Reporter Volume 25, No.23 April 7, 1994

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Bureau Staff
Raymond Federman, SUNY distinguished professor and a member of the UB
faculties of English and comparative literatures, has been named
Melodia Jones Chair in French in the UB Department of Modern Foreign
Languages and Literatures. He will hold the chair from September, 1994
through May, 1997.
	The appointment calls for Federman to offer one graduate
seminar per semester in French studies to be conducted in French, and
to coordinate the use of Jones Chair funds for enrichment programs in
French and Francophone literature, theory and culture. He also will
actively promote both advanced studies in French at UB and the
long-term development of the French section of the Department of
Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures. 	
	More than 50 of the most distinguished French writers,
philosophers and literary scholars of their time have held the Jones
Chair since 1932. Among them are Andr
 Maurois (1940-41), Michel Butor (1962-63), Jacques Roger (1968-69),
Michel Foucault (1970 and 1972), Jacques Derrida (1975), Michel Serres
(1982-86) and most recently, literary scholar Roland Le Huenen
(1986-94). 
The French-born Federman is a pioneering bilingual novelist, poet,
critic and translator who has published more than 20 books of fiction,
poetry and criticism and many essays and articles. His novels, which
have been translated into a dozen languages, enjoy a wide audience,
particularly in Europe.
	The Melodia E. Jones Professorship was established in 1929 by
Melodia Jones, who stipulated that the chair be held by "a native of
France of high scholastic attainments."