Phone: (309)438-3279
Email: Lcedwar@ilstu.edu
Link to LAN faculty page
I am Academic Advisor and Director of Recruitment and Retention for world languages majors and minors. I am also an Instructional Assistant Professor of Italian, French, and World Languages Teaching. An ardent proponent of an interdisciplinary approach to higher education, I am gratified to watch my students and advisees make connections across disciplines, understand the foundations of our institutional structures, learn a second (or third – or more!) language, add a second major or minor, gain cultural and linguistic knowledge through education abroad, and Internationalize their (Your) Major! Look at this page to see all of the internationalized plans of study because your major may be included!
I am the faculty advisor of the Angers and Grenoble, France study abroad programs and hold in high esteem the life experience and perspective gained through education abroad. For more information on studying in Angers, click here. I am also the co-creator and director of the ISU in Bologna, faculty-led, summer program. A strong supporter of the connection between community building and learning, I am faculty advisor of the French honor society, Pi Delta Phi and of the Italian Club – La Tavola. We host French conversation hours (Francophone Club) and Italian Conversation hours twice per week when school is in session and cultural events and movie nights every month. Check Francophone Club out on Facebook and Instagram and Italian Club – La Tavola on Instagram (@isu_italianclub).
I earned my M.A. in French and my Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration, focusing on international education, cultural foundations of education, and critical themes, notions of identity, and second language acquisition during study abroad.
Other interests that I have are non-binary and inclusive French (also explained here in French by sociolinguist Julie Neveux) and inclusive Italian (and to this end, among other options, the use of the schwa), inclusive L2 pedagogy, and legitimizing dialects as languages such as those found in Norway and Italy (my husband is from a little village, Calvene in the Veneto in Italy), I also like learning French slang, and le Verlan and about the social history and popular culture from all of these countries (including music and movies). I have lived in Trondheim, Norway as well as in both Angers and Poitiers, France and Calvene, Italy, Champaign, Illinois and, of course, Bloomington, Illinois.
Contact Me:
Laura Edwards, Ph.D.
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Illinois State University
Campus Box 4300
Phone: (309) 438-3279
Fax: (309) 438-8038
Stevenson Hall 231B
Email: Lcedwar@ilstu.edu
My CV (Jan. 2023)