Departmental news
IU announces 2023 IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship awardees
Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hebbard is one of eight faculty members who have been awarded the IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship for 2023. The program supports stellar IU faculty with an academic year fellowship that accelerates and amplifies their research and advances their professional standing as national and international leaders in their various disciplines.
Spring Celebrations: Back live and in person!
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.
Professor Explores the Culture of Absolute Power in New Book
Associate Professor Hall Bjørnstad’s recent monograph The Dream of Absolutism: Louis XIV and the Logic of Modernity (University of Chicago Press, 2021) explores the culture of absolutism and what we can learn about it from 17th-century French society.
Graduates Prevail at All Levels Despite Pandemic
We congratulate 16 BA graduates, 10 MA graduates, and 6 PhD graduates who successfully completed their degrees in French or Italian during the pandemic. A diverse group, these students persevered and are moving on to their next exciting steps in life.
Department Celebrates French and Italian Award Recipients
The Department celebrated its outstanding undergraduate and graduate students, Associate Instructors, and faculty on Friday, April 16, 2021 during a virtual ceremony via Zoom.
IU-Bloomington Chosen for Newest French Center of Excellence
We are pleased to announce that the French Embassy has approved the Department’s request to establish a Center of Excellence at Indiana University. The creation of such a Center recognizes the reputation of our French programs, and the strength of the College of Arts & Sciences and of IU in the areas of research and internationalization across the disciplines.
Houston’s Passion for Theater Remembered
We in the Department of French and Italian were saddened to learn of the passing of Associate Professor Emerita Mona Tobin Houston: faculty member in French from 1962 until her retirement in 1999, specializing in 17th-century theater. Professor Houston made a lasting impact on her students and her community, both at IU and in Bloomington, where she lived even after retirement. She will be dearly missed.
A Tribute to Edoardo A. Lèbano
The Department of French and Italian mourns the passing of Professor Emeritus of Italian Edoardo A. Lèbano, an established scholar and beloved teacher of Italian language, literature and culture, and one of the most energetic and impactful advocates of Italian culture in North America of his generation.
Losses in French Linguistics Program
In Fall 2020, the French Linguistics graduate program lost two promising young students who died through natural causes. Joseph Dale O’Connor passed away on October 12, and Melinda Christine Arnold passed away one month later, on November 12. They will both be greatly missed by friends, colleagues, and faculty members. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of Melinda and Joseph, and especially to their fellow students in French linguistics, who have had to bear these losses in a semester already made difficult by the global pandemic.
New Linguist Joins Faculty
The Department of French and Italian is delighted to announce that Jeffrey Lamontagne has joined the Department of French and Italian as an Assistant Professor in the field of French sociolinguistics. Arriving at IUB from Montreal, and amidst the tumult of COVID-19 pandemic adjustments in August 2020, Lamontagne is now teaching two undergraduate courses after recently finishing his PhD in Linguistics under the direction of Heather Goad and Francisco Torreira.
Department Mourns the Passing of Samuel Rosenberg
Samuel N. Rosenberg, Professor Emeritus of French and Italian, passed away in Bloomington on June 30, 2020 at the age of 84. For his innumerable contributions to the scholarship of medieval literature and the life of the Department, he will be sorely missed.
MA and PhD Graduates Shine Brightly Despite “Virtual” Commencement
This May, the Department is delighted to congratulate seven students finishing their Master of Arts degrees and eleven students finishing their PhDs. We normally would celebrate these great accomplishments in person, but given the pandemic, we send our good wishes virtually, and reflect here on the students and their work.
Congratulations, French and Italian BA graduates!
In May 2020, students experienced an Indiana University commencement like no other in living memory, as graduation ceremonies and receptions were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
PhD Candidate Leads Study Abroad, Helps Found Online Journal
It has been a busy year for Ph.D. candidate Carlotta Vacchelli! As she works on her dissertation in Italian Studies, she has also been coordinating a study abroad program in Italy and serving as the Assistant Editor for an online journal of Italian popular culture, all while responding to the COVID-19 crisis.
Pi Delta Phi French Honor Society Welcomes New Inductees
On Wednesday, October 23, in the University Club inside the Indiana Memorial Union, a new class of French students was inducted into the Pi Delta Phi national French honor society.
French and Italian Brings Calligraphy, Trivia Wheel to First Thursdays
The Department was part of the Humanities Salon, a section of the outdoor event with tables and activities offered by various humanities programs.
Recent Books by Faculty in a Range of Genres
While our faculty members are prolific in publishing scholarly articles, full-length books, whether monographs, linguistic analyses, or translations, are an achievement worthy of celebration, even for busy scholars.
French and Italian Graduates Celebrate and Look to the Future
As graduates and their families savored pain au chocolat and almond biscotti, the Faculty Room of the University Club bubbled with excitement.
Specialist in medieval manuscripts joins French faculty
Elizabeth K. Hebbard has joined the tenure-track faculty of the Department of French and Italian as assistant professor of French starting in August 2018.
The College of Arts