This summer I joined Ohio State, moved to Columbus, and began serving as chair of the Department of French and Italian. With generous guidance from Sarah-Grace Heller, I moved into Hagerty Hall, rolled up my sleeves, and began learning my way around FRIT and the beautiful campus around us. As a newcomer, it is no hyperbole to say that something extraordinary is happening here.
Ohio State takes language learning seriously, intellectually, professionally, and culturally, and is investing in it accordingly. The Mellon Foundation grant Global Fluency, Career Agility: Ohio State's Model for Transforming World Languages is one driver of this, energizing collaboration across Hagerty Hall as language departments reimagine what world language education should look like in the twenty-first century.
Above all, these first months have been about getting to know remarkable colleagues. Ryan Joyce appeared on the Voices of Excellence podcast this summer to discuss his work on decolonization and his free Kreyòl instruction for the community. Benjamin Hoffmann and the French Center of Excellence brought writer Laure Gouraige to campus for a residency culminating in a fascinating lecture on "Learning to Live Inside a Novel." Lucille Toth received one of the department’s Havens Awards for her edited book Embodied Narratives in the Health Humanities and Literary Studies, and Sarah-Grace Heller received the Havens as well, for her article on the richly detailed vocabulary of clothing in thirteenth-century sumptuary law. Meanwhile, many FRIT faculty and graduate students spent the summer in Italy and France, teaching in Paris, Bologna, and Siena, digging through archives in Narbonne, Rome, and Naples, and presenting at the Italian studies conference in Sassari, Sardinia. Amongst the five OSU Italian scholars in Sassari were Deans David Horn and Dana Renga, who shared a picture from the book launch for Illegality and the Making of Italy: Crime Italian Style. What strikes me daily is that, to a person, FRIT faculty are innovative scholars, collaborative and kind colleagues, and caring teachers, deeply dedicated to the work they do.
Then there are the students. I overheard two of them outside our offices one day, deep in a debate about stivaletti versus pantaloncini and the logic of Italian diminutive suffixes; a small moment, but one that captures the nuanced joys of language study. Two students will serve as FRIT Global Engagement Fellows this year, building new connections between the university and the community. I have also been delighted to learn about FRESCA (French in Science Abroad), which places students in laboratories abroad where they use their French; we are now exploring a similar partnership in Italian.
This issue of Frontiere holds a good deal more: you’ll find news of faculty-led study abroad in Paris, Bologna, and Siena; conference travel; archival research; and you’ll meet new faces among our staff and faculty. Looking ahead, watch for Italian, French, and Francophone Immersion Days bringing high school students to campus, for the Mancini Lecture, featuring Stephanie Malia Hom, this November, and for more exciting programming from the French Center for Excellence.
I am honored to have joined this department at this moment in its history. Higher education faces real challenges, but Ohio State has the intellects and the tools to take on nearly any question. I find it fitting that in the humanities, perhaps our most essential task is formulating good ones. So here is mine for you: how have French or Italian shaped your life?
I hope you will stay in touch and share your own story for a future issue of Frontiere. And if you are able to support the department's work, your generosity can help us scale our efforts in the classroom, the community, and beyond.
Amicalement / Un caro saluto,
Elena Past
p.s. Have you signed up to run in the Love of Languages 5K? Join us on the course this Sunday, September 20!