Sima Godfrey: Reflecting on 32 Years at UBC
Upon her retirement, Dr. Sima Godfrey reflects on the most memorable moments of her 32 years as a faculty member in UBC’s French program—including powerful stories about students who have impacted her as much as she has impacted them. The most rewarding memories I have involve students, some of whom I have had the pleasure […]
Postcolonial Sociolinguistics: Special issue edited by Marie-Eve Bouchard explores attitudes, ideologies and power in language contact settings
Dr. Marie-Eve Bouchard, Assistant Professor of French at UBC, edited a special issue for the Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics that addresses how language ideologies and attitudes are constructed in multilingual and language contact settings, and how they create and maintain unequal relations of power between groups. Through several empirical studies involving languages from Central America (Mexico, […]
Promoting Diversity in Francophone Studies
Dr. Caroline Lebrec, Assistant Professor of Teaching (French), describes various efforts to promote diversity in Francophone Studies—from developing a new textbook series, designing an experiential learning course, to analyzing the representation of gender in French language. Textbook Series I am working on developing a textbook series that will offer content that is embedded in our […]
Mindfulness and Contemplative Pedagogy in Second Language Acquisition
Dr. Chiara Falangola, Lecturer of Italian, describes her ongoing project on mindfulness and contemplative pedagogy in second language acquisition. I am interested in ways of incorporating mindfulness into second language acquisition, as well as new ways of improving the language curriculum in the sense of inclusion, diversity, and the merging of language, culture and literature. […]
Research Spotlight: Procreative Poetics and the Origins of the Opera Libretto
Dr. Katharina Piechocki, Assistant Professor of French who specializes in 17th-century French and Italian Literature, shares about her latest book project and research fellowship in Florence, Italy. Procreative Poetics My goal during my research fellowship at Villa I Tatti in Florence is to complete my second book, Hercules: Procreative Poetics and the Origins of the […]
Why Dante Alighieri Still Matters Today, 700 Years After His Death
In commemoration of 700 years since the death of Dante Alighieri, Dr. Daniela Boccassini, Professor of Italian, shares why his works are still significant today. A list of Dante-related events and resources are also listed for those who wish to explore Dante’s influence more deeply. In the words of Pope Francis (2014), Dante is “a […]
A Sound Map of Franco-Canadian Accents
Dr. Marie-Eve Bouchard, Assistant Professor of French at UBC, talks about her research on French-speaking minorities in Canada in this interview with radio host Nicholas Haddad from Radio-Canada. Marie-Eve first describes what sociolinguistics is and explains why studying language in a minority context is essential. She also talks about one of her new research projects: […]
Dr. Marie-Eve Bouchard awarded SSHRC Insight Development Grant to Study Racialized French Speakers of Vancouver
Dr. Marie-Eve Bouchard was awarded a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for a project titled: Uniting voices: An examination of racially minoritized French speakers of Vancouver. Description of the research project: Since the early 2000s, Canadian federal policies have encouraged Francophone immigration from around the world in order to support the vitality of the French language […]
New French translation by Patrick Moran of “La Mort le roi Artu”
Dr. Patrick Moran has published a new Modern French translation of the early 13th-century Old French romance La Mort le roi Artu, which is published by La Librairie Droz (Geneva, Switzerland) and based on the classic 1936 edition by Jean Frappier. La Mort le roi Artu offers one of the most famous medieval accounts of the death of […]