On Campus Initiatives

One of CIFS’ main strengths lies in its organizational flexibility; nowhere is this more apparent than in the diversity of our engagement in the UW campus community. As an administrative body, CIFS coordinates both the Sciences Po Exchange Program, which offers study, research, and teaching abroad opportunities to undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty alike, as well as the French Business Internship Program, which affords qualified undergraduates professional experience and UW credit working as interns in French businesses.

Additionally, CIFS serves as an intermediary in the development of the Medical School Collaboration between the UW Medical School and the Laboratory for Molecular Genetics in Brest, France. Finally, as a promoter of French language and culture, CIFS periodically donates French DVDs to the Learning Support Services media lab, which, in turn, are used in language and civilization courses by the Department of French & Italian.

Medical School Collaboration

Under the leadership of Dean Philip Farrell and Professor Claude Férec, this program aims to develop a collaborative exchange of faculty and medical students between the UW-Madison Medical School and the Laboratory for Molecular Genetics at Brest. CIFS is serving as a facilitator in the exchange, which endeavors to combine the UW-M's vast Cystic Fibrosis database with Brest's innovative CF research and analysis.

French DVD Donations

CIFS has donated several French language films to the language lab of the College of Letters & Sciences (LSS Lab) for use in coursework, as well as language and cultural acquisition. The language lab boasts an impressive collection of international cinema; therefore, CIFS' aims to maintain the contemporary appeal of this collection through the regular donation of current and influential French films.

Films donated to date:

* D’ailleurs, Derrida (Derrida’s Elsewhere), dir. Safaa Fathy (VHS)
* Le Battement d’ailes du papillon (Happenstance), dir. Laurent Firode (DVD)
* Un Crime au Paradis, dir. Jean Becker (DVD)
* La Tour Montparnasse Infernale (Don’t Die Too Hard), dir. Charles Nemes (VHS)
* La Ville est Tranquille, dir. Robert Guédiquian (VHS)
* La Parenthèse enchantée, dir. Michel Spinosa (VHS)
* Cet amour-là, dir. Alain Sarde (DVD)

Complete list of French language films available through LSS.