My name is Veronique Olivier.
I teach French at
Chapman, and I'm
in the Languages department.
I've been here
for six years now.
And since I arrived, actually I
created a lot more classes that
are more interdisciplinary.
So one of the classes
I teach is French
Film, Food, and Literature.
I've always been
interested in food,
but nobody believed in the
topic when I did my PhD.
So I gave up, and I did a
very more traditional research
on feminism.
And then I started to
read Simone de Beauvoir,
a very famous French writer.
I realized there was a strong
link between feminism and food.
The French are
fascinated by food,
and food is in so
many, so many novels.
It's actually very difficult
to make a selection.
So I usually teach little
excerpts of French writers.
And then the movies--
I show four movies.
The first film is
Vatel, and it's
more about the history of food
and the problems in France
in the 17th century.
The second film is
Chocolat, because it's
linked to religion--
food and religion.
Third film is Babette's Feast.
It's a lot more intellectual.
And then the last one
is Ratatouille-- [LAUGH]
my favorite one.
Je m'appelle Moliere!
Two or three years ago, I
got fortunate to have a grant
from Chapman to put on a play.
And my focus was to divert
from a course on theatre,
which is to memorize
a text from a play.
And I decided that my
students would actually
write their own play.
And it's wonderful because
they work, obviously,
on their French,
their pronunciation,
and it's a wonderful class for
learning how to work in groups.
The most important
aspect of the play
is obviously the multimedia.
It's really interesting to have
a film included in the play.
It's very good, because
the students are very
good at doing things like this.
This performance
class is probably
the class that gives me
the most satisfaction.
The students get so confident
at the end of this class.
They realize they've done
an incredible job, not
only playing as being actors but
speaking in a foreign language.
We even see that parents
come to the play,
and they're very
proud of their kids.
The students-- actually,
I owe a lot to them,
because when I started to
teach the woman-authors class
and the food and film
literature class,
that's when I started
to really believe
in my research about food.
And there was this
amazing connection
between teacher and students.
And I'm teaching this
class for the third time.
And it's good this time.
I'd say it's very good.
