News

The French and Italian department would like to congratulate Ariel Munyer on winning the History Department's History of Religious Liberty Award! Ariel is a recent graduate, she graduated this April. As her submission, Ariel used her Projet Zeitgeist paper from Dr. Sara Phenix’s French 362 course.

Congratulations to Associate Dean Corry Cropper and Associate Professor Christopher Flood (French & Italian) for receiving the Mormon History Association (MHA) 2021 Best Book on International Mormon History award for their collaborative publication, Mormons in Paris: Polygamy on the French Stage.

French literature professor Marc Olivier made a splash with his book "Household Horror: Cinematic Fear and the Secret Life of Everyday Objects," landing him a series editor position for a new series, Icons of Horror.

Professors Corry Cropper and Chris Flood recently published their book "Mormons in Paris" as an analysis of how the French used early Mormon polygamy to satirize French culture in the 1800s.

Albert Camus’ novel depicts the city of Oran, Algeria during a contemporary outbreak of the plague. While there are obvious parallels between the plague in the novel and the peste brune (the brown plague, a nickname for the Nazis who occupied France during World War 2), by transforming the threat into an act of nature, Camus shifts the focus from human cruelty to the many reactions to suffering: some pretend it doesn’t exist, some try to escape it, others accept it and try to alleviate pain.

Associate Professor Jennifer Haraguchi (Italian) speaks about the role of the plague in Boccaccio’s Decameron and his unique prescription for a cure: storytelling.

As we all spend time in isolation, Associate Professor of French Bob Hudson reflects on how the Heptaméron provides us with a model for reflecting upon and challenging ideologies and social conventions during this period of quarantine.

Dr. Céline Rose is the recipient of this year’s ACTFL Emma Marie Birkmaier Award for Doctoral Dissertation Research in Foreign Language Education.