Our first annual French & Francophone Studies research conference took place on Saturday, Nov. 13, between 9am and 1pm, and it featured six twenty-minute formal presentations by students in our program. These talks featured: three ongoing honors theses projects; research done as part of a student internship in Paris; an original video produced in one of our classes; research conducted in a museum in Montpellier. More specifically:
* Philippe Halbert (’11) spoke of his research in the French national archives, and explained his thesis about the changing functions and popularity of monsters in the early modern imaginary
* Michael Smith (’11) presented his honors thesis on literary representations of Haussmanization and the anxieties it provoked
* Eve Grice (’11) described her honors thesis research on the tensions between colonialism and post-colonialism in the recently opened CNHI (Museum of Immigration) in Paris
* Bridget Carr (’12) critiqued development aid strategies in France’s former colonies
* Ashley Hoover (’11) and Sami Tabbara (’13) spoke of the intertextual references they built into their original video production
* Danny Yates (’13) discussed Said’s understanding of Orientalism in reference to paintings and writings by Delacroix
Six other students majoring in French & Francophone Studies introduced the speakers and prepared questions for our two general discussion periods.
This year’s program was sponsored by the Charles Center and by the Reves Center for International Studies.