Project Description
This project Inscriptions of the Self in the French and Francophone World explores the implications of various forms of cultural productions through text, image, and speech. The project covers the topics of life narrative, migration trajectory, and language change across lifespans. It revolves around two factors: first-person narratives or testimonies and creative interpretations of cultural belongings to the francophone world. The project explores these topics through multiple mediums, including literature, film studies, linguistic studies, and cultural studies. It also explores these common themes across multiple locations.
The goals of this project are to initiate new partnerships with French institutions, enhance existing international collaborations, and explore funding opportunities for international projects involving a network of institutions in Europe and in North America. With this project, the FFRI will contribute to expand and consolidate the interdisciplinary collaboration with units and centers within UF. In addition, this project will enhance the knowledge and profile of French cultural production, scholarship, and language at the University of Florida and for the general public.
Team
Coordinators of the project
Hélène Blondeau, Associate professor of French and Francophone Studies
Alioune Sow, Associate professor of French and Francophone Studies and African Studies
International Partners
Université d’Orléans, France
Université de Montréal, Canada
Collaborators
Sylvie Blum, Professor of French and Film, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Benjamin Hebblethwaite, Associate Professor of Haitian and Francophone Studies, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Brigitte Weltman-Aron, Professor of French, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Kole Ade Odutola, Lecturer in Yoruba, Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Co-Sponsors
University of Florida International Center, Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere (Yulee Lectures Endowment), Center for European Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Department of Linguistics, UF Libraries
Events 2021
Virtual Film Festival, Voyages Across Borders – January 22-24, 2021
The FFRI was excited to present the project: Voyages Across Borders – A Virtual Film Festival organized by Dr. Sylvie Blum-Reid, & Dr. Kole Odutola, Languages, Literatures and Cultures. We showcased seven international films over the course of three days.
Race-ing in Cheng Yu-Chieh’s Yang Yang: the Métissage of Sino-French Cinema – February 11, 2021
The FFRI as part of the Inscriptions of the Self in the French and Francophone World, Voyages Across Borders, Film Festival series is delighted to welcome Dr. Michelle Bloom to discuss Cheng Yu-Chieh’s film, Yang Yang, on Thursday, February 11 at 4 pm.
Political Dimensions of Écriture Inclusive in Parisian Universities – March 17, 2021
Historically, the use of a common language has been considered a unifying factor among speakers; interlocutors who are able to communicate with one another in the same language run fewer risks of losing information in translation, and often share social and cultural references that are transmitted through language. However, language can also be used to determine in- vs. out-groups, to establish power dynamics, and to expand or limit one’s role in society in a variety of ways, including terms used to indicate which professions are open to whom, according to gender, background or social status. Despite the presence of formal language policies governing language use, linguists observe that actual language practice frequently follows a different rule system conventionalized within the community. In their talks, Dr. Yulia Bosworth (SUNY – Binghamton) and Dr. Heather Burnett (CNRS, Université de Paris-7) will examine the role of gender in the French language, and its impact on inclusivity within Francophone university settings.
Events 2020
Orleans & Montreal in Real Time: 40 Years of Variation in Spoken French – February 26, 2020
Linguistic changes across the lifespan, was a round table with partners from the Université d’Orléans and the Université de Montréal:
- Lotfi Abouda, Université d’Orléans
- Katja Ploog, Université d’Orléans
- Mireille Tremblay, Université de Montréal
- Hélène Blondeau, University of Florida
Events 2019
Some of the most well-known intellectuals of 20th-century France have warned of the dangers of television to thought, to society and to the book. However, Marguerite Duras, a prominent writer and public intellectual, made use of the television as an extension of her literary project. As both an interviewer on state funded television shows during the postwar period, and later as a major cultural celebrity being interviewed herself, Duras foregrounds both her writerly persona and her public image in order to film what amount to literary productions in themselves that would fascinate viewers while simultaneously educating them about social issues.
Mame-Fatou Niang, Carnegie Mellon University, Blackness in French – October 28, 2019
Mame Fatou Niang is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on contemporary France, Sub-Saharan Africa, Postcolonial and Transnational Studies, Media, and Urban Planning. She is the author of Identités Françaises (Brill 2019) which examines the development of Afro-French identities and the works of second- and third-generation female immigrant writers of the banlieue. In 2015 she has co-directed Mariannes Noires: Mosaïques Afropéennes in which seven Afro-French women reflects on what it means to be Black and French, Black in France. She has also co-authored a photo series on Black French Islam.
Dr. Kevin Meehan is professor of English at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of People Get Ready: African American and Caribbean Cultural Exchange (University Press of Mississippi, 2009), and numerous articles on literature and decolonization in the Americas. His recent scholarship includes articles on small farming as climate change adaptation in the Caribbean, and he is developing a book-length project analyzing climate change adaption through the framework of environmental humanities. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Organization of American States, and in 2017-18 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in St. Kitts, in the Leeward Islands.