Former Auburn student Lauren Heilman presents Louisiana literature research at national conference

Lauren Heilman, a former French student at Auburn University, is making a name for herself in French scholarship by elevating the work of Louis Alfred Mercier, an author she studied in the College of Liberal Arts.

While at Auburn, Heilman studied French/English translation, French business, Francophone African literature and Louisiana literature. In the Louisiana literature class with Professor Evelyne Bornier, she discovered the work of Alfred Mercier, a French-speaking American author and poet born in New Orleans.

Bornier invited Heilman to present her research on Mercier at the 2022 American Association of Teachers of French convention in New Orleans. The highly competitive conference rarely hosts student presentations. Heilman presented “Louis Alfred Mercier—Francophone Classicist” in the author’s home state of Louisiana to a crowd of language scholars in July.

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