Spring 2026 Events
Nuit des Idées • "L'AIL - Languages of AI in/and Louisiana"
April 15th • 6:00-8:00pm (Doors open 5:30) • LSU Museum of Art
Pre-Registration is recommened.
The CFFS is excited to co-sponsor our 2nd annual Nuit des Idées in partnership with the LSU Museum of Art (LSUMOA), the Consulate General of France in Louisiana, Villa Albertine, and the French Institute for Culture and Education. This program, L’AIL: Languages of AI in/and Louisiana, considers the evolving relationship between language, culture, and artificial intelligence.
This event will include a panel discussion featuring Olivain Porry (2026 Villa Albertine Arts in the Age of AI resident and artist) and Jonathan Mayers (Creole scholar, artist, and former Baton Rouge Poet Laureate). Together, they will examine how AI models are reshaping how we speak, write, read, and think—often privileging a dominant, standardized English. This conversaiton will explore how Louisiana’s diverse vernacular traditions offer playful and critical ways to disrupt these systems, challenging assumptions embedded in artificial intelligence and reclaiming linguistic humanity.
Following the discussion, guests are invited to a reception featuring a collaborative student project developed during Porry’s residency with Professor Brendan Harmon, Emerson Womack Professor of Landscape Architecture in LSU’s College of Art & Design. Titled Creolization of Large Language Model Workshop, the project engages directly with the themes of language, technology, and cultural hybridity, and complements Porry’s installation currently on view at LSUMOA, Lies Language Models.
**The CFFS will be providing FREE SHUTTLE SERVICE TO AND FROM THIS EVENT through LSU Tiger Trails. Pickup will be at 5:35 in front of Hodges Hall, and the return will leave at 8:05 from the Museum, back to Hodges Hall.**
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended.
4th Annual CFFS Caribbean Digital Humanities Lecture
Preserving Ingenuity: Editing the Revue des Colonies (1834–1842)
Maria Beliaeva Solomon (University of Maryland College Park)
Virtual Event | Friday, March 20th, 2026 | 11:00 AM -12:00 PM CST
9:00 -10:00 AM PST | 12:00 -1:00 PM EST | 6:00-7:00 PM CET
This talk offers a glimpse into The Revue des Colonies: A Digital Scholarly Edition and Translation, an open-access project providing a complete transcription, critical annotation,
and English translation of the first French periodical directed by people of color.
Founded by Martinican abolitionist Cyrille Bissette, the Revue circulated antislavery
arguments across the French colonial empire and beyond, confronting both surveillance
and censorship. The project’s editorial and technical choices are guided by the commitment
to remain faithful, as a matter of method, to the journal’s own innovations in form.
This lecture will showcase how this ambition shapes our collaborative workflow across
transcription, TEI encoding, translation, and bilingual annotation, including protocols
attentive to historically charged vocabulary and archival silences.
Please RSVP for this virtual lecture here. You will receive a reminder in the days before and the zoom link on the morning of the presentation
Department of French Studies Graduate Student Conference
March 5th-6th, 2026
The CFFS is excited to co-sponoste the Department of French Studies Graduate Student Association (DFSGSA) graduate student conference. This year's conference, "Literature, What For?", will allowo researchers to share their work on the role and impact of literature upon others with colleagues in the fields of French and Francophone Studies. This conference will include graduate student presentations and a keynote address entitled "For what Literature?" by Dr. Annabel Kim (Harvard University, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures).
Fall 2025 Events
TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou
Film Screening and Q&A with Senegalese jazz musician Alune Wade
Tuesday, October 21st | 6-8PM
French House 135
In Wolof, tukki means journey. Join Senegalese musician and composer Alune Wade as
he travels through West Africa to New Orleans to explore the connections between jazz
on both sides of the Atlantic. Tukki, directed by Alune Wade and Vincent Le Gal, was
shot on location in Dakar and Saint-Louis, Senegal, Lagos, Nigeria, Accra, Ghana,
Paris, France, and New Orleans, United States. It is produced by Crescendo-SUNU Production
and the Neighborhood Story Project. Cinematography and editing by Vincent Le Gal (La
Chemise Productions).
Alune Wade is a Paris-based Senegalese bassist, vocalist and composer dedicated to promoting the musical traditions of his native Africa.
Co-sponsoed by The Neighborhood Story Project.
Symposium: “1825–2025: France, Haiti, and the Question of Indebtedness”
October 8, 2025 from 1PM to 5pm | Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall, LSU
Gathering scholars from LSU, Tulane University, Texas A&M, UC-Berkeley, and Scripps
College, this interdisciplinary event will explore the facts and fictions of a crucial
moment in the history of Franco-Haitian relations: the 1825 imposition by France of
a massive indemnity on Haiti in exchange for recognition of its independence. Supported
by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, this symposium is LSU’s contribution
to a broader programming including partners at Yale University and Brown University.
Please check the dedicated page for this symposium for more information on the program.
Photo: Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer receiving Charles X’s decree recognizing Haitian independence on July 11, 1825, Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
Student Engagement
On February 7th and 8th, 2025, the CFFS hosted the Spring 2025 Villa Albertine Resident
Mélissa Laveaux. Mélissa Laveaux is a Haitian-Canadian singer-songwriter with a 16 year career based
out of Paris, France. She is a self-taught guitarist who has been writing songs since
the age of 16. During her visit, she visited the Memorial Hill Special Collections
and did guest lecture presentations at a graduate course on Disability and Anthropology and a French senior seminar course. She also met with Department of French Studies
graduate students.
On Thursday, November 14th, 2024, the CFFS hosted Didyer Mannette, Manick Siar-Titéca, and Amandine Vélin for a creative writing working where they presented Antillean folktales (le conte antillais) from their home island of Guadeloupe. This workshop was open to all students in French 2101 or higher.