Government of France honours SMU French professor

The French Republic has bestowed one of its most historic civilian honours upon Dr. Sophie Beaulé of Saint Mary’s University. Dr. Beaulé is now a Chevalier (Knight) in the Ordre des Palmes académiques, for her work promoting French culture and the French language here in Canada.

Johan Schitterer, Consul General of France for Halifax and Moncton, presented Dr. Beaulé with the order’s prestigious badge during an investiture ceremony March 28 on campus. With its enamelled palm branches suspended on a violet ribbon, the badge’s design has remained unchanged since its creation in 1808, when Emperor Napoleon first established the order.

Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics, Beaulé admits she was surprised when she first found out about the honour. She had plenty of time to get used to the idea – originally planned for March 2020, the ceremony was postponed at the outset of the pandemic.

The order recognizes distinguished academics and teachers for valuable service to universities, education and science. Other dignitaries in attendance at the event included the Honourable Colton LeBlanc, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Acadian Affairs and Francophonie; and Alliance Française Halifax President Diane Doucet-Kenny and Executive Director Isabelle Pédot.

“I’m very grateful for Alliance Française to have considered my work with them important enough for me to receive this award,” says Beaulé. “I think I get more than I am giving as a volunteer!”

Involved with the non-profit association for the past 15 years, she says it provides an important connection with the francophone community. A current project of interest is a book club, featuring francophone books from around the world.

The here and elsewhere interval

Beaulé grew up in Montreal and taught in Manitoba before her career brought her east to Saint Mary’s in 2000. In her poignant remarks at the ceremony, she spoke of adapting to long-term displacement in what she described as the “here and elsewhere interval,” as an “audible minority” in a primarily anglophone environment.

“I am grateful for being able to use French in my work, and especially to work with colleagues who themselves are various expressions of the here-elsewhere, of the interval – a rich interval,” she said. “Work and personal life made me a passeur culturel, a transmission link of French language and francophone cultures – at least the Quebec and the Franco-Canadian ones – from my ‘interval’ to the students and my environment. I reply to the twilight vision with my love of words, the cultural and community involvement, even if lassitude always hides in the background. This is how I ‘inhabit the distance’.”

It’s fitting that her area of expertise is Science Fiction, a “life-long friend” that provides yet another foot in the elsewhere.

“Science Fiction might be considered as a trash literature, an encounter with bugged-eyed monsters or galactical wars,” she said, but added that Quebec writer Elisabeth Vonarburg’s take on it as the genre of the ‘what if’ really resonates.

“What if we would think differently? What if our social environment were different … what if there was a natural or human provoked cataclysm, or what if the society was ruled by women? SF embraces both twilight visions and emancipating worlds; it reflects on colonialism, language, woman, religion ….”

Next up for Beaulé after a stack of marking students’ final papers is a trip back to Manitoba later this month, to attend a conference in Winnipeg about franco-manitobaine writer Simone Chaput.

Student awards

The ceremony also celebrated eight post-secondary students across the region, who received the Prix des Alliances Françaises dans les Provinces atlantiques. This year’s winner from Saint Mary’s was Sarah Marlin, a third-year languages student.

The students were also in the running for the 2022 Prix du Consulat français à Moncton-Halifax. This year, the prize went to Pablo Serra Costa of St. Thomas University.