Briefly - issue #3

The Forum Academic Achievement Abroad Award: Linguistics research at IFE Strasbourg among finalists  ---  A well-deserved “bravo!” to Sarah Raman, Carleton College senior, chosen by the Forum on Education Abroad as a finalist for the Award recognizing academic achievement in study abroad, in Sarah's case for work done while a student-intern with IFE in Strasbourg in fall 2023. Sarah came to IFE with a “love for study and thinking about linguistics”, convinced that “language skills will be a life-long asset”, and hoping “to use the IFE semester to clarify what a future in linguistics might look like” and possibly identify a sub-field for specialization.

As a research intern with LILPA, the linguistics research institute of the University of Strasbourg, Sarah was assigned to a research project examining speech transcriptions of patients undergoing emotional regulation therapy as a result of acquired brain injury. The project, which involves psychiatrists, speech therapists, philosophers and linguists, aims to identify linguistic markers that indicate emotion and self-acceptance in therapy sessions.

Sarah's contribution took form as a paper on “The Syntactic Status of Construction 'moi, je...' (me, I...), in Spoken French”, whose findings drew high praise from their supervisor, a professor of linguistics, who is convinced that “Sarah has a bright future as a linguistics researcher”.

Au Revoir Brussels, Hello Marseille  ---  With heavy hearts and a nostalgic pang, IFE recently signed the papers required by Belgian administration to put an end to the not-for-profit structure IFE Brussels.

Everyone agrees that if a study abroad program is not effective, or does not attract students, it should close. IFE's Brussels Field Study and Internship Program was, according to users, very effective, and it was attracting increasing numbers of students even in the wake of the pandemic. The reason for closing was simpler, and crueler, than that: requirements for obtaining a Belgian student visa have grown onerous to the point of impossibility, no longer worth the effort, cost and risk. 

Meanwhile, interest in IFE's Field Study and Internship programs continues to build, and in a move to keep session enrollments small, IFE is setting up shop in Marseille, one of the world's great, millenia-old urban mosaics, and a world port a couple thousand years before the word 'globalization'. Marseille – and IFE Marseille -- are also the point where French Studies and Mediterranean Studies come together seamlessly.

For more information: info@ife-edu.eu.

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