Dear Friends of French and Italian,
On graduation weekend in May 2019, The Department of French and Italian hosted our first-annual graduation ceremony and celebrated close to 100 students who received a degree in one of our four majors, two minors, and MA and PhD degrees (during Autumn and Spring semesters). Ohio State is such a large place with more than 57,000 students, 200 majors and minors, and a vast campus. We at The Department of French and Italian pride ourselves on creating a close-knit community that fosters the intellectual and personal growth of our students in all of our classes, whether in our introductory GE classes, our language courses, courses for our majors and minors, or graduate courses, in our study abroad programs taking place in several continents, and in our service learning courses and engagement opportunities in the Columbus community.
We are honored and proud by the accomplishments of all of our students, and I congratulate all our graduates on their significant achievements. Also, I would like to acknowledge our remarkable team of graduate students, instructors, and staff who make this department such an amazing place to call home. And, a very special thank you to Academic Program Coordinator Sonya Afanasyeva who put the wonderful ceremony together, as well as our wonderful newsletter.
This issue of FRONTIERE focuses on several amazing events and initiatives organized by department members over the last year, many of which will continue into the future, and all of which have attracted wide and diverse audiences. These include: the several events organized in conjunction with The Global Mediterranean Project spearheaded by postdoctoral researcher Harry Kashdan, including the upcoming Mediterranean Seminar taking place at OSU in Spring 2020; the Italian Cinema(s) Abroad conference which brought participants to OSU from universities throughout the US, Canada, the UK, Italy, and Jerusalem; The Borders in Motion Symposium organized by Lucille Toth and Johanna Sellman, which is an extension of Dr. Toth’s large scale engagement project On Board(hers); and the Global Citizen Summer Camp organized by Dr. Janice Aski which brought about 60 middle schoolers to Ohio State for a week, and which will continue next summer. The issue also celebrates the accomplishments of Senior Lecturer Dr. Ted Emery, one of our amazing instructors who contributes in such substantial ways to FRIT.
You can hear about our wonderful lineup of events, and learn of news regarding all of the exciting things that we are up by subscribing to our Friends of FRIT mailing list, and following us on Twitter and Facebook.
With best wishes for a wonderful end of Summer, and beginning of Autumn,
Dana Renga, Department Chair
