Diversify your French - Summer Webinar Series (From Lagoons to Deserts: French as a Global Language)

Expand your French teaching, curriculum, and worldview with the Diversify Your French Virtual Summer Sessions. Each week we will explore a dialect, a world region, or an aspect of French with educators that will help you make your classroom a more global, diverse and welcoming space. Connect with other educators looking to expand their practice and discover new resources. Register for one session or all four!

SESSION TWO:

Date: Monday, July 17, 2023

Time: 9-10:15am PT / 12-1:15pm ET * please note the different time, due to time zones

From Lagoons to Deserts: French as a Global Language

Despite the fact that the French language is written and spoken around the globe, its representation in French classrooms continues to revolve around Europe. Why is this the case? What are the scholarly, ethical, and pedagogical implications of such a skewed narrative? Ultimately, what steps can we take to create a more complex engagement with the French language and francophone literatures?

Session Presenter: Dr. Nikhita Obeegadoo is Assistant Professor of Languages and World Literatures at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literature from Harvard University, as well as a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Comparative Literature from Stanford University. Dr. Obeegadoo is a specialist in contemporary francophone and world literatures, with a particular focus on stories of oceans and archipelagoes.  Her current book project, “Silence of the Seabed,” explores contemporary literatures of oceanic migration in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean.