Newsletter of the Department of French and Italian - Summer 2012 by College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State

NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF

FRENCH AND ITALIAN Issue 6, Summer 2012

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

FRENCH AND ITALIAN Letter from the chair Bonjour tout le monde! Buongiorno a tutti! Becoming chair of the Department of French and Italian and taking over from twelve-year veteran, Prof. Diane W. Birckbichler, was an eye-opening experience—so many decisions needed to be made that I found myself creating a triage system of priorities. I’m happy to report, however, that the department is flourishing, and that I will have the opportunity to continue to serve as Jennifer Willging, chair chair for the next four years. In the pages that follow, you will read about many of the department’s recent activities and accomplishments. This autumn, for example, we will welcome two new faculty members, Asst. Prof. Maggie Flinn in French film and film theory, and Asst. Prof. Patrick Bray in 19th-century French literature and critical theory. Several eminent scholars came to talk about their research this year, including Alice Kaplan, Yale professor and author of the best-seller, French Lessons. One of our graduate teaching associates, Jarrett Anderson, won a universitywide teaching award and another, Adrianne Barbo, a Fulbright award, while two of our undergraduate majors, Caitlin Dupont (Italian) and Sarah Little (French) shone in the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum. The addition of a PhD in Italian was approved by the Board of Trustees, as was an undergraduate major in Romance Studies. The latter will start this autumn and the former, the following year.

Over the last three years, we have worked very hard to prepare for the transition from quarters to semesters (made on June 18, 2012), rejuvenating our syllabi, courses, and programs. This switch from three 10-week quarters to two 14-week semesters involves beginning the school year in steamy August rather than in temperate September, but we look forward to the many benefits this new calendar will bring to our students. This winter we received the sad news that former Assoc. Prof. C. Dennis Minahen, who specialized in 19th and early 20th century poetry, had passed away. We celebrated his life and contributions to scholarship, teaching, and the university with a dessert reception on May 29, 2012. Many of you will remember Prof. Minahen in particular for his impassioned and inspiring teaching. We appreciate all of you who have been members of our department in one capacity or another and hope that you will share both your FRIT memories and your current activities. It’s an added pleasure to see you, so please stop by when you come to revisit campus. And please support our students and department through planned giving! Thank you!

Jennifer Willging Associate Professor and Chair Department of French and Italian willging.1@osu.edu

Cover Photo: OSU International Affairs scholars in front of La Vieille Auberge in Cassis, France, Prof. Marx-Scouras in the middle behind John Puyal, son of owner Patrick Puyal

Department of French and Italian

CONTENTS

EXPLORING “EX-CENTRIC” FRENCH CULTURE 18TH ANNUAL FIGSA CONFERENCE MONDOKIO — IN THE NEWS ITALIAN SOCIETY— EXPLORED AND EXPLAINED

ITALIAN PHD

A PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIP: NEW PROFESSORS IN MEMORIAM FRIT HONOREES ENTHUSIASM AT WORK PASSIONATE. INTELLIGENT. ENERGETIC

EMINENT PROFESSORS PRESENT… Issue 6, Summer 2012 The newsletter of the Department of French and Italian is published for its alumni, staff and friends.

FACULTY UPDATES

ALUMNI UPDATES

Editor: Clare Balombin Faculty Advisor: Jennifer Willging Design: ASC Communications

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FRIT

OSU representatives with members of Moussu T e lei Jovents (in blue jackets) and a child in Ceyreste, France

While hanging out with popular French musicians—for credit—is probably a dream for a French native, for 41 first-year Ohio State International Affairs scholars, it became a reality on spring break, 2012. Utilizing the connections that Professor Danielle MarxScouras has developed over the past 10 years, Ohio State students had the opportunity to attend private dinner concerts with two different groups on which Marx-Scouras has done research : Zebda (Toulouse) and Moussu T e lei Jovents (Marseille/La Ciotat). The encounter in Toulouse was filmed and aired on M6 (French national television) on April 6, 2012. (A link will be available soon on the FRIT web site.) The generous hospitality and kindness of these musicians allowed students who did not speak French to feel completely at home on French soil. Music, dance, and food also facilitated the trans-Atlantic encounter. In 2005 Marx-Scouras published a book about the first group and its political motivations, La France de Zebda 1981-2004: Faire de la musique un acte politique. The latter group, famous for its revival of Provençal (Occitan), has long been a key component of Marx-Scouras’ courses on the culture of southern France, particularly the bawdy port of Marseille and stories set in that city.

Department of French and Italian

During winter quarter 2012, IA Scholars prepared for the trip in a French 250 course in which they studied French culture (literature, film, music, history, identity politics) through the “ex-centric” lens of Toulouse and Marseilles. (These are cities where centuries-old traditions mingle with more recent, immigrant cultures in innovative ways, shedding a new light on French national identity.) Students read such works as Jean-Claude Izzo’s Total Chaos, François Bégaudau’s The Class, and Alexandre Dumas’ (1,200-page) Count of Monte Christo. Once in France, they toured Toulouse, Marseille, Carcassonne, Cassis and Ceyreste, and attended a lecture on Marseille and Islam given by Françoise Lorcerie, who is affiliated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

18th Annual FIGSA Conference With Professor Theodore J. Cachey, Jr. of the University of Notre Dame providing the keynote address, French and Italian graduate students kicked off their annual conference whose theme was “Playing the Past.” Panel topics were “Nature and Sexuality,” “Cinema” and “Medieval Studies.” OSU grad students who presented included Barbara Paterno (“Gabriele D’Annunzio: le Memorie di un Superuomo”), Heidi Brown (“Embodying Rights: Olympe de Gouges and the Creative Power of the Female Body”), Nicoletta Serenata (“Beatrice dalla Commedia al cinema”), Sean Strader (“Re-mixing

FIGSA 18th annual conference organizers (front): Heidi Brown and Jarrett Anderson; (back): Katie Leese, Nicoletta Serenata, Emily Dore and Sean Strader.

Identity: French Romantic Comedy and Métissage”), Lindsay Barrie (“The Translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron into Film”), Katie Leese (“The Public Frustrations of the Trobairitz”), Emily Dore (“Sacrament and Parody in the ‘Eaten Heart’ Novella in Boccaccio’s Decameron”) and Kelly Noble (“Boccaccio’s Genius: Fare la beffa sul lettore”). OSU undergraduate Cody St. Clair presented “Camus’ Queer: Performativity, Mise en abyme, and Queer Time in Caligula.” Jarrett Anderson helped organize the conference along with Brown, Dore, Leese, Serenata, and Strader.

MONDOKIO — IN THE NEWS Three undergraduate French majors, Stephanie DiBartola (double majoring in Microbiology), Meredith Kozak, and Sarah Little (double majoring in Spanish), worked on English translations for “hot topic” issues such as gay marriage, oil trading and technology. They searched through various French news sources such as Le Figaro, Le Monde, and L’Express, to find articles that showed editorial bias rather than factual information. Stephanie appreciated the exposure to French journalism, the opportunity to meet students studying other foreign languages (who were also doing translations into English), as well as working in a professional setting. “Translation of news articles was in general more challenging than I had initially anticipated.”

Left to Right: Stephanie DiBartola, Meredith Kozak, and Sarah Little

For those who’ve wondered about FR 690, Business French Internship, and what kinds of firms provide positions for undergraduates, here’s an example: Mondokio International News, an online resource that presents how news sources all over the world cover the same topics. Mondokio’s goal is to help 16- to 25-year olds prepare for a globalized world. Biases in reporting can always be found, whether due to the reporting country or the specific news source.

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Sarah commented, “This internship has given me a broader perspective regarding the media and how culture can influence the manner in which the news is reported. In addition to learning about the slants and biases within news sources…this internship gave me the opportunity to apply all the grammatical idiosyncrasies of French that I had been learning since my freshman year to translating articles into English. I also have noted an improved vocabulary in French since the internship.”

FRIT

ITALIAN SOCIETY— EXPLORED AND EXPLAINED Like so many students of Italian, whether majors or minors, Assistant Professor of Italian Dana Renga’s interest in Italian began as a “heritage” student: her grandfather emigrated from a small town outside of Naples. The influence of several “great” Italian professors at UCLA confirmed her choice of major, while film courses that were taken in graduate school added the cinematic element to Renga’s specialty: Mafia films and their rigid gendering of Italian identity. Previously unexplored, this topic has led to the book manuscript, Unfinished Business: Screening the Italian Mafia in the New Millennium, and the edited volume, Mafia Movies: A Reader (Toronto, 2011), as well as articles (‘Pastapocalypse!”).

Currently Renga is working with colleagues in the Department of Classics, Ohio State’s Medical Center, and Columbia University to present a conference and film series on “Narrative Medicine and the Humanities” in April 2013. (This conference will fit into Ohio State’s Health and Wellness initiatives.)

Renga enjoys introducing undergraduate and graduate students to the reality of the Mafia and how its tentacles affect so many aspects of daily life in Italy. Besides her graduate seminars on film theory, another favorite course she teaches is IT 221, “Sex and Politics: An Introduction to Italian Cinema.” Of course, teaching and publishing on Italian culture is broader than the trauma and unresolved conflict between the Mafia and Italians. In 2010 Renga and now-retired Professor Judith Mayne presented a very successful two-day symposium and film series on French and Italian representations of memory and trauma in films addressing the Holocaust.

Dana Renga

ITALIAN PHD BEGINS AUTUMN 2013 On April 6, 2012 the Ohio State Board of Trustees approved the establishment of a PhD degree in Italian Studies, to begin in autumn 2013, pending Ohio Board of Regents’ approval. The program will be interdisciplinary in nature and will incorporate, among other fields, gender studies, linguistics, language pedagogy, history, film studies, and literary and cultural studies. Proficiency in two professionallyrelevant languages—besides

English and Italian—will be required. Associate Professor of Italian Janice Aski stated, “This PhD program will enhance the department’s ability to attract and retain the best research and teaching faculty in Italian Studies, as well as help us retain students who want to do advanced graduate work in Italian but have had to leave Ohio for a PhD.” In a related development, University Trustees approved a major in Romance Studies to begin in autumn 2012. This course of study focuses on one country and its language, while

Department of French and Italian

requiring proficiency in two other Romance languages from among French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Latin. Courses will fall into a “track” in either language/ linguistics or literature/culture. In an action related to Francophone studies, university trustees approved a PhD program in African American and African Studies in the Department of African American and African Studies. This doctoral program will be one of only ten nationally and the only one in Ohio.

A PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIP: NEW PROFESSORS Two professors from the University of Illinois, Urbana, will join the department in August 2012: Margaret C. Flinn and Patrick M. Bray. Prof. Flinn’s specialty is French and Francophone cinema, with interests in urban space, contemporary European nationalisms and European identity. Her research has focused on two main periods, the 1930s and 1990 to the present, particularly the blurred boundaries between contemporary fiction and non-fiction film. Prof. Bray teaches and writes on 19thand 20th-century French literature, particularly spatial and critical theory. Both Bray and Flinn earned masters and doctoral degrees in French language and literature from Harvard University, and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University. In addition to numerous articles, book chapters and presentations, Flinn expects to publish The Social Architecture of French Cinema, 1929-39 soon with Liverpool University Press, while Bray’s manuscript, The Novel Map: Space and Subjectivity in Nineteenth-Century French Fiction, will be published in autumn 2012 by Northwestern University Press.

Margaret Flinn

Bray is also editing a volume of essays, Building the Louvre: Architectures of Art and Politics, with Phillip John Usher. Included will be those from a one-day conference that Bray is organizing at the Columbus Museum of Art this October called “Building the Louvre.” Professors Flinn and Sarah-Grace Heller, as well as seven other scholars from around the country, will take part. “OSU is an exciting place for me because the department of French and Italian is such a dynamic place, and Columbus has extraordinary cultural resources,” said Bray. Flinn echoed his comments: “I’m looking forward to joining such a large and dynamic department, with a strong commitment to cinema as a part of the French studies curriculum. The resources of the Wexner Center are particularly exciting, both in terms of film programming and the support of new media art.”

Patrick Bray

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FRIT

IN MEMORIAM C. Dennis Minahen, associate professor of 19th and 20th century French literature at Ohio State for 27 years, passed away on February 23, 2012. He had a love of all things French, especially the poetry of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, the short stories of Flaubert, and the work of Sartre, Char, Ponge, the Symbolists, Professor Dennis Minahen Surrealists and Existentialists. His conscientious reading and feedback on papers, exams and theses were appreciated by his students, while his willingness to serve professionally on the Modern Language Association, Arts & Sciences Faculty Senate and Council of Graduate Chairs afforded him undeniable appreciation on the part of his peers. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Minahen went to Stanford University for a master’s in French and another in education, and then a PhD in French. He spent a year in Paris at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. After starting his academic career at Menlo College (California), Minahen moved to Columbus, Ohio and Ohio State where he enjoyed working with students. He served as graduate chair three times and brought the prestigious Nineteenth Century French Studies Colloquium to Ohio State in 2002.

Minahen published a monograph entitled Vortex/t: The Poetics of Turbulence, two edited volumes on Sartre and 20th-century French poetry, and over thirty articles and reviews. Prof. Wynne Wong remembers Minahen’s encouragement of new faculty, helping them to settle in and be successful. “I will always remember Dennis for his kindness, his sensitivity, his generosity, and his exquisite taste. When I first arrived at Ohio State as a brand new assistant professor along with Jennifer Willging, Dennis made sure we felt welcomed and part of the FRIT family. I remember with great fondness his joie de vivre at our dinners and social gatherings. He was the life of the party in the best sense of the expression. During my first years here, having colleagues like Dennis made me realize how lucky I was to be part of this department. I miss him but will always smile when I recall all the ways he graced us with his presence.” Throughout many years of friendship Todd Bureau (MA, 1986) enjoyed discussing “politics and life over a fine beverage or two. One is indeed fortunate to have the privilege to long know a friend with whom to discuss the very matters that matter. It’s always too soon to say goodbye, but those memories will always be dear.” The French and Italian Department celebrated Minahen’s life and contributions to Ohio State and the department at a reception on May 29, 2012. All who knew him will remember him as a dedicated, creative and kind colleague and teacher who loved literature and who succeeded in passing that love on to others.

French and Italian Department Honorees Congratulations to Jarrett Anderson, a second-year master’s student in French, who won one of only ten Graduate Associate Teaching Awards conferred by the Graduate School annually to GTAs across the university. There were over 100 nominations for the award, and over 70 of these nominees put together a dossier for the Graduate School to review. “This was a very selective process,” said interim chair Jennifer Willging. “We are extremely proud of Jarrett for his accomplishment and his dedication to undergraduate teaching.” Next year Jarrett will represent Ohio State at the Université de Rennes, teaching English classes.

Jarrett Anderson (left) with Patrick S. Osmer

In the annual 2012 undergraduate Denman Forum, two FRIT majors won awards: Sarah Little (French and Spanish) won a third-place

Department of French and Italian

prize in the Humanities for her research conducted in Paris, “A Sociophonetic Study of the French /R/: Socioeconomic Factors Reflected in Linguistic Variation.” Caitlin Dupont, a double major in Italian and psychology, was awarded a third-place prize in psychology for her research: “Rat Model of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Postnatal Ethanol Exposure Has Long-Lasting Effects on Adult Behavior and NMDA ReceptorDependent Function.”

ENTHUSIASM AT WORK Jessica Pino has had a wealth of experience in the five years since graduating from Ohio State with a master’s degree in Italian. Her advice to others looking for that “ideal” job: “Don’t be afraid to take risks or shortterm jobs for the experience.” As examples, Jessica cites a six-month position teaching Italian at Oberlin

Jessica Pino

College, then taking a nine-month position as resident director of the CET academic program in Catania, Sicily. Short stays, great experience.

in Florence with ISA to establish a partnership summer program for American students at the Flor University of the Arts.

For the past three years Jessica has worked for another third-party provider of foreign university experiences, International Studies Abroad (ISA). This group partners with many universities both in the U.S. and overseas. Jessica was hired for her in-country experience (Sicily, as well as two summers in Lecce, Italy with Ohio State’s program), her ability to speak Italian, and her managerial skills. The latter were acquired not only as a CET coordinator, but also helping Professor Charles Klopp with planning and logistics for the 2007 Ohio State symposium on Trieste. This also led to her assignment

ISA’s headquarters are in Austin, Texas; Jessica loves the city and the company. While the former is growing with hightech companies, her own company has almost doubled in size in the three years that she has worked there. In that time, Jessica has also moved from being the site specialist for Italy to selecting and managing site specialists for France, Ireland, Spain, India, Morocco and Jordan. The best part of the job for her is being able to hear and pick up several languages at work. “I’m still a big linguistics nerd, thanks to Professor Janice Aski,” says Jessica.

PASSIONATE. INTELLIGENT. ENERGETIC Rosa Ailabouni (BA, French, international studies, political science, 2001) was recently named “One of Ohio State’s 100 Buckeyes You Should Know,” and recognized at the Ohio State Spring Game. A Columbus native, Rosa took French classes at Ohio State while in high school, and speaks highly of Linda Harlow, “one of my first professors,” and Christiane Laeufer, both of whom “had an impact on my early career at OSU.”* After receiving a diplôme from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, Rosa began working for Booz Allen Hamilton. Based in Washington, D.C., Rosa travels the world as a consultant in strategic planning and change management to implement best practices for governments, institutions and commercial

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enterprises. For example, Rosa worked with Egyptian customs to reduce the time needed to process imports from 30 days to 24 hours as well as to set up performance measurements that reward accuracy. She continues to utilize French when, for example, consulting with USAID in late 2011 in Senegal. While an undergraduate, Rosa wanted to do something to “bring OSU together and have an impact on the community.” Her choice, two years in the making, was Buckeyethon, a student-led nonprofit at Ohio State that benefits the oncology department of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Miracle Network. After six months of fundraising, students participate in a 12-hour event where they remain standing during the event in honor of the kids who endure cancer treatment. Since its

Rosa Ailabouni

founding in 2001, Buckeyethon has raised over $1,000,000. Rosa loves working with the current students on Buckeyethon’s executive board: “They have a passion for the work that they are doing”— a description that fits Rosa as well. *Both professors retired in 2010.

FRIT

EMINENT PROFESSORS PRESENT… societal expectations and codes for On April 26, 2012 the Department American women allowed them to of French and Italian was pleased to blossom in France. welcome Professor Alice Kaplan, an eminent French Studies scholar now at Presentations also were given during Yale University and best-selling author the 2011-12 academic year by of French Lessons, The Interpreter, Professors Zygmunt Baranski (Notre and other books. After taking part in a graduate seminar on postwar France Dame University), Mauro taught by Associate Professor Jennifer Stampacchia (University of Pisa), Daniel Beaumont (University of Willging, Kaplan discussed her new Rochester), Tania Modleski (University book, Dreaming in French: The Paris of Southern California), Norman Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis. In her Segalowitz (Concordia University), and Jérôme Brillaud (Vanderbilt talk, Kaplan responded to a question University). Information on talks from an undergraduate student about whether women experienced Paris and scheduled for upcoming semesters the French in a different way than men. can be found on the FRIT web site: frit.osu.edu, approximately two Kaplan answered in the affirmative, weeks in advance. pointing out that the differences in

Professor Alice Kaplan, Author of Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis

FACULTY UPDATES Janice M. Aski, associate professor and director of the Italian Language Program, specializes in Italian/Romance linguistics and foreign language pedagogy. She publishes her research in historical phonology and morphosyntax and Italian pedagogy. In addition, she has co-authored a first-year Italian textbook with Prof. Diane Musumeci (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana). Diane W. Birckbichler, professor of French, stepped down as Chair of French and Italian after 12 years of service. She continues as director of Ohio State’s Foreign Language Center and is director of the French Individualized Instruction Program. She is a reviewer for Profession, MLA’s annual volume on the state of the art in language/literature study, and was a member of the MLA’s 2011 Kenneth Mildenberger Award book selection committee. Jerry L. Curtis, associate professor of French on the Newark Campus since 1991, was editor of Studies on Lucette Desvignes and Contemporary French Literature (1982-2010) and most recently completed editing five volumes of English translations entitled A Collection of Short Fiction by Lucette Desvignes and published by the Edwin Mellen Press. Sarah-Grace Heller, associate professor of French, enjoys working with students as graduate chair. She is also the associate director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Her current projects include: work on a 1290 sumptuary law from Sicily under French rule; An Illustrated History of Medieval Fashion 500-1350; and editing the medieval volume of the Berg Cultural History of Fashion series. She is president of the

Department of French and Italian

Occitan Société Guilhem IX. Daughters Lucy Myrtle (6) and Athena Marguerite (2) keep her busy. Charles Klopp, professor of Italian, has been consulting for the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. He has work forthcoming on Delfini and Celati and on Calvino, Tabucchi and Celati as travelers. Currently, he is co-editing a collection of essays on contemporary writers from Italy’s Northeast by colleagues from the USA, Canada, the UK, Italy, and Poland. Albert N. Mancini, professor emeritus, published “Strategie narrative nelle versioni in inglese del Divorzio celeste” in Esperienze letterarie, Pisa-Roma, XXXVI, 3(2011), pp. 3-54. His article, “Intorno alle traduzioni in inglese di Ferrante Pallavicino: The corriero svaligiato/The Post-Boy Rob’d of His Mail,” first published in 2009, was reprinted with an introduction by Prof. Marco Santoro of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in Italica, 88, 3 (2011), pp. 459-482. Danielle Marx-Scouras, professor of French, published “The Nouveau Roman and Tel Quel” in The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature (Hale, 2012). She was interviewed and appeared twice on French television: France 3 (February 3, 2012) and M6 (April 6, 2012) in conjunction with her work on the music group Zebda. In 2011, Professor Marx-Scouras received an eLearning Professional Development Grant, as well as the 2010-11 Arts and Sciences Honors’ Faculty Service Award. Marx-Scouras is a staunch proponent of the honors and scholars program and has mentored many honors and scholars students.

Dana Renga, assistant professor of Italian, published the edited volume Mafia Movies: A Reader (Toronto, 2011) and an article on Italian B movies called ‘Pastapocalypse!’ She completed a book called Unfinished Business: Screening the Italian Mafia in the New Millennium and is currently working on a coauthored project on representations of internal exile in fascist Italy. She recently gave three invited talks and two conference presentations on Mafia cinema. Louisa Shea, associate professor of French and comparative studies, is happy to be working on French cinema. She published an article on Abdellatif Kechiche’s “L’Esquive” (“Games of Love and Chance,” 2003) and currently is writing on Claire Denis’ 2009 film “White Material.” She will be giving her first keynote lecture this fall, in Warsaw, at the Universytet Warszawski. Cheikh Thiam, assistant professor of French, focuses on Francophone African Studies and Race and Postcolonial Theories. He has published book chapters and articles in Ethiopiques, West Africa Review, La Revue Africaine, and La Revue du Graat, and is completing a monograph on Leopold Sedar Senghor’s philosophy. He organized the successful 2011 U.S. conference, Violence in Africa, held at Ohio State. Prof. Thiam also is an associate editor of Research in African Literatures.

Lorenzo Valterza, visiting assistant professor of Italian, specializes in Italian medieval literature and legal philosophy (medieval and modern). He has published on the medieval juridical conventions of torture, confession, and fama, as well as on the role of Roman law in the Divine Comedy. He is currently writing a book on the constitutive role of language and dialogue in communities. Jennifer Willging, chair and associate professor of French, published an article this year on place names in Marguerite Duras’s La Douleur and has another forthcoming on class politics in Duras’s Cahiers de la guerre. She currently is working on French reaction to a recent exhibit of color photographs of German-occupied Paris, a project she will present at the Association for Cultural Studies conference this summer in Paris. Wynne Wong, associate professor of French and second language acquisition, published Liaisons, a research-driven, first year French textbook (Heinle-Cengage, 2011) with coauthors Stacey Weber-Fève (PhD, 2006), Bill VanPatten, and Edward Ousselin (PhD, 1999). She also co-wrote the script to the accompanying film, also called Liaisons, directed by Andrei Campeanu of A/T Media. The film premiered in Montreal in July 2011 and in the U.S. in November 2011 (cengage.com/ community/liaisons).

ALUMNI UPDATES Aymara Boggiano Barbieri (BA French, 1983; MA romance languages, 1987) “With the last of our three boys going off to college, this summer 2012 my husband Enrique and I will be moving to the University of North Texas in Denton, 20 miles north of Dallas. In Denton I will continue teaching and working on the second year of a project financed by a grant from the United Engineering Foundation to translate into Spanish and Christina Angelili (MA Italian, 2011) accepted a position as year-round resident record Engines of our Ingenuity episodes (NPR) to be used as reading materials director of CET Siena with CET Academic for the classroom. Here is the web site: Programs. Christina organizes both the uh.edu/engines/episodes-spanish.html… administrative and academic aspects and the classroom materials: invenciones. of the semester-long programs at CET Siena, along with arranging extracurricular coe.uh.edu/index.cfm.” activities, volunteer projects and being a Adrianne Barbo (BA French, 2006, MA 24-hour linguistic and cultural reference French, 2008) was awarded a Fulbright for her students. Fellowship to teach and study in Morocco during the 2012-2013 academic “I absolutely adore my position year. Adrianne’s research will focus on with CET Siena, and feel identity and language--tri-glossia (i.e., fortunate to be using to full classical Arabic v. dialect, Berber, and potential my degree in Italian French), and how choosing to use one from The Ohio State University.” Jennifer (Marin) Alvarez-Breckenridge (MA French, 2006) has a new position as product manager at Tri-anim after three years with Cardinal Health in Dublin, OH as senior marketing manager, long-term care. She finished an MBA at Ohio State in June. In December 2010, she married Christopher, a medical student and researcher at Ohio State.

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may function as a form of subversion and/ or betrayal. “I hope to be able to do some comparative work between French and Arabic literature (as my Arabic improves) produced in the Maghreb during colonization, during the Algerian revolution, and even today.” Lisa Bevevino (MA French, 2008, PhD expected, 2012) has a contract to teach medieval French and Latin at the University of Minnesota-Morris for the 2012-13 and 2013-2014 academic years. She just returned to the U.S. after teaching English at the Université de Rennes as Ohio State’s representative in FRIT’s annual exchange of GTAs. Lily Birkhimer (BA, French, 2009) received a MLIS from Kent State University in May of 2011 and is now working as assistant curator for digital services at the Ohio Historical Society.

FRIT

Peter Carlson (BA French and marketing, 2009) is finishing a master’s program at L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He completed an internship with the fund, African Artists for Development, where he was in charge of project implementation and monitoring, as well as document translation and external relations.

Nolen (Drew) Bunker

Alessia Colarossi (MA Italian, 2002; PhD foreign and second language education, 2009) is co-director of the Study Abroad Program in Rome for the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Florida, Gainesville, as well as an instructor in the department.

Nolen (Drew) Bunker (BA history, international studies and French, 2007) graduated cum laude from Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law in May 2011, passed the New York bar exam, and was subsequently sworn in as a member of the New York Bar. In August 2011 he moved to Atlanta, GA and started the first job of his legal career, a two-year term as a staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Rosina Caponi (BA classics and Italian, 2007) graduated with a JD from the University of Cincinnati in 2011 and took a position as a healthcare law attorney at Brennan, Manna & Diamond in Akron. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Akron Community Health Resources, a federally-qualified health center that provides services to the medically underserved.

Sarah Fries (BA French and international studies, 2011) finished a year of teaching English in Saint-Dizier, France, and accepted a job for 2012-2013 as the youth service outreach coordinator with AmeriCorps in Dayton, OH.

Rachel Gapa

Marvin Brown (BA French and comparative studies, 2011) just completed a year as a French government English teaching assistant in La Courneuve, France. Alison Woodward Crémet He will attend Yale law school this fall. Todd Bureau (MA French, 1986) reports that his company, AdventureAlaska Tours, now offers guided tours of the remote Big Bend area of Texas. Besides that, “the only real update [is] that we have surpassed all records for snow here in the north, while everybody else has enjoyed a delightfully mild winter!”

“I’m at the end of a year here, and my next stop is Rome, where I will start a six-week backpacking trip through Italy, France and Spain!”

Alison Woodward Crémet (BA French, 1995; MA, 1999) is the Rouen center coordinator for Inlingua Normandie Picardie. The company organizes language training for French professionals in English, Spanish, German, and Russian. She also organizes immersion experiences for clients abroad with various partners in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Malta...and sometimes the U.S. As the Normandy team leader for the University of Cambridge English oral exams, “I also train and certify the local speaking examiner team. I’m married and have a small daughter named Charlotte.” Becki Durra (BA French, 2010) has wrapped up an assignment in Seoul, South Korea, where she taught English as a second language to kindergartners.

Department of French and Italian

Rachel Gapa (BA French, 2011) earned a master’s in foreign and second language education at Ohio State to become a certified P-12 French teacher. She expects to teach French in central Ohio in the coming year. “If I am fortunate enough to find a full-time teaching job for next year, French certainly has taken me far.” Dan Giglio (BS physics and philosophy, minor in Italian, 2011) is a graduate student in the philosophy department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, focusing on the philosophy of physics and American pragmatism. He plans to continue past his master’s to obtain a doctorate in philosophy. Adriana Golumbeanu (PhD French, 2006) accepted a position at the Ohio Department of Education in August of 2010--the Office of Educator Licensure, Center for the Teaching Profession. Now she has moved to the Office of Federal

Programs at ODE. “I enjoy my work here and I have worked with many school districts and universities across Ohio since 2010. My daughter Silvia is 16 and is in the International Baccalaureate Program at Dublin Coffman High School and in IB French. She absolutely loves French!” Zachary Gooch (BA French and English, 2005) is currently ABD at Cornell in the Department of Romance Studies. His dissertation is on French cinema noir and criticism from the pre-war up to the New-Wave and its intersection with issues of the nation, vision, and cultural memory. Zach spent 2010-2011 doing research and teaching English at Paris 8. In spring 2010, he reports, “I got married to a lovely woman who is also an aspiring academic.”

Jessica Hanzlik (BS physics, BA French, 2008; MS particle physics and comparative social policy, Oxford, 2010) now teaches math, science and social studies at the American Middle School, UNO Soccer Academy, a charter school in Chicago, IL. The predominantly Hispanic population of 8th graders is “bilingual so when they talk to me in Spanish, I respond in French! Knowing French is actually really useful when it comes to helping my English-language learners transfer their Spanish-language skills into being able to communicate in an academic setting in English.” Alexandra Salmeron Hesson (MA French, 2008) received her second promotion at Aerotek after being an account recruiting manager for a year. She is now an account manager for contracting services. This photo was taken in February 2012 in Costa Maya, Mexico. The wildlife reserve there was asking for donations in exchange for allowing visitors to hold the cub.

Michael Gott

Michael Gott (BA French, 2002) defended his dissertation, “Re-charting French Space: Transnationalism, Travel and Identity from the Postcolonial Banlieue to post-Wall Europe” in May 2011 in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Texas, Austin. Since then he has been teaching in the French and cinema studies programs at the University of Pennsylvania and will be joining the University of Cincinnati in August 2012 as assistant professor of French. He is also co-editing a collection entitled Open Roads, Closed Borders: The Contemporary French-Language Road Film with another FRIT alum, Thibaut Schilt. The book will come out in late 2012 with Intellect.

frit.osu.edu

Alexandra Salmeron Hesson

Garett Heysel (PhD French, 1997) formerly senior associate director for Scholars, Development, and nternational Programs in the University Honors and Scholars Center, was named assistant dean of arts and humanities in Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences in October, 2011. Leah Hunt (BA French, 2006) graduated with an MA in French literature in June

2012 from the University of Cincinnati where she has been teaching basic French for the past two years. Leah co-chaired the successful 32nd Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages, May 3-5, 2012 and presented “Reimagining History through Memory and Solitude,” in The Book of Emma and One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Next Leah will work toward an MEd in curriculum and instruction. “I also play violin for the UC Symphony, and I will be teaching French for Xavier University this summer.” Jarmila Kavecanska (MA French, 2011) is currently a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her major research areas are 20th and 21st century French literature, particularly memory and identity in novels and how they are expressed or affected. Also, she is completing a doctoral minor in musicology and teaching French. In her free time she loves to “cook, spend time with friends, read, play the piano, walk along the lakes, and generally enjoy the many discrete charms of Madison.” Harry Laufmann (MA French, 2007) became docent chairman at the Columbus Museum of Art in June 2012. He occasionally gives tours, in French, of the museum; writes for the docent newsletter; and researches medieval sculpture, for example at the abbey church, Sainte Marie-de-Souillac, France last fall. Harry participates as a planner in the museum’s new outreach program for people diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. On campus Harry can be seen going to classes in his distinctive beret. Sarah Lemelin (MA Italian, 1993) is a faculty member at Oakland Community College in Auburn Hills, MI where she teaches both ESL and Italian and thoroughly enjoys both. “I’d love to take a seminar on undergraduate teaching from Prof. Janice Aski!” Nadia Lucchin (MA Italian, 2008) is now employed as a legal advocate for victims of domestic violence by the City Attorney

FRIT

for Columbus. She married Brian Murphy, PhD candidate in Ohio State’s Department of Comparative Studies, in June 2011.

for their summer cultural seasons. I am presently working on a script on Gabriele D’Annunzio, hopefully to be staged in 2013.” Guido received a PhD in Italian from Rutgers University in 1992.

Joanna Marshall (BA French and international studies, 2006; MA microbiology, 2007) finished her 4th year in Ohio State’s Medical School’s Integrated Biomedical Science Graduate program with a dissertation project on bacterial bloodstream infections in children and HIV patients in Eastern Africa. She was awarded the Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs Fellowship in 2011 and the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for 2011-2012. Also, she received Ohio State’s Public Health Preparedness for Infectious Disease Travel Grant to support a trip to present her research at a United Nations/ WHO conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The project “gives me lots of exciting opportunities to interact with other scientists from Europe and Africa. Many of the scientists and doctors for Médecins Sans Frontières and the World Health Organization speak French, and being able Guido Mascagni to communicate in both official languages has been an enormous asset to me and has allowed me to collaborate with other Joyce Miller (MA Italian, 2009) continues scientists in ways I would not have been as an adjunct professor of Italian at the able to do otherwise. When I’m done University of Cincinnati, responsible for here I’d really love to find a post-doctoral UC’s study abroad program in research position in global public health Florence, Italy. with the World Health Organization, NIH or CDC.” “I also serve as advisor to our Italian Club which will bring in Guido Mascagni (MA Italian, 1986) lives its second scholar from OSU to in a “small medieval hamlet” and teaches present a workshop. This year it and conducts research at the Università is Prof. Janice Aski. Last year it Primo Levi, Bologna, with a special focus was Prof. Dana Renga.” on Boccacio’s Decameron and Dante’s Divine Comedy, “thanks to Professor Lino Mioni (MA Italian, 2005) published Albert Mancini, a great scholar who first an article on “Auxiliary Selection in introduced me to the real meanings of that Italian Compound Tenses: A Problem book. I also have been active as a journalist that Can be Solved.” The article (cultural reviews, local folk articles, books) appeared in Italica, 89,1 (Spring, 2012): and a lecturer for quite a few associations pp. 34-48. and schools. Since 2004, I have been staging public readings of Dante, Ric Morris (MA French, 1992; PhD Boccaccio, and modern and contemporary Hispanic linguistics, 1998) was recently short story writers in theaters, churches, promoted to the rank of professor. He and squares of quite a few Italian cities has taught Spanish and linguistics

Department of French and Italian

fulltime at Middle Tennessee State University for 12 years. His first book, Pronunciación de la lengua española para anglohablantes, was published by Focus Publishing in 2010. Currently, he is developing a comprehensive exchange program with the University of Havana (Cuba), one of only half a dozen programs of its type in the United States. He fondly remembers his linguistics classes with Prof. Christiane Laeufer, to whom he owes his love of linguistics. Heather Mortimer-Charoy (BA French, 2000) received an MA in French literature from UT—Austin in 2006; moved to France; married a French national; and had their first child, Leon Nathanael MortimerCharoy, in 2010. Currently she works as a program coordinator for MICEFA (Mission inter-universitaire de coordination des échanges franco-américains), a consortium of twelve Paris universities promoting cultural and scientific cooperation between France and North American universities (www.micefa.org). Caroline Noble (MA French, 2011) has a four-year contract teaching English to French naval officers in her hometown of Toulon, France. Joe Phipps (MA French, 2011) regularly attends French conversation groups both in Dayton, OH and in Venice, Florida, and recently gave an impromptu talk on Melusine to the Venice French Club. He plans to transition from Dayton to Venice over the next year or so. “I really love the water and the beaches down here,” he reports. Bryan Pickens (MA French, 2011) recently bought a house in his native Charleston, West Virginia. He started teaching high school Spanish (!) (hopefully French by the fall, too). Currently, he is working toward a Doctorate of Education (EdD) in curriculum and instruction at Marshall University. Scott C. Pochatila (BS Mechanical Engineering, minor French, 2007)

graduated from law school at Case Western Reserve University and passed the Ohio Bar exam, as well as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Agent Registration Examination in 2011. After a year and a half of visa “hassles,” Scott moved to France to start work at a patent law firm, Santarelli, S.A., in Paris where he interned in 2010. “I mostly work on patent applications for our clients. I don’t know whether this will be a long-term position or just for the next few years, but at the moment the firm seems to be keen on the idea of me moving forward with my career with them.” Kim Edwards Ratcliff (BA French, 1991; MA public administration, 1995) is now the communications director at Battelle for Kids, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to improve student achievement in Ohio. Courtney Schoenboem (BA French and international studies, 2009) is a bi-lingual sales representative with Mettler-Toledo International in Columbus.

“I provide customer service to Canadian and U.S. customers looking for repairs, calibration or maintenance, equipment qualifications, and a variety of other technical services for laboratory and industrial equipment. I didn’t know much about the industry until I started, so it’s been quite a learning experience!” Amanda Miller Smerdel (BA French, 2004; MA foreign language education, 2005) is back in Columbus and is currently a stay-at-home mom to her almost two-year old son, CJ. She is expecting a second child in October. Amanda taught French enrichment classes (beginning adult and pre-school) at the Westerville Community Center this spring. Adrienne Strong (BS microbiology, minor in French, 2010) is now at Washington University in St. Louis in the anthropology PhD program. As during her undergrad

studies at Ohio State, she will continue to research women’s reproductive health in Tanzania for her dissertation and recently presented some of her work at the Society for Applied Anthropology meeting in Baltimore. “I also will be participating in an exchange program for grad students next year as one of two students from Wash U., two from the University of Amsterdam and two from L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Next spring semester will be spent in Paris and Amsterdam. I am very excited to be able to put my French to good use again!” Dorothée Merz Weigel (PhD French, 2005) continues to teach French language and literature at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA and recently gave birth to her second child, Victor, born March 7th, who joins big sister Clementine and father Paul.

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TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

Our funds are listed online. Choose the one that interests you. You may clip out and send in a contribution directly to the department at 1775 College Road, Columbus, OH 43210. If you access the funds page on the FRIT web site (frit.osu.edu/giving), you may make your contribution to that fund through a secure, online connection.

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FRIT

DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN 200 Hagerty Hall 1775 College Road Columbus, OH, 43210-1340

02800-011000-61801

(614) 292-4938

Non-Profit Org US Postage PAID Columbus, OH Permit #711

We’d like to hear from you... We’d like to let you know what’s happening with other alumni and with the department, but it doesn’t need to be on paper! If you would prefer to receive this newsletter—or any interim updates—via e-mail, please indicate on the form below, and send it in—or e-mail your preference and updates to Clare Balombin at balombin.1@osu.edu. With your consent, we will discontinue sending a paper copy of this newsletter and will let you know when it is uploaded onto our FRIT web site for easy viewing. We will also let you know about upcoming events and nuggets of French and Italian information—no more than once a month. Name _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________________________________________________________ street city state zip

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Department of French and Italian