KINGSTON, R.I. – May 30, 2023 – URI Professor of Languages Karen de Bruin of Middletown, director of the University of Rhode Island Honors Program, has been named a chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes académiques (French for “knight” in the “Order of Academic Palms”). The distinction is the highest honor bestowed by the French Republic to distinguished academics for valuable service to education.
Established in 1808 by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to honor distinguished members of the University of Paris, it is one of the oldest civil honors bestowed by the Republic of France. This summer, the Consul General of Boston will recognize de Bruin’s award at the annual Bastille Day celebration held by the French Consulate.
De Bruin has taught at URI since 2007 and previously headed URI’s French program and also chaired URI’s Department of Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures.
When not teaching French, de Bruin has devoted herself to building international partnerships, creating new academic programs, studying French Huguenot winemakers in South Africa, and engaging in a diverse array of public humanities projects. De Bruin has brought in visiting artists, introduced a virtual partnership with students at the Université de Rennes 2, and co-created a health sciences J-term travel course to France.
“I always want to seek new and meaningful ways of engaging students with the French language and French and Francophone cultures,” she says.
De Bruin has worked on a number of public humanities projects including the study and memorialization of the slave trade in the state of Rhode Island and a radio show called the Beauty Salon dedicated to “all things aesthetic in the state of Rhode Island.” De Bruin is the founder and director of the URI-Université de Rennes consortium exchanges and the URI-Mod’Spé fashion marketing and merchandising exchange. She is the co-founder of URI’s International Studies & Diplomacy program and has received the College of Arts & Sciences Administrative Excellence Award as well the Arts & Sciences Teaching Excellence Award.
Innovative instruction
De Bruin takes a complète approach to instruction, to give students opportunities to interact with French culture: bringing French playwright Jean-René Lemoine to URI and having students do a staged reading of their translation of his play, giving students the opportunity to engage in virtual conversations with internationally renowned film directors such as Cyril Dion and Céline Sciamma, working with students internationally, and offering URI the opportunity to engage with French political thought and French diplomats through events such as “The ‘West’ and the War in Ukraine.” The award validates de Bruin’s mission to not only teach a language but also introduce students to French thought and thinking.
De Bruin was appointed head of the University’s Honors Program last year, based on her plan to bring similar innovation to the URI Honors Program and her capacity for coalition-building. She has brought a fresh perspective to advance the Honors Program this year, while expanding learning and experiences for students across majors and topics.
De Bruin will receive her award from the French Consulate in Boston on July 14, Bastille Day, and a representative from the French consulate will also come to URI to present the award at a date yet to be determined. The consulate visits URI regularly, as URI has one of the largest French programs in the country. The award bears the prime minister’s official signature and that of the French minister of education.
Though she’ll be in France with family during Bastille Day, de Bruin is thankful for the recognition, both for herself and for URI. “URI’s program is dynamic and innovative,” says de Bruin. “It’s a recognition.” World language studies at URI have boomed in recent years, thanks to the University’s interdisciplinary global education programs. And the Palmes designation is building in critical mass at URI, as three other French faculty at the University have received the honor to date: JoAnn Hammadou-Sullivan, Lars Erickson and Joelle Rollo-Koster.
URI’s Department of Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures offers instruction in French as well as Arabic, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and American Sign Language.
A lifelong study
French has been de Bruin’s study and love since the age of 5 when she began learning it as a child in England. She had just moved there with her parents, from South Africa, and they had stopped speaking Afrikaans to her at home. “I like to say I lost one language but added another,” she muses.
De Bruin initially went the pre-med route in college but was, she admits, “not super excited” about it. With a dual major in French, she needed to decide between the two after graduation. Clearly, French won.
“In the misadventures of my early 20s, I had a crisis of wondering what I really wanted to do with my life – as one does at that time!” she laughs. She decided to pursue her master’s in French “and it just continued on,” to the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and then her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. “My academic journey through French has been one of discovery and enjoyment,” she says, “discovering more and more about the language and the culture with others along the way.”