Night of Ideas

Speakers

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Alina Cherry

Associate professor of French in the department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Wayne State University. Prof.

The Role of the Writer in Times of Crisis

Alina Cherry is associate professor of French in the department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne State University. Prof. Cherry’s scholarship focuses on modern and contemporary French and Francophones literatures and cultures. She is currently working on a book project that examines literary works produced in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that occurred on January 12, 2010 in Haiti. In addition, she is interested in questions of space and place, sound studies, temporality and narrative, analog photography, and intersections of visual and literary representation, which she has explored in her articles. 
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Mo Omari

President of Alliance Francaise de Detroit & VP of Alliances Francaises Federation USA.

Introduction of the Prix Goncourt 2024 “Houris” de Kamal Daoud

Mo joined l’Alliance Francaise de Detroit/French Institute of Michigan as Board member in 2007. He was elected President from 2014 to 2020. Is now reelected president starting in 2024. Mo is also, Board member of the Federation USA des Alliances Francaises since 2020 and Vice-President since 2024. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et des Métiers in Paris, Mo had a long career at General Motors, part of Global Manufacturing Engineering. He is currently the Director of Maintenance at the American Sailing Institute, where he also teaches sailing.  

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Timothée Valentin

Assistant Professor of French in the department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University. Prof.

“Il y va de l’avenir du pays et du salut de nos enfants”: Women’s Activism within the Guadeloupean Worker’s Movement (1891–1905)

Timothée Valentin is an Assistant Professor of French in the department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University. He holds a MA and a PhD in French and Francophone Studies from Penn State University. His research focuses on the Guadeloupean workers’ movement at the turn of the 20th century.

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Audrey Viguier

Professor of French at Eastern Michigan University. Specialist in the French Revolution. Knight in the Order of the Academic Palms. Prof.

Olympe de Gouges la folle

Audrey Viguier is a French professor at Eastern Michigan University and a specialist in the French Revolution. She is a Knight in the Order of Academic Palms. Originally from southwestern France, she also writes about the political use of Occitan during the French Revolution and various 20th-century authors. Passionate about professional French, she was awarded the Palmes Académiques in 2016 for introducing training programs from the Paris Chamber of Commerce to American universities.

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Jolene Vos-Camy

Professor of French at Calvin University. Chevalière dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques. President of the Alliance Française de Grand Rapids. Prof.

Stirring up trouble at the Sun King’s Court: Charlotte Rose de Caumont La Force

Jolene earned her doctorate in French Literature from Indiana University in 2001. A Professor of French at Calvin University since 1997, she has published in journals internationally on 17th century French authors like Paul Scarron, Molière, Catherine Bernard, Antoinette de Salvan de Saliès, and more recently, Charlotte de Caumont La Force. A long-time member and board member of the Alliance Française de Grand Rapids, Jolene was elected president in 2020. In 2021, Jolene was named Chevalière dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques by the French Consul General, on behalf of the French Minister of Education.

@ Holly Hofwegen
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Cara Marie Young

Artist

Painting Exposition – Cara Young

Cara Marie Young – Artist. Cara completed her MFA at Wayne State University in 2022 while receiving a Garrett T. Heberlein Excellence in Teaching award. Received the Artist-in-Residence Diderot Grant from Château Orquevaux in 2023. Dean’s Diversity Fellow at Wayne State University from 2019 to 2021.

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