, $500
Outstanding Professor Award, University of Nebraska, 2008
Associate Professor of French, Utah State University, 2014-2019
Associate Department Head, Department of Languages, Philosophy and Communication Studies, Utah State University, 2015-2017 (2-year rotating term)
Assistant Professor of French, Utah State University, 2008-2014
Assistant Professor of German and French, University of Nebraska, 2007-2008
Reporter, Thomson-Reuters, Zurich and Geneva, Switzerland, 2003-2007
Reporter, Market News, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, 2001-2003
Senior International Content Manager, Bad Homburg, Germany, 2000-2001
Translations Editor, Sportal Limited, London, UK, 1999-2000