April Newsletter, 2002
Departmental News:
John D. Lyons is one of three U.S. scholars in French to receive a very prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for the academic year 2002-2003. In addition, he has also been awarded a "Contemplative Practice Fellowship" for 2002-2003 from The American Council of Learned Societies. John's recently published articles are "Clélie et la pratique sociale de l'imagination" in Littératures Classiques, number 45 (an issue on imagination), and "Ethics, Imagination, and Surprise" in Montaigne Studies, vol. XIV (an issue on Ethics in the Essais). John will also present a paper, "Plotting Bernini: The Mirror and the Fountain in the Vite" at the conference on the early biographies of Gianlorenzo Bernini in Rome, May 8-11.
The Shaping of Change: Studies of La Fontaine and Early Modern Literature in Honor of David Lee Rubin (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2002), was presented on April 20 in Lexington, KY, after an international roundtable on the themes and methods of Rubin's research. Edited by Anne L. Birberick and Russell J. Ganim, the volume contains essays by Jules Brody, J. D. Hubert, Marie-Odile Sweetser, T. J. Reiss, Ralph Albanese, Nicholas Cronk, Michael Vincent, Richard Danner, Catherine Grise, Robert T. Corum, Twyla Meding, and the editors. Publication was underwritten by a grant from the Dean of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia.
Kandioura Dramé attended the annual meeting of the African Literature Association, 3-7April, 2002. As President, he organized and chaired the meetings of the executive council as well as the business meeting of the ALA; he also spoke on a roundtable dedicated to the works of Mongo Beti.
Terri Smith has been selected as the recipient of a 2002 Outstanding Contribution Award. This award is the University's highest honor, and is given to employees "who's service and contributions have far exceeded even exemplary performance." Only ten awards are given annually, with five awarded to Heath System employees, and five to University employees. Profiles of award recipients will appear in an issue of Inside UVA sometime around June of this year.
Stephen Martin has accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at the College of William and Mary.
Carolyn Fay has accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of French and Italian at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.
Congratulations to Valérie Bernardin, recipient of this year's Outstanding GTA Award.
Sara Dietzman and Maggie McColley have been selected to participate in: "Proving Grounds: Hypotheses & Humanities" a Mellon Foundation dissertation seminar organized this summer by Professor Tucker in the English Department.
Undergraduate News:
First place for this year's Poetry Reciting Contest in honor of Victor Hugo's 200th birthday was awarded to Anna Iasmine Kirkorian (2nd year) for her recitation of "Chanson."
Stephanie B. Mayer, 4th-year Distinguished Major in French, has been ranked first nationally at the "Concours des Alliances Francaises 2002." The grand prize is a round-trip ticket to Paris on Air-France and free tuition at the Ecole de l'Alliance Francaise in Paris this summer.
Nine students will be attending UVA's summer program in Rabat this year. Thriteen students will attend the UVA-Lyon Summer Session, and nine will participate in the UVA-Lyon II Academic Exchange beginning in the Fall 2002 semester.
Looking Ahead
Howard Anderson (French/East Asian Studies) will be attending law school at Indiana University-Bloomington beginning Fall 2002.
Denise Escurel (French) plans on teaching abroad after graduation either through the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program (JET), or as an English teaching assistant to primary and secondary schools in France for at least one year.
Peter Eubanks (French/Medieval Studies) and Lindsay Bunting (Political & Social Thought/French) were married this semester. They will be moving to Princeton, NJ this summer where Peter will begin a Ph.D. program in French. Lindsay will be on the lookout for social work in Trenton.
Amy Fansler is a French Major who has also studied bioethics extensively during her time at UVA. In the fall she will be attending George Washington University to study International Health Promotion in their School of Public Health. Amy hopes to ultimately combine her experience with French and bioethics with a career in international health.
Caroline Moss (French/Spanish) will be teaching English conversation classes in a Paris high school through the French Embassy.
Nadejda Popov (French/Classics) will begin a 5 year program leading to a Ph.D. in Classics and Ancient History at Princeton University.
Elina Urli is a French and Foreign Affairs major whose Foreign Affairs concentration is in Western Europe and Africa. She hopes to find work related to both France and Western Africa.
Congratulations and best wishes to all of our graduates!