Portraits of women, from Langues O' to Inalco

Students in the Chinese course, year 1926-1927 © Collections Inalco

The first female graduates and teachers at Langues O'

It was in the late 1860s that the first women gained access to university and degrees. In 1888, the first female students graduated from the École des Langues Orientales: Florence Groff in Persian and Marie Talbotier in Literal Arabic and Vulgar Arabic, which she completed with Persian in 1890. Not surprisingly, these were among the first languages taught at the school. Langues O' was an attractive proposition, and opened up quickly. A scholarship was awarded to a student for the first time in 1919.

In 1930, women accounted for 23% of students but 25% of graduates. This was also the year in which, for the first time, a woman (a former student of the school) won the diplomatic (Chinese) competitive examination.

The first repetitrice to appear in the archives was Mlle Kantchoclovski, appointed for Russian in 1910. As for Mrs Remizov-Douguello, she became the first professor giving lectures in the free Russian and Slavonic paleography course in 1926. In 1913, the School published the first book written by one of her former students.

Lilias Homburger was the first woman proposed for a chair (Sudanese dialects, i.e. Fulani and Mandingo) in 1927. The idea was undoubtedly avant-garde, as it was not approved by the Ministry. Between several expeditions to Cameroon and Guinea, she taught courses in Bantu languages for several years (1923-1928). Director of studies in African linguistics at the Ecole pratique des hautes études, she returned to Langues O' from 1945 to 1958, where she was in charge of teaching African languages.

Today

Annie Montaut

Annie Montaut has been Professor Emeritus at Inalco since 2014. The author of numerous publications in the fields of Indian linguistics and literature, she has been an active translator since 1987. The French public owes it to her to be able to read novels, short stories and poems translated from Hindi. She was recently awarded the Prix de la traduction Inalco/Vo-Vf 2022 for her translation of the novel Ret samadhi. Beyond the Border by Indian writer Geetanjali Shree (Editions des femmes Antoinette Fouque, 2020).

Read article: Annie Montaut, winner of the Inalco/Vo-Vf 2022 Translation Prize

Gulistan Sido

Gulistan Sido is a doctoral student at Inalco, attached to the PLIDAM research team and the Oralités du monde research group. She is a specialist in Kurdish oral literature.
She is also co-founder of the ecological reforestation project Tresses Vertes, winner of the Prix de la fondation Danielle Mitterrand 2022.

Read the interview: Gulistan Sido, sowing the seeds of life and solidarity

Sania Carbone

Sania Carbone is a 2nd year PhD student at Inalco, attached to the IFRAE research team. Her research focuses on the birth of the city and the formation of the medieval Japanese urban network through the study of the Hiraizumi archaeological site. She received the 1st FFJ/Christian Polak Prize 2022, awarded by the Fondation France Japon de l'EHESS, for her master's thesis "Urbanization around monastic complexes in the medieval period".

Read the article: Sania Carbone, winner of the 1st FFJ/Christian Polak 2022 Prize

Sophie Hohmann

Sophie Hohmann is a sociologist specializing in migration issues in the post-Soviet space, attached to the CREE research team. She leads, among others, the collaborative research project ArmenYouth Rest&Rev, winner of the Emergence-Idex 2020 call for projects. She has also been head of the DU Passerelle at Inalco since 2020.

Read the interview: Sophie Hohmann, sociologist specializing in migration issues in the post-Soviet space and head of the DU Passerelle

Marie Vrinat-Nikolov

Marie Vrinat-Nikolov is University Professor of Bulgarian Language and Literature and Literary Translation Theory at Inalco, attached to the CREE research team. She is also head of Inalco's literary translation master's program and scientific director of Presses de l'Inalco. She is the winner of the Etienne Dolet translation prize 2021 for her translations, her writings on translation and the transmission of this discipline through her teaching, and of the Fragonard foreign literature prize 2022 for her translation of the Bulgarian novel "Les Dévastés", by Theodora Dimova.

Read article: Marie Vrinat-Nikolov, winner of the Fragonard Prize for Foreign Literature for her translation of the novel "Les Dévastés"

Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau

Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau is a university professor, accredited in Macedonian language, literature and civilization. She is head of the Macedonian Studies section, co-director of the "Oralité" master's degree and of the "Literature and culture in language didactics" axis of the PLIDAM research team (Inalco), which she created. She currently leads the Strengthening and Prospects for Cooperation in the Balkans project and is at the initiative of obtaining in 2022 the Rare Discipline label for Macedonian studies. The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) awarded her the Gold Medal "Blaže Koneski" 2021.

Read article: Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau, winner of the Gold Medal "Blaže Koneski"

Anne Bayard-Sakai

Anne Bayard-Sakai is University Professor at Inalco, Department of Japanese Studies, attached to the IFRAE (Inalco-Université Paris Cité-CNRS). She is a specialist in modern and contemporary Japanese literature. Her research focuses on Japanese/French literary translation, the place of the reader and narrative modalities in contemporary novels, as well as post-March 11, 2011 literature. She is also involved in the long-term scientific research program on the translation of the Genji monogatari (Roman of Genji) (IFRAE: Axe I - Languages, sources and their issues).

See the video interview: Meeting Anne Bayard-Sakai, specialist in modern and contemporary Japanese literature (IFRAE)