Saint-Joseph University of Beirut has established the Senghor Chair of the Francophonie, member of a network being set up in multiple universities around the world: at Université Jean-Moulin (Lyon III), at the universities of Ouagadougou and Yaoundé II, at Université du Québec à Montréal, and at the Institute for International Relations – Hanoi. The objective of these chairs is to make the Francophonie a topic of study at university and to promote university cooperation in the field of the Francophonie, particularly in terms of research. For three years now, the Chair of Lyon has been organizing in May of every year meetings under the banner of Les entretiens de la francophonie , which very quickly became the essential meeting to discuss this topic.

With minimal common teachings (history and geopolitics of the Francophonie, globalization and the Francophonie, political Francophony, Francophone cooperation, languages and multilingualism), these chairs conserve their regional characteristics and integrate their specific concerns into their teachings and research.

In that sense, the USJ Chair offers teachings specific to the Francophone literature of the Arab world, and it updates the database of languages in Lebanon that figured in the “Anatomie de la francophonie libanaise” book, in collaboration with the Louis D. French Institute of Intercultural Anthropology Chair and the University Observatory of Social and Economic Reality (OURSE).

In 2006, on the occasion of the Senghor year, the Chair organized – with the support of the Agence universitaire de la francophonie and the cultural services of the French Embassy – an international symposium where the major issues of the Francophone world were discussed.

The Chair, Katia Haddad, gave a series of lectures in Canada (Alberta and New Brunswick) in October 2005 on Arabic literature in the Arab world and the Lebanese identity.

Established in
01/01/1999

Address
Humanities Campus

Email : gerard.bejjani@usj.edu.lb