MFll

GOOD NEWS

Kodjo Adabra (French) was nominated Peer-Reviewer in the field of francophone literature from West Africa, the Maghreb and the Caribbean. for the post-graduate electronic journal ‘e-pisteme’ based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Newcastle University, UK.

His abstract was accepted for the 56th Annual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, October 8-10 at Furman University: “Effets conjugués de la migritude et négritude de Mongo Béti à travers l’écriture diasporique dans Peuples noirs, peuples africains.”


Stephen H. Blackwell (Russian) has just published The Quill and the Scalpel: Nabokov's Art and the Worlds of Science with Ohio State University Press. This groundbreaking study explores how science and art can interact to promote the advance of human knowledge and understanding, through a detailed exploration of Vladimir Nabokov's fiction and scientific articles. Blackwell has published several other articles on this topic, and in fall 2008 he organized an international symposium on campus called "Academic Evolution and Hybridization: Literature and the Sciences." He is co-editor of the international scholarly discussion forum, NABOKV-L.


Nuria Cruz-Cámara (Spanish) presented a paper titled “Constancia de la Mora’s Autobiography and the Sources of Spanish Feminism” at the 7th European Feminist Research Conference, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, June 4-7.


Millie Gimmel (Spanish) spent two weeks working at the National Archive in Mexico City on a professional development award and gave an invited paper at the International Congress of Americanists, "La medicina y el alfabetismo en el Codice de la Cruz Badiano."


Michael Handelsman's (Spanish) recent publications include: "Entre la ira y la esperanza (1967-2007). Una lectura y escritura desde la interdisciplinariedad," en Carlos Arcos (Comp.) Sociedad, cultura y literatura. Quito: FLACSO-Ministerio de Cultura, 2009 (pp.385-98); "El Entenao de Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco y la afirmación de la cultura montuvia como componente integral de lo nacional,"Kipus. Revista Andina de Letras, 24 (II semestre 2008), 43-58. [Actually published in July 2009.]; and "Benjamín Carrión entre la modernidad y la posmodernidad." 30 años sin/con Benjamín Carrión. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 2009 (pp. 153-84).


Chris Holmlund (French) was the Quest Scholar of the Week (August 17, 2009). She was elected in March as president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the foremost international organization in film studies. This singular honor comes in the wake of the publication of her edited volume, American Cinema of the 1990s: Themes and Variations. Holmlund has just signed contracts to prepare an anthology titled The Ultimate Stallone Reader and a monograph titled John Waters’ Female Trouble. She was also the plenary speaker at the international conference of the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand, the University of Otago, New Zealand, in November 2008.


Gregory Kaplan (Spanish) recently published a book, Valderredible, Cantabria (España): La cuna de la lengua española (Santander: Gobierno de Cantabria) and has been invited to present a paper at Princeton University, in April 2010, at a conference entitled "Purity and Danger."


Katherine Kong (French) presented a paper, “Writing Love in the Thirteenth Nouvelle: Marguerite de Navarre’s Epistolary Fictions,” at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI, in May.


Mary McAlpin (French) has an article in the latest issue of Eighteenth-Century Studies titled “The Rape of Cécile and the Triumph of Love in the Liaisons dangereuses." She also has two articles accepted and forthcoming, the first in the Journal of the History of Ideas (“Innocence of Experience: Rousseau on Puberty in the State of Civilization”) and the second in the Journal of the History of Sexuality (“The Virtues of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Marital Infidelity in Marie-Jeanne Roland’s Private Memoirs").


Natalia Pervukhin's (Russian) recent publications include A.E. Sumerkin Retsenzii. Statii. Besedy. Introduction. Slovo/Word 62, “U menia neobkhodimo dve zhizni: odna zdes’, drugaia v Rossii" and a reprint of a chapter from her book. In: Sovremennoe Russkoe zarubezhie. Antologiia v7 vv., IV, Moscow. In addition, she presented a paper in April at the 200th Anniversary of N.V. Gogol conference in Krakow, Poland, and, from April 25 –May 6 did research for a book "Mind in Exile," in the Open Society Archives. Budapest, Hungary. She also served as an external reviewer for tenure and promotion.


The Knoxville Metropolitan Planning Commission has recognized the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial with a 2009 MPC Excellence Award. John Romeiser (French) led the effort to create that memorial and currently serves as the ETVM Association president. Professor Romeiser accepted the award at the 28th annual MPC Excellence Award Banquet, which was held on August 18 at the Convention Center.


French Graduate Students at the 56th Annual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, Oct. 8-10, at Furman University:

    Amevi Bocco will present "La littérature, une arme de développement en Afrique?," Abdoulaye Yansane, "Le cinéma est un humanisme," and Yulia Kovatcheva will present "L'influence de la musique sur Proust et Sartre. La 'petite phrase' et 'Some of these days' "


Rossy Toledo (Spanish Lecturer) is hosting a monthly Community Service Radio Show "De Todo un Poco", through 93.5 La Lider, Knoxville´s Spanish Radio Station. The program focuses on general interest topics and airs the first Saturday of each month from 2 to 3 pm. Some of the topics that have been discussed are The importance of Higher Education for Hispanics, Health issues: swine flu, Cultural topics: strategies of good parenting. If you have any suggestions for topics that you would like to see covered, or would like to be a guest speaker to discuss a topic of interest to you, please send an e-mail to: detodounpoco@gmail.com or rtoledo@utk.edu.


Erin O'Brien, a May graduate with a B.A. in French, was chosen by the Alliance Française of Nashville to participate in their teaching internship program in Deauville, France, for the academic year 2009-2010. Erin will receive a salary and free housing for the year while she teaches English to French elementary school students.


UPCOMING EVENTS

Fall French Film Series

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon
By: Julian Schnabel, France 2007
When: Tuesday September 15th @ 5:15 pm
Where: Library Auditorium

Synopsis: Mathieu Amalric stars as author and Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby -- who suffered a stroke in 1995 that rendered him mute and completely paralyzed -- in this adaptation of Bauby's autobiography, which he dictated by blinking his left eye. Julian Schnabel was nominated for the 2008 Best Director Oscar (and won the Golden Globe in the same category) for his poignant docudrama about the strength of the human spirit.

Elle s’appelle Sabine
By: Sandrine Bonaire, France 2007
When: Tuesday October 27th @ 5:15pm
Where: Library Auditorium

Synopsis: An intelligent, moving and beautiful portrait of Sabine, a 38-year-old autistic woman, filmed by her sister, the famous French actress Sandrine Bonnaire. Through personal footage filmed over a period of 25 years, it is revealed that Sabine's growth and many talents were crushed by improper diagnosis and an inadequate care structure. After a tragic five-year stay in a psychiatric hospital, Sabine finally finds a new lease on life in a home together with other young people living with similar mental and emotional illnesses. This very intimate film also sends an urgent message to a society that still does not know how to properly take care of its citizens with physical and psychological disabilities.

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
By: Philippe Claudel, France 2008
When: Thursday November 19th @ 5:15 pm
Where: Library Auditorium

Synopsis: After more than a decade apart, estranged sisters Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) try to rebuild their fractured relationship. But the task is hardly easy, considering Juliette's past: She's been in jail for 15 years -- for killing someone. As she settles into small-town life with Lea's family, the locals can't help but talk. Writer-director Philippe Claudel's feature film debut garnered him a Golden Globe nomination.


NEXT NEWSLETTER

The next new MFLL newsletter will be published Monday, September 21. Deadline for submissions is 6 p.m., Sunday, September 20.

BI-WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
FALL 2009
August 31, 2009

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