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Scholars from across the nation and Europe will be on campus April 24-26 for the annual North American Society for 17th-Century French Literature Conference. The conference, which will be hosted by the foreign languages and literatures department, will be held at the Hampton Inn in Easton and Kirby Hall of Civil Rights on campus.
Roxanne Lalande, professor of foreign languages and literatures, was recently awarded a $5,000 grant from the Florence Gould Foundation to host the conference. The Florence Gould Foundation provides funding for scholarly events centering on French culture.
“This annual event draws eminent scholars of international stature and it is a great honor for us to host this event,” says Lalande. “In this regard, Lafayette College seems a particularly appropriate venue in view of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Marquis de Lafayette.”
The conference is for literary and interdisciplinary scholars whose primary research focuses on 17th-century French literature and culture to discuss current theories and research. Fifty scholars will present papers and lectures. The lectures will be in either English or French. The campus community is welcome to attend.
The conference will last two and a half days with each day broken up into three to four sessions. The theme for the conference will be nourritures.
“The word has many meanings in French: spiritual nourishment, nutrition, the culinary arts, and simply food,” says Lalande. “Session topics include themes such as taste, nature-nurture, the mythology of wine, nutrition and medical practice, cannibalism, table art (still life), celestial nourishment, poisons, drugs and aphrodisiacs, etc.”