The French Department welcomed Florida State University’s Prof. Michelle Bumatay to campus. Prof. Bumatay’s visit was a great success and couldn’t have taken place without the support of CIFS.
On Wednesday April 17, 2024 in the late afternoon she gave a lecture entitled “Black Bandes Dessinées: Papa Mfumu’eto’s Making Waves, Taking Names, and Throwing Stones” in Memorial Library 126. There were around 50 people in attendance, among them undergraduates, graduate students, and professors representing the Department of French and Italian, the English Department, the Art Department, the African Cultural Studies Department, the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Communication Arts, and the community, which included a group from Beloit College who drove to Madison to attend the lecture. Her talk was followed by lively discussion covering comics studies, Francophone and African literature, archival research and zine culture, and more. Prof. Bumatay then talked with attendees for around 20 minutes while standing in the front of the room to meet people.
In addition to the lecture, Prof. Bumatay met on Wednesday morning with Interim African and Francophone Studies Librarian Kimberly Rooney to discuss strategy for expanding Memorial Library’s francophone comics collections and to exchange resources that would aid in this collection’s future development. Before her lecture, she attended the presentation of an exhibit, curated by myself and Kimberly Rooney and planned to coincide with her visit, called “Francophone Comics: Evolving Understandings of the Global French-Language Bande Dessinée” in the Memorial Library’s main entrance. On Wednesday evening, she dined with five graduate students and one faculty member from FRIT, all of whom focus on African and Caribbean francophone literature. Then on Thursday, she hosted a Brown Bag discussion for graduate students to discuss research, the job market, and academic event planning. There were 10 students in attendance. Finally, she held Office Hours to discuss ongoing research with graduate students on Thursday afternoon that were attended by two students studying ecocriticism and French-language comics.
As part of the French House Conference Series:
On December 7th, 2023 Professor Paul Bastide, University of Montpellier, presented a lecture in French entitled: “Reconstruire l’histoire des épidémies: Les données au service de la santé publique.”
COLLABORATION WITH THE FRENCH CONSULATE IN CHICAGO AND CIFS VISIBILITY WITH WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL AGRO-BUSINESS
CIFS designed and carried out the visit of the French Consul Yannick Tagand to Madison in September 2023. The Consul visited with Governor Evers, met with the President of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and participated in one of the largest agro-business expo in the US, the Madison World Dairy Expo, facilitated by CIFS co-Director Katrina Forest. The Consul gave a lecture at the French House, as part of the Conférences de la Maison Française, followed by a cordial and vibrant dinner with the French House residents and members of the Campus and the community.
Photo taken by Yannick Tagand
As part of the French House conference series:
On July 13th, 2023 Professor Fatima Chnane-Davin, INSPÉ d’Aix-Marseille, presented a talk in French entitled: “Enjeux et usages de la f(F)rancophonie: De la variation linguistique à la diversité culturelle.”