March 14, 2002-Vol33n21: Q&A

VOLUME 33, NUMBER 21

THURSDAY, March 14, 2002


	BUCHER

Gerard Bucher is a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and holder of the Melodia Jones Chair in French.

What is the Melodia Jones Chair?
The Jones chair endowment was set up in 1932 to attract to Buffalo an eminent person from France. By stipulation of the endowment, it only can be awarded to an outstanding French-born scholar. It has been very successful, with many prestigious scholars coming to UB. Among them are Andre Maurois, Michel Butor, Jacques Roger, Michel Foucault, Rene Girard, Jacques Derrida and Michel Serres. However, there was a decline of the Jones chair activities in the 1980s and 1990s because the environment had changed—the importance of language was not the same as it had been. Since I was appointed chair in 1999, I've tried to turn things around and take into account the new context in which we live. While there's a smaller section of French being offered at UB, we've always had strong connections to other programs within UB—with Comparative Literature, with the Poetics Program, and particularly with the Center for Psychoanalysis.

What are some of the steps you've taken to increase the visibility of the Jones chair?
I've done a number of things. Among them is to hire several adjuncts from outside UB to boost our core faculty teaching French and French studies. One of them, Francois Pare, a scholar in Canada specializing in 16th century France, is coming regularly to teach the subject, which is something that has been lacking in the program. I've also developed the Francophone (French-speaking countries throughout the world) component of the program. We wanted to take advantage of our position at the border of Canada, and this is totally different from the way things have been run in the past. We've also organized four conferences since 1999—some held totally in French—that have attracted well-known scholars, mainly from Canada. We have a student conference coming up March 23 on the representation of women that will attract many participants from Canada, but also from such U.S. universities as Yale, Louisiana State University, the University of Chicago and Vanderbilt. I'm very proud of the fact that our student conference last year on violence in literature was considered to be so good that its proceedings will be published in French Canada. That is a major achievement for us. We've also started a French film festival, which we've opened up to include Spanish and Italian films since the focus of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures is now on these three languages. I want the Jones chair money to be seed money for collaboration within these three programs (French, Spanish and Italian) on cultural events and lectures. The Jones chair also is funding scholarships in an attempt to attract better graduate students and maintain a good French program here at UB. So far, the chair is funding $1,500 scholarships for seven teaching assistants. The Jones chair is a work in progress. It's really a unique thing to have an endowment specifically directed toward maintaining French language. We have had a prestigious past, and I think we still can do something to maintain this for the 21st century.

Tell me about UB's participation in a consortium of Francophone universities.
I think our most important accomplishment is our association with a Canadian consortium of universities, which is actually the largest consortium of Francophone universities in the world. The consortium includes seven universities in Canada, mostly French-speaking, and UB and LSU in the U.S. It is through the consortium that the proceedings of our student conference are being published. I was able to invite a visiting professor from Canada to UB last fall, then I gave lectures in French Canada. So the connection is getting stronger. I think we are the only American institution having a French program connected so strongly with Canadian colleagues. Other U.S. universities continue to look toward France. We still have this connection with France, but we are very much connecting with Francophone universities in North America and taking advantage of our position on the Canadian border. We really are creating a center of attention for Buffalo.

Spanish has become the second language of America. Why should students study French, rather than Spanish?
For traditional reasons. French is a language that is still very strong as far as publications are concerned. In scholarly work, in the humanities, it's essential. Many works are translated from the French. Culturally, France is an important force in the film industry. And then French is very present in Africa—it's the second language on the continent. In some ways for Africans, it's important to use French to have their points of view known. French still is present in Southeast Asia—in Vietnam, Cambodia, New Caladonia, French Polynesia. French TV is watched in Australia. And in Europe, the core of the continent is Germany and France.

Why is it important to study another language?
The world has changed drastically. While there is an overwhelming presence of English, I think it's very important for English speakers, in general, and for intellectuals, in particular, to speak another language. Even for children, it opens up their minds and enables them to express themselves better in their own language. And it offers them another vehicle for linguistic expression. More profoundly, diversity is essential. There are still differences in the perception of life. It should be the mission of American universities to preserve diversity, not only within America, but to make the effort to speak the language of another.

Who was Melodia Jones?
She was a wealthy lady living in Buffalo during the 1930s who liked French. She gave money for the chair precisely because she thought Americans were losing sight of the importance of the more ancient languages, like Latin and Greek. She thought the Romance languages, like French, had to replace traditional knowledge of Latin. She wanted to create this endowment for UB to preserve the quality teaching of French. France was far away—you didn't meet a lot of people from France in Buffalo at that time. Now, the world has changed. We can connect through the Web and through movies. We can listen to almost any language we want. There should be a new orientation of the chair, with the same general outlook Melodia Jones had to preserve diversity in Buffalo and at UB. We need to rethink the mission of the chair, which is what I've been trying to do. She had a vision of establishing this endowment to maintain French within Western New York. But more essentially, to make it something that is linked to life itself, something that adds to life.