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Photo of Ora Itkin and Nerea Berraondo performing “Habanera” from Carmen by Georges Bizet at Poetic Worlds.

In Bone and Flesh: A Night of Languages, Poetry, and Music
Poetry is more than just text to interpret; it's about rhythm and emotion. This was the key idea behind a recent event called Poetic Worlds, in which over 100 students, faculty, alumni, and community members came together to perform and experience poems in different languages. It "emphasize[d] linguistic diversity on campus, languages being taught, [and] languages spoken in our community,” explains Assistant Professor Ioana Pribiag, who organized the event as a way to get her students fired up about poetry.
Portrait of Lily Mahan.

French Immersion Taught Me to be Mindful
Recent graduate Lily Mahan talks about starting French immersion preschool at the age of three, what it was like to transition out of a full immersion program at the end of elementary school, and how knowing French affects her worldview. “I am who I am today because of my immersion experience,” she says. Lastly, graduating with a French major, Mahan talks about her future and how she hopes to live and work in France one day.
Portrait of Bella Dally-Steele.

Immersion Through Learning Abroad
Bella Dally-Steele strives to learn as many languages as she can to fuel a career in international journalism. Her first immersion experience was as an exchange student in France as a high school student, which she has followed up by learning abroad in Seoul, South Korea and Fez, Morocco, in college. She is pursuing a bachelor of individualized studies in French, Spanish, and mass communication.
Portrait of Sophia Wright.

Weaving Music with French
Sophia Wright discusses how her majors in French and music work together in harmony. Wright applies her language skills and understanding of French culture and history to her studies of music and art. She draws connections between different art forms and time periods to create a clearer picture of Western history with the help of her French immersion background. By overcoming challenges in her immersion experience, Wright was able to excel in her other classes because of her French background.
Portrait of Jane Leach.

Intertwining French and Public Health in Senegal
Committed to public health development in an international context, French major Jane Leach jumped at the opportunity to learn abroad in Senegal, where she gained cross-cultural healthcare experience by working with mothers and babies at a rural clinic. She returned to Minneapolis with a more nuanced understanding of French studies and a renewed passion for public health. "It felt like [I had found] something I could dedicate my life to."
Vlad posing for a picture

In Cinema, Sound is the Key
Alumnus Vlad Dima (PhD 2010) discusses life as an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he researches French and francophone cinema and crafts unique courses, such as one that explores the representations of the undead in literature and film. His new book offers the first comprehensive study in English of films by Djibril Diop Mambety, and argues that the Senegalese auteur uses soundscapes to generate alternate narrative planes.
French and Italian Students

A Revolutionary Debate
Who would you be in the French revolution? A feminist, a member of the bourgeoisie, or perhaps Lafayette himself? Through a three-and-a-half week long role-playing game, FREN 1501/1502: Gateways to French and Francophone Studies offers first- and second-year students the chance to find out where they would fit in the grand debate. The class also includes guest lectures and group discussions to further explore French language, culture, and history.
teaching assistant program in france

TAPIF Fellowship Award
The Department of French and Italian (FRIT) at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has partnered with the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) to provide scholarships to graduate program applicants currently participating in, or having completed, the TAPIF Program.
Kathleen Rider and her students in Rome, Italy.

When In Rome

Kathleen Rider teaches a biannual global seminar focused on urban renewal in Rome. Rider created the program to help students see beyond the country’s rich history and better experience it as a diverse, 21st-century place.
Alexander Rash’s standing outside of Folwell Hall at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Traveler, Artist & Urban Explorer
2017 graduate Alexander Rash returned to Minnesota to finish his degree after spending several years living in France. While there, he helped open a collective publishing house, became an art curator, and had countless other adventures. He likes that travel gives him a new perspective on the world and that his French studies have given him “the ability to think in multiple dimensions as relates to society.”