Departmental Award Recipients 2020

Mylène Lamoureux-Duquette
Bachelor of Arts: Honours in French

"Félicitations, chère Mylène !

Mylène est une excellente étudiante qui réussit aussi bien dans les études que dans la vie sociale. En tant que President of the French Society, son dévouement, son enthousiasme et sa participation active aux activités intellectuelles et culturelles du département étaient un atout précieux ! Je la remercie de tout cœur pour tout le travail qu’elle a fait au département cette année. Je suis vraiment très fière d’elle !  

Je suis heureuse que son succès soit récompensé de la sorte et lui souhaite encore plus de réussites à l’avenir. Je suis bien confiante que son chemin sera un horizon plein de bonnes promesses.  

Ce fut un plaisir de faire sa connaissance et lui souhaite de belles vacances d’été bien méritées." - Taghrid Abou-Hassan

"Il serait peu dire que Mylène apporte, avec finesse et élégance, un plus considérable dans chacun des cours où elle s’inscrit et, plus généralement, à notre département. Il est malaisé également de savoir quoi mettre en avant entre sa maturité intellectuelle, sa propension à l’auto-évaluation, sa gentillesse charmante, sa générosité sans borne et ses dons d’analyse littéraire et de traduction. Je suis fière d’avoir eu Mylène dans ma classe et j’en garderai un souvenir inaltérable." - Dr. Marie Pascal

Robyn Easton
Bachelor of Arts: Major in French

"Robyn Easton began very strongly in French taking FREN 2045 (Advanced French) in her first year in parallel with the King's Foundation Year. With an A+ in 2045 and an A in FYP, she was off to a great start.  

Her work since then has been very solid indeed, she has remained continuously on the King's President's list and her work in French has been consistently of a high level.  

She took FR 2022 Language and Culture with me in the Winter semester of 2019 and she was a lively member of a very dynamic group which covered a range of French film masterpieces from the origins of cinema to today. Her work showed a sophisticated sense of the development of the art form over its history and of the functioning of each film as a text, a singular work of art. She received a well-deserved A+ in that class.  

She has taken a range of electives in Contemporary Studies, Philosophy, Law and International Development Studies.  

She has spent her third year at the Centre international d'études francophones at l'Université de Bourgogne in Dijon. Robyn finished up her year in France a little early because of the COVID situation but she made the most of her time there, as do all of our students who have the privilege of spending a term or a full academic year in Burgundy.   

We look forward to working with Robyn again beginning in September as she pursues her many interests, centred on her fourth year French requirements." - Dr. Christopher Elson

Ana-Maria Garniceanu
Bachelor of Science: Major in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and French

"Ana-Maria is an exceptionally motivated student, with a vast and genuine intellectual curiosity, both for languages and stories. Soon after leaving Romania, she decided on her own that she would learn French. She was only 4 at the time, and asked a neighbour for lessons. She is now in the Academia, still seeking knowledge, and certainly will not let the claim that “it won’t be on the test” get in her way. She has shown a keen interest, and a keen eye, for medieval and early modern literature, but that is surely only one of the many avenues opened before her, one of the many topics about which she has many questions. For instance, I expect that she will soon start asking questions about graduate studies." - Dr. Vincent Masse

"Bravo chère Ana-Maria ! Tu avais été sélectionnée parmi de nombreux candidats et nombreuses candidates pour être la lauréate de Dalhousie au Prix d’excellence de l’Alliance Française et pour représenter l’université au Prix du Consulat général de France dans les Provinces atlantiques. Le texte que tu avais soumis au jury me remplit d’émotion et de fierté. De même, tes accomplissements dans le cours du Français niveau avancé représentent admirablement ta passion pour la langue française et la culture francophone, ainsi que ton assiduité au travail universitaire.  Je suis heureuse que le Comité des affaires estudiantines t’ait octroyée la Bourse Sabah Metlej – toutes mes félicitations pour cette distinction largement méritée. Meilleurs vœux pour une bonne continuation dans ta voie académique." - Dr. Patricia Lee Men Chin

"Félicitations,  chère Ana-Maria! Vous méritez richement les prix que l'on vous décerne: votre éthique de travail, votre curiosité intellectuelle, votre sérieux font de vous une étudiante  magnifique dans chacun des cours que vous suivez. Bonne chance dans tout ce que vous entreprenez." - Dr. Irène Oore

Layla Gibson
Bachelor of Arts 2020: First Class Honours in French and Early Modern Studies

Comments on Layla's achievements from Dr. Iris Black and Dr. Driss Aissaoui:

"After the Foundation Year at Kings, Layla started her French studies as an absolute beginner in 2016, with the clear goal of one day reading Rousseau in his native language.  I had the privilege of teaching Layla in several courses as she advanced steadily and surely ; her progress in oral French, in particular, was astounding.  Her passion for study has only deepened over the years, and we have had lively conversations about her programme at Dal and her goals for a career in university teaching. She took her dreams to a summer course in Neuchatel, and has inspired many other students to expand the limits of their world.  Bravo, Layla – your goals, achievements and aspirations are truly outstanding!" - Dr. Iris Black

"C'est toujours un plaisir d'encadrer des étudiants appliqués et dévoués, non seulement parce que le travail de supervision en devient plus facile et agréable, mais aussi et surtout parce que, en termes de résultats, tous les rêves sont alors permis. Diriger le travail de Layla Gibson m'a donné l'occasion de découvrir que le rôle de directeur de thèse peut nous propulser vers des hauteurs jusque là insoupçonnées quand la diligence, la sagacité et la rigueur de l'étudiante sont doublées et enrichies par un amour pour la littérature et une passion débordante pour l'auteur étudié, en occurrence Jean-Jacques Rousseau. La collaboration prend alors sa pleine mesure, tant elle est faite d'échanges suggestifs, de commerce fructueux d'idées et d'inspirantes discussions. Layla Gibson mérite amplement le prix de l'ambassade de Suisse dans la mesure où elle vient de compléter un remarquable travail de réflexion et d'analyse sur l'usage de l'animal dans l'œuvre du plus célèbre citoyen de Genève." - Dr. Driss Aissaoui

Elizabeth Scott-Black
Bachelor of Arts 2020: First Class Honours in Spanish and French, University Medal in French

A note about Elizabeth's achievements from Dr. Christopher Elson:

"It is so fitting to see Elizabeth Scott-Black recognized with the Marcelle Sandhu prize as a student "who [has achieved] excellence in third (FR3045) or fourth (FR4046) year French grammar courses". She is a most worthy recipient, with an A+ grade in both FR 3045 and 4046 in the same year!  

On a personal note, as a former student of the Department myself, I took Marcelle Sandhu's famously demanding Composition class in the 1980s and can say without a doubt that the quality of Elizabeth's work situates her firmly in that tradition of departmental excellence.  

Having taken King's Foundation Year and then combining Spanish and French classes along with a clearly focused group of King's Contemporary Studies and Early Modern Studies electives in her subsequent years (not to mention a term abroad in Salamanca and a summer class in Berlin), Ms. Scott- Black's transcript reads as an exemplary undergraduate humanities trajectory. She has attained the rare level of a 3,93 cumulative GPA.

Her Honours essay, Notre-Dame de Paris: La flamme patrimoniale, undertaken with my supervision, emphasized the interweaving of the religious, literary,  architectural and art-historical, social and political factors which make of Notre-Dame Cathedral at one and the same time a supremely powerful and concentrated site of French culture and the site of a specifically contemporary universalism-- Notre-Dame-de-l'Humanité, as one of the authors she considered puts it. Set against the backdrop of the April, 2019 fire, she achieves a high level of synthesis regarding a range of very pertinent questions with respect to restoration, authenticity, belonging, heritage etc. I found her conceptualization of this project and her commitment to it through the unsettling conditions we have all experienced since March to be very promising for her future studies and indeed for all of her future endeavours. Bravo, Elizabeth"