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Class of 2012

Award Recipients

Andrés Bello Award: Lila Abed

Offered by the Consul of Chile to a senior who has excelled in Spanish.

Wendy Berson Language Award: Sofia Garza-Villalobos

Given to a senior who has demonstrated excellence in the area of Romance Languages in general, but more specifically, to one with the ability to speak one or more of them with great expertise.

Princess Grace of Monaco Award: Emma Marr

Offered by the Consul of Monaco, in conjunction with the Consul of Chile, to a senior who has excelled in French.

Normand R. Cartier Award: Kimberly White

Given to a student for outstanding commitment and achievement in work for the Boston College Chapter of Pi Delta Phi, the National French Honor Society.

RLL honors theses

Ryan Crane

Thesis Director: Ernesto Livon-Grossman

Ser un gringo en México: El significado de la frontera en El gringo viejo de Carlos Fuentes y Todos los hermosos caballos de Cormac McCarthy

Courtney Finkel

Thesis Director: Irene Mizrahi

A Dictator’s Downfall: Consequences of Legitimizing Absolute Power

Michael Phelan

Thesis Director: Harry Rosser

Un análisis literario de la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet y el Reino de Terror en Chile

french book awards

Dania Al Humaid, Rachel Banke, Michael Becker, Melissa Campedelli, Matthew Charest, Corinne Clifford, Kimberly Crowley, Emmanuel de Ladoucette, Alyssa Ellard, Elisabeth Farmer, Sofia Garza-Villalobos, Siana Jannesari, Gabby Lewine, Ryan Malonis, Emma Marr, Scott Masek, Jordan Mendoza, Marie Rose Muir, Brianna A. Nassif, Olga Novitsky, Yan O, Lauren Ortner, Iulia Padeanu, Natalie Perkins, Kaitlyn Quaranta, Courtney Rotolo, Ericka Schubert, Bailey Spencer, Kim  White, Emily Witsberger, Ellen Zatkowski

italian book awards

Rebecca Cardoso, Gabriella Good, Pablo Mena, Kimberly Rhodes, Jillian Scherig, Michael Vigorito, Zach Wolfe, Katherine Wullert

hispanic studies book awards

Ana Isabel Aguirre Vivar, Klevis Baholli, Robert Bailant, Marina Barillas, Alec Campagna, Stefan Canizares, Shirley Chen, Aaron Fried, Rebecca Frost, Erin Harvey, Collen Hoyt, Heather Kimmins, Kristine Kirwin, Rachael McIntosh, Caroline McManus, Livia Meharg, Edwin Nunez Blas, Kimberly O'Neill, Tianna  Ransom, Yuri Ruiz, Steven Salcedo, Elizabeth Wall, Christie Wentworth, Thomas Yannopoulos, Erika Yazawa

2011-2012 Peer Advisors

Emma Marr, French Major
Kate Mirino, Italian Major
Meg Talewski, Hispanic Studies Major

Sophomore Scholar

Emma Lott, French Major

Dean’s Scholars

Elizabeth Wall, Hispanic Studies Major
Sidney West, Hispanic Studies Major
Katy Wilson, French Major

Class of 2011

Award recipients

Andrés Bello Award: Rebecca Muessle

Offered by the Consul of Chile to a senior who has excelled in Spanish.

Wendy Berson Language Award: Rosemary Bailey

Given to a senior who has demonstrated excellence in the area of Romance Languages in general, but more specifically, to one with the ability to speak one or more of them with great expertise.

Princess Grace of Monaco Award: Erica Lewis

Offered by the Consul of Monaco, in conjunction with the Consul of Chile, to a senior who has excelled in French.

Normand R. Cartier Award: Kathryn Goettl

Given to a student for outstanding commitment and achievement in work for the Boston College Chapter of Pi Delta Phi, the National French Honor Society.

The Figurito Family Award for Scholarly Achievement in Italian: Kate E. Mirino

Presented in the name of Joseph Figurito, Professor of French and Italian at Boston College for one half a century, to a student for scholarly achievement in Italian.

RLL honors theses

Rosemary Bailey

Thesis Director: Kevin Newmark

Baudelaire’s Modernity

Danielle Castelli

Thesis Director: Ourida Mostefai

Comment peut-on être français?: Lessons from Paris

Victoria Farell

Thesis Director: Matilda Bruckner

Jean Giono’s Pan Trilogy: Spiritually Inspired by Nature in Rural Provence

Jill Forgash

Thesis Director: Kevin Newmark

Une révolte cinématique – An Existential Look at the French New Wave Cinema of Godard and Truffaut

Kathryn Goettl

Thesis Director: Ourida Mostefai

Mythologies alimentaires: Assortiment d'amuse-gueules sur la gastronomie française

Laura Zapata

Thesis Director: Irene Mizrahi

Análisis comparativo de la Historia Oficial, “El Reportaje” y “La Siesta del Martes”

french book awards

Stephanie Albright, Andrew Alemian, Dania Al Humaid, Kimberly Attia, Rostislav Brichko, Joseph Cassaro, Morgan Chalfant, Erin Daley, Kevin DiCesare, Catherine Duarte, Seth Fitchelberg, Jill Forgash, Michael Francel, Sofia Garza-Villalobos, Kathryn Goettl, Mary Goetz, Christopher Griesedieck, Sam Griffin, Marsha Guillaume, Vivianne Knierim, Gabrielle Lewine, Erica Lewis, Caitlin Mahler, Mirielle McMillin, Jordan Mendoza, Alexandra Mitropoulos, Cristina Reyes, Sean Riordan, Claire Ruffing, Ericka Schubert, Emily Sintobin, Christina Spiliakos, Christopher Terris, Alexander Venino, Alison Wawrzynek, Kelsey Yarnell

italian book awards

Joseph Doren, Laura Gomez, Abigail Letak, Catherine Marotta, Kate E. Mirino, Serafine Spink, Vanessa Watson

hispanic studies book awards

Lila Abed, Laura C. Amrein, Christine Bowles, Stefan Canizares, Ryan Crane, Christian de los Santos, Genevieve Dusing, David Ely, Chris Finan, Courtney Finkel, Justin Graham, Colleen Hoyt, Kyle Kavanaugh, Katharine Lang, Adriana Marzan, Gregory W. McGee, Evann McGrory, Madeline McSherry, Amanda Y Mei, Rebecca Muessle, Michael Norton, Yuri Ruíz, John Schue, Morey Williams

sophomore scholar

Mary Goetz, French Major, English Major
Gabrielle Lewine, French Major, Psychology Major
Serafina Spink, Italian Major, Psychology Major
Katy Wilson, Hispanic Studies Major, French Major

dean's scholars

Emma Marr, French Major
Meg Talewsky, Hispanic Studies Major, English Major

peer advisors

Jessica Calandra, Italian Major, Biology Major
Kathryn Goettl, French Major
Rebecca Muessle, Hispanic Studies Major

Class of 2010

award recipients

Andrés Bello Award: Daniel Safavi

Offered by the Consul of Chile to a senior who has excelled in Spanish.

Wendy Berson Language Award: Mark Schott

Given to a senior who has demonstrated excellence in the area of Romance Languages in general, but more specifically, to one with the ability to speak one or more of them with great expertise.

Princess Grace of Monaco Award: Claire Duggan

Offered by the Consul of Monaco, in conjunction with the Consul of Chile, to a senior who has excelled in French.

The Figurito Family Award for Scholarly Achievement in Italian: Justin Sileo

Presented in the name of Joseph Figurito, Professor of French and Italian at Boston College for one half a century, to a student for scholarly achievement in Italian.

RLL Honors Theses

Claire Duggan

Thesis Director: Régine Jean-Charles

Immigration from Senegal to France: The Experience of Senegalese Women
The subject of my thesis is that of immigration between Senegal and France, with a focus on the experience of women from the moment they make their decision to leave Senegal to their current situation in France. The great majority of the women in this study migrated from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to Toulouse. The goal of my work was to document these women’s expectations before migrating, their actual experiences, and their process of assimilation into French culture. But perhaps most importantly, I wanted to give these women a voice and the opportunity to speak for themselves in a male dominated sphere.

Katharine C. Moore

Thesis Director: Ourida Mostefai

The Heroine’s Misfortunes: Seduction, Desire and Fate in a Comparison of ‘Claire d’Albe’ by Sophie Cottin and ‘Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse’ by Jean Jacques Rousseau
This thesis is a comparison of two 18th century French epistolary novels: Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (1761) and Sophie Cottin’s Claire d’Albe (1799). In comparing these two texts, I seek to show that Claire d’Albe is a reworking of Rousseau’s Julie, which was the most widely read novel of its time. My goal is to determine Sophie Cottin’s message in reworking Rousseau’s novel: what is Cottin trying to communicate to readers through Claire’s letters? To answer this question, I analyze three key scenes I call “Seduction,” “The Fall,” and “Death” described in three of Claire’s letters in Claire d’Albe. I compare these to the three scenes of “Seduction,” “The Fall,” and “Death” in Julie in order to examine the differences between the two novels and uncover Cottin’s message.

Stephen Rice

Thesis Director: Irene Mizrahi

New Age Dictatorship in Latin America: The Dominion of Daniel Ortega
The landmark dictator novel El Señor Presidente by Miguel Angel Asturias revolves around a cruel, nameless dictator, refusing also to specify a country or time-line for its action. This ambiguity allows the novel to remain hauntingly relevant for the numerous Latin American dictatorships throughout history. My thesis analyzes the current administration of Daniel Ortega and ultimately observes that many of the underlying themes of dictatorship still persist. However, the way in which they manifest themselves have become increasingly politicized and masked given today’s globalized world.

French Book Awards

Stephanie Albright, Andrew Alemian, Dania Al Humaid, Rosemary Bailey, Michael Becker, Kettianne Cadet, Caysie Carter, Morgan Chalfant, Matthew Charest, Jennifer Fagan, Victoria Farrell, Jill Forgash, Sofia Garza-Villalobos, Kelly Gerson, Samuel Griffin, Catherine Hadshi, Elizabeth (Grace) Horner, Maureen Keegan, Courtney Kipp, Megan Koch, Melissa Lahullier, Gabrielle Lewine, Erica Lewis, Michal Malachowski, Emma Marr, Mary Kate McAdams, Jordan Mendoza, Katharine Moore, Lindsay Oliver, Maria Perez, Cristina Reyes, Sean Riordan, Mark Schott, Catherine Smith, Emma Staffaroni, Christopher Terris

Italian Book Awards

Danielle Auriemma, Jessica Calandra, Catherine D’Ascoli, Joseph Forgione, Nate Hibner, Hannah Krulewitch, Isabelle Martinez, Sofia Martinez, Kate Mirino, Serafina Spink, Ian Thomas

Hispanic Studies Book Awards

Lila Abed, Mark Arnold, Cecily Brennan, Wilma Michaela Carvajal Leon, Audra Cimino, Ryan Crane, William Daley, Chris Finan, Jeanny Fuentes, Erin Harvey, Monica Llado, Brittany Lewis, Erin Lytwyn, Adriana Marzan, Rebecca Muessle, Gabriel Orlowitz, Sarah Peluso, Michael Phelan, Christopher Rakovec, Stephen Rice, Jordan Schultz, Sheila Serafino, Sarah Smith, Patrick Vale, Christopher Wahoff

Sophomore Scholars

Michael Becker, French Major, Economics Major
Sofia Garza-Villalobos, French Major
Emma Marr, French Major, Communication Major
Meg Talewsky, Hispanic Studies Major, English Major

Dean's Scholars

Kathryn Goettl, French Major
Theresa Donohue, Hispanic Studies Minor, Music Major

Peer Advisors

Cecily Brennan, Hispanic Studies Major
Jessica Calandra, Italian Major, Biology Major
Claire Duggan, French Major, Sociology Major

Class of 2009

Award Recipients

Andrés Bello Award: Hannah Donoghue

Offered by the Consul of Chile to a senior who has excelled in Spanish.

Wendy Berson Language Award: Amanda Pastyrnak

Given to a senior who has demonstrated excellence in the area of Romance Languages in general, but more specifically, to one with the ability to speak one or more of them with great expertise.

Princess Grace of Monaco Award: Elisabel Santos

Offered by the Consul of Monaco, in conjunction with the Consul of Chile, to a senior who has excelled in French.

The Figurito Family Award for Scholarly Achievement in Italian: Joseph A. Forgione

Presented in the name of Joseph Figurito, Professor of French and Italian at Boston College for one half a century, to a student for scholarly achievement in Italian.

RLL Honors Theses

Hannah Donoghue

Thesis Director: Professor Elisa Rhodes

Paradigms of Representation in Three Films about Immigration

Although this fact has to date escaped the notice of critics, contemporary films about immigration embody distinct paradigms of representation, which suggest a recurrent pattern within this specific film genre. Three in particular, which treat Central American immigration into the U.S. and sub-Saharan African immigration into Spain, exemplify these paradigms: Alambrista (dir. Robert Young; 1977), El norte (dir. Gregory Nava; 1983), and Las Cartas de Alou (dir. Montxo Armendáriz; 1990). Three facets of this generic paradigm are (1) illumination as a signifying technique; (2) the conflict between realityand mythology in the immigrant experience; and (3) the theme of identity in the immigrant context. Significantly, to date, all directors of films of immigration have been from the dominant group of the country that receives the immigrants. This inevitably entails a problematic relationship between the director and the film; consequently, this project suggests the need for further exploration of the message that each director conveys about the experience of immigration and immigrants themselves.

Alexander Ramos

Thesis Director: Professor Harry Rosser

The Children's Stories of Horacio Quiroga

This thesis offers a literary analysis of the children's stories of Uruguayan author Horacio Quiroga and seeks to identify literary differences from Quiroga's short stories of adult fiction that maintain themes of death, mortality, and the human perceptions of and interactions with nature. Cartas de un cazador and Cuentos de la selva establish a unique mode of didacticism that functions to mature an adolescent reader without using absolute directives to impose a particular reading onto a story. These children's stories are far from being forgotten and are still read in the schools of Latin America.

Anastasia Semel

Thesis Director: Professor Irene Mizrahi

"Fathers and Sons: An Analysis of the Paternal-Filial Relationship from Calderon's 17th Century La vida es sueno to Barroso's 20th Century film Extasis."

This thesis investigates the theme of power in the paternal-filial relationship as portrayed in Calderon's Golden Age play La vida es sueno and Mariano Barroso's 1998 film Extasis. This analysis discusses the distinct roles that the father and son play in their tenuous relationship. The investigation focuses on the son's struggle to form an identity separate from his father's and the father's reluctance to relinquish his position of authoritarian power.

French Book Awards

Kim Addison, Rachel Banke, Nitchel Bastien, Claire Duggan, Victoria Farrell, Jill Forgash, Chris Griesedieck, Melissa Hartge, Maureen Keegan, Courtney Kipp, Viviane Knierim, Erica Lewis, Luigi Manzini, Emma Marr, Caitlin McGovern, Alexandra Mitropoulos, Katharine Moore, Mia Neagle, Alex Nerguizian, Lisbeth O'Brien, Lindsay Oliver, Elisabel Santos, Christopher Terris, Christine Turner, Kelly Yeda, and Peter Zimmermann.

Italian Book Awards

Danielle Auriemma, Jessica Calandra, Catherine D’Ascoli, Joseph Forgione, Nate Hibner, Hannah Krulewitch, Isabelle Martinez, Sofia Martinez, Kate Mirino, Serafina Spink, Ian Thomas

Hispanic Studies Book Awards

Sebastian Amaya, Cecilly Brennan, Alison Chou, Christopher Lemming, Brittany Lewis, Caitlin Lortie, John Lowell, Anne Matsko, Katherine McBride, Charles Miller, Amanda Pastyrnak, Christopher Rakovec, Stephen Rice, Alyssa Rivera, Colin Ryan, Daniel Safavi, Thomas Smeallie, Joseph Turnage, Jose Vilaro, and Laura Zapata.

Sophomore Scholars

Laura Amrein, Hispanic Studies Major
Kathryn Goettl, French Major
Erin Daley, French Major, Economics Major

Dean's Scholars

Claire Duggan, French Major, Sociology Major
Courtney Kipp, French Major, Theology Major
Joseph Forgione, Biology Major, Italian Major

Peer Advisors

Carly DeFilippo, French Major
Amanda Pastyrnak, Hispanic Studies, Political Science Major
Miriam Michalczyk, Italian Major