News from the Director, Dr. Gayle Zachmann, Fall 2005

The Paris Research Center has now welcomed over 50 UF scholars, hosted nearly 200 international scholars at UF organized events and facilitated study abroad development from all corners of the campus. Since the 2004 initiation of our innovative course programming, we have brought well over 220 students to Paris for study and research. I would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest members: the School of Architecture, the College of Pharmacy, the Levin College of Law, the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering and the College of Health & Human Performance. The Paris Research Center now counts over 30 member units, and enthusiasm is growing both at the University of Florida and abroad. We are delighted to share news of this past year’s symposia, scholars-in-residence and study abroad programs.

Workshops & Symposia

In the past year, we have facilitated exciting international endeavors that have brought great visibility to the University of Florida scholarly community.

• In December, we were pleased to host MAE E² International, an event organized by Dr. Raphael Haftka and Dr. Gloria Wiens, and designed to highlight the UF Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, to promote visibility, and to stimulate exchange between UF and French universities.
• In February, the Paris Research Center hosted The New Face of Europe, the second of a two- part workshop organized by Dr. Amie Kreppel, Director of the Center for European Studies. Designed to serve as an opportunity for academics and practitioners from across America and Europe to discuss issues relating to the changing definition of Europe, the EU enlargement, the EU draft constitution and the development of citizenship identity, this highly successful critical exchange welcomed scholars as well as members of the European Parliament and the European Commission.
• In May, the Paris Research Center was delighted to host Quantum Dynamics of Complex Molecular Systems, a stimulating three-day international workshop organized by Dr. David Micha (Physics) and Dr. Irene Burghardt (Ecole Normale Supérieure). This event was attended by 47 scholars from 9 countries (who not incidentally continued their work on formulae on all table linens: breakfast, lunch and dinner!). It was an enthusiastic working group, and we very much look forward to welcoming them back to the Center.
• In May we also hosted the first edition of an annual Paris Research Center workshops series in French studies. Organized by Dr. Gayle Zachmann and Dr. Charles Stivale (Wayne State University), this year’s workshop, a critical and collaborative discussion of Cultural Production in the 19th Century, was attended by over 30 distinguished guest scholars from France, England and the United States.
• In June, we maintained a high level of activity with a very well received homage to the authors of Popular Front Paris and the Poetics of Culture (Harvard UP, 2005): Dr. Steven Ungar (Univeristy of Iowa) and Dr. Dudley Andrews (Yale). Organized by Dr. Maureen Turim (English/Film & Media Studies), the workshop New Approaches to French Film and Culture provided a space for Franco-American discussion of film and cultural studies by approximately 25 renowned experts from Europe and America.

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Scholars-in-Residence and Upcoming Critical Discussions and Workshops

UF Scholars-in-Residence

In addition to facilitating and supporting workshops, symposia, and individual and group research projects, the Paris Research Center provides logistic, consultative, research and administrative services to member unit faculty. In 2004-5 we were pleased to welcome many UF faculty members as scholars-in-residence, each of whom benefited from the Paris campus facilities in diverse and discipline-specific ways. Recent scholars-in-residence include:

• Dr. Henri Tosi (Warrington College of Business Administration), who spent three months as a guest professor at the University of Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC).
• Dr. Vasudha Narayan (Religion), in Paris on a series of visits to conduct research at the Ecole Française d'Extreme Orient and at the Musée Guimet for a project on Hindu narratives seen through Khmer sculpture, architecture and Sanskrit inscriptions.
• Professor Sergio Vega (Photography), who presented a well- attended lecture “Paradise in the New World,” a discussion of his interdisciplinary installation currently on view at the 51st Venice Biennale.
• Dr. Peter Hirshfeld (Physics), currently spending the 2005-6 academic year in Paris to conduct research in condensed matter at the Laboratoire de Physique de Solides at the Université de Paris-Sud XI.
• Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture, Terry Schnadelbach, Coordinator of Landscape Architecture programs at the Paris Research Center.

Other UF faculty welcomed for a variety of projects and symposia were Dr. Steven Brandt (Anthropology), Dr. Terry Harpold (English), Dr. Ranga Narayan (Physics) and Dr. David Ostroff (Telecommunications), with many others on-site to teach and conduct research.

Visiting Scholars-in-Residence

This year, the Paris Research Center will welcome two distinguished Visiting Scholars-in-Residence, Dr. Steven Ungar (University of Iowa) and Dr. Ziad Elmarsafy (York University). Both scholars will contribute to the intellectual life of the PRC and to the Honors in Paris program by speaking in the upcoming Honors Spring 2006 Distinguished Lecture Series. This fall, we were also delighted to welcome Professor Max Conrad (Lousiana State University) as a Visiting Scholar-in-Residence affiliated with the Landscape Architecture Studio Program in Paris.

Upcoming Workshops & Critical Discussions

Our visiting Scholars-in-Residence will also participate in Présences Africaines, a two-day workshop co-organized by the Center for African Studies and the Paris Research Center in conjunction with the Festival Francophone en France, a nationwide celebration of Francophone culture. UF participants and organizers include Dr. Leo Villalòn (Center for African Studies), Dr. Abdoulaye Kane (Anthropology), Dr. Joan Frosh (Center for World Arts), Dr. Vicki Rovine (Art & Art History), and Dr. Alioune Sow (RLL).

Also planned for Spring 2006 is Women in the Avant Gardes, a workshop organized with Dr. Maureen Turim (English/Film & Media Studies) and Dr. Christa Bluminger (Université de Paris III) that will re-consider and re-contextualize women in the avant-gardes. The presenters list is expected to include Dr. Laura Mulvey (Birbeck University, London), Dr. Nora Alter (German and Slavic, Associate Chair) and Dr. Gertrud Koch (Free University, Berlin), among others.

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Study Abroad Initiatives

In addition to the numerous research initiatives facilitated by the Paris Research Center, it is a great pleasure to announce that we now host and facilitate a wide array of discipline-specific high motivation programs from units across campus. Programs have come from Architecture, Art & Art History, Business, Classics, English/Film & Media Studies, History, Honors, Landscape Architecture, Political Science, Romance Languages & Literatures, Translation Studies, and Women’s Studies, the Levin School of Law, and more are on the way.

Honors in Paris 2005

Conceived as a four- month research seminar, the Honors in Paris program unites internationally- renowned UF scholars from different fields to create a comprehensive academic experience for highly motivated UF students. The theme for last year’s program was Engagements with Modern France: Literature, Politics, and the Visual Arts, 1850-2005. Faculty included Dr. Melissa Hyde (Art & Art History), Dr. Gayle Zachmann (Paris Research Center & RLL), Dr. Sheryl Kroen (History) and Dr. Amie Kreppel (Political Science). Program highlights included guest lectures by Georgiana Colvile, professor of English and American language and literature at the University of Tours; Vincent Duclert, professeur agrégé at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and historian of contemporary France; and Daniel Maximin, poet, author and essayist whose most recent publication Tu, c’est l’enfance (Editions Gallimard, Collection Haute Enfance, 2004) received the prestigious Grand Prix de l’Académie Française Maurice Genevoix in December 2004. Throughout the semester, students also attended numerous cultural events including visits to all major museums in Paris, lectures at the Bibliothèque Nationale, opera, contemporary dance, and classical music concerts. The program’s excursions included Versailles, Giverny, Mont St. Michel, the D-Day beaches in Normandy, and World War I trenches in the Marne. In addition, Honors in Paris students benefited from a language and culture partnership with students from the Sorbonne (University of Paris IV-Sorbonne).

Intensive Study Abroad 2005: Spring Break & May Intersession

While that may seem like quite a bit of activity, let me add that Spring Break 2005 brought three newly designed programs to the Paris Research Center, welcoming 37 students taught by Dr. Scott Nygren (English/Film & Media Studies), Dr. Cesar-Lee (RLL) & Dr. Elizabeth Lowe (Translation Studies), and Dr. Amy Ongiri (English/Film & Media Studies), while the 2005 May Intersession brought three intensive study abroad programs to the Paris Research Center that were also enrolled by 37 students. First-time courses were conceived by Dr. Mary Ann Eaverly (Classics) and Dr. Marsha Bryant (English), who co-taught Women Poets as Classical Tourists: Antiquity in the Modern City, an interdisciplinary course that explored the women poets’ interactions with Classical sources;, and by Professor Vikram Rangala (Honors) who taught A Writer's Tour of Paris for the Five Senses. Distinguished Professor R. Terry Schnadelbach (Landscape Architecture) once again led students on the second highly- successful intensive course Historic & Contemporary Landscape Architecture in Paris, studying exemplary landscape architectural spaces in Paris and the nearby region.

Summer 2005

In addition to the Interdisciplinary Studies program initiated in 2004, the Summer 2005 term saw the development of a new intensive French program at the PRC. The summer term brought a total of 33 undergraduate and 2 graduate students to Paris. Dr. Robert Hatch (History) coordinated the Interdisciplinary Studies program, teaching City of Light: Paris in the 17th Century. Other courses offered included The Gothic Cathedral in the Ile-de France taught by Dr. David Stanley (Art & Art History) and Narrative Strategies in French Film taught by Dr. Scott Nygren (English/Film & Media Studies). French courses offered included Intensive Intermediate French, a six-credit intensive French course originally taught in the UF in Provence program; Paris: L’écriture de la ville taught by Dr. Rori Bloom (RLL) and Beginning French at the PRC. Highlights of the program were excursions to Normandy and the chateaux of the Loire Valley, a classical music concert at the world renowned St. Chapelle cathedral and site visits to Chartres, Beauvais and Reims.

Fall Semester Landscape Architecture Studio in Paris 2005

Current activities at the Paris Research Center include the fall 2005 semester Studio Program in Landscape Architecture. In addition to program coursework and excursions, students benefit from a half semester collaboration with the Ecole d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville and a week-long tour of Italian landscapes that covers the major urban and villa sites of Venice, Florence and Rome. The PRC is the recipient of an exceptional grant from the Florence Gould Foundation that supports “Unbuilt Works/Projets non réalisés”, an annual lecture series designed to enhance the fall semester studio program. This year’s presenters include Faye Harwell (Rhodeside and Harwell, Washington, DC), Rosemary Wakeman (Fordham University) and Philippe Nys, Landscape Philosopher.

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Making & Taking International Initiative

It has been a pleasure to work with such positive energy and to see the result of faculty and student enthusiasm catapult the developing Paris Research Center to national and international visibility. Member faculty interested in proposing individual or group initiatives, workshops, symposia, study abroad programs or other international initiatives that may be facilitated by the Paris Research Center should feel free to contact me at paris-research@clas.ufl.edu. We look forward to receiving new ideas for scholarly programming, projects and events. Already planned for Spring 2006 are an impressive guest lecture series; at least three workshops; the Honors in Paris Spring 2006 Program, "Imaging the World: the Cultural Production of Contemporary Paris"; three Spring Break programs; an unprecedented five May Intersession programs; and two summer programs.

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Other Director News

• Fall 2006
• Fall 2004
• Fall 2003

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