Spring 2025 Events
Nuit des idées : Building Solidarity Across Difference | Thursday, March 27th, 2024 from 7-9 PM | The Club at Union Square
The LSU Center for French and Francophone Studies partnered with the French Consulate in New Orleans on our first-ever participation in the International Nuit des Idées event. This year’s theme was “Common Ground” and the event at LSU was the first one in the world this year!
The CFFS hosted a program of food, drink, music and conversation around the topic
of “Building Solidarity Across Difference.” The evening featured a concert-discussion
with an all-star line up of Cajun LGBTQ+ musicians: Gina Forsyth (the MidCity Aces,
the Bruce Daigrepont Band), guitarist Jan Boney, accordionist Rosemary Benoit (Lee
Benoit & the Bayou Stompers, Louisiana Cajun Mixers), bassist Sam Wróbel (the 99 Playboys)
and drummer Maegen Benoit (Lee Benoit Family Band). This event was an opportunity
to think about the ways that our communities can create social cohesion and improve
understanding across the many identities and perspectives that make up the richness
of LSU and South Louisiana.
This event was co-sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of French Studies.
Photo: Charlie Champagne
Translation, Semantics, and Louisiana with Fatima Shaik
On Tuesday, March 11th, 2025 from 5PM-6PM at Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall, the
CFFS hosted Fatima Shaik for a lecture titled "Translation, Semantics, and Louisiana.
Among the few written accounts by Louisiana people of African descent from before
the Civil War, the journals of the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle offer
unmediated access to the activities of this learned philanthropic society. Fatima
Shaik discussed the importance of semantics and history for translating these journals,
a major source for her Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood
(2022 American Book Award, 2022 LEH Humanities Book of the Year).
Fatima Shaik is the founder of the Saint Peter’s University Department of Communication
and Media Culture, and winner of the 2021 Louisiana Writer Award for her Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood (The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2021).
The 3rd Annual CFFS Caribbean Digital Humanities Lecture took place on Friday, February 21st, 2025 with Dr. Ludovic Mompelat from the University of Miami. He presented on "Linguistic Challenges and AI Innovations for Haitian Creole: Overcoming Language Barriers for Healthcare."
Friday, February 21st, 2025 | 11 a.m. -12 p.m. CST | 12-1 p.m. EST
This talk explored the challenges and necessary steps involved in developing an AI-assisted translation and interpretation tool tailored to the Haitian Creole-speaking population in Miami. By addressing linguistic variation, multilingual code-switching, and domain-specific vocabulary for medical settings, the project aims to advance equitable healthcare access for an underserved community in the US. Key topics included the complexities of annotating and standardizing data for Haitian Creole, optimizing traditional Machine Learning approaches with the newest technologies in Machine Translation, and engaging local communities to ensure cultural and practical relevance. The presentation also highlights strategies for scalability and generalization, with a focus on quantifying success through user feedback and community outreach. Dr. Mompelat discussed how cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP) technology can bridge language barriers and reduce healthcare disparities.
The Department of French Studies and the LSU Center for French and Francophone Studies consponsored the event: New Perspectives on Early Modern France Symposium on Thursday, February 13th from 3-5pm in the Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall. This event included the following presentations: Faith Beasley (Dartmouth University) on "Conversing with the Past: A Challenge to History," Leslie Tuttle (LSU) on "Oracles at Play: A Brief History of Fortune-Telling Games," and Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte) on "The Mind-Body Connection in Early Modern France." This event was moderated by Kate Jensen (LSU).
On Feburary 7th and 8th, the CFFS hosted the Spring 2025 Villa Albertine Resident Mélissa Laveaux. Mélissa Laveaux is a Haitian-Canadian singer-songwriter with a 16 year career based
out of Paris, France. She is a self-taught guitarist who has been writing songs since
the age of 16. During her visit, she visited the Memorial Hill Special Collections
and did guest lecture presentations at a graduate course on Disability and Anthropology
and a French senior seminar course. She also met with Department of French Studies
graduate students.
Fall 2025 Events
Reflections on the Paris Olympic Games: Perspectives from France and LSU Olympians
November 21, 2024 at 5:30 p.m.
Bo Campbell Auditorium in the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student Athletes
Building, LSU Campus
Reception immediately following at the Huey P. Long Field House (directly next door)
The School of Kinesiology heard from their esteemed colleague Professor Guillaume Bodet, France’s leading scholar in sport management representing our new partner university, University of Claude Bernard Lyon 1. After his remarks on the significance of the Olympic Games to France, there was a panel to hear from LSU Olympians with Aleah Finnegan (The Philippines, gymnastics), Maggie Mac Neil (Canada, swimming) and Vernon Norwood (USA, track).
The event was free and open to the public and all who love sports. This event was co-sponsored by the CFFS.
Creative Writing Workshop: The Art of Storytelling and the West Indian Tale with Didyer Mannette, Manick Siar-Titéca, & Amandine Vélin
Thursday, November 14th, 4:30-6:00 PM
The CFFS hosted a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to use French language skills! In this interactive workshop, writer and publisher Didyer Mannette, accompanied by Manick Siar-Titéca et Amandine Velin, presented Antillean folktales (le conte antillais) from their home island of Guadeloupe, which served as the frame for a creative writing workshop for student-generated stories. A fun and imaginative way to explore creative expression in French, this workshop was open to all students in French 2101 or higher!
Didyer Mannette is a poet from Morne à l’eau in Guadeloupe and the director of the Guadeloupean publishing
house Neg Mawon. He has facilitated literary competitions and many other cultural
events around poetry, arts, and theatre in both French and Creole.
Manick Siar-Titéca is a trained psychologist and theater woman, as well as the designer and director of the Publishing House "Une Voix...Une Histoire", the first audiobook platform in the Caribbean dedicated to literature and Caribbean authors.
Amandine Vélin is children's book author and storyteller, originally from Guadeloupe, that invites students to explore Creole culture and identity through captivating readings of her books and collaborative workshops.
1805 Concert: September 26 & 27 at 7:30 PM | LSU Digital Media Center Theatre
Attendees traveled back in time to New Orleans in 1805, in a unique concert event that brought together classical musical performance, innovative humanities scholarship and cutting-edge technology!
Presented by the LSU Center for French and Francophone Studies, the 1805 Concert was a unique recital of arias from the French comic operas popular in Louisiana at the turn of the nineteenth century, performed live in a digitally-enabled acoustical environment that restitutes the soundscape of a massive theatre proposed for the New Orleans waterfront in 1805.
Please see the dedicated event page for more information.
Announcements
Call for LSU CFFS Micro-Grant Proposals
The CFFS Micro-Grant initiative invites members of the LSU community to convene small-scale intellectual or creative exchanges that illuminate the broad applicability of intellectual and artistic contributions from the French and Francophone world, broadly construed. All members of the LSU community – undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty – are invited to apply, although preference will be given to student and non-TT/early career faculty proposals. Successful proposals will be eligible to receive organizational support from the CFFS in the form of publicity and help securing on-campus spaces, as well as material support for honoraria and refreshments (up to $500). Whenever possible, Micro-Grant activities will be recorded and archived on the CFFS website for future reference. These grants will be administered on a rolling basis.
Student Engagement
On Thursday, November 14th, 2024, the CFFS hosted Didyer Mannette, Manick Siar-Titéca, and Amandine Vélin for a creative writing working where they presented Antillean folktales (le conte antillais) from their home island of Guadeloupe. This workshop was open to all students in French 2101 or higher.
On September 26th and 27th, attendees were able to travel back in time to New Orleans in 1805, in a unique concert event that brought together classical musical performance with LSU student and faculty performers, innovative humanities scholarship and cutting-edge technology! The CFFS also showcased LSU undergraduate research in the 1805 Concert Pre-Show DIgital Humanities Exhibition. Attendees of the event were able to look at the 2024 Department of French Studies Senior Seminar collaborative project on life in Territorial New Orleans, as well as the undergraduate-led New Orleans Historic Theater Database Project, which each provided context for the evening’s entertainment.