Congratulations are in order for Italian Doctoral Student Elisa Valentini, who has been awarded the 2019 Graduate School Dissertation Writing Fellowship. The excellence she demonstrated in coursework and comprehensive examinations has given rise to an original and innovative dissertation project, "The Art of Science: Early Twentieth-Century Italian Futurism in the Context of Pre-Einsteinian (Meta)Physics." Engaging various disciplines and media, her dissertation explores the intersecting roles of science and occultism in shaping Italian Futurist visual and literary works before World War I and the popularization of Einstein's Special theory of Relativity. Brava!
Congratulations to Professor Douglas Biow on his most recent publication "Vasari's Words: The 'Lives of Artists' as a History of Ideas in the Italian Renaissance."In this book, Douglas Biow analyzes Vasari's Lives of the Artists —often considered the first great work of art history in the modern era— from a new perspective. He focuses on key words and shows how they address a variety of compelling, culturally determined ideas circulating in late Renaissance Italy. Ben fatto!
Please join us in congratulating Dr. François Lagarde on his most recent publications Colonialisme et révolution Vol.1 and Colonialisme et révolution Vol. 2. Félicitations! We're please to announce that Elizabeth Florea completed and submitted her dissertation, "Turning the Tables on Romance: Rustichello da Pisa Invents a New Chivalric Table in his Arthurian Compilation." Congratulations, Beth!
Congratulations to Valérie Masson for her successful defense of her dissertation and her recent acceptance of a position as Lecturer in French at Texas State University. Congrats to Valérie and her supervisor, Professor Alexandra Wettlaufer!
Congratulations to Professor Alexandra Wettlaufer on her appointment as Director of the Plan II Honors Program, UT’s prestigious interdisciplinary arts and science undergraduate honors major. Having served as Associate Director of Plan II since 2005, Alex will move into the directorship position this August. She will remain in French in her capacity as Graduate Advisor and will teach one graduate course for us each year. We commend Alex on her outstanding record of service, teaching and scholarship since she joined us in 1992, and we wish her the best of luck as Plan II Director in the years to come.
Congratulations to Paola D'Amora for her successful defense of her dissertation on May 22nd and her acceptance of an Instructional Assistant Professor of Italian position in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi! Paola's dissertation is entitled "Cinematic Representations of Italian Office Workers From the Death of the Travet to Fantozzi, 1952-1983" and she begins her position in August 2017. Congratulations as well to her supervisor, Paola Bonifazio!
Congratulations to Dr. Barbara E. Bullock, mentor in the inaugural class of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program. The program seeks to diversify institutions of higher learning by identifying and supporting students of promise who wish to pursue a doctorate. Under Dr. Bullock's mentorship, MMUF fellow Gualberto Guzmán has published “A survey of automatic annotation methods,” collaborated on a number of computational linguistic studies, earned admission into the M.A. program in Computer Science at UT, and received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Félicitations!
Congratulations to Professor Antonella Del Fattore-Olson! Each year, UT alumni nominate professors who have made a lasting impact on their lives for the Texas 10. This year, we are honored to announce that our Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Italian, Professor Antonella Del Fattore-Olson, was selected as one of the Alcalde's Texas 10 for 2017. Click here to read about Professor Del Fattore-Olson's impact on her students. Brava!
Congratulations to Dr. Viola Green on her Postdoctoral Fellowship in the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia)! Dr. Green will begin her post-doc this August and it is renewable for up to three years.
Congratulations as well to her dissertation supervisor, Dr. David Birdsong!
Congratulations to Stephanie Russo Krilov! The French Linguistics PhD candidate successfully defended her dissertation, "The Imparfait Lorrain In the Context of Grammaticalization," on Monday, April 10th, 2017. Félicitations!
Congratulations to Stephanie Hotz! The Italian Studies PhD candidate successfully defended her dissertation, "The Italian Musicarello: Youth, Gender, and Modernization in Postwar Popular Cinema," on Monday, April 10th, 2017. Complimenti!
Congratulations to Audrey Doussot! The French Studies PhD candidate successfully defended her dissertation, "Mediated Authority: Portraits of the Writer in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction From Baudelaire to Beigbeder," on Monday, April 3rd, 2017. Félicitations!
Congratulations to Maxence Leconte for his Foreign Language Teaching Excellence Award from the Texas Language Center! This teaching award is student-nominated and the department is proud of this recognition of his talent and devotion. Max is a third-year graduate student in French Studies and currently teaches FR 601C. Max received the award from Dr. Thomas Garza, the director of the Texas Language Center, and Dr. David Birdsong, the Chair of the Department of French and Italian.
Congratulations are in order for French Lecturer Pat Kyle, who has been awarded a Professional Development Award from the Texas Language Center. This award will help her develop her ongoing project, "Intercultural Communication Online." Félicitations!
Congratulations are in order for Walther Fellow Adam McBride, who recently accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of French and Italian at Brigham Young University. He will begin his position this coming fall. Congratulations are also in order to his supervisor, Professor Barbara Bullock. Bonnes nouvelles et félicitations!
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Guy Raffa on the publication of his most recent article, "Longfellow's Great Liberators: Abraham Lincoln and Dante Alghieri", in the UT History Department's Not Even Past. Bravo!
Recently, the staff of Services for Students with Disabilities asked students to nominate faculty and staff members who they felt positively impacted and contributed to their academic endeavors. Our department is proud to recognize these instructors for all their hard work. Thank you Anne McCreary, Elizabeth Mayne, and Joshua Griffiths for your efforts and dedication to all students at the University of Texas.
"Anne McCreary was very gracious and understanding. She never gave me a hard time for being late to class and was very helpful when I had to miss class or sit out. She encouraged me to pursue my goals and not let my health problems define me."
"Elizabeth was so helpful and understanding!"
"Josh has been a great help this semester in assuring all of my accommodations had been met. He is a great instructor of French."
Congratulations to Paola Bonifazio and Barbara Bullock! Both professors have been granted Faculty Research Assignments from the Office of Graduate Studies for the fall of 2017.
Congratulations to Douglas Biow and Cinzia Russi! Both Italian professors have been awarded College Research Fellowships by the College of Liberal Arts for the spring of 2018.
Congratulations to Nicholas Spinelli on his successful defense of his dissertation! French studies Ph.D. student, Nicholas Spinelli, successfully defended his dissertation, "Family Friendly: Homo-Affinity in the French Sentimental Novel, 1770-1850". Félicitations!
