Fall 2025 Events
The CFFS is delighted to announce its upcoming symposium "1825–2025: France, Haiti,
and the Question of Indebtedness,” on October 8, from 12 to 5pm in the Hill Memorial
Library Lecture Hall. Gathering scholars from LSU, Tulane, Texas A&M, UC-Berkeley, Scripps College, and
the Université d’État d’Haïti, this interdisciplinary event will explore the facts
and fictions of a crucial moment in the history of Franco-Haitian relations: namely,
France’s imposition of a massive indemnity on Haiti in exchange for recognition of
its independence.
Spring 2025 Events
Nuit des idées : Building Solidarity Across Difference | Thursday, March 27th, 2024 from 7-9 PM | The Club at Union Square
The LSU Center for French and Francophone Studies partnered with the French Consulate
in New Orleans on our first-ever participation in the International Nuit des Idées event. This year’s theme was “Common Ground” and the event at LSU was the first one in
the world this year!
The CFFS hosted a program of food, drink, music and conversation around the topic of “Building Solidarity Across Difference.” The evening featured a concert-discussion with an all-star line up of Cajun LGBTQ+ musicians: Gina Forsyth (the MidCity Aces, the Bruce Daigrepont Band), guitarist Jan Boney, accordionist Rosemary Benoit (Lee Benoit & the Bayou Stompers, Louisiana Cajun Mixers), bassist Sam Wróbel (the 99 Playboys) and drummer Maegen Benoit (Lee Benoit Family Band). This event was an opportunity to think about the ways that our communities can create social cohesion and improve understanding across the many identities and perspectives that make up the richness of LSU and South Louisiana.
This event was co-sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of French Studies.
Photo: Charlie Champagne
Translation, Semantics, and Louisiana with Fatima Shaik
On Tuesday, March 11th, 2025 from 5PM-6PM at Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall, the CFFS hosted Fatima Shaik for a lecture titled "Translation, Semantics, and Louisiana.
Among the few written accounts by Louisiana people of African descent from before
the Civil War, the journals of the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle offer
unmediated access to the activities of this learned philanthropic society. Fatima
Shaik discussed the importance of semantics and history for translating these journals,
a major source for her Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood
(2022 American Book Award, 2022 LEH Humanities Book of the Year).
Fatima Shaik is the founder of the Saint Peter’s University Department of Communication
and Media Culture, and winner of the 2021 Louisiana Writer Award for her Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood (The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2021).
The 3rd Annual CFFS Caribbean Digital Humanities Lecture took place on Friday, February
21st, 2025 with Dr. Ludovic Mompelat from the University of Miami.
He presented on "Linguistic Challenges and AI Innovations for Haitian Creole: Overcoming Language Barriers for Healthcare."This talk explored the challenges and necessary steps involved in developing an AI-assisted translation and interpretation tool tailored to the Haitian Creole-speaking population in Miami. By addressing linguistic variation, multilingual code-switching, and domain-specific vocabulary for medical settings, the project aims to advance equitable healthcare access for an underserved community in the US. Key topics included the complexities of annotating and standardizing data for Haitian Creole, optimizing traditional Machine Learning approaches with the newest technologies in Machine Translation, and engaging local communities to ensure cultural and practical relevance. The presentation also highlights strategies for scalability and generalization, with a focus on quantifying success through user feedback and community outreach. Dr. Mompelat discussed how cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP) technology can bridge language barriers and reduce healthcare disparities.
The Department of French Studies and the LSU Center for French and Francophone Studies
co-sponsored the event: New Perspectives on Early Modern France Symposium on Thursday, February 13th from 3-5pm in the Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall. This
event included the following presentations: Faith Beasley (Dartmouth University) on
"Conversing with the Past: A Challenge to History," Leslie Tuttle (LSU) on "Oracles
at Play: A Brief History of Fortune-Telling Games," and Allison Stedman (University
of North Carolina, Charlotte) on "The Mind-Body Connection in Early Modern France."
This event was moderated by Kate Jensen (LSU).
On Feburary 7th and 8th, the CFFS hosted the Spring 2025 Villa Albertine Resident
Mélissa Laveaux. Mélissa Laveaux is a Haitian-Canadian singer-songwriter with a 16
year career based out of Paris, France. She is a self-taught guitarist who has been
writing songs since the age of 16. During her visit, she visited the Memorial Hill
Special Collections and did guest lecture presentations at a graduate course on Disability
and Anthropology and a French senior seminar course. She also met with Department
of French Studies graduate students.
Student Engagement
On Feburary 7th and 8th, 2025, the CFFS hosted the Spring 2025 Villa Albertine Resident
Mélissa Laveaux. Mélissa Laveaux is a Haitian-Canadian singer-songwriter with a 16 year career based
out of Paris, France. She is a self-taught guitarist who has been writing songs since
the age of 16. During her visit, she visited the Memorial Hill Special Collections
and did guest lecture presentations at a graduate course on Disability and Anthropology and a French senior seminar course. She also met with Department of French Studies
graduate students.
On Thursday, November 14th, 2024, the CFFS hosted Didyer Mannette, Manick Siar-Titéca, and Amandine Vélin for a creative writing working where they presented Antillean folktales (le conte antillais) from their home island of Guadeloupe. This workshop was open to all students in French 2101 or higher.