This section of our website includes News relevant to the Center for French & Francophone Studies, as well as Commentaries on events by Duke faculty, students, staff - and YOU! Your commentary, namely regarding the francophone world but also on Duke campus, or your wonderment about a new word or turn of phrase – all is welcome on our blog, in English or French. The format can be as short as a flash of wit, or as long as necessary to get an idea across. It’s your call. Send your post on French in all shapes and sizes to agnieszka.witczak@duke.edu. Thank you!
L’actualité, notamment dans le monde francophone, mais aussi vos commentaires sur la vie à Duke ou encore la découverte d’un mot ou d’une expression, tout est le bienvenu sur ce blog, en français ou en anglais. Le format peut être aussi court qu’un trait d’esprit ou aussi long qu’il le faut pour faire passer une idée. À vous d’en décider et de faire vivre le français dans tous ses états. Envoyez vos posts à agnieszka.witczak@duke.edu. Merci !
Recent News & Commentaries
Anne-Gaëlle Saliot, associate professor of Romance Studies and director of the Center for French and Francophone Studies, has been knighted by the French government as a member of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Established by Napoleon in 1808, the Ordre des Palmes Académiques is the oldest non-military French recognition and one of the world's oldest civil awards. The honor of chevalier, or knight, recognizes excellence in research, teaching and the promotion of French language and culture. … read more about Anne-Gaëlle Saliot Named Knight of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques »
Congratulations to Professor Anne-Gaëlle Saliot who has been knighted by the French Government. On April 28 she will be awarded the medal of "Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques" in recognition of the excellence of her academic research, as well as key role in promoting Franco-American cultural and scientific relations through her Directorship of the Center for French and Francophone Studies. The Ordre des Palmes Académiques is a national order bestowed by the French Republic on distinguished academics for… read more about Congratulations to Professor Anne-Gaëlle Saliot for receiving the medal of "Chevalier des Palmes Académiques" »
Philippe Lançon, writerMichele était née à Paris, une ville où elle aimait retourner comme si elle y avait toujours vécu, une ville qu’elle aimait plus que tout, et c’est à Paris que je l’ai rencontrée, dans un dîner naturellement. C’est en sa compagnie, ce soir-là, que j’ai ensuite traversé une partie de Paris en marchant et en discutant. Il faisait doux. Nous étions en été. L’amitié naissante est un phénomène qui suspend la vie. J’ai aussitôt découvert et apprécié certaines qualités de Michele… read more about Michèle Longino's Tribute »
By Nik Narain, Class of 2025Orlando: My Political Biography is a 2023 French experimental documentary directed by Paul B. Preciados. The film is a modern expansion of the 1928 Virginia Woolf novel Orlando: A Biography in which the main character becomes a 36-year-old woman mid-way through the story. Preciados casts 26 trans and nonbinary individuals from around the world to play the role of Orlando. Together, they interpret Woolf’s original work, weaving their own narratives of transition and identity… read more about French Film Festival Reflection: Orlando: My Political Biography »
By Sonya LasserFebruary 7, 2025 | 12:00am EST On Jan. 30, Screen/Society kicked off their 2025 French Film Festival with “Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning 2023 courtroom thriller. The film was introduced by Anne-Gaëlle Saliot, Associate Professor of Romance Studies, who talked about her love of all the films selected for the two-and-a-half week festival and her work ensuring multiple female-directed films would be shown.At the end of the film, there was a Q&A with Professor Anne-Gaëlle Saliot… read more about 2025 Screen/Society French Film Festival: 'Anatomy of a Fall' »
By Tina QianFebruary 13, 2025 | 12:00am EST On Friday, Jan. 31, “Orlando: My Political Biography” was screened at the Ruby’s Film Theater as part of Duke’s annual French Film Festival. The film premiered at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it took home the Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film. The film is inspired by Virginia Woolf’s biographical novel “Orlando,” which documents the life story (which spans over 300 years) of the main character Orlando, who transforms from a man to a woman and… read more about Others after Woolf: Orlando and their political biography »
The CFFS, in partnership with Villa Albertine and the Embassy of France in the United States, welcomed writer Anne Pauly on September 12th at Duke.The author joined us for Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary People, a bilingual discussion about the power of literature which integrates the CFFS’s Contemporary Writers Series. … read more about CFFS Visiting Guest -Anne Pauly Public Lecture at Duke on September 12th »
Thursday, November 14 at 7 p.m. The CFFS, in partnership with Villa Albertine, the Embassy of France in the United States, the Duke Department of Romance Studies, and the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, welcomes Gabriel Richard and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. The two musicians will join us for Tribute to Fauré, a performance marking the hundredth anniversary of Gabriel Fauré’… read more about ON NOVEMBER 14th CFFS WELCOMES: GABRIEL RICHARD AND JEAN-FRÉDÉRIC NEUBURGER FOR A MUSIVAL TRIBUTE TO GABRIEL FAURÉ »
On Sept. 20, French Ambassador Laurent Bili met with President Vincent Price, Provost Alec Gallimore, Vice President Chris Simmons and Trinity College's Arts & Humanities Dean Leo Ching to discuss transatlantic academic cooperation. The visit reflected the French embassy's commitment to academic partnership in general, and to French and Francophone Studies in particular.The Duke Center for French and Francophone Studies (CFFS), which is the only Centre d'Excellence funded by the embassy in the Southeast (out of the… read more about French Ambassador Visits Duke Leaders, Center for French and Francophone Studies »
On Thursday September 19th evening at 8pm, as part of the NCFS programming, Pascal Quignard and Aline Piboule will perform "Fauré's Last Love", an interdisciplinary performance intertwining music by Fauré and words by Quignard. The show, which was created at the Philharmonie de Paris last January, is doing its U.S premiere at Duke. Aline Piboule has received a flurry of awards for her… read more about Writer Pascal Quignard and pianist Aline Piboule are visiting Duke this week »
The Digital Unconscious / L'inconscient numeriqueFilm, arts and visual studies / Cinéma, arts et études visuellesSeptember 4th- 6th 2024 / 4 - 6 septembre 2024THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO / UNIVERSITÉ DE CHICAGOToday's cinema and media produce images that draw on a long-lasting visual history of digitization and geometry. Departing from technological determinism, it is possible to envisage an iconography of the digital that is independent of the computational manufacture of images that have a traceable archaeology. At the same… read more about INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM / “The Digital Unconscious: Film Arts and Visual Studies Symposium.” »
As the Center for French and Francophone Studies is wrapping up its season, we are delighted to showcase an experimental short film that was made by MFA EDA graduate Alaric (Tianming) Zhou on the first Night of Ideas in North Carolina on February 29th. read more about Shadows Are All Mine- Night Of Ideas February 29th 2024/ short film »
Internationally renowned filmmaker Alice Diop visited Duke briefly on April 18. Alice Diop represented France for the 2023 Oscars, and was the recipient of the Grand Jury Prize in Venice and of the Louis Delluc Prize in France. Her acclaimed work is described by the film critic A.O. Scott as an "intellectually charged, emotionally wrenching story about the inability of storytelling - literary, legal or cinematic - to do justice to the violence and strangeness of human experience." - The New York Times Alice Diop is a… read more about A Conversation with filmmaker Alice Diop »
Tuesday, April 2nd The CFFS, in partnership with Villa Albertine, welcomes Rama Salla Dieng. The author will join us for Global South Feminist Solidarities and the Meaning of Anti-Colonial, a public talk that is part of the Contemporary Feminisms in French Lecture Series and organized in collaboration with the Global South Feminisms Seminar.… read more about Global South Feminist Solidarities and the Meaning of Anti- Colonial with Rama Salla Dieng »
https://my.weezevent.com/night-of-ideas-durham-2024 The Center for French and Francophone Studies at Duke University, the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and Villa Albertine hosted the first Night of Ideas in Durham that was held at the Durham Main County Library on February 29 from 7p.m to 11p.m. Present in 100 countries worldwide, the Night of Ideas has become a… read more about The Night of Ideas - Durham Feb. 29 2024 »
From January 26 through February 10, the Center for French and Francophone Studies will be hosting the 2024 French Film Festival. The full list of event details can be found at https://francophone.duke.edu/events/2024-french-film-festival. read more about 2024 French Film Festival »
The Chronicle interviewed 2018 Goncourt Prize Laureate Nicolas Mathieu. read more about A conversation with 2018 Goncourt Prize Laureate Nicolas Mathieu »
This collective volume, co-edited by Helen Solterer and Vincent Joos, investigates Calais, notorious today as one choke point for so-called migrants. It changes what we know of Calais by considering peoples rarely identified in this way: the nameless during the early modern Hundred Year’s War; and during World War One. It places Calais side by side with other borderlands in Spain/Morocco and Lampedusa/Sicily/Somalia – all part of a new, comparative cultural history of migration that explores the significant… read more about Book Launch: Migrants Shaping Europe, Past and Present: Multilingual Literature, Arts, and Cultures »
A philosopher, economist, writer and musician, the Senegalese Felwine Sarr is one of the most prominent intellectual figures of the moment. In recent years, his work has taken on a new form: that of plays. Two of them are currently on tour in the United States, and carry this singular voice that invites us to believe in the possibility of utopia. On September 19, your plays Traces - Speach to African Nations and Freedom, I’ll Have Lived Your Dream until the Last Day began to… read more about Felwine Sarr: Reinvest History and Utopia »
Felwine Sarr, Anne-Marie Bryan Distinguished Professor of Romance Studies at Duke, has been described in various biographies as a public intellectual, humanist, philosopher, economist, musician, playwright and poet. In 2021, he was named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people for his work to restitute African and Asian artworks to their countries of origin. A native of Senegal, where he taught at the University of Gaston-Berger in Saint Louis, Senegal, Sarr has been at Duke since 2020. His face and his… read more about U.S. Tour of Works by Felwine Sarr Comes to Duke Performances »
Two Duke students from a Romance Studies class have helped elect the winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize, which expanded its reach to the United States for the first time ever this year. First awarded in 1903 by French writer Edmond de Goncourt’s literary society, now known as the Académie Goncourt, the prize is France’s version of the Pulitzer. It recognizes a work of “great imagination in prose” and has been awarded to internationally recognized authors such as Marcel Proust and Simone de… read more about Duke Students Help Select the Winner of France’s Most Prestigious Literary Prize »
Famed writer, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, is the recipient of France's most prestigious literary award, the 2021 Prix Goncourt. He is the first sub-Saharan African author to do so while also being the youngest author to win in decades, being only 31. Mr. Sarr discussed his award-winning work, "La plus secrète mémoire des hommes," or "The Most Secret Memory of Men," co-published by Philippe Rey and Jimsaan. The story follows the quest of a young Senegalese author who discovers an acclaimed literary work called "The Labyrinth of… read more about Une conversation avec Mohamed Mbougar Sarr »
Le récit familial sur la transmission de la mémoire de la Shoah de la romancière française, au cœur d'une polémique dans le milieu littéraire parisien, a été sacré ce samedi à New York. Le récit sur l'Holocauste et sur les racines juives de l'écrivaine française Anne Berest, La Carte postale, au cœur d'une polémique dans le milieu littéraire parisien, a décroché samedi à New York le premier prix Goncourt version américaine. Le plus prestigieux des prix littéraires français s'est internationalisé avec… read more about La Carte postale d'Anne Berest décroche le Goncourt version américaine »
Felwine Sarr est un des intellectuels africains les plus actifs et les plus discutés sur la scène francophone et au-delà. Après des études d’économie en France, il enseigne cette discipline pendant treize ans à l’Université Gaston-Berger à Saint-Louis du Sénégal. Désormais, il est professeur de philosophie africaine à Duke University, aux Etats-Unis. En 2021, il est l’invité de la chaire de français de l’EPFZ. Afrotopia (Philippe Rey, 2016) est un best-seller mondial. Auteur de plusieurs essais, d’œuvres… read more about Felwine Sarr: «Dans l’imaginaire, la Suisse est une oasis, une enclave irréelle, une métaphore» »
Philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, renowned for his wide-ranging, challenging, and thoughtful writing on art, film, and politics, died August 23 at the age of eighty-one. Best known for his unfetteredly fresh takes on giants of thought, including Heidegger, Kant, and Sartre, he wrote extensively on art, taking as his subjects Simon Hantaï, Soun-Gui Kim, and On Kawara, the last of whom he especially admired for his works investigating death, time, and human existence. Nancy’s 2000 essay “L’intrus” (The Intruder), perhaps his most… read more about Jean-Luc Nancy (1940-2021) »
No matter what you’re studying, there’s no escaping the role of language. It’s just how humans communicate. Yet, there is a generation of students whose experience with language classes consists almost entirely of conversations about a single subject: travel. “Language used to be taught in a contextual vacuum,” explained Deb Reisinger, an associate professor of the practice of Romance Studies. “When adults think back on learning a language, they often recall memorized dialogues, role plays or skits where they dressed up as… read more about A Practical Way to Learn a Language, and a New Perspective »
In 2011, at the unveiling of a highway marker honoring Pauli Murray — the lawyer, priest, civil rights advocate, and Durham native — Helen Solterer began a literary journey through time and place. It was there that Solterer, a professor of Romance Studies, first learned of Murray’s poetry. Solterer was particularly struck by Murray’s 1944 poem “Dark Testament,” calling it Murray’s “freedom song” about “the curse of lynching in North Carolina.” It’s a stunning work of literature in its own right, and Solterer also heard a… read more about Duke Guggenheim Fellow Asks What Makes Literature Feel Timely »
Le succès des programmes bilingues français aux Etats-Unis Août 28th, 2019 par Clément Thiery Les programmes bilingues sont en plein essor aux Etats-Unis. Avec plus de cent soixante filières bilingues dans trente-quatre Etats, le français est aujourd’hui la deuxième langue étrangère la plus populaire du pays. A New York, une école publique sur dix propose un enseignement bilingue. Dans l’Utah, une école sur cinq est bilingue. Et l’Alaska a inauguré en août ses deux premières classes bilingues français-anglais. Ces… read more about Bilingual Teaching in American Schools: French comes in second »
Six visiting scholars representing liberal arts institutions, historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), and Durham Technical Community College will arrive at Duke this summer to collaborate with faculty as part of an innovative humanities initiative. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded Humanities Unbounded is designed to nurture collaboration and inventive expressions of the humanities at Duke and beyond. Among other aims, it expands Duke's curriculum by launching research-based humanities labs that enrich… read more about Duke Welcomes NCCU, Durham Tech, Liberal Arts Collaborators to Humanities Unbounded initiative »