The Center of Excellence of the French Embassy at IU boasted a particularly rich roster of activities in Spring 2024. A series of student-focused and public-facing events unfolded before and after March 20 in celebration of this date which marks the Journée de la Francophonie. These included a conversation table with Les Chevaliers de la Table Française and a discussion panel, "What French Can Do for You," featuring a remarkable group of undergraduate French students whose profiles ranged from music and linguistics to international studies and public health.

The Center also hosted no fewer than five guest speakers from France, Senegal, and Ghana such as the publisher of major Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, the award-winning Senegalese playwright Penda Diouf who held a workshop and conversation with IU students and faculty, the Ghanaian academic and former UN Director Takyiwaa Manuh who was honored as this year’s O’Meara Guest Lecturer and joined a Center conversation on recent political developments and their implications for human security in West Africa, and the film curator, programmer, and cultural activist Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou who initiated a wide-ranging discussion with IU scholars and students around the Restitute African Film Project that she is spearheading. Follow our Center of Excellence events live via Zoom or by visiting our archives on this website expertly maintained by our graduate students.