...Gita May Copyright © 2010 The Trustees of Columbia University 2010 Gita May FROM DOCTORAL STUDENT TO UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: THE TRAJECTORY OF A BRILLIANT CAREER I have the sad distinction of being the only surviving faculty member of the Department of French and Romance Philology who has...

...Geoffrey Turnovsky Abstract Régis Sauder’s touching 2011 documentary, Nous, Princesses de Clèves , which follows a group of Marseille high school students over the course of a year as they read La Fayette’s novel while preparing for the Baccalauréat exams, juxtaposes two distinct types of reading...

...," i.e. encounters staged both within featured texts and across time through their post-medieval adaptations or manifestations. The essays that follow offer a wealth of materials and ideas for the design of courses at levels ranging from general education to graduate, for students of varying experience...

... generously made time to meet with me. In fact, it was that conversation that convinced me to choose Columbia University. I am forever grateful to Professor May for her guidance on my career path. She had a holistic approach to teaching and was committed to every one of her students, always taking a deep...

... the visiting professors who had occupied the office and had added to it pieces of their lives-eomputers, books, family pictures-had not really disturbed the imposing atmosphere which, for years, had galvanized me and many other students. With the help of Cristina and Stephanie, two work-study students, I...

... was packed: directly in front of the altar sat the choir, a bevy of older women, perpetual grad students of a species since gone extinct, a phalanx of illuminated devotees. In the back sat recalcitrant grad students, mostly from other departments, eager to express their doctrinal disbelief, to prove...

.... Gita May knew and communicated to her students that perfectibility as a scholar was all about determination and rigor. Yet it is her generosity of spirit that I remember most about her. She did not seek to cultivate acolytes who would replicate her own approaches, but rather helped her students develop...

... to be able to write and speak about the texts in a manner reasonably compatible with the sort of classroom talk and term paper production in which they had already engaged. It should go without saying that Ross did his best to put candidates at ease and to make his questions open-e­ nded g­ iving students...

...Steven Winspur Steven Winspur OF NECKTIES AND DOUGHNUTS (HOMAGE TO A REMARKABLE TEACHER) Every person is complex but perhaps no one appears more so than a masterful teacher in the eyes of students. Many things dazzled me when I was enrolled in Professor Riffaterre's stylistics class during my...

... campus. This was an orientation for first year students given by more advanced members in the graduate program. Towards the end of the morning, Professor Michael Riffaterre stood before us dressed in a seersucker suit with a pink jacket, something I expected lawyers in New Orleans to wear, or sugar...

... illuminates the role of the writer as cultural translator, bordercrosser, and sexual transgressor. Reading this novel with Dietee will allow me to dwell on the spectral elements of both narratives, their hauntings by the ghosts of two young students whose untimely deaths set in motion patterns of disorder...

... trying to maintain some semblance of composure in front of students for the rest of the day. Ross s most recent letter had been sitting on my desk, awaiting a response for a few weeks. I ve spent a lot of time during my ­career complaining about how hard it is to find p­ eople in academia willing...

...Joanna Augustyn Copyright © 2010 The Trustees of Columbia University 2010 Joanna Augustyn "ALL ELLIPSES IN QUOTATIONS ARE HIS" M ichael Riffaterre made an extraordinary contribution to the lives of his students, of the kind one dreams of at a university. Many life-long commitments...

... was not only University Professor but a grand professeur. You will note I am using a French phrase instead of the English terms, great teacher or great professor. Why? Mike, as it amused him to be called-when we were fellow students back in the Fifties, he was still Michel, and I always called him Michel-Mike...

..., much better. You ­don t ­really owe friends and they ­don t owe you. Sharing, yes; exchange of commodities, no. Friendship d­ oesn t work that way, and neither did Ross. Many of ­those friends who have contributed to this collection of tributes ­were once Ross s students. I never was, unfortunately...

... order of the Palmes Académiques, and the French government made her a chevalier of the Légion d Honneur in 2006. In addition to the many honors and awards Gita received during her career, she earned the admiration and gratitude of her many graduate students. As someone who had faced adversity in both...

..., hitherto unknown philosopher, Jacques Derrida, who the following year would publish both De la grammatologie and L'Ecriture et la Differance, that captivated the professors and graduate students who were in attendance. The paper, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences," remains...

... for three decades (1970-2000), died on May 27, 2006. Sadly, therefore, my first official gesture as incoming general editor of the journal is to pay homage to him. Having been his student and also his editorial assistant for a number of years, I would like to open this memorial collection by offering up...

..., or a professional society, he championed an alternative mode of fellowship and community whose collective ethos neither repressed difference nor forced homogeneity. As a fan of Jean Luc Nancy s Inoperative Community, he always challenged us, his students, friends, and colleagues, to think of community...

... s generosity as an adviser, his intellectual courage and humility, along with his ability to motivate without being directive ­were inspiring and empowering. I have since tried to emulate his mentoring with my own students. When we first met, Ross did not simply assume that I was French, as had e­...