Within the activities of Beit Al Fouad

Lake Forest College welcomed Dr. Evelyne Accad, Professor Emerita of the University of IL at Urbana to campus for discussions in three classes in French and Women’s and Gender Studies and a “Lebanese lunch” with over thirty members of French Club. Her visit was sponsored by The Christopher J. Mojekwu Fund for Intercultural Understanding and the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Accad was hosted by Dr. Cynthia Hahn, Professor of French, in FREN112: Beginning French II, and FREN280: Parlez-vous poésie? Rondeau to Rap, while Dr. Tessa Sermet, Assistant Professor of French invited her to speak in her new course, FREN/GSWS265: French Feminism.

Professor Hahn is a long-time collaborator on translations of Accad’s novels on women’s issues across the Arab world, and invited Professor Accad to speak to classes about harmful cultural practices, her new humanitarian center and ongoing women’s shelter in Beirut, her stance on non-violent action for a more peaceful society, and the power of creative self-expression. Dr. Accad sang her own song compositions in classes, including one on war, titled, “Je veux vivre” (“I want to live”). Herself a survivor of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), breast cancer, and the chemical explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020, Accad spoke of the strength of embracing her multi-cultural identity, as an Arab Christian, whose father was Lebanese-Egyptian, her mother French-speaking Swiss, and who left Lebanon at a young age for university studies in the U.S. to avoid an arranged marriage. The sharing of her difficult story as a young immigrant to the U.S. spoke to many students in classes she met during this visit and sparked much discussion and reflection on current world issues, as well as vibrant poetic exchange.