Please join us at the University of Virginia’s beautiful Morven Farm for a 1-day free professional development program for French teachers.

We have reached our maximum capacity for this program. Please email [email protected] if you'd like to be placed on a waitlist.

Thank you!

African/Caribbean Connections: Art, History, Culture 

With an initial focus on Francophone West Africa and the Caribbean, we plan to share new research and foster conversations around art, history and culture that will find their way into secondary school French courses. The program will feature scholars, artists, and activists from UVA and from West Africa and the Caribbean to share an aspect of their current work with you, and hopefully, one day with your students. The symposium will be conducted primarily in French. Teachers who attend the program will receive a $250 stipend to cover travel expenses and professional development points.

This program will be offered under the auspices of the UVA-French Center of Excellence and the Center for the Liberal Arts, with funding from the Embassy of France in the United States as part of a larger project entitled “Global French connections in Virginia schools.” A broader goal of the project is to foster closer connections between UVA faculty and French teachers across the Commonwealth, and to work together to grow and diversify the population of students who choose to study French. Additional support is provided by UVA’s Department of French, Karsh Institute of Democracy, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Clay Endowment for the Humanities.

Participants in the one-day program will be invited to join an optional virtual working group that will meet several times during the following academic year to continue conversations and develop curricular materials. We are also working towards a future residency program in which we will invite two guest scholar-artists from West Africa to make in-person visits to your French classes.

Please register by clicking the "Register Now" button on this page. Any questions for French colleagues may be directed to Janet Horne, [email protected] 

Agenda

9:30-10:00

Arrivée, accueil, petit déjeuner léger 

10:00-10:10

Remarques de bienvenue

10:10-10:50

Rashana Lydner (University of Virginia), "Le français en contextes multilingues / French in Multilingual Contexts" 

10:50-11:00

Pause 

11:00-11:45

Yarri Kamara (UNESCO), "Art, culture et développement en Afrique francophone" 

11:45-12:45

Déjeuner 

12:45-1:30

Jacqueline Couti (Rice University), "Faire de son ventre un cyclone": le corps parlant et dansant en contextes educatifs français" 

1:30-1:45

Pause 

1:45-2:30

Mamadou Dia, "Le Sénégal au cinéma" 

2:30-3:15

Discussion participants/intervenants en petit groupe  

3:15-3:30 Remerciements, évaluation