PROFESSOR EMERITUS WINS HONOR FROM FRENCH GOVERNMENT

Professor Emeritus of French and former Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Catherine Lafarge was awarded France's Ordre des Palmes Academiques in a ceremony in the Ely Room of Wyndham House on Thursday, Oct. 28. The order, instituted in 1808 by Napoleon I, honors those who have made significant contributions to the understanding of French culture throughout the world.

The ceremony opened with an introduction by President Nancy J. Vickers, who is a professor of French, Italian and comparative literature. French Senator Emeritus André Maman, who is also a Princeton University professor emeritus of French, presented the award to Lafarge. The afternoon closed with a half-hour concert of French music performed by soprano Robin Beckhard James '79, accompanied by pianist Steven Hackman of the Curtis Institute. The event was attended by Lafarge's colleagues from Bryn Mawr and around the world including Barnard College President Judith Shapiro, who served as Bryn Mawr's provost during Lafarge's tenure as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Bryn Mawr President Emeritus Mary Patterson McPherson, now vice president at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

A native of France, Lafarge came to the United States in 1957 as a Fulbright scholar at Mt. Holyoke College, where she earned her bachelor's degree. She began teaching at Bryn Mawr in 1966, immediately upon earning her doctorate from Yale University. An expert in the literature of 18th-century France, she developed innovative courses on the city of Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries and was a founding member of Bryn Mawr's unique Growth and Structure of Cities Program. She chaired the French Department from 1979 to 1984 and also from 1996 to 1991; she served as dean of the GSAS from 1985 to 1995.

Throughout her career, Lafarge has been active in numerous professional societies, particularly the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, which she served as treasurer, board member and president. Among the honors she has won are grants from the American Philosophical Society and the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as the Mt. Holyoke Alumnae Association's prestigious Sesquicentennial Award.

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