Event Details

Joelle Vitiello (French and Francophone Studies) and Sophie Kerman (St. Paul Academy) will discuss Decolonizing the Curriculum in a French Course on "Francophony in/of America." During Spring 2022, we paired a Macalester College French course on the Francophone heritages in North America and the Caribbean with an advanced French class on the same topic at Saint Paul Academy and Summit School. The course, which received a small grant from the Pericles Foundation, confronted official French narratives with traditionally silenced or marginalized accounts. It integrated local history as well as the history of Francophone/French heritage in Quebec, the Midwest, Haiti and its diaspora, Louisiana, and history and resources about the Metis, Innu, Native American and First Nations. The course provided opportunities to meet with and learn from community leaders from a variety of backgrounds.

We would like to share both the highlights and the challenges of the course as well as the units produced by student groups focusing on decolonial knowledge, anchored in intersectional perspectives that will be made accessible to the public. Lunch will be provided. All faculty and staff are welcome.