Past Events

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus! The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Spring 2025, EXCEPT on January 22, February 5, March 4, and March 5.

This two-day K-12 mini course explores the Opium Wars of the 19th century, their causes, and far-reaching consequences, connecting historical events with modern global issues. Through examining the relationship between imperialism, trade, and culture, participants will gain insight into how the Opium Wars reshaped international dynamics, especially between China and Western powers, including the emerging empire of the United States. Sessions include presentations, activities and teacher-led strategies for curricular development.

By examining how French and Italian cultures have imagined and depicted the future across various time periods and media forms, this conference seeks to contribute to our understanding of how societies conceptualize change, progress, and new possibilities. Speaker: Dr. Julia Frengs She is an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her past research has focused on representations of the body, Indigenous epistemologies, and environmental engagement in women’s literature from Kanaky/New Caledonia and Te Ao Mā’ohi/French Polynesia. Her monograph, Corporeal Archipelagos: Writing the Body in Francophone Oceanian Women’s Literature, was published by Lexington Books in 2018. Her current and future research projects investigate environmental engagement in Oceanian and Indian Ocean literatures. She served as guest co-editor of a double issue of Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES, entitled “Parler la terre/Speaking the Earth,” which appears in fall 2021 in issues 25.3 and 25.4. Her most recent article, “Anticolonial Ecofeminisms: Women’s Environmental Literature in French-speaking Oceania” appears in French Cultural Studies

Sören Urbansky, Ruhr University Bochum Chair, Eastern European History Dr. Urbansky discusses the challenges faced by Chinese immigrants during the late Tsarist Empire and early Soviet Union, highlighting the racial and cultural prejudices that fueled hostilities in urban settings. His analysis explores how these early interactions shaped the experiences and perceptions of Chinese communities in a rapidly changing socio-political landscape.

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during Spring semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

As part of the Unmasking Prejudice: Confronting Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Racism Across Europe Spring Lecture Series Lecture Summary: TBD About the Speaker: Kirsten Wesselhoeft is associate professor of religion at Vassar College. She is a scholar of contemporary Islam, drawing on ethnography and political analysis to study Muslim thought and culture in contexts shaped by colonial encounters and secular liberalism. Her first book, Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France (Chicago, 2025), shows how young engaged Muslims use disagreement and dissent to cultivate community, a value that is in turn stigmatized by political elites. Her scholarly writing has appeared in Political Theology, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and Sociology of Islam, among other journals. Please note a change in room