Initiatives

Center of Excellence

  • In December of 2020, the Department of French and Italian was selected by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States to join its prestigious network of Centers of Excellence. Learn more at Center of Excellence.

Continuing Education Workshop for French Teachers

  • With a gift from ENGIE-Axium and the support of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Maggie Flinn, associate professor of French, organizes an annual symposium that provides teacher accreditation and introduces local French teachers to the history and cultural significance of French language comics.

      Intercultural Competency in World Language Education

      • This set of resources on incorporating intercultural competency into world language education spearheaded by Janice Aski includes recordings from the Intercultural Learning in World Language Education Webinar Series 2020, a Jhumpa Lampiri Video Series on learning a new language, and more. Learn more at Intercultural Competency in World Language Education.

        Global Citizenship Summer Camp

        • Created by Janice Aski, professor of Italian, the camp brings world languages to middle school students through full-immersion language classes and cultural lessons. This camp aims to inspire future world language learners and develop responsible and culturally-aware global citizens.

        Global Mediterranean Project

        • Led by a post-doctoral researcher in the Global Mediterranean area, the project emphasizes community engagement, public programming, university events and innovative coursework focused on the Mediterranean. Learn more at The Global Mediterranean.

        FIGSA (French and Italian Graduate Student Association)

        • FIGSA is an organization that is run by elected graduate students of FRIT. FIGSA invites scholars to speak at Ohio State, participates in organizing departmental symposia, and advocates for graduate students in the department. Learn more at FIGSA.

        Francophone Day

        • Francophone Day is an annual event that celebrates the cultural diversity throughout the French-speaking world. This event was created to engage high school students and teachers of French, and consists of presentations and mini-lessons from FRIT's faculty, and graduate and undergraduate students.

        On Board(hers)

        • Created by Lucille Toth, assistant professor of French, this contemporary dance project provides a safe space where female immigrants in our community are encouraged to explore their experiences through movement and share them with others. Learn more at On Board(hers).

        Scholarly Lectures

        • FRIT also regularly brings leading scholars to Ohio State by organizing and sponsoring lectures and symposiums on a broad range of diverse and interdisciplinary topics.

        World Language Skills and Competencies Workshop

        • This professionalization workshop teaches undergraduate students who are majoring or minoring in a language how to explain the valuable skills and competencies they develop in a language classroom to potential employers.

        Online Initiatives

        Purposeful interactive world language teaching

        Professor Janice Aski creates a free, open-access course on teaching foreign languages in the target language using a purposeful and interactive approach. This course is being used by language teachers all over the world.

        Description: This course is an introduction to foreign language classroom teaching for instructors who wish to teach exclusively in the target language; want a student-centered rather than teacher-centered classroom; believe that purposeful and meaningful interaction is essential for learning/acquisition to occur; want their students to cognitively engage with the material; and want to create a learning environment in which students feel comfortable interacting with the instructor and their peers.

        Teaching Foreign Languages in the Target Language

        iTunes U course on New Research Trends in Italian Screen Studies

        Professor Dana Renga and Graduate Student Daniel Paul author an iTunes U course on New Research Trends in Italian Screen Studies.

        Description: Over the last ten years, Italian screen studies has flourished. This seminar is interested in taking stock of the discipline, considering what changes we have seen over the last decade, asking where we are now, and reflecting on where we might be headed. To this end, this course includes Video Conferencing sessions with ten scholars from the US and the UK working on cutting edge topics in Italian screen studies to include teen film, fascist colonial cinema, neorealism, mafia cinema, migration cinema, serial television, star studies, the terrorist film and the biopic, new queer cinema, popular cinema and the cinepanettone, and postfeminism.

        iTunes U Course on New Research Trends in Italian Screen Studies