Drs Emma Wilson and François Penz will today be presented with their medals for the prestigious Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in a ceremony with the French ambassador to the UK M. Maurice Gourdault-Montagne.

The award recognises their sustained contribution to the dissemination of French culture and to education.

The Ordre des Palmes Academiques (order of the Academic Palms) is an honour awarded by the French government to academics and educators. Originally created by Napoleon I in 1808 on his return home from his campaign in Egypt, it recognises the range and impact of scholarly writing by intellectuals who have advanced French national education.

Dr Emma Wilson is currently head of the French Department and a reader in contemporary French literature and film. As Head of Department, she has initiated links with a number of French institutions, particularly the École Normale Supérieure-Lettres et Sciences humaines in Lyon, where Cambridge now has a very successful Erasmus exchange.

François-André Penz is a Reader in Architecture and the Moving Image in the Department of Architecture. François has over the years worked to bring the history of the relationship between cinema and architecture to bear on contemporary digital moving practice in architecture and planning.

Emma and François were also instrumental in setting up the very successful interdisciplinary MPhil in Screen Media and Cultures which provides advanced training in the interdisciplinary study of the history and theory of modern screen media, and which has proved a very effective preparation for doctoral work in this area.

Philip Ford, Deputy Chair of the School of Arts and Humanities, commented: ‘It is very gratifying that the French government has recognised in this way François and Emma’s outstanding contributions to French culture, and it is a particular honour that the French Ambassador will be presenting the medals during his visit to Cambridge today.’
 


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