Congratulations: Rachel Gibson awarded an SSRC-IDRF!

The Social Science Research Council has awarded Rachel an International Dissertation Research Fellowship for 2012, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Rachel will be doing research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), and at the Biblioteca Marciana (Venice).

Rachel's research project is entitled "Negotiating Space and Self in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Construction of Mercantile Identity in Franco-Italian Literature." She is one of 77 awardees, selected from a total of 1,148 submitted applications from graduate students at 128 universities. This year's awardees represent 32 universities and 13 disciplines: anthropology, art history and architecture, drama/theater and performance studies, environmental science, film studies, geography, history, literature, political science, education, religion, sociology, and urban planning.

Congratulations: Anna Rosensweig a Hella Mears Fellow!

Anna was awarded a Hella Mears Graduate Fellowship for Summer 2012 for her dissertation, "Tragedy and the Ethics of Resistance Rights in Early Modern French Theater."

The Center for German and European Studies awarded 8 fellowships this year.

Congratulations: Tracy Rutler awarded a Fulbright Fellowship!

Kudos to Tracy Rutler, who will be spending next year in France on a Fulbright Fellowship to research her dissertation project, "Family Remains: The Politics of Legacy in Eighteenth-Century French Literature."

Dépêche de Montpellier: Rachel Gibson

Rachel Gibson took a moment to write us from Montpellier where she is spending the year. French bureaucracy and the travails of teaching the Monroe Doctrine to first-year students at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 almost got the best of her, but she's got back to her research. She writes:

I have found some time to do research on a fourteenth-century manuscript at the Faculté de Médecine, Gui de Nanteuil, with an eye to comparing it to the other existing full manuscript of this work in Venice, written in Franco-Italian. Specifically, I seek to determine the significance of the Venetian additions to the Old French texts - from the inclusion of new verses and physical emphasis on certain lines, to words or passages with embellished or highlighted lettering, as well as the placement and inclusion of colored miniatures, dedications, marginalia, and other material features. This will be a part of a critical literary analysis of Gui alongside other re-authored epics and romances that will provide a holistic approach to understanding the value and integration of French chivalric culture in the Venetian mercantile community.

I have also had the opportunity to frequent a course on Old Occitan, and to attend conferences on medieval southern French urban identity, as well as the Société Internationale Renardienne’s bi-annual conference in Aix-en-Provence. I’ve also traveled some in beautiful Languedoc-Roussillon, making short day trips to the picturesque towns of Nîmes and Sète, with plans to visit Carcassone, Narbonne and Perpignan in the near future.

Traveling aside, sometimes it’s enough to just to play the flaneuse in my own town, letting the pretty narrow streets named after Rabelais and Voltaire lead me where they may, (though preferably to a happy hour with some friends). The experience on a whole has been educational, and a tremendous help to my fluency, and in the coming months I look forward to making the most of my remaining time in France.

Thanks Rachel!  Best of luck for the rest of your stay in Montpellier!

Lecture: Andrea Ciccarelli, Crossing Borders: Considerations on Contemporary Italian Literature, 4/23, 3 pm, Folwell 10

Andrea Ciccarelli is Professor of Italian at Indiana University. He has published widely on Italian literature and culture, with a particular emphasis on modern and contemporary writers. His current book projects are on Exile, Migration, Borders in Contemporary Italian Culture and Tradition and Innovation in Modern Italian Culture. Andrea Ciccarelli is the editor of Italica, the quarterly journal of the American Association of Teachers of Italian.


Monday, April 23, 2012
3:00 pm, Folwell 10

A reception follows the lecture.

Lecture: Eric Marty, "Why Did the 20th Century Take Sade Seriously?" (4/20, 3pm, Folwell 123)

Eric Marty -- Professor, Université Paris 7-Diderot

"Why Did the 20th Century Take Sade Seriously?"



Friday April 20, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Folwell 123

A reception will follow the lecture.

Eric Marty will discuss his most recent book (Pourquoi le vingtième siècle a-t-il pris Sade au sérieux?). He will explore the impact of the Marquis de Sade on the construction of French literary modernity, from the immediate post-war period to the late 20th century. Authors who have "taken Sade seriously" include Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Pierre Klossowski, Roland Barthes, and Philippe Sollers. Lecture In English.

Eric Marty is a professor of French literature at Université Paris 7-Diderot. He is the editor of the complete works of Roland Barthes (published by Le Seuil) and of many books and articles on modern and contemporary French literature.

Roundtable: Corbin Treacy

Human Rights Graduate Minor Colloquium, "Human Rights Research in Action"
Leah Entenmann & Corbin Treacy
Monday April 23, 2012, 3:30 pm
260 Social Sciences

Human rights research is key to understanding how violations occur, how the resulting trauma heals, and ultimately, how violations may be prevented in the future. We are fortunate at the U of M to have many of the best and brightest faculty and student researchers exploring these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Joining us on the 23rd are Human Rights Graduate Minors, Leah Entenmann and Corbin Treacy, discussing the criminalization and punishment of gays and lesbians in Uganda and literary representations of human rights and how literature and human rights advocacy may mutually benefit from a more cohesive linkage. Leah and Corbin are sure to provide with plenty of thought-provoking material. More info...

Alumni Update: Vlad Dima moving to Univ Wisconsin

Congratulations to Vlad Dima! Currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Union College, Vlad will be taking a position as an Assisant Professor in French at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. His area of specialty will be Francophone Film.

Congratulations! Tracy Rutler and Corbin Treacy awarded IDFs

Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowships permit students to research and write in collaboration with faculty mentors in interdisciplinary centers on campus.

Tracy Rutler will be working on her dissertation, "Family Remains: The Politics of Legacy in Eighteenth-Century French Literature” with Prof. Nancy Luxon (Political Science) at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Corbin Treacy will research on his dissertation, "Failed Amnesia, Urgent Memory: Post-1988 Algerian Literature and Film," with Leigh Payne and other affiliated faculty at the Program in Human Rights at the Institute for Global Studies.