By Mason J. Friesen
Ryan Weierman (SFS) is a Georgetown junior majoring in International Politics, minoring in French, and pursuing a certificate in African Studies. In the spring of 2025, she submitted a paper to the Georgetown Journal of History titled “Feminist Resistance in Martinique and Algeria: How Paulette Nardal and Zohra Drif Practiced Citizenship in the French Empire.” The Journal accepted her submission, and the article was published in the Fall 2026 Print Edition. In November 2025, she sat down to answer questions about her process of writing this paper, as well her experience working with the Journal.
How did you decide to write on this topic?
I was introduced to African Studies through my freshman-year proseminar, a course that all SFS students are required to take. Mine was titled “Migration In and From Africa.” That’s how I was introduced to the program, and I started taking more African Studies classes. In the spring of my freshman year, I took a course titled “Afro-Paris: Art, Identity and Resistance.” It was about the Black diaspora in the Caribbean and also in different parts of France. The overseas departments in mainland France were coping with the migratory themes of colonialism in the metropolis and other theaters of the empire. In that class we learned about Martinique as an important part of the French Empire. At the same time, I was taking a history course called “Gender and Sexuality in Mina,” which touched upon the role of women in the Algerian Revolution (1954–1962). I wrote a final research paper for this class, choosing an interdisciplinary approach that included history, African studies, and Francophone studies. I wanted to create a comparison piece about a woman in the Algerian Revolution and a woman who resisted colonialism in Martinique. I had a lot of support from my history professor, Dr. Nefertiti Takla, who is new to Georgetown’s Department of History. She pointed me toward the Georgetown Journal of History as a way to publish my writing. I’m glad I stumbled upon the Journal at the CAB Fair so that I could learn more about it.
Could you give me an overview of your submission?
I was really interested in the period of decolonial transformation in the French Empire during the mid-twentieth century. I focus on a comparison of two women in the French Empire. One was Paulette Nardal (1896–1985), a Black Antillean woman born and raised in Martinique. She focused on social justice, tackling racism, and advocating for women’s suffrage. In the paper, I compare her with Zohra Drif (b. 1934), who is a Muslim Algerian woman. She was active in the Algerian Revolution as a member of the National Liberation Front, a militant nationalist party that fought against France. I essentially compare the two ways they both resisted French colonialism: by practicing citizenship through civic engagement to defend their communities. While Nardal practiced what I call a “feminist critical patriotism” within French institutions to advocate for social justice, Drif exercised feminist nationalism as a women-centered approach for total liberation in Algeria.
What did your research process look like?
It started with my desire to get a basic understanding of French citizenship laws in Martinique and Algeria. Since my course was focused on Mina in particular, I started off writing a paper on feminist resistance in the Algerian Revolution. Early on, during my primary and secondary source research, I found a book called The Eloquence of Silence, written by Marnia Larzeg, who was a notable historian of female Algerians. She revolutionized the historiography of the Algerian Revolution by examining it through a decolonial and gendered lens for the first time. Once I read her arguments, I realized everything I wanted to say on this topic had already been said, which is why Professor Takla recommended that I connect these questions to Nardal and Drif. This comparative lens is what launched my research.
What’s something from your research that you found surprising?
I found the role of class in both of the women’s forms of resistance surprising. I think it’s important that many historians focus on the fact that Nardal and Drif were raised in bourgeois families and had access to education. They went to French schools and were able to learn multiple languages. Something that historians could look further into is how class informed their methods of resistance, particularly because Nardal studied in Paris. When she came back to Martinique, she was connected to organizations that were active in Catholic social teaching. One could pay attention to how her resistance differed to that of other Martiniquan women. Nardal’s is heavily modeled on the metropolitan form of resistance.
Why is your submission worth reading?
My paper is important because it covers a history that is largely unknown from the American perspective. When people think of France, they see a democratic republic, an ally to the U.S., and a member of the E.U. Even as a French student, I never learned of the French Empire’s history or even the Algerian Revolution. This is a history too often forgotten, and that’s why it’s important to highlight these stories. Moreover, France prides itself on having a universalising force, possessing a very rich Catholic history and cultural landscape, despite being a secular country today. Discussions of race are highly taboo in France; it’s not used as a measure of social identity in any formal government or state-backed study, so it’s really important to examine the history of racism, misogyny, and colonialism in France, particularly how they inform the situation in France today.
What has your experience been like working with the Journal?
I’m really grateful for your team, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to publish my writing. I always like to have the mindset that writers need readers, and I’m really seeing that payoff in this process. The impact of my argument and language is getting stronger. Everything feels more deliberate when you have editors going through your work line-by-line. I’m very excited to see the finished product!
