Keynote Addresses

Isabelle de Courtivron
Professor of French Studies

Director, Center for Bilingual/Bicultural Studies

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Isabelle de Courtivron is the A.F. Friedlaender Professor of the Humanities at MIT where she teaches French Studies, Women’s Studies, and Bilingual Studies. She received her MA and PhD from Brown University.  She is the author of two critical biographies (Violette Leduc and Clara Malraux) and co-editor of two volumes on contemporary French feminism. She has edited a collection of essays entitled Lives in Translation: Bilingual Writers on Creativity and Identity. Her two most recent articles, on memoirs, aging, and transnational identity appeared in Life Writing/Death Writing: Essays in Memory of Elaine Marks, and in a special issue of the journal Life Writing entitled “Mixed Race, Hybrid, Transnational:  Writing Lives in National and Global Frames.”

Read the Plenary Address: Where Is Home and Does It Matter? The Paradoxes of Global Identities

How should we think about the concepts of identity and home in a world undergoing rapid globalization?  De Courtivron’s address will outline the opportunities and perils of the new emphasis on post-national and trans-national identities, especially as they appear in thinkers such as Eva Hoffman, Aamin Maalouf, and Amartya Sen. She will discuss the differences between the fashionable concept of “fluid identity" and propose a more productive concept that considers bilingual/bicultural experiences, and takes into account the distinctive dynamics of the study abroad experience.  Drawing on writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Maxine Hong-Kingston and Edwidge Danticat, de Courtivron will also explore how diasporic and generational issues are played out specifically in US society and culture.

Regge Life

Filmmaker and Founder

Global Film Network, Inc.

Regge Life produced his first work on Japan, Struggle and Success: The African American Experience in Japan, in 1992. He initially went to Japan as a Creative Artist's Fellow with the Japan/US Friendship Commission and Bunka-cho. At the end of his six-month fellowship, he began planning a documentary on African Americans living in Japan. Life has worked with CBS News's "Saturday Night with Connie Chung" and NBC's "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." He served as Executive Producer/Director for Doubles and After America...After Japan. He is the recipient of many awards, including four CINE Golden Eagles. He was honored by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and chosen a Sony Innovator in 1991. Life holds a Bachelor's degree from Tufts University, a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University School of Arts and has enriched his education with a course in Cinema Studies at Harvard University.

Read the Plenary Address: Education Abroad: New Directions for the Future

Much attention is paid to sending students abroad during their undergraduate years.  Is enough attention paid to their return? Life’s address will look at current education abroad models at institutions around the United States, and with the help of recent writings and opinions of education abroad professionals, contrast them with his personal study abroad experience more than 30 years ago. What has changed in the way students are sent on their sojourn and then brought home to return to their respective universities? What remains the same as administrators and directors grapple with the complexities of a post 9/11 world and important issues of safety and security? Amidst these concerns, the importance of the off-campus experience cannot be overlooked as it deepens student understanding of a more globalized world. At the same time, it raises the bar for responsibility and accountability for administrators and for the institution as well.