Dominique Butler-Borruat

Dominique Butler-Borruat has been teaching for more than thirty years in the Residential College, where she has served as the Head of the French Program since 2006. She is also the coordinator for Intensive French II. An early adopter of learning technologies, she has integrated many of them into her courses to enhance her teaching. For example, she implemented a flipped-classroom pedagogy in her language courses, and for many years now, she has utilized a conversational platform that gives her students the opportunity to not only communicate with French speakers from around the world but also to expand their cross-cultural understanding.

Her seminar courses draw upon various fields, such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and women's studies. Additionally, she developed a service-learning course to offer advanced students in her program a unique way to apply their language skills in the community. For more than ten years, the community-based component of this course has partnered with Freedom House Detroit, a non-profit organization offering comprehensive services - including legal assistance - to victims of persecution seeking asylum in the United States.

In her classes, she strives to foster an inclusive and supportive learning environment that encourages students to feel confident stepping outside their comfort zones to develop their full potential.

Course titles (seminars):

• Existentialism: The Human Condition and the Absurd
• « Au Coeur de l’amitié »: A Multidisciplinary Study of the Concept of Friendship
• « Un homme sur deux est une femme »: Are We There Yet? The Status of Women in Francophonie