Department Leadership

Department Chair - Sarah-Grace Heller.64

Director of Undergraduate Studies - Jennifer Willging.1

Director of Graduate Studies - Jonathan Combs-Schilling.1

French Basic-Language Director - Wynne Wong.240

French Basic-Language Assistant Director - Anne Mutidjo.1

Italian Basic-Language Director - April Weintritt.1

Italian Basic-Language Assistant Director - Rosa DiGrottole.1

French Center of Excellence Director - Benjamin Hoffmann.312

Senior Academic Program Services Specialist and French Center of Excellence Administrative Manager - Matt Lang.650

Business Operations Manager - Connie Knoechel.3

Financial Operations Senior Coordinator - Garrick Bryan.223

Council of Graduate Studies Representative - Holly Engel.210

Advising and Service Roles

University Senator - Jonathan Combs-Schilling (2025-2028)

Graduate School Fellowship Review Committee: Benjamin Hoffmann (AU25) and Qian Liu.12199 (SP26)

ASC Senator - Jonathan Mullins.429 (2023-2027) / Benjamin Hoffmann.312 (alternate)

ASC Liberal Arts Major Curriculum Committee: Jennifer Willging.1

ASC Promotion and Tenure Committee: Wynne Wong.240

Teaching Schedules - French: Jennifer Willging.1 and Wynne Wong.240 / Italian: Janice Aski.1 and April Weintritt.1

Assessment Coordinator - Adela Lechintan-Siefer.1

Faculty Honors Major Mentors - French: Jennifer Willging.1 / Italian: April Weintritt.1

Faculty Major Mentors - French: Jennifer Willging.1 / Italian: Janice Aski.1

Romance Studies Major Mentors - French (as primary language): Jennifer Willging.1 / Italian (as primary language): Janice Aski.1

ASC College Advisor - Andy Spencer.4 (Emily Carpenter.438 in SU)

Minor Mentors - French: Rebecca Wetzel.215 / Italian: April Weintritt.1

Distance Learning Director - French: Wynne Wong.240 / Italian: April Weintritt.1

Distance Learning Assistant Director - French: Denis Mingallon.2

French Individualized Instruction and Summer DL Coordinator - Denis Mingallon.2

French 1103 Coordinator - Kate Schlosser.73

UG Club Advisors - French: Adela Lechintan-Siefer.1 / Italian: Giuliano Migliori.2

Transfer/Study Abroad Credit Evaluators - French: Kelly Campbell.796 / Italian: Eric Johnson

Italian Government Liaison and Grant Writing - Giuliano Migliori.2

K-12 Event and Engagement Planners - French: Adela Lechintan-Siefer.1 and Kate Schlosser.73 / Italian: Giuliano Migliori.2

Graduate Proficiency Exam Evaluator - Mauro Cazzolla.1

GIS/Minor in Second Language Studies: Wynne Wong.240

French & Italian Graduate Student Association (FIGSA) Leadership

President - Stefani Scimeca.3

Vice President - Holly Engel.210

Secretary - Chris Hope.96

Treasurer - Yongnan Zhang.14241

FIGSA Representative to Department meetings - Samanta Buffa.6

Annual Review, Promotion & Tenure Committee

Wynne Wong.240 - Chair

Jonathan Combs-Schilling.1

Benjamin Hoffmann.312 (AU25)

Lucille Toth.297, POD

Jennifer Willging.1 (SP26)

Salary Advisory Committee

Janice Aski.1 - Chair

Maggie Flinn.62

Wynne Wong.240

Associated Faculty Committee

Maggie Flinn.62 - Chair (2025-2027)

Kate Schlosser.73 (2025-2028)

Rosa DiGrottole.1 - Associated Faculty Member

Connie Knoechel.3 - Staff Representative

Undergraduate Studies Committee

Jennifer Willging.1 - Chair (2022-2026)

Janice Aski.1 - Italian UG Director (2025-2028)

Adela Lechintan-Siefer.1 - Assessment and Recruitment (2023-2026)

Matt Lang.650 - Staff Representative

TBD - UG Representative

Graduate Studies Committee

Jonathan Combs-Schilling.1 - Chair (2025-2028)

Ryan Joyce.289 (2025-2028)

Qian Liu.12199 (2024-2027)

Matt Lang.650 - Staff Representative

Stefani Scimeca.3 - GA Representative

Community and Mentorship Committee

Maggie Flinn.62 - Co-Chair

April Weintritt.1 - Co-Chair

Jonathan Mullins.429

Events and Engagement Committee

Benjamin Hoffmann.312 - Co-Chair for French

Qian Liu.12199 - Co-Chair for Italian

Adela Lechintan-Siefer.1 - French K-12 and community connections

Giuliano Migliori.2 - Italian K-12 and community connections

Kate Schlosser.73 - French K-12 and community connections

Matt Lang.650 - Staff Representative

Department Meetings Schedule

Remember to add the "FRIT Department" shared calendar to your Outlook (instructions). All meetings on the list below are included on that calendar.

Key:

• AD: meetings for all members of FRIT
• TT: meetings for tenure-track faculty only
• FSR: meetings for faculty, staff, and representatives

AY25 representatives:

• Associated Faculty: Pauline Remy.79
• Graduate Associates: Samanta Buffa.6
• Staff: Matt Lang.650

Autumn 2025 - Remember to add the "FRIT Department" shared calendar to your Outlook (instructions). All meetings on the list below are included on that calendar.

• August 11-20 - LIT workshop
• August 22, 11:00am-4:00pm - Faculty retreat (TT)
• August 26 - AU25 semester begins
• August 28, 5:00pm-6:00pm - Fall reception in HH200 (AD)
• September 1 - Labor Day, no classes
• September 8, 9:30am-11:00am - Department meeting (AD)
• September 15, 9:30am-11:00am - ADA Title II Accessibility training workshop (AD)
• September 15, 3:00pm-4:00pm - Scheduling meeting (all schedulers)
• September 29, 9:00am-11:00am - P&T (Weintritt promotion; committee of eligible faculty)
• October 16-17 - Fall break, no classes
• October 27, 9:30am-11:00am - Department meeting (AD)
• November 11 - Veterans Day, no classes
• November 26-28 - Thanksgiving break
• December 8, 9:30am-11:00am - Department meeting (BTAA report; AD)
• December 10 - Last day of AU25 semester courses
• December 11, 5:00pm - FRIT holiday gathering (location TBA)
• December 12-18 - AU25 final exams

Spring 2026 - Remember to add the "FRIT Department" shared calendar to your Outlook (instructions). All meetings on the list below are included on that calendar.

• January 12 - SP26 classes begin
• January 19 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, no classes
• January 26, 9:30am-11:00am - Department meeting (AD)
• February 17, 9:30am-11:00am - Faculty meeting (TT)
• February 23, 9:00am-11:00am - P&T (4th year review of Lechintan-Siefer; annual review of Liu and Joyce; committee of eligible faculty)
• March 2, 9:30am-11:00am - Department meeting (AD)
• March 16-20 - Spring break, no classes
• March 30, 9:00am-11:00am - GTA review (All faculty) and P&T (review of Schlosser and Migliori)
• April 6, 9:00am-11:00am - Faculty meeting (TT)
• April 13, 9:30am-11:00am - Department meeting (AD)
• April 21 - Last day of SP26 courses
• April 29-May 5 - SP26 final exams
• May 9, 10:00am-12:00pm - FRIT graduation celebration (HH180)

Promotion, Tenure, & Annual Review Dates

• August 15: Dossiers for 4^th-year reviews due to P&T committee.
• Oct 3: Recommended deadline for chair to notify candidates of results of TIU P&T review
• Oct 20: Deadline for submission of P&T dossiers to college
• February 2: Annual updates of probational tenure-track and teaching faculty for calendar year 2025 due to department operations manager, with SEIs.
• March 3: Annual updates of associate and full tenure-track and teaching faculty for calendar year 2025 due to department operations manager, with SEIs. Associate professors wishing to be put forward for promotion mustnotify chair.
• May 11: Associated Faculty annual updates and SEIs for 2025-2026 academic year due to operations manager.

Notes:

• Meetings will be held in 206 Hagerty Hall (unless otherwise indicated). You are urged to attend in person. If circumstances prevent that, you may also join via Zoom. Links will be sent out with agenda the Friday before the meeting. For security, log in with Ohio State username and password. Meetings will not be recorded.
• Some meetings may end early or be cancelled depending upon the number and urgency of discussions to be had. It is also possible an additional “emergency” meeting may need to be called for tenure-track faculty members and representatives if the College or University demands an important decision from the Department at some point during the year (although this is rare); in such a case, we will just do our best to obtain a quorum.
• “All-FRIT - AD”: these meetings open to all members of FRIT. They are mandatory for tenure-track faculty, staff, associated faculty, and graduate student representatives. Optional for everyone else. All are welcome.
• Some meetings are for tenure-track (TT) faculty members, staff, and the representatives of the associated faculty & graduate students only. If there are sensitive agenda items to be discussed by tenure-track faculty only, they will be reserved for the latter part of the meeting so the others may be free to leave early. Any pertinent information discussed that can be shared with other members of the Department will be, via the representatives.

Associated Faculty Award

Associated Faculty in The Department of French and Italian who have had a paper accepted at a professional conference, who have a research or professional development project that requires travel, or who have job interviews at the annual MLA Convention may apply for a Departmental Travel Award of up to $1,500. To apply, send a brief letter describing the paper, development opportunity, or project, a copy of the letter of acceptance or invitation, and an estimated budget (travel, lodging, and transportation) to the current department chair. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis throughout the year until the funds have been exhausted. 

Tenure-track (and Teaching) Faculty Travel Funding

Tenure-track faculty in French and Italian may apply for up to $2500 per academic year for research-related travel (conference presentations, archival work, etc.). Please e-mail the department chair a brief description of the conference or project, an acceptance or invitation e-mail if pertinent, and a rough budget. For additional funding of up to $2000 for conferences, research, creative work, etc., see the A&H Small Grants Program.

Department of French and Italian Research Development Support Fund

The fund supports faculty who are facilitating research focused on the literature, history, and linguistic development of France, Italy, and regions of countries where French and Italian are spoken. Examples of such countries include, but are not limited to, Switzerland, Belgium, Sardinia, parts of Africa, certain Caribbean islands, and Quebec. Eligible recipients must have a primary appointment in the Department of French and Italian (“Department”). Recipients may be drawn from all tenured faculty, tenure track faculty, teaching faculty, full-time lectures, and graduate students at the dissertation stage pursuing their work while working in the Department at The Ohio State University (“University”). Visiting faculty are not eligible. Expenditures may be used for, but are not limited to, travel expenses to conferences, as well as travel expenses for purposes of primary data collection and archival research done on site in Italy, France, or other linguistically affiliated countries. 

To apply, a written statement of proposed activities and the amount of funding requested must submitted to the Department Chair. A proposal must include two parts: 1) a description of the activities and how they will lead to eventual publication, and 2) a budget justifying the amount of funds requested.