Higher Education Centers of ExcellenceUniversity of Florida
Director: Hélène Blondeau
The Center is housed in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and is listed among the Centers and Programs of the College of Liberal Arts and Science. The Director, who is usually a member of the French section, is appointed by the Dean of the College.
Most of the funding of the Center comes from the French Embassy and the Center is administratively dependent on the College of Liberal Arts.
The FFRI builds on the strengths of UF’s program in French and Francophone studies in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. It works closely with the Colleges, Centers of programs of the University such as College of Design, Construction, and Planning, College of Engineering, College of Fine Arts, College of Journalism and Communications, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, International Center and Samuel Harn Museum of Art.
It works to create new linkages in the spirit of interdisciplinarity and internationalization that characterizes the University of Florida. It serves as an umbrella organization to centralize and promote the numerous existing partnerships between the University of Florida and French and Francophone research centers and academic institutions (Sciences Po, Paris, Université Toulouse 1, Université de Rennes II, Université Paris-Descartes, Paris X-Orsay)
It also facilitates student’s mobility and promotes teaching assistantship in France,
The FFRI organizes and sponsors lecture series, visiting professorships, film series, theater workshops, exhibits, and symposia as well as outreach activities for the teachers of French in Alachua County.
The FFRI organizes and sponsors several France / French related events and activities in the field of:
- French literature and culture,
- French philosophy,
- Comparative literature,
- Immigration and Contemporary France,
- Francophone literatures and Cultures,
- Sociolinguistics and Francophonie
- Political Science,
- History,
- Architecture,
- History of Arts and performance
Visits of authors and artists are often included in our curriculum providing opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.
The FFRI works very closely with the Center for African Studies, the Center for European Studies, Film Studies and Media Studies, the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, Jewish Studies, the Center for Humanities and the Public Sphere, the Honors Program, Medieval and Early Modern Studies
France/Florida Research Institute (FFRI)
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
301 Pugh, P.O. Box 115565
Gainesville, FL 32611-5565
