French Studies Professor appointed

Professor Alain Viala (pictured left), Professor of French Literature at the Sorbonne, Paris, has taken up a chair in French Studies for five years, with a Fellowship of Wadham College. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure, he began his academic career at the University of the Sorbonne-Paris III as Assistant Professor in 1978. He was appointed Professor at the same university in 1985. He has held Visiting Professorships at the universities of Chicago, Atlanta, Quebec, and lectureships at Bologna, Bangkok, Djakarta, and Giessen. Professor Viala has published Naissance de l'Écrivain (Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1985), Racine (a biography; Paris, Seghers, 1990), Approches de la réception (with G. Molinié, Paris, PUF, 1993) and recently Le Théâtre en France des origines à nos jours (PUF, 1997). He is currently working on La Galanterie française. Since 1992, he has served as President of the Commission des Programmes (French and Classics) at the French Ministry of Education.