2022-01-26
- Congratulations to Alum Nick Strole (PhD 2019) who has recently been named Senior Tutor and Teaching Specialist, the equivalent of Teaching Assistant Professor, at the University of Melbourne in Australia!
Nick is a researcher and instructor for French language, literature, and culture courses at all levels, with particular emphasis on contemporary theatre and media in French, digital...
2022-01-17 - Happy New Year and Welcome to Spring 2022! Orientation in our French and Italian Basic Language Programs included two workshops on Thursday and Friday January 13 and 14 on strategies and tips on teaching grammar in the basic language sequence and actively engaging students in diverse and inclusive classrooms. The grammar workshop featured Professors Laura Hill and Amy Clay, Directors of the...
2021-12-09 - Congratulations to Professor Emerita Evelyne Accad on the publication of her bilingual collection of short stories: “La Maison de la Tendresse: Nouvelles sur les femmes libanaises/House of Tenderness: Short stories on Lebanese women” (L’Harmattan, 2021)....
2021-11-30 - Congratulations to Professor Felisa Vergara Reynolds whose book "The Author as Cannibal: Rewriting in Francophone Literature as a Postcolonial Genre, 1969–1995" has just been released in its paper and electronic editions by Nebraska University Press. The book situates Francophone authors engaged in an exercise of rewriting narratives from the colonial literary canon within...
Tricia Thrasher wins Dissertation Support Grant from Network of Modern Language Teacher Associations2021-10-19 - Congratulations to Tricia Thrasher, PhD candidate in French SLATE, for receiving a Dissertation Support Grant from the Network of Modern Language Teacher Associations (NFMLTA) to work on her dissertation titled: Saying ‘Au Revoir’ to Anxiety in a Heartbeat: The benefits of Virtual Reality for Language Learning. Instituted in 2013 by the NFMLTA, this grant provides...
2021-10-09 - Professors Felisa Reynolds, Daniel Maroun, and Eda Derhemi presented at international conferences on topics connected to several intersecting research areas in the department, among them visual studies, gender & queer studies, and regional and ethnic minority identities. At the virtual conference, celebrating the launch...
2021-09-27 - Congratulations to Professor Emanuel Rota (FRIT & EUC) and the transatlantic team of researchers associated with the project “Understanding Narratives of Racialization in the Mediterranean” for their grant from the Embassy of France! This grant has been awarded through the France@Illinois Center of Excellence, one of twenty-two Centers of Excellence...
2021-09-19 - Congratulations to Professor Daniel Maroun, our Director of Undergraduate Studies and Undergraduate Advisor for French, for winning this year's Lawrence R. Schehr Memorial Award. In his essay, “Do Black Lives Matter in France? Agency, Culpability and Police Brutality,” ...
2021-09-05 - Congratulations to faculty and graduate teaching assistants who have been ranked as excellent by their students in Spring 2021! Thank you for your hard work in your virtual classrooms during a very difficult semester. We are proud of you! ANDRE, E (TA) – FR 205 BROSCRITTO, E (TA) – ITAL 101* CIPOLLA, S (TA) – ITAL 101*...
2021-08-21 - Many thanks to our Director of Italian Basic Language, Professor Laura Hill, for organizing this year's online Orientation and New Student Meet & Greet during the week of August 16-20. Incoming and returning graduate teaching assistants participated in campus and departmental training events. On Wednesday, August 18 we took advantage of breakout rooms on Zoom to meet our...
2021-07-14 - Professor Eda Derhemi is the organizer of the FEL XXV “Endangered Languages and Diaspora” international conference held by the Foundation for Endangered Languages and The Center for...
2021-01-22 - On Friday January 22, the French and Italian Basic Language Programs started their last day of pre-semester orientation with a discussion with Assistant Dean of Students Anne Marie Morgan from the Office of the Dean (LAS). Dean Morgan presented a lecture followed by a Q&A on resources and best practices working with students during these demanding times of confinement and online teaching....
2020-09-27 - LAS Alumna and ESPN sports anchor Michele Steele got the idea of taking a job as a teacher of English in France after she took a Francophone literature in the Department during her senior year. “When French professor Dr. Alain Fresco (Emeritus, French) inquired what I would be doing after graduation, and I replied, “putting off a fabulous career,” he quite seriously said I...
2020-09-18 - Amelia Reggi (M.A. student, Italian Studies) and Robin Turner (PhD student, French Linguistics) are holding FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) fellowships in the academic year 2020-2021. FLAS fellowships are very competitive and typically awarded to advanced language learners of second and third foreign languages. Amelia will be putting her fellowship in Italian towards her research and...
2020-09-10 - Congratulations to Tricia Thrasher (PhD candidate, French SLATE) for receiving one of the five Duolingo Research Grants in Language Learning with Technology in the country in 2020 for her Ph.D. thesis project “Social Virtual Reality’s Impact on Language Anxiety and Interpersonal Oral Production by French Learners”. This nationwide recognition draws attention to cutting-edge...