Who are we?
CREATE is a collaborative network founded in 2023 uniting scholars of French language, literature, and culture from Durham University, King’s College London, Royal Holloway, and the University of St Andrews. The network builds on pioneering initiatives such as modules and workshops at St Andrews and Durham, aiming to integrate creative writing into language teaching and research.
Founding members include Dominique Carlini Versini (Durham), Géraldine Crahay (Durham), Elise Hugueny-Léger (St Andrews), Anna Johnston (Durham), Alexandra Mallet-Collins (King's College London), Odile Rimbert (Royal Holloway) and Cynthia Tavars (Durham).
New members Viviane Blanchard, Amélie Boubaker, Hélène Butz, and Alice Dias-Mercier (all from King’s College London) have since joined the initiative. The CREATE website was developed by Amélie Boubaker and Alice Dias-Mercier. Through events, resource-sharing, and pedagogical innovation, CREATE seeks to rejuvenate language education and inspire new academic and professional vocations.
Members
Our dedicated team of researchers and educators is passionate about promoting creativity in French language education. With blend of expertise in creative writing and linguistic studies, we strive to enhance research in language learning and teaching methods, offering innovative solutions for educators and learners alike.
Viviane Blanchard
Viviane Blanchard is a lecturer in French language education at King’s Language Centre. She has a keen interest in exploring new forms of engagement both for students and teachers, encouraging learning and communicating through embodied listening and creative practice blending writing, the visual arts and radiophonic creations, with a focus on cultures and narratives that challenge mainstream norms. As a co-founder of Coup de FLE, alongside Hélène Butz, Amélie Boubaker, and Alice Dias-Mercier, she is part of a collective that promotes creative language pedagogy rooted in contemporary culture and committed to community engagement and social causes.
Amélie Boubaker
Amélie Boubaker is a Lecturer in French Language Education at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her pedagogy is grounded in inclusive, research-led practices that integrate creative writing, theatre, neuroscience-informed strategies, and digital tools to foster student engagement, well-being, and academic success. Her research explores the relationship between language teaching, learning, and well-being, with a focus on inclusive pedagogies, creativity, and identity. She investigates how creative & performative practices along with scaffolded, compassionate instruction can support learner progression. She is also a co-founder of Coup de FLE, alongside Viviane Blanchard, Hélène Butz, and Alice Dias-Mercier - a collective that supports creative, socially engaged practices in French language teaching.
Hélène Butz
Hélène Butz is a Lecturer in French Education at King’s College London and a Fellow of the HEA. Central to her projects is a commitment to empowering women and ethnic and sexual minorities who have remained invisible in French and Francophone literature, using their texts as communicative springboards. She co-founded Coup de FLE with fellow teachers Viviane Blanchard, Amélie Boubaker, and Alice Dias-Mercier — a collective that invites teachers to work creatively with the language in the classroom, through the lens of contemporary culture, while fostering solidarity with community-based and socially engaged causes.
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Dr Dominique Carlini Versini
Dominique is an Assistant Professor in French at Durham University in the UK and a specialist of contemporary French women’s writing and filmmaking. She is also interested in creative writing, inclusive pedagogy, translation studies, and feminist activism and thought, which she explores in her writing. Dominique is using creative writing as part of her French language teaching at undergraduate level in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. With fellow CREATE founding members Géraldine Crahay, Anna Johnston and Cynthia Tavars, she runs a creative writing contest open to all undergraduate students in the UK. She also co-convenes Living Texts with Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze, a research group which explores and celebrates the life of texts in all its significant aspects, from creation to reception.
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Dr Géraldine Crahay
Dr Géraldine Crahay is Assistant Professor in French at the Centre for Foreign Language Study at Durham University. Her research interests include gender studies, literature and creative writing in language classes, decolonising the French curriculum and teaching grammar critically. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the group Les Linguistes atterrées.
Dr Alice Dias-Mercier
Alice is Senior Lecturer in French Language Education and Director of French at the Department of Language, Literature and Culture at King’s College London. She is interested in the intersections between family (post)memory, collective trauma, and creative expression especially in women's writing. A Fellow of the HEA and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, Alice uses creative writing, translanguaging and translation in her teaching to explore identity through language. With fellow King's lecturers (Viviane Blanchard, Hélène Butz and Amélie Boubaker), she co-founded the collective Coup de FLE in 2024, a collective that champions innovative, socially engaged language pedagogy.
Dr Elise Hugueny-Léger
Elise Hugueny-Léger is a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews, researching life-writing and the creative writing process. At St Andrews, she initiated the module ‘Creative Writing in French’ and a Creative Writing Dissertation option for final-year students. In 2022-2023, she was Leverhulme International Fellow at CY-Cergy Paris Université for a project entitled ‘Beyond the writing impulse: crafting creative writing research in French’. She holds a 'Certificat universitaire: animation d’ateliers d’écriture' from Cergy and has published research on translingual creative writing. Elise has led writing workshops and training in academic and community groups. Her first book of creative non-fiction, Twenty twenty: petites traversées franco-britanniques was published with Créaphis in 2024.
Anna Johnston
Anna Johnston is Associate Professor in French at Durham University where she convenes the French provision at the Centre for Foreign Language Study. Together with Géraldine Crahay and Cynthia Tavars, Anna has been using creative writing as part of her language classes for several years. They also co-designed an Initiation to Creative Writing in French module aimed at developing language acquisition through creative writing. Alongside Dominique Carlini-Versini, the team have also organised creative writing workshops ran by lecturers and French-speaking writers. In addition to creative writing, Anna is interested in the use of translation in the language classroom, CLIL and decolonising the curriculum.
Cynthia Tavars
Cynthia Tavars is Assistant Professor in French at Durham University. Her teaching focuses on creative writing in language education and inclusive pedagogy, with a strong emphasis on student voice and cultural engagement. A founding member of the CREATE network, she draws on experience in both secondary and higher education to design innovative learning experiences. She co-developed a creative writing module in French, designed to support language learning through written expression. Her scholarship explores curriculum decolonisation, the role of orality, and French-based creoles. She maintains a bilingual writing practice and sees writing as a space for reflection, exploration, and connection.
