PRESS RELEASE
PARTNER UNIVERSITY FUND – FACE FOUNDATION
Dr. Alexandre Leupin, Phyllis M. Taylor professor in French Studies and Director of
the Center of French and Francophones Studies, and Professor Jean-Pierre Sainton,
Professor of History at the Université des Antilles (Guadeloupe) have won a very important
grant from the Partner University Fund (cultural services of the French embassy in
New York), the FACE Foundation (French American Cultural Exchange, New York) and the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The amount of the grant, $235,000, is the largest ever
granted to the Department of French Studies at LSU and the largest ever for a collaboration
between LSU and the French governement.
The grant is to be shared over three years by LSU and the Université des Antilles and is centered on a main theme, Slavery in the Caribbean Basin. The main purpose of the grant is to enable intensive exchanges between the two institutions on the academic and teaching level in all fields of research, including sciences, for faculty and graduated students.
It will cover expenses for a number of graduate students and faculty exchanges over the three year duration of the grant, as well expenses for scientific collaboration, colloquia and academic publications. It will lead to permanent protocols of exchanges at all levels between LSU and the Université des Antilles.
The first steps of the exchange are already in place: a colloquium entitled Louisiana/French Antilles: a Shared Space-Time will be held at LSU on November 10-12, 2016.
Around the time of the colloquium, the first ten graduate students (5 from LSU, 5 from UA) will engage in a week of archival research at Whitney Plantation under its director of research, Dr. Ibrahima Seck.
A colloquium in Guadeloupe is planned for Fall 2017, along with a new student and faculty exchange. Interested faculty and students at LSU should contact the Director of the Center for French and Francophone studies (frleup@lsu.edu).
Dr. Alexandre Leupin would like to express his warmest thanks to the people at LSU that have helped with the grant request: Dean Staci Haynie, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Hector Zapata, Associate Vice Provost for International Programs, Dr. Kenya Lenoir-Messer, Associate Vice Provost, Office of Diversity, Dean Alkis Tsolakis, College of Art and Design, Ann Whitmer, Assistant Dean for grants, CHSS, and Todd Jacob, Assistant Director for the Center for French and Francophone Studies. With this grant, the French government and the cultural services reaffirm their commitment to French culture and language in Louisiana and make LSU the lynchpin of their vision for Francophonie in the United States. We are all grateful to the French people for their generosity! Of course, the greatest gratitude should be extended to the French Embassy cultural services, the FACE Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Alexandre Leupin
Phyllis M. Taylor Professor in French Studies
Director, Center for French and Francophone Studies
Office hours: Thursdays, 3pm -, 415b Hodges
To make an appointment: 578-6589 or frleup@lsu.edu