Alexandra Borer

Alexandra Borer has been a faculty member at Columbia University since 2013, where she focuses on teaching French as a foreign language. She teaches courses ranging from beginner to advanced levels, with an approach that emphasizes diverse and contextualized cultural resources, as well as interdisciplinary perspectives on texts from the humanities. She has developed advanced language courses that anchor French study in topics such as the cultural history of Paris, popular culture, and grammar-focused classes that integrate broader interdisciplinary approaches to texts from the social sciences.

Originally from Paris and of French and Croatian descent, Dr. Borer holds an Agrégation de Lettres Modernes. She has taught French and Latin in Paris and at the Lycée Français of New York. She pursued her Ph.D. in French and French Studies at NYU, where her dissertation examined 20th- and 21st-century urban literature, with a particular focus on the concept of borders in the representation of the greater Paris area.

In recent years, Dr. Borer has expanded her work by delivering lectures on various aspects of French pedagogy, including the integration of literature into language instruction, the use of media in teaching, and the analysis of urban space representations in literature and film. She has also presented on topics in social science and cultural history, further enriching her interdisciplinary approach. Currently, Dr. Borer is researching ways to incorporate environmental themes into the language classroom, focusing on how sustainable practices and ecological awareness can enhance French language learning.