Spring 2019 Newsletter from the Department of French & Italian
Dear Friends of FRIT,
A pause, before we swing into summer, to celebrate some of the exciting highlights of our year. We welcomed Jennifer Row to the faculty, congratulated Bruno Chaouat on his new book and Hakim Abderrezak on his visiting professorship at Philipps-Universität Marburg, and celebrated Christophe Wall-Romana’s promotion to full professor. We also launched our first Learning Beyond MN course, Brian Barnett’s Francophone Louisiana, which includes a spring break trip to the state.
Congratulations to the undergraduate scholarship winners: Sam Glasford and Caleb Feltis (FRIT Study Abroad Scholarships), Ally Glasford (Aron M. Blankenburg Memorial Scholarship), and Aarilee Lorenzen (Italian Cultural Center Scholarship). To support more amazing student commitments to expand their horizons, we launched our Pivotal Journeys campaign last semester, which was such a success that we received another matching donation. Did you not have a chance to donate? Want to make a bigger impact? Consider supporting this second match!
So much great stuff is going on this summer too—we’ll tell you about some of the highlights in our occasional Profile: Awesome series.
Have news? Please do keep in touch (frit@umn.edu)!
Juliette Cherbuliez
“Studying abroad enhances the skills employers look for, like communication, collaboration, adaptability, and the ability to understand diverse perspectives,” says Cecilia Pompeo (BA ‘18, French and linguistics), who spent her junior year in Montpellier, France. Pompeo and other students reflect on how their learning abroad experiences expanded their worldviews and helped prepare them for the workplace. Read “Learning Without Borders”.
“Studying in the humanities is about striving to wander and wonder, which coincides with the idea that learning is joyful in that it never ends,” says Alexandre Dubois (PhD ‘19, French studies), who now teaches at the University of Mississippi. His dissertation explores the relationship between poetry and imperial expansionism, as seen in the growth of international railways. Read “Exploring Poetry Beyond Paper”.
