After French at Stirling: 50 years on…

It is definitely a sign of how busy things have been at Stirling since the start of the year that it’s already the end of March and this is our first blog post of 2024 but it’s a great one to get us started again!

We’re always happy to highlight the progress of our graduates but in this blog post we are delighted to share reflections that go back further than usual. Russ Walker is celebrating fifty years since his graduation from Stirling, and reflecting on what a degree in French led to…

“I graduated from the University of Stirling in the summer of 1974 – hard to believe that it will be fifty years this summer. A degree in French – what to do with it?

I had a chance to work as an ‘intelligence agent’ (spy? they never said) and an opportunity of a post on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Instead, I spent my working life based in Scotland in jobs where French was not a requirement. However, it proved surprisingly useful in many of my postings and in my other interests.

The first half of my working career was involved with General Register Office for Scotland which organised and ran the recording of all births, deaths and marriages in Scotland along with the population census. To my surprise, in my first month I found myself back in Paris at the Palais du Luxembourg translating for registration colleagues at the annual meeting of the CIEC – the International Commission on Civil Status.

In the following years we returned as observers at annual conferences in Madrid, Salzburg and Cesme (Turkey), even being invited to present a paper in French on the new Scottish Marriage Law.  I worked on the team that took the new law through Parliament.

As a graduate civil service recruit, I undertook a number of lengthy training courses in London. One of these involved a week studying at ENA Paris (Ecole Nationale d’Adminstration) where we twinned with the future top administrators of France. Emmanuel Macron was a later graduate but went on to close it down.

I was part of the team planning and preparing the 1981 population census and then took charge of overseeing the census in the Edinburgh and Lothians area. This involved around 2,000 temporary workers at a time when the census involved house to house visits.

For most of the 1980s I was a travelling inspector checking and visiting registrars across western Scotland covering the area from the Isle of Lewis down to Gretna. Scotland was covered by three of us with the grand title of “District Examiner” – one of the best jobs it was possible to have! I married and moved back to the Glasgow area. I was free to plan my own timetable and spent many pleasant summer weeks on Lewis, Harris, Barra, the Uists, Skye, Islay and the smaller islands – saving Glasgow and the larger offices for winter visits! It was a great way to learn about my native land and what was happening locally.

My travelling life stopped in 1992 and the second part of my career was a complete change. I started working for the Scottish Government initially on government assistance grants to companies creating new jobs. There were many interesting and ambitious local companies looking for assistance to expand including some of the computer games companies which were just beginning to emerge at that time.

I followed that with a lengthy secondment to Scottish Enterprise, our business development agency, working firstly in the Locate in Scotland (LIS) briefing team. LIS was charged with bringing in and supporting investment from outside the country and we were kept busy briefing government ministers announcing new investment and job creation in some of the new, emerging industries. There were usually lots of TV and newspaper coverage at these events.  Later I took on the German desk (!), supported by my very capable colleague Heike, a formidable Glaswegian German. I followed that with the renewable energy remit, a sector which was just emerging at that point. At that time too I participated in some EU-based courses in Brussels, conducted in French (of course).

The final part of my career was a return to the Scottish Government in various parts of its International relations interests. We ran an international network called ‘Friends of Scotland’ and developed web based material to promote Scotland internationally, with the aim of growing our trade, investment, influence and networks.

One memorable project involved a close connection to my time at Stirling. I had spent the second semester of my third year studies in Montpellier. One of our ‘Friends’ offered the opportunity to leave a permanent reminder there – the partial restoration of Sir Patrick Geddes garden in Montpellier and the installation of a copy of Geddes bust at the College des Écossais – now one of the main centres for courses for teachers in the Hérault. When I was there in 1973 I had no idea then about the college nor any knowledge of Sir Patrick Geddes!

Geddes has since reappeared as one of the great environmentalists and his phrase – Think Global Act Local – is used around the world so it was nostalgic to return to Montpellier for the unveiling of the bust and the project itself was well covered by an article in The Scotsman.

In my personal life I was able to use my French quite regularly for many years. My department was very supportive of assisting further learning so I took a number of courses at the French Institute in Edinburgh including its Diploma in Commercial French as well as enjoying some French Government sponsored courses in France (a week visiting Champagne producers around Reims, for example!)

I was quite involved in athletics for many years and as part of its European City of Culture in 1990, Glasgow hosted the European Indoor Championships. I helped to recruit most of the interpreter/liaison volunteers to work with the overseas teams and I acted in that capacity for the French team. An Italian/Ugandan friend from my Stirling days came up do the same with the Italian team.

Another interest is in philately – stamps, postal history, postcards etc – and that has called on my French from time to time. I attended the Salon Philatélique d’Automne for a few years helping some dealer friends sell material to French collectors. We also established very friendly links to the New Caledonia stamp club (Caledonia being the initial link!) and I gave a presentation to its members in the Maison de la Nouvelle Calédonie near the Paris Opera. I am now investigating whether my fairly large collection of French North Africa might be of interest to the university. Over the centenary years of the First World War my philatelic society worked with the French Institute and Goethe Institute in Glasgow to put on a number of displays there showing material from the war.

And Brel? Well we did organise a memorial dinner for more than 20 at Bar Brel in Glasgow to mark the 25^th anniversary of his death. Of course with ‘frites et moules’.

Il nous fallut bien du talent
Pour être vieux sans être adultes

Finally, another memory from Stirling in the summer of 1974. Monty Python came to film nearby at Doune. The University invited 175 students to take part in a Python battle scene in its May 20 1974 newsletter. The advert stated: “While pay for the day is rather humble at £2 a head, transport to and from the film set is free, as is the food, including elevenses, hot lunch and tea. An added attraction, of course, will be a bunch of crazy antics coupled with the fact that the film is a full feature length film – going out on international release. Transport, in the form of buses, will be leaving from the back of Pathfoot at 8am (on May 25) – yes, that early, so that the makeup and costume girls can do a good job on you. Who knows, this could be your chance for stardom!”

I volunteered along with our two French Assistantes – we have dined out on that story ever since!”

So many of our graduates have gone on to such a diverse range of careers, further studies and adventures after they’ve completed their studies at Stirling but this has to be one of the most diverse posts we’ve been able to add so many, many thanks to Russ for taking the time to send this through and we look forward to tales of further French-related adventures.

  

Catching up with last year’s graduates

One of the great things about this blog is that it gives us a means of keeping up, not only with what colleagues in French at Stirling are doing, but also with what our students and our graduates are up to. As we get closer and closer to this year’s graduations, we thought it’d be good to catch-up with some of our graduates from last year so, with no further ado…

Shannon studied for a BA Hons in French and Spanish at Stirling and as a 2022 graduate moved on to pursuing her PGDE in primary education: “I am now working full time in a nursery setting in Liverpool as the curriculum practitioner. And my languages have not been completely forgotten. My pre-schoolers enjoy having a Spanish lesson once a week and we may add French to their curriculum soon! Wishing this year’s graduates all the best in the future no matter how you do or what you do!” Sophie also graduated with a BA Hons in French and Spanish and, since graduating, has started another degree studying Theology and Christian Leadership: !I’ve loved using the skills I learnt at Stirling to help this degree and next year I have chosen to study New Testament Greek which makes me excited to be able to use my language skills again.”

Meanwhile David, who graduated with a BA Hons in French and History, spent time in the US after he graduated but has since returned to do an MSc in Heritage at Stirling, and is currently researching and writing his thesis: “You will also be happy to know I have been able to make use of my French skills I acquired at Stirling, in my capacity as a volunteer at the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum. As a guide, not only can I assist French tourists, but behind the scenes I have also been able to translate material into French to help the Museums accreditation and be more welcoming to foreign tourists.” Our other David, who joined us as a mature student, and graduated with a BA Hons in French, explains that “after 7 years of re-education which concluded with four unbelievable years of involvement with French at the University of Stirling, I promised my wife and my three grandchildren that I would devote more time to them which I have done but that has not stopped me for continuing to learn and practice French.” In the year since graduation, David has kept on reading French books (including re-reading some he’d studied with us!), revising French grammar, listening to podcasts and regular news bulletins and trying to speak as much as he can through websites such as Language Exchange: “My appetite for learning has not waivered or reduced in any way. I have always had the will and motivation to continue although, I do miss being a student on campus and the camaraderie of my peers and being able to have the skills of our tutors to hand for advice when required.”

Lara, who completed her BA Hons in French and Spanish last June, has just finished working for a year as an English Language Assistant in a secondary school in Madrid with the British Council: “It’s been a very enriching experience and I plan on returning for a second year.” Ceinwen, having graduated with a BA Hons in French last year, has stayed on at Stirling for postgraduate studies on our MRes Humanities programme carrying on the research she did during her undergraduate degree and “When I’m not doing that I’m making full use of the Institut Français’ cinema programme in Edinburgh.”

Valentina, who graduated with a BA Hons in International Management with European Languages and Society, she has spent the past year working for Global Voices, our local translation and interpreting company, as a credit controller: “I call and email every day in French as I look after the debt for the French and Swiss market, as well as the Italian one. So, naturally my languages skills have improved, I now feel comfortable to speak on the phone to a native speaker which is great! I’ve also learnt all about chorus pro which is the public administration invoicing system in France!” And Muirne, who completed her BA Hons in Business Studies and French last year, has been doing an International Business Master’s here at Stirling this past year and is starting work on her dissertation now: “I’ve really been enjoying this programme and it has opened up lots of different routes I can take to start my career journey. I was also one of the programme reps for the course as I wanted to have a bit more responsibility and show more leadership. I have still been keeping up with my French as I think that will be a useful tool in the future for me. I have also been able to keep in touch with a French pen pal I made in 3rd year which has been helpful for practicing French.”

Sofia, who graduated with a BA Hons in French and Spanish last year, has almost finished her MA in South Asian Area Studies and is currently working on my dissertation, which is focusing on the legacies of trauma stemming from Partition and how this has affected the diasporic descendants of the Partition. Sofia was also recently accepted into a summer programme for Our Shared Cultural Heritage which is a programme that experiments with ways for museums and heritage organisations to work better for young people. Their focus is on the South Asian diaspora in the UK and young people in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh: “I’m not quite sure yet what the programme will entail but it will be interesting to look at heritage, culture, and of course language and to look at the Scottish South Asian community.” Vasiliki, having graduated with a BA Hons in Business Studies and French, moved to Madrid after graduation to do a Master’s in International Trade and Business: “Classes are finishing at the end of July, then I have to submit my thesis by mid-September, so in the meantime I am looking for an internship in the field of marketing or HR mostly, and I am really just looking across Europe, as I don’t want to limit myself. I would also be very much interested in moving back to the UK.”

And Morgan, who graduated with a BA Hons in International Politics and Languages, is currently in Belfast where she has just started writing her Master’s thesis exploring who is responsible for the deaths of displaced persons who drown while attempting to cross the Channel: “While I no longer directly study French, my knowledge of the language and the country have been particularly helpful when conducting research for my thesis. I work part-time as a hotel receptionist where I regularly get to talk with guests from French-speaking countries who always love to be able to chat in their native language.” Brendan, graduated with his BA Hons in French and Spanish last summer, and applied for a Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) here at Stirling Uni and started that at the end of September. He hopes to complete that, including his final teaching portfolio/dissertation project by the end of August at the latest: “Afterwards, in September and October, my programme may offer an external placement in various countries, one of them being France, where I would be asked to observe and do some English teaching in a language school. However, it is not clear if that will materialise yet so right now I’m just taking each day at a time and focusing on what I have to do at present. If everything goes according to plan, I will officially graduate in November. My reasoning for doing this Masters was to prepare me to be able to teach English and get employment more easily when living in France and Spain in the future. If I’m to be completely honest with you all, this has been the most challenging year in my academic journey so far (even more so than third year of undergrad when everything was online due to covid, which says a lot!). However, I’m hopeful that it will bear some fruit in the not-too-distant future in my pursuit to become a languages teacher, which is my dream job.”

Pauline, who graduated with a BA Hons in International Politics and Languages, is just finishing up her Master’s degree in Applied European Governance and Policymaking: “I will have written and oral exams throughout June. I am doing last revisions for my master thesis on the economic impact of integration of migrants in Germany and I expect to graduate at the beginning of July. I am also applying for traineeships and jobs, mainly in Brussels, for EU policy positions, with hopes to not be unemployed in August. We shall see how that goes. I’ve also been involved with a new volunteer network (Generation Climate Europe) and have moved up to now being the Network and Outreach Lead, which I am quite excited about.”

And finally (for the moment… if you’re a 2022 French at Stirling graduate reading this and you haven’t been back in touch yet, there’s still time!) Fiammetta, who graduated in Modern Languages and Business Studies says that her life has completely changed since graduation in June 2022: “After graduating, I was unsure which path to follow for my career. I wasn’t happy with my life and I almost decided to go back to my home country. I started a job in Edinburgh as a customer service assistant in a travel agency. The team was great, however after only 3 months I realised that it wasn’t the job for me so I decided to apply for a job I thought I would never get.

In February I applied for Emirates cabin crew and a few days later I received an email asking me to go to one of the company’s assessment days. Being cabin crew for Emirates has always been on my mind but I always thought it would be really hard for me to get that job. The day after the interview I received the “golden call” and after less than a month I moved to Dubai. I have now been living in Dubai for more than 3 months. It was hard to leave my friends again (I had left my family and friends in my home country 6 years earlier) but it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Now I get to travel and visit so many countries and I get paid for it! I am in contact with so many cultures and during my flights I can use my language skills to interact with customers. The best advice I can give to the graduates of 2023 is to always pursue your dreams, even if it’s not easy or if you have to leave everything behind, it will always be worth it. Now I’m having the best time of my life!”

It’s always lovely to hear from our graduates and to learn where life has taken them after their time as undergraduates at Stirling. Thank you very, very much to all of our 2022 graduates who have been back in touch and who have contributed to this blog post (and to Joanna whose earlier post started off this particular catch-up) and do keep in touch and keep us posted on what you go on to do next. Bon été to you all!

Africa in Motion 2021

Today marks the opening of the 2021 Africa in Motion film festival and, as ever, the festival’s programme is filled with fantastic screenings and films, all online this year, and accessible to viewers across the UK. Their ticket prices operate on a sliding scale and there are festival passes that give you access to more films. Among the festival strands this year are ‘Craft Insights’ which includes masterclasses and pre-recorded Q&A sessions, ‘Imaginarium’ focusing on the embodied experience of blackness and the environment including work in response to COP26, and ‘Premieres’ which, as the name suggests, includes dozens (66 in total…) of premieres of films from across Africa and Black diasporas. As ever, lots to choose from and so many brilliant films to watch! Check out the full programme here.

French at Stirling goes to Cannes… sort of!

Ok, so the title might be a slight over-statement but today sees the launch of the 74^th annual Cannes Film Festival and we are particularly proud to report that our honorary graduate Mark Cousins has two films screening there this year: The Story of Film: A New Generation and The Storms of Jeremy Thomas.

Félicitations, Mark! And we look forward to getting a chance to see the films, maybe not in Cannes but elsewhere and soon!

Conferences, Launch Events and Scholarships

It’s hard to believe that almost three weeks have already gone past since the last French at Stirling blog post. It’s been another busy period for staff and students alike but, as the dust starts to settle a little, this seems like a good time to catch up with some French at Stirling news.

Often, for some of us, the Summer months would mean attending conferences and giving papers. Although that isn’t happening in the real world at the moment, lots of these events have gone online and Julie Hugonny, in particular, will be flying the French at Stirling flag over the coming months. In fact, Julie just gave a paper at the University of Maynooth’s ‘Femmes dérangées, femmes dérangeantes’ conference earlier this month. Her paper (‘Evelyn Habal: Everyday Magic’) examines the character of Evelyn Habal, an actress and prostitute in Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s L’Eve Future, who is reviled for deceiving men with her artificial beauty and her insincere words. But, as Julie explored in her paper, what this scathing description implicitly recognizes, is her ability to create the perfect woman, every day, with makeup and tulle. Julie will also be giving a paper entitled ‘The Last Man on Earth – A New Myth for a new Trauma’ at the Fates and Graces Mythologium conference in Washington DC and another entitled ‘Mary Shelley’s Last Man. The Delusions of Prophecy’ at the Collapse and Extinction: Art, Literature and Discourse Conference at Stockholm University.

And, back in March (so apologies for not having included it closer to the time) Nina Parish gave a paper on ‘’The UNREST project: War Museums, Memory and Interpretation’, about the Horizon 2020-funded project she worked on before coming to Stirling (www.unrest.eu) at the Modern Languages Research Forum at the University of Aberdeen in March.

At the end of last month, Aedín ní Loingsigh was involved in the launch of the Stirling Centre for Interpreting, Translation and Intercultural Studies (SCITIS),directed by Raquel de Pedro Ricoy. The research centre aims to foster national and international cooperation in the fields of Translation Studies, Interpreting Studies and Intercultural Studies, and to address issues that are relevant to increasingly globalised, diverse societies in ways that have an impact on policy and practice. To celebrate the launch, we were delighted to welcome Charles Forsdick (University of Liverpool) to give a short talk followed by a Q&A with audience members. Until recently, Professor Forsdick was AHRC Theme Lead for ‘Translating Cultures’ and oversaw a portfolio of around 120 grants in the fields of translation, interpreting and multilingualism. The exciting launch of SCITIS coincides with a period of unprecedented change in the world. As Professor Forsdick traced how ‘Translating Cultures’ has helped to develop and enrich understandings of global, multilingual transmission and translation in different interconnected contexts, the launch event also gave us an opportunity to explore with him the role and significance of translation and interpreting during the current international health crisis and the move towards a ‘new normal.’ Congratulations and good luck to all our Translation and Interpreting colleagues for the new Centre. You can keep up to date with SCITIS news on Twitter here!

And finally, following on from our RATE nominations last month, more congratulations to Stirling students and staff. Well done to Year 3 English and Film and Media student Oliver whose research project was awarded a Carnegie Vacation Scholarship. Oliver will be working on ‘ 21^st-century Exoticism in Western Cinema’ and Elizabeth Ezra will be supervising the project over the Summer. And congratulations also go to Beth, who is just completing Year 2 of her BA Hons French and Spanish, and who has been awarded a Stevenson Exchange Scholarship to undertake research alongside her British Council Assistantship next year. Beth’s project, which she shaped working with Jean-Michel DesJacques and Cristina Johnston, will look at France’s relationships with its former colonies. She is keen to examine how present-day memory plays into these, the controversies and power imbalances that exist, as well as the ways in which the relationships are represented through museum collections. Thanks to the scholarship Beth plans to travel to Paris, Genoa and Molenbeek in Belgium to gain a holistic understanding of the documentation of immigration from post colonised countries. As she explains: ‘I knew I wanted to find out more about this so I am very grateful to be given this opportunity to build on my current understanding and to have the freedom to travel more than I’d be able to without this grant. I’m excited to study at a university in France too and meet locals my age.’

And last but definitely not least, Elizabeth Ezra’s book Shoe Reels: The History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film, co-edited with Catherine Wheatley, has been nominated for the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for an ‘outstanding or original contribution to the literature of photography or the moving image’.

More exciting French at Stirling news to follow over the weeks ahead!

Africa in Motion 2020: Online!

As regular blog readers will know, just over a decade ago, our then PhD student, Lizelle Bisschoff (now Senior Lecturer at Glasgow University) founded the Africa in Motion film festival which normally takes place around this time every year in cinemas and other venues across Edinburgh and Glasgow, and elsewhere. This year, the festival has gone online and we wanted to draw your attention to it and to the fantastic programme of films it has on offer, from animation to horror, all accessible online via bookings on the festival website.

The festival is operating staggered ticket prices (from £2-8 per ticket), as well as offering festival passes (£15 concession) and many of their screenings are also accompanied by Q&A sessions and discussions. Films will be screening throughout November and there’s plenty of great stuff to watch so do check it out!

Mid-Semester Catch-Up

This afternoon marks the start of our week-long mid-semester break at Stirling and, as ever, it feels as though the first half of the semester has just raced past. It has been different, of course, from previous years but lots has still been happening and we wanted to give you a quick update on all things ‘French at Stirling’:

Firstly, we’re delighted to see a few of our students entering a French-language creative writing competition run by our colleagues at Napier University and we want to wish best of luck to the entrants!

This first half of semester has also seen a wealth of activity on the research seminar front, with French at Stirling staff giving talks at Stirling and elsewhere, and colleagues from other Universities giving papers in our (online) research seminar series. This started with Cristina Johnston giving a paper on the films of Céline Sciamma at the first Literature and Languages research seminar of the new academic year (alongside a great paper by our colleague in English Studies, Kelsey Jackson Williams). Next up was Nina Parish who gave a paper entitled ‘Remembering homeland and representing diaspora in virtual museums (or how to conduct fieldwork during lockdown)’ at Stirling University’s Centre for Environment and Heritage Policy.

Nina also spoke, this semester, at an event organised by the Centre for Poetic Innovation at the University of St Andrews, alongside her colleague Emma Wagstaff from the University of Birmingham, where they spoke about ‘Editing Bilingual Poetry Anthologies in the 21^st Century’. This talk had been scheduled twice in the last academic year but both times were cancelled because of strikes and then the pandemic but, as Nina says, ‘this time we managed. What’s more, Emma was able to join us which was wonderful because we have collaborated on research to do with poetic practice in French for many years. Together, we edited a bilingual anthology of contemporary French poetry, which appeared with Enitharmon Press in 2016.

During our paper, we talked about some aspects of the decision-making process involved in compiling this anthology and gave a brief flavour of the texts it includes. We argued that an anthology of translated texts can affect how they are viewed in the original ‘source’ culture as well as introducing them to a new literary system. We discussed our plans for a further digital anthology that would enable us to anthologise some examples of the wide range of forms taken by contemporary poetic practice in French, but which also poses translation challenges of its own.’

The St Andrews connection continued, coincidentally, with a research paper given by Victoria Turner who is Lecturer in French at St Andrews and who works on medieval French and Occitan literature. The brilliant paper Victoria gave as part of our L&L seminar series was entitled ‘Everywhere and Nowhere: (T)racing Mixed-Race Relationships in Medieval French Epic.’

What else has been happening? Well, Hannah Grayson has just learned that a research project she is part of (Resilience+: Integrating Equity into Climate-Resilient Development) has been awarded GCRF and ESRC funding so congratulations there! The project will look at conceptualisations of resilience and develop a network to support inclusive and responsive programming and policy making in Rwanda. It particularly focuses on marginalised groups affected by flooding in rural Rwanda and Hannah’s contribution will be around language and inter-cultural understanding, building on her previous work in Rwanda.

We’ve also delighted to announce that our former PhD student, Jamal Bahmad, has co-authored a fantastic volume entitled Moroccan Cinema Uncut: Decentred Voices, Transnational Perspectives, with Will Higbee and Florence Martin. And that our colleague Elizabeth Ezra’s Shoe Reels: The History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film, co-edited with Catherine Wheatley, will be out in a couple of months. Both are published by Edinburgh University Press.

And, last but not least for the moment, we’re looking forward to welcoming Julie Hugonny, who will be joined us as Lecturer in French for the rest of this year after the mid-semester break, and we’d like to say thanks to Olivier Gillot who has been working as a French Teaching Assistant with us over the first half of this semester.

There is doubtless much more that could be added and more details on some of the above will come over the weeks ahead but, in the meantime, for Stirling colleagues and students reading this, we hope you have a good mid-semester break, and for anybody else reading, we hope this finds you well. À bientôt!

From Morocco to Scotland and Back

Following on from Maja’s ‘postcard’ from life as a Stirling undergraduate, we’re really pleased to be able to post an article by our former PhD student, Jamal Bahmad who is now Assistant Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Mohammed V University in Morocco:

‘I will always remember the time I landed at Edinburgh airport one chilly night in early October 2010. It was a direct flight from Marrakech. You can imagine the shock I went through that night not only due to the radically different weather, but also the quietness of Edinburgh compared to the riotous Moroccan cities.

My wonder turned into long-lasting wonderment when I took the train to Stirling the following morning. Arriving in a new city where I knew no one was enough to make every step and moment an adventure for me. British culture was not foreign to me as a long-time BBC listener and graduate of the English Department in Morocco, but the broadcast and bookish Britain was different from everyday Stirling one decade into the twenty-first century. I thought I had prepared myself for that by watching some recent Scottish films, but my Scotland was more Braveheart than Trainspotting. That wasn’t to change much over the course of the three and a half years I spent as PhD student at Stirling University. This was in part due to the Scottish trait to encourage fantastic images of Scotland, and another part due to my own reluctance to engage much with everyday life in the city. I didn’t go back to Morocco to see my family for almost three years. I spent most of the time in my room working on my doctoral thesis on Moroccan cinema. No wonder I submitted it on time, and the piece went on to win the British Association for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize 2015 for Best PhD Dissertation.

Yes, I didn’t travel to the Highlands. So what? Our campus, as the university’s marketing team kept repeating, was literally at the foot of the fabled Highlands. Almost every window at the university buildings gives on a fable-like vista. Scotland is a beautiful country. I say that even though I mostly read about it while I was in Scotland! Imagined Scotland is more powerful than the touristic experience.

The wet and cold weather of Scotland is one thing, and the warmth of Scottish people in general and the cosmopolitan academic and admin staff at the modern languages division at the university was something else. My supervisor David Murphy was the best thesis advisor I could have wished for. A brilliant mind and industrious person, David wasn’t short of warmth and hospitality. He and his partner Aedin occasionally invited me to their flat in Glasgow, a city I discovered halfway into my Scottish stay. It was markedly different from Edinburgh or Stirling and felt more real than both. Bill Marshall was a huge presence in the department and the School of Languages. His humility and cosmopolitan character made him a great help to me. Antonio Sanchez in the Spanish department was a great person and interlocutor, always willing to give of his time to students even if for just a chat in the corridor. We felt immediately close perhaps because of our shared Moorish heritage and character.

Time passed quickly and I soon graduated with a PhD. I wasn’t exactly happy because I had to think about the future, something I had been sheltered from by the Horizon Studentship-funded time to work on my thesis in the warmth of my room in postgraduate student accommodation in Lyon Crescent, Bridge of Allan. A job wasn’t long in arriving. Almost without applying, I soon started working as a postdoctoral research fellow at Philipps-Universität Marburg in Germany. Obviously, people saw in me something I didn’t see in myself. Living in Germany didn’t appeal to me from day one, so I was overjoyed when I heard from the British Academy one week into my first postdoctoral job. I was one of the lucky few to get awarded one of the prestigious British Academy postdoctoral fellowships. I stayed in Germany till late December 2014. I started on my BA fellowship at the University of Leeds in January of the following year. It was an exciting time. I even began seriously thinking about settling in the country to pursue an academic career.

I was in the middle of fieldwork in Algeria in May 2015 when I heard that my dear father in Morocco was sick. He was diagnosed with a malicious kind of melanoma. I was devastated by the news and was soon back in Morocco to be next to him. Family is primordial in my Amazigh culture, and my father was very close to me even though or perhaps because our relationship consisted mainly of him telling stories of his life and me listening avidly. The listening project intensified during his illness. It made me reconsider my transnational life. I frequently travelled back to Morocco to see him and ultimately decided to plan for an academic career in Morocco even though my father had a terminal illness. He passed away on 27 March 2016. Less than three months later, I landed a job as an assistant professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat. I’m now here and have survived the pandemic unharmed so far (those hermetic days in Lyon Crescent didn’t go to waste; they immunised me against loneliness and boredom!), but Stirling and the memories of my time there are forever on my mind. It’s a beautiful and unceasing friendship. How I long to revisit that beautiful campus and relive some of those memories!

Rabat, 26 September 2020′

Many, many thanks to Jamal for this fantastic postcard from Morocco (and from Stirling) and we look forward to hearing more from you over the years ahead, and send you all our best wishes from Scotland.

My Experience as a Language Assistant – Covid-19 Edition

As I’m sure we’ve mentioned before on the blog, it’s always fantastic to hear tales from current and former students about their experiences spending time abroad as part of their degree. This past year has been particularly challenging for our students on that front, with Semesters Abroad and British Council Language Assistantships coming to a premature end as lockdown kicked in, so it was especially uplifting to receive the following post from Sebastian who is about to go into his 3^rd year with us, studying French, Spanish and Professional Secondary Education:

‘As I prepare for my grand return to Stirling Uni to continue my French and Spanish studies, I can’t help but notice it has been a full year since I received my first email from my French school. Going back to April 2019, I vividly remember sitting in an education seminar with my fellow peers and tutor, discussing about what waits for us in France as English Language Assistants: “will people understand me, will my French improve”, so many thoughts and concerns went flying through our heads. We didn’t consider the possibility that our year abroad would be cut short due to a global pandemic…

Despite this hiccup, the time I had in France will always be memorable – the adventures, the friendships – it will be impossible to forget them. I wish I could say I was this ecstatic before going out to France, but it was quite the opposite. I was assigned to Lycée La Haie Griselle in Gérardmer. My nerves began after doing a Google search to realise this small town in the Grand Est region had no train station and to get to the nearest city, involved taking a 40-minute bus to the closest train station, then another hour to get to Nancy.

What I thought was a huge hindrance on my year abroad, turned out to be a perfect opportunity for my French. Of course, no one could speak English in this part of France (apart from the English teachers), so this forced me to speak French everywhere I went. Naturally, I was petrified to speak French. Making mistakes in front of locals, making a fool out of myself felt daunting. Very soon though, I overcame this fear and those thousand and one mistakes helped me improve my French drastically.

My time in the school was also a joy. Wanting to pursue a career in teaching languages, it was amazing to learn and improve my teaching skills whilst enhancing my French at the same time. I would work with seconde, première and terminale students for 30 or 60 minutes, 12 to 15 hours a week. It didn’t matter if I had to teach them about the Victorian Era, the Commonwealth, Interview skills – each lesson was great fun! I had a great rapport with students and teachers, and I truly felt I was part of superb teaching team.

Before moving to France, the British Council suggested, whilst in our host country, we should accept every invitation we receive, unless it would put us in danger. With this mindset, I accepted invites to many social events where I got the opportunity to experience French culture. “Want to join a Badminton Club and play every Monday”… of course, love to… “would you like to join us for a meal and go see a one man play”…sounds lovely… “we are having a retirement party for one of our teachers, care to join”…absolutely. To this day, I’m glad I accepted every invitation that came my way, even attending a town hall meeting on a Friday night…actually, still questioning that one.

Throughout the week, I was immersed in the language and the culture. So, having the weekend to spend time with the other language assistants was a great treat. We all met at our induction day in Nancy, and everyone instantly connected. We all had a laugh about our different ways of life as we had people coming from Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain, Australia and America. Our connections grew while travelling across France – visiting Lyon, Nice, Strasbourg, Metz – and touring Europe – Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy.

Everything was going so well! My level of French was improving as I ploughed through a couple of Harry Potter books in French (then moving onto recommendations from teachers such as Petit Pays by Gaël Faye), making a habit of going to the cinema once or twice a week (La Belle Époque, Un Vrai Bonhomme and Seules Les Bêtes are a must see) and making new friends at badminton. My desire to stay in Gérardmer was obvious as I was fortunate enough to extend my contract for another month…nothing could ruin my time abroad…right?

 

Fast-forward to the present, I’m back in Scotland after leaving France 4 months ago due to Coronavirus. I am still trying to get the rest of my belongings back such as my Kindle (yes, I’m aware that was a stupid mistake), some clothes and other souvenirs. At the beginning of the outbreak, everyone thought this lockdown would last just 2 weeks…oh how wrong we were. Ever since leaving, I have weekly 1-hour sessions with a French native, getting through the rest of the Harry Potter books and watching various films, shows on Netflix and YouTube in French. It can be a challenge to keep up with everything knowing that by simply pausing a video or ending a Zoom call, I leave the French-speaking world.

After having my year abroad cut in half, I’m left feeling nostalgic and yearning for other adventures in Europe. Although I remember a phrase from one of my favourite childhood authors: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened” – Dr. Seuss.’

Many, many thanks to Sebastian for this brilliantly honest and enthusiastic blog post. We hope you’ll get the chance to go back to Gérardmer in the not-too-distant future and wish you all the very best for your return to Stirling.

Africa in Motion 2019 Programme Announced

As regular blog readers know, the annual Africa in Motion film festival was founded in 2006 by Lizelle Bisschoff, who was at the time a PhD student in the then School of Languages, Cultures and Religions at the University of Stirling, whose research project was supervised by David Murphy. 13 years on, Lizelle is now Senior Lecturer in Theatre, Film and TV Studies at the University of Glasgow, David is Professor of French at Strathclyde University, the School of Languages, Cultures and Religions is part of Stirling’s Division of Literature and Languages and Africa in Motion is still going strong with Justine Atkinson as the Festival Producer.

The festival has just released its programme for the 2019 edition which will run from 25 October to 3 November, with screenings and a wide range of other events in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Division of Literature and Languages is particularly pleased to be the joint sponsor this year of the screening of Lost Warrior, a Somali-Danish coproduction being shown at the Edinburgh Filmhouse on 26 October. You can access the full programme of events via Africa in Motion’s website here. So much to choose from!