Special Announcement

20th/21st Century French and Francophone Studies Colloquium:
Money-l'Argent

New York City
March 6-8 2014

Co-organized and hosted by NYU, CUNY Graduate Center and Columbia University

Locations

New York University
CUNY Graduate Center
Columbia University

Organizing Committee

Peter Consenstein (CUNY)
Ludovic Cortade (NYU)
Madeleine Dobie (Columbia)

This conference will focus on the role that money, economics, dépense, financial crises and equitable or unjust economic distribution have played in 20th and 21st century French and Francophone literatures, visual cultures, theatre, history, theory, translation studies and gender and ethnic studies. Since the financial crises of 2008, there has been an ever widening debate about the role that financial gain plays in the production of culture and the functioning of institutions of higher education throughout the world. At the same time, the crises have energized communities that put into question the culture of capital and the ties between capitalism and culture, all of which has created particularly dynamic, ideological, moral and cultural power struggles. This conference will serve as an open discussion on the way money has worked in stories, aesthetic forms, translations, methodologies, curricula and our own institutions from 1900 to the present.

Ce colloque met l’accent sur les rôles que jouent l’argent, l’économie, la dépense, les crises financières et la répartition économique—juste ou injuste—dans la littérature, les cultures visuelles, le théâtre, l’histoire, la théorie, la traduction et l’étude de la sexualité et de l’ethnicité au sein des études françaises et francophones des 20e et 21e siècles. Les crises financières de 2008 ont lancé un débat de plus en plus étendu sur l’importance du gain financier dans la production culturelle et dans les systèmes universitaires dans le monde. Ces crises remettent en cause les rapports entre le capitalisme et la culture. Ainsi s’ouvrent des luttes de pouvoirs idéologique, culturelle et morale. Ce colloque se veut un lieu de discussion au sujet du rôle de l’argent dans la littérature, les formes esthétiques, les traductions, les méthodologies et même les programmes d’étude de nos propres universités du début du 20e siècle jusqu’à nos jours.

Conference website.

Ph.D. Program in French

The Ph.D. Program in French at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York offers an innovative combination of traditional training in French and Francophone Literatures with highly progressive interdisciplinary curricular options. While specializing in one of the traditional literary periods, our graduate students are offered the possibility of enriching their professional and academic dossier with the option that would best suit their particular interests.

These options, namely Translation Studies, Comparative Studies, Cultural Studies, International Human Rights in the French-Speaking World, and Performance Studies, draw from a wide array of disciplines with courses readily available either within our own program or in the many other prestigious programs of The Graduate Center. In addition, students are strongly encouraged to opt for a multidisciplinary Certificate, which they can fulfill at the Graduate Center. These include: American Studies, Film Studies, Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, Women’s Studies. Combined with the students’ literary interests and interdisciplinary options, these certificates are valuable assets to ensure success with their future job search in an ever-increasingly competitive market.

Among our 24 faculty members, we are proud to have Distinguished Professors Mary Ann Caws, Nancy K. Miller, and the past President of the MLA, Domna C. Stanton. Recently, Professor Evelyne Ender became a member of the board of the PMLA. Not only do our students have access and exposure to top scholars, but, during their very first year, they undergo a rigorous seminar in research and writing in which they can hone their interests and intellectual skills. In addition to this training, our students are encouraged to teach French as a foreign language in one of our CUNY colleges, comprising ten senior colleges and six community colleges, where they can benefit from a hands-on training in cutting-edge learning methodologies under the supervision of a local pedagogical coordinator.