The French degree program at Nazareth University is an immersive experience of language study, culture and literature, trips to Montreal, cooking Breton-style dinners, and a year in Rennes, France.
At the heart of the program is La Maison Française, a residential hall for 13 students interested in learning the language and the Francophone culture, and a cultural meeting place for Le Cercle Français (the French Club), for L' Alliance Française de Rochester, and for the Francophiles in the Rochester community. Movies, dinners, lectures, theatrical readings, and exhibits are held there regularly to enrich the student experience.
Over the past 10 years, several Nazareth students have received tutorial scholarships or teaching assistantships in Vitré, France.
Education: Mireille received her Ph.D. from Stanford University. She also is an alumna of the University of Maryland, at College Park, where she received her MA, and of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, rue d' Ulm, in Paris.
Teaching and Research Interests: French literature, francophone and film studies, cultural trends in contemporary France, and advanced composition and conversation courses. Research interests include immigration, politics and the novel; ethnicity, identity and human rights in contemporary literature and film; images of women in contemporary French and Francophone cinema; literary and film theory.
Before relocating to Rochester, she taught at the University of Delaware, Maryland and Stanford University. She is the Director of the French House, the French Club Advisor, and Director of the Rennes Study Abroad program.
Eric Disbro ‘16 is excited to go into a five-year master’s and Ph.D. program in French and Francophone Studies at Penn State with the cost covered and a paid graduate student instructorship teaching French. “I’m interested in how French art portrays women or people of color and how that portrayal affects the culture in other Francophone countries,” said Disbro, who spent sophomore year studying in Rennes, France. His interests were reflected in his triple major at Nazareth — French, Spanish, and art history — plus a minor in women and gender studies. “I would love to be a professor — teaching, researching, and writing.”