Marie‑Christine Lemardeley
October 2013 Honorary Degree Recipient
Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)
President, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3)
A scholar of contemporary North American literature at the helm of one of France’s leading universities is an unexpected juxtaposition. But as the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 extends its international presence, the election of Dr. Marie-Christine Lemardeley as President seems both fitting and forward-looking.
Dr. Lemardeley, one of the few women in France to be elected for a second term as a university President, is a professor of English literature. She has undertaken significant research and writing about such authors as Adrienne Rich, John Steinbeck, Edith Wharton and the Nova Scotia poet, Elizabeth Bishop, her work exemplifying Wharton’s words that “the air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.” She is a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, obtained her Master’s degree at the Sorbonne, writing her thesis on Samuel Beckett at the University of Oxford, was a teaching-assistant in French at the University of Utah, and completed her doctoral research at the Library of Congress, on a Fulbright Fellowship. Formerly Dean of the Faculty of English at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, she has co-edited the French Journal of American Studies and currently sits on the board of the Franco-American Commission for Educational Exchange (Fulbright Commission). She was elected to her first term as university president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012. Her superior leadership and scholarly achievements were recognized by the French government in 2010 when she was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, France’s highest governmental honor.
Dr. Lemardeley heads a university whose relatively recent structure was born of the student protests of 1968, its founding part of the striking reforms of the French university system that followed that time. More than four decades later, those reforms continue, as Dr. Lemardeley leads her university’s efforts in three key endeavors: to strengthen its academic structure, to enhance its international connections, and to improve its efforts relating to student life.
On the international front, under Dr. Lemardeley’s leadership the university has established a number of new international Chair arrangements, forging relationships with institutions around the globe and providing students with the opportunity to interact with leading international scholars. She has spearheaded new international cooperation agreements, including one with ±«Óătv University that involves the exchange of students and faculty members, the development of joint research initiatives and the potential for joint supervision of graduate students. Under her watch, the university has been judged to be among the best 150 in the world in the areas of Arts and Humanities, according to the 2012 QS World University Rankings. That strength is reflected in the fact that more than 45 per cent of the university’s 1,800 doctoral candidates are attracted to the Nouvelle Sorbonne from other countries.
Dr. Lemardeley has also made enhancing student life and strengthening student engagement within and beyond the university’s walls a key focus of her Presidency. She has led initiatives that have created mechanisms to recognize student civic engagement, enhanced services for students with disabilities and those experiencing other difficulties, and rewarded students for their creative efforts, all with a view to enriching the student experience. As well, she has built on the university’s reputation for pedagogical innovation by, among other efforts, expanding the distance education options offered by Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3.
In recognition of her many accomplishments as a scholar and university leader, I ask you Mr. Chancellor, on behalf of Senate, to bestow upon Dr. Marie-Christine Lemardeley the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.