Students from the College of Arts & Letters and the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) earned top honors at the 9th Annual
Isabelle Radakovich, a fourth-year undergraduate student at Michigan State University who is triple majoring in International Relations, Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy, and French, is spending the first half of her senior year at Sciences Po Lille (formally L’Institut d’Études Politiques de Lille) in Lille, France, through a semester exchange program.
Grace Fitzgerald is a fourth-year student at Michigan State University who is triple majoring in International Studies, Economics, and French. During Spring 2025, she interned with the Canadian Consulate as a Junior Trade Commissioner through a partnership program coordinated by the MSU Canadian Studies Center, James Madison College, and the Canadian Consulate.
Elizabeth Sell is a senior Interdisciplinary Humanities major in the College of Arts & Letters who studied abroad in France over the summer with the French Language, Literature, and Culture in Tours program that has been offered by the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University, in partnership with the Institut de Touraine, for 38 years.
This article highlights the actions of Resistance fighters during World War II, categorized into two distinct groups. The first category follows the traditional definition of a Resistance fighter—a soldier who fought on the battlefield and risked their life to oppose the Axis Powers. The second category encompasses those who resisted through political and philosophical means, striving to secure greater rights for the peoples of the former French colonies. Particular attention is given to the experiences, horrors, and prejudices faced by Resistance fighters on the ground, including André Amsalem, Pierre Gauthier, and Jane Vialle. The accounts of Amsalem and Gauthier are drawn from interviews housed in the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation video archive. Regarding those who resisted through intellectual and political efforts, the article examines the lives, activism, and visions of Paulette Nardal, Suzanne Césaire, Eugénie Éboué-Tell, Jane Vialle, Andrée Blouin, and Aoua Kéita. These six Black women each contributed unique perspectives on citizenship and culture for the peoples of the former colonies, yet their stories have often been overlooked in historical narratives. Their contributions are explored through the lens of Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire by Annette K. Joseph-Gabriel, a highly informative work that sheds light on their enduring legacies.
Four College of Arts & Letters Ph.D. candidates have been awarded 2025-26 Graduate Dissertation Fellowships by the Center for Gender in Global Context at Michigan