Letter from the Foundation # 4, Chairman's Editorial

A word from the Chairman of the Foundation

"Dear Friends of Inalco and Langues O',

As the end of the year approaches, allow me these few words to express to you, on behalf of the Foundation, our gratitude for your constant support and presence by our side during this launch year.

These first months will have been an opportunity to make ourselves known and thereby work to raise Inalco's profile. One of the highlights was the inauguration of the Fondation, on June 16, which revitalized the rue de Lille for a journey to the heart of the history and geographical areas of Langues O'; a journey that you were able to extend through the concomitant publication of the special issue of Connaissance des Arts dedicated to Inalco.

The opportunities for us to get together were numerous, notably through the introduction of recurring lecture cycles that took shape with the "Grands témoins", honoring Alumni who are the pride of this establishment, or the Foundation's "Master classes" which give carte blanche to renowned academics.After Sylvie Bermann, Nicolas de Lacoste, or the Dr. Farhad Daftary, we will have the good fortune and honor of closing the year with a conference Grand témoin de Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, French Ambassador and former Secretary General of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and a Master class by François Héran, Professor at the Collège de France where he holds the "Migrations and Societies" Chair.

At the end of this first year of operation, there are more than twenty projects that have been able to benefit from support from the Foundation. A flow that has set in faster than we could have hoped, and which is a real tribute to Inalco's academic proposition. It already illustrates all the priorities we have set ourselves: in terms of teaching, student immersion and hybridization of the educational offering; in terms of research, support for areal studies inscribed in the long term; in terms of society, the protection of people and knowledge at risk as well as Inalco's contribution to society.

For this, we would like to thank the first-rate partners and patrons who have placed their trust in us from these early months:the ALIPH Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Fondation - Institut Alain de Rothschild, the FMSH, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Tzu Chi Foundation, the Thai Embassy in France, as well as the City of Issy-les-Moulineaux, the Institut National du Patrimoine, the Aga Khan Development Network or the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet.

Two projects in particular received our full attention: the mobilization campaign, back in February, in favor ofwelcoming academics who were victims of the war in Ukraine, to which you responded widely; three academics were thus able to be welcomed at Inalco, some with their families.The creation of a chair dedicated to Afghanistanthen, which saw energies come together on an international scale in an attempt to create a space dedicated to researching and promoting the arts and heritage of this country subjected to the convulsions of history. After an international colloquium co-organized with the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA) and the Musée Guimet on November 18 and 19, the creation of this chair will be the subject of a paper at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres this Friday, December 2.

Finally, this year saw the launch of theFoundation's Excellence Scholarship Program. With the aim of encouraging students to immerse themselves in the countries whose languages they are learning, the Foundation was able to award a dozen scholarships for Tajikistan, India and Thailand.

In this we are not inventing anything. As far back as the Ecole des Jeunes de Langue, forerunner of Inalco, in the 17th century, future drogmans were required to spend an entire year in Arabic scales and another in Turkish scales.

Our ambition for the next few years is to gradually ramp up these immersion scholarships, to promote field experience, boost the attractiveness of our courses and remove the disincentives to departure for more Inalco students.

As an alumnus of Inalco, you certainly know all the benefits of these immersions. That's why I'm taking the liberty at the end of this year to appeal to your generosity to help us in this objective and support, through a donation, this ambitious scholarship program.

Finally, I would like to express my most sincere thanks to our individual donors for their often renewed confidence, to the Inalco teams who have accompanied our launch, to the Foundation directors whose pro bono commitment is exceptional, and tothe Foundation team for its remarkable work in the service of the institute.

I thank you in advance for your generosity and ask you to believe, dear Friends, in the assurance of my sincere devotion. "

Philippe Advani

President

The calendar campaign

See the calendar campaign.

Immersion in the country whose language or civilization you're learning is a fundamental step in learning.

That's why we want every student at Inalco to be able to benefit from an immersion opportunity over the long term, whatever the language they are learning.

This will be possible thanks to your support.

You can make a donation by clicking here.