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Several students and graduates of the Department of Romance Languages have been in the news in the last year with two achieving celebrity status. Danny Roberts, a 1999 B.A. in French, appeared in the ninth edition of the popular MTV program Real World in early 2000. The show involves a group of people living in an exotic locale (in this case, New Orleans) and how they interact. He appeared on the cover of the June 19, 2000 issue of TV Guide and was written about in the feature article. He also appeared on the WB program Dawson's Creek.
Colleen Haskell satisfied her language requirement in French while pursuing a BA in Drama. She appeared on the original CBS program Survivor , which was broadcast in 2000 and was "voted off the island" on the eleventh episode. She also appeared on the cover of TV Guide and was interviewed for the feature article. She starred in a movie called The Animal in Hollywood and has been featured in Entertainment Weekly.
Georgia State Represenative Stephanie Stuckey, BA in French, received a lot of press when she introduced a bill to increase the maximum allowable alcohol content in beer so that European craft beers could be sold in Georgia. The measure was defeated in the 2001 session.
On a more serious note, the department was quite worried about Faida Mitifu, PhD in French, 1994, who is Ambassador to the U.S. from her native country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her president was assassinated in January, 2001, but Faida was in Washington and still carries out her duties. She appeared on the PBS program Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and debated the issues surrounding her country with State Department representatives. It is possible to hear the entire interview on the PBS Website.
Instead of taking some time to relax after completing her preliminary exams, Lisa VanZwoll (doctoral student in French) attended the 69th annual Congrès de l'Association Canadienne -Française pour l'Avancement des Sciences where she presented a paper on Canadian writer Anne Hébert. Her paper was entitled "La prison maternelle dans Le Torrent et Un habit de lumière." She said that the conference was interesting because there were sessions on a wide range of topics including literature, education, biology, physics, mathematics, etc. It was the fist time she had the experience of considering "francophonie" as a way of life rather than seeing Quebec as a country that is just a part of Francophonie.
Deana Shuman (who had just completed her M.A. in French) accompanied Lisa on the trip. They spent a few days exploring Montreal before heading to Sherbrooke, where the conference was held. The highlight of the trip was witnessing a manifestation where surrounding cities were protesting being joined with Montreal. According to Lisa and Deana, Sherbrooke wasn't nearly as appealing as Montreal. Also, coming from Georgia, the cold weather was a bit shocking.
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