French Club
About
The University of Chicago French Club offers three core programs:
Weekly Meetings
Each week, the French Club hosts casual meetings that provide a welcoming space to practice French at all levels. Around bread and cheese, members meet fellow francophiles, discuss current French affairs, watch French movies or play games in French in a flexible, non-academic setting.
Annual Events
Every year, the French Club brings the best of French culture to campus with three events open to the entire campus community. Past events have included: Speed-dating in French, Cheese Tasting, Study Abroad Q&A and Crepe Study Break. We are looking to introduce our "Cultural Series" this year, consisting of one major event per quarter, which will focus on one particular Francophone region. We will also offer one major event per quarter that focuses more on practicing French.
Speaker Series
Launched in 2012, our Speaker Series seeks to foster discussion on a wide breadth of issues in contemporary France. We invite practitioners at the heart of French political and social life to share their experience and provide context surrounding certain "Franco-French" particularities, which can sometimes be baffling from an American perspective. Our first speaker was Fadela Amara, former French junior minister of Urban Policy and founder of the feminist organization Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Submissive) which supported the 2010 ban on burqas in France. Since then, we have hosted events on campus with Julia Kristeva, Frédéric Lefebvre, Henry Laurens, Laurent Fabuis, Dominique de Villepin, Zineb el Razhoui, and Marie-Monique Robin.