Dr Deborah Reisinger has been at Duke since 2000 and is currently Associate Professor of the Practice in Romance Studies. She also directs Duke’s Language Outreach Initiatives, overseeing the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) program and the Shared Course Initiative for Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) with the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. Our office highlighted her course “Malagasy 101/701” in our most recent … read more about Lemurs and Beyond: An Interview with Dr. Deb Reisinger »
Kate Driscoll’s career as an Italian literary historian began with her love of music. As an undergraduate flute performance major at New York University, the assistant professor of Romance Studies was already proficient in Italian musical terms like “vivace” (lively and fast) and “andante” (at a walking pace). “I always knew there was something in the music that was telling me to go to Italy,” she said. In the spring of her junior year, Driscoll studied abroad in Florence and immediately became enchanted by the Italian… read more about Kate Driscoll Studies Italy, Poetry and Whose Stories are Told and Remembered »
As the literary world celebrates the centenary of Ulysses, the acclaimed James Joyce novel, Duke professor Helen Solterer has contributed some new scholarship on literature and history, stemming in part from her family’s friendship with the legendary writer. A professor of French and Francophone Studies at Duke, Solterer recently worked with several co-authors from University College Dublin to re-issue James Joyce Remembered, which her grandfather, C.P. Curran, published originally in 1968. Curran and… read more about James Joyce: A new perspective informed by old friends »
Two Duke students from a Romance Studies class have helped elect the winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize, which expanded its reach to the United States for the first time ever this year. First awarded in 1903 by French writer Edmond de Goncourt’s literary society, now known as the Académie Goncourt, the prize is France’s version of the Pulitzer. It recognizes a work of “great imagination in prose” and has been awarded to internationally recognized authors such as Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir.… read more about Duke Students Help Select the Winner of France’s Most Prestigious Literary Prize »
Duke University alumna Julie Uchitel, Class of 2019, has been awarded the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship. The award provides full funding for the graduate program of the student’s choosing at Stanford University. Uchitel is the seventh Duke student to win the award. She will use the scholarship to pursue an medical degree at Stanford School of Medicine. The scholarship was created through a gift from Nike founder Phil Knight, who seeks to educate scholars “who can out-think, out-work and out-care others.” Uchitel,… read more about Duke Alumna Awarded Knight-Hennessy Scholarship »
Famed writer, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, is the recipient of France's most prestigious literary award, the 2021 Prix Goncourt. He is the first sub-Saharan African author to do so while also being the youngest author to win in decades, being only 31. Mr. Sarr discussed his award-winning work, "La plus secrète mémoire des hommes," or "The Most Secret Memory of Men," co-published by Philippe Rey and Jimsaan. The story follows the quest of a young Senegalese author who discovers an acclaimed literary work called "The Labyrinth of… read more about Une conversation avec Mohamed Mbougar Sarr »
When Duke’s Class of 2022 marches onto Brooks Field for the May 8 commencement ceremony, Jimmy Rodríguez will have a special fan in the stands; his mom, Stacy Jordan Rodríguez, who earned her degree from Duke in 1986. Jimmy, who majored in computer science with minors in Spanish and psychology, was born and raised a Duke basketball fan. Stacy helped inspire Jimmy to attend Duke by sharing stories of her time in college. The pair from Dallas, Texas has always been close, but attending the same college… read more about Class of 2022: Jimmy Rodríguez's Final Four Legacy »
Each year, Duke Service-Learning recognizes undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and community partners with the Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Awards. Betsy Alden was a pioneer in service-learning, beginning her work at Duke during the 1980s. Read more about the legacy of Betsy Alden HERE. Recipients are chosen because they represent an exceptional commitment to the ideals of service‐learning. Each winner receives $150 to further develop his/her community-building and leadership… read more about 2022 Alden Award Winners Represent the Best of Service-Learning »
Annette Joseph-Gabriel joined the Department of Romance Studies in 2022 as an associate professor. An expert on Black women’s writings, anticolonial activism and slavery in the French Atlantic with a Ph.D. in French with a graduate certificate in African American and Diaspora Studies from Vanderbilt University, Joseph-Gabriel works at the intersection of French and Afro-diasporic culture, literature and politics. Her first book, Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women… read more about Annette Joseph-Gabriel Shows How Black Women Offer New Ways of Thinking »
When you read a play from the early 1600s, are you reading a literary artifact or a blueprint for a live production? Is the dialogue better understood by analyzing the text or acting it out? What’s more important: the tropes of the era or the architecture of the theater it was first performed in? The answer to all of those questions is both, and a collaboration between the departments of Theater Studies and Romance Studies will show why when a new production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s famous play “Life Is a Dream”… read more about How 2 Departments Brought a 17th Century Play to Life in 2022 »
A new program for Duke sophomores – which launched earlier this year – will include a Romance Studies course this fall: “The Problem of Love” (ROMST 205). The course is part of the new “Transformative Ideas” program that is designed to promote open and civil cross-disciplinary dialogue on questions and big ideas that change lives, link cultures and shape societies around the world. “The Problem of Love” – taught by Martin Eisner of Romance Studies – analyzes censored editions and translations of Boccacio’s Deameron… read more about Romance Studies Course Among Fall “Transformative Ideas” Offerings »
When Michaeline Crichlow moved from her native St. Lucia to upstate New York, she had a lot to learn — and not just in the graduate program she attended at Binghamton University. “I became a Black person not in the Caribbean, but in the United States,” said the professor and interim chair of African & African American Studies. Race wasn’t often discussed in St. Lucia, where the vast majority of the population is Black. The rare times it was, the conversation wasn’t about Black and white, but the Indo-Caribbean peoples… read more about What Decolonization Means »
The small pop-up exhibit in the Perkins Circulation area invites you to discover some of Joyce’s works in the collections of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Trieste-Zurich-Paris 1914-1921 is the last line of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and the signature of this experimental novel, published first in France in 1922. As we mark the centenary of Ulysses, we celebrate its multi-lingual play. 1)James Joyce. Ulysses. [London]:… read more about ReJoyce 2022: 100 Years of Multilingual Play »
Lesley Curtis received her B.A. in International and Global Studies from the University of North Carolina and holds a Ph.D. in Romance Studies from Duke University, where she studied the history and literature of abolitionist movements. After graduating from Duke, she held a postdoctoral fellowship at Wellesley College. In 2017, Lesley founded Sagely, a consulting firm that empowers organizations and leaders to navigate cultural change with confidence and the power of storytelling. TELL ME A BIT… read more about Alumni Profiles Series: Lesley Curtis »
At just 31 years old, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is the first Senegalese author to win France’s prestigious 2021 Prix Goncourt for his book, La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (Men’s Most Secret Memories), published by Philippe Rey. It’s also the first Prix Goncourt won by that independent publishing house, which was founded in 2002. Sarr published his first two novels with France’s Présence Africaine, which has published African authors since 1949. Those books are Terre… read more about Mohamed Mbougar Sarr wins the 2021 Prix Goncourt »