For the first time in three years, the Department hosted an in-person awards ceremony and an in-person commencement reception this spring. Spirits were high for both events, held in the University Club in the Indiana Memorial Union, as students, faculty and staff embraced the opportunity to see each other face to face, celebrate student accomplishments, and share good food.
On April 15, Department Chair Oana Panaïté presided over our annual awards ceremony, attended by about 60 students, faculty, family members, and friends. The Department presented 18 student awards for academic merit (five graduate, 13 undergraduate), four Associate Instructor teaching awards, two graduate student service awards, four overseas study scholarships for undergraduates, and one Trustees Teaching Award to a faculty member (Professor of Italian Colleen Ryan). Most departmental awards are named after former faculty members, such as the Charlotte Gerrard Prize and the Edoardo A. Lèbano Award, while others commemorate noted figures in French or Italian studies, such as Olga Ragusa. All awards rely on generous donors to the Department for funding.
The three undergraduate merit awards in Italian all went to students studying on the Bologna Consortial Studies Program through IU in Spring 2022 (or for the whole academic year 2021-22). To bring them into the ceremony, a Zoom meeting was held beforehand and recorded for playback during the April 15 event. You can view the awards program here.
On May 6, the Department hosted a breakfast reception for our graduating BA, MA, and PhD students. We are particularly proud of these students who overcame the instructional shifts and societal stress of the global pandemic. Among the attendees were Emily Cain (Master of Arts in French Instruction), Katy Rose Sparks (MA in Italian), and Amelia Thayer (BA French and Political Science), who is off to law school at the University of Texas, Austin in the Fall. Overall we have nine French BA graduates in May and August 2022, three Italian BA graduates for the same period, five MA graduates from December 2021 to August 2022, and four PhD graduates for that period.
Our PhD graduates include Laura Demsey (French Linguistics), who has been working as a Teaching Associate Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill this year. Martin Maillot also earned his PhD in French Linguistics and defended his dissertation in January on the topic “Sociolinguistic Variables in Curated Speech: A Study of Stylistic Variation of Liaison, Schwa and Ne among Contemporary French Politicians.” Two students in French/Francophone Studies are planning summer 2022 PhD defenses, and for both of them this will be the second PhD. Victoria Lagrange, who already holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Université de Poitiers (France), will defend her dissertation “Remaking Choices: Media Hybridization in Interactive Fiction” on June 7. Cristina Robu, who already holds a PhD in Literary Theory from the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, will defend her dissertation on the topic of “The Sick Body Textualisation in Contemporary Quebec Culture: Matter to (des)scribe” in July.
You can find our commencement program with all graduates listed here. Congratulations to our students completing degrees! May your studies in French and Italian serve you well in whatever career path you choose.
The College of Arts