Welcome to this year's incoming graduate students Étienne André, Willie Asamoah, Elena Broscritto, Océane Felisaz, Aaron Koroghlanian, Ari Theodoropoulos, and Jessica Wikle who come to us from Italy, France, Ghana, and the United States!
Étienne André (M.A. French Linguistics) is a native of Bourgogne, France, and a former exchange students in FRIT. He is returning to study the structure, use, and teaching of the French language through a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry.
Williams (Willie) Asamoah (Ph.D. French Linguistics) is a native of Ghana who studied and taught French at the University of Arizona prior to coming to Illinois. He is interested in bringing innovative technologies into the research and teaching of French as a minority language in the United States.
Elena Broscritto (M.A. Italian), a native of Crema, near Pavia, Italy, is a former volunteer teacher of Italian as a second language to refugees in Italy and language learners in Lithuania. She wishes to continue her training in Italian and language acquisition, and specialize as a teacher of Italian as a foreign language.
Océane Felisaz (Ph.D. French Studies) is joining us as a former exchange student from the University of Washington. Her research interests lie in post-World War II, 20th century French literature and welcomes our multidisciplinary connections to philosophy, cultural criticism, and modern intellectual history.
Aaron Koroghlanian (M.A. French Linguistics) has a B.A. in Linguistics from Illinois and continues his studies in this discipline with a sustained interest in French syntax and new discoveries on how language works in translation, history, and culture.
Aristides (Ari) Theodoropoulos (M.A. Italian) has graduated from the U of I with a B.A. in Integrative Biology and Italian Studies. He intends to combine his knowledge in the physical sciences to classroom second-language teaching of Italian and other foreign languages and cultures.
Jessica Wikle (M.A. French Studies) is coming to us from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, with a B.A. in French Literature and Music. She is bringing to French studies a diverse academic background and interests in interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches to the study of literature and culture.