Alexandre Leupin, Executive Director
Todd Jacob, Assistant Director
The Center for French and Francophone Studies (CFFS) is a multidisciplinary research center that serves the function of a matrix organization through which scholars can interface on a level that transcends their disciplinary boundaries. The CFFS operates under the administrative oversight of the Office of Research and Economic Development at LSU.The executive director is appointed by the vice-chancellor of the Office of Research and Economic Development at LSU. The director drives the research agenda and oversees the management of the programs and the contracts entrusted to the CFFS. In addition, the director supervises the Center’s personnel and attends all meetings of the Center’s agencies. The director of the CFFS also represents the LSU Chancellor at the French-Speaking UniversityAgency, which organizes the Summit Meetings of Francophone Countries.
The mission of the CFFS is to promote original interdisciplinary scholarship and cultural initiatives on different aspects of the French-speaking world, in partnership with other research centers. The CFFS supports a multidisciplinary network of scholars in Francophone studies. In dialogue and in partnership with different international organizations and French-speaking countries, the CFFS actively pursues external funding to develop and ensure the completion of its projects. The CFFS is also a documentation center that acquires and then stores within its library literary works and textual, photographical, audio, video, and film documents on Louisiana and different French-speaking countries.
In order to develop its network of scholars as well as support its priority programs, its mission as a documentation center, and the financial aid of its research and cultural activities, the CFFS strives to maintain active partnerships with various cultural, economic, and political associations in Louisiana. It takes initiatives in matters of research and documentation tied to the historic and linguistic specificity of French in Louisiana, ensuring its longevity for future generations. The CFFS organizes conferences, colloquia, and research workshops on its thematic programs, issues calls for proposals to its entire network of scholars, and disseminates the findings of the projects it sponsors financially. It collaborates closely with several international institutions (the French-Speaking University Agency, the AUF Bureau of the Americas, and the International Organization of la Francophonie), and the consular representations of French-speaking countries (the Consulate General of France in New Orleans, Cultural services of the French Embassy in Washington, the Bureau of the Community Wallonie-Bruxelles in Louisiana, the Delegation of Quebec in Atlanta, the Canadian Consulate in Dallas, etc.). The CFFS is currently expanding its network to French-speaking countries in the developing world.
The research objectives and cultural agenda of the CFFS are centered on three thematic priority programs:
• Francophoniein Louisiana and North America
• The Cultural Diversity of the French-Speaking World
• La Francophoniein the Developing World
The Francophonie in Louisiana and North America program’s objective is to increase the influence of the French language in Louisiana and to encourage the promotion of studies on the representations of the French-speaking world in North America and in the Caribbean. It supports scholarly findings impacting the development of cultural and linguistic practices, the publication of such findings, and the diffusion of documents whose subject matter is primarily about Louisiana and North American civilization.
The goal of The Cultural Diversity of the French-Speaking World is to promote research projects that focus on cultural diversity within French-speaking countries on an international scale. Moreover, it promotes research activities focusing on the different representations of the Francophone culture in an international context (Quebec, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Senegal, and Haiti) as wells as the development of projects favoring dialogue between French-speaking countries and other linguistic regions.
La Francophonie in the Developing World program seeks to expand research on international Francophonie and its issues at the global level, particularly in developing countries where French is prevalent as the mother tongue, the official language, or the heritage language. It encourages research in all disciplines (environment, agriculture, law, social sciences, hard sciences, humanities, arts) in regions such as central Africa, western Africa, the Maghreb, Southeast Asia, and Haiti.
Center for French and Francophone Studies
425 Hodges Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
