FRANCE NAMES AU PROFESSOR HONORARY CONSUL IN ALABAMA
AUBURN -- The government of France has named Samia I. Spencer of Auburn University as that nation's honorary consul in Alabama.
Spencer, who will serve a renewable four-year term, is Alumni and Catanoli Professor of French in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in AU's College of Liberal Arts. The French government rarely confers such titles on citizens of other nations, and this is the first time that a member of the academic community in Alabama has been selected.
"We depend on Dr. Spencer very much," said Rene-Serge Marty, consul general at the French Consulate for the Southeast U.S. in Atlanta. "She is working very hard to increase awareness of French culture in Alabama and help us build strong economic relations between France and Alabama."
Spencer last week introduced Marty to Gov. Bob Riley in Montgomery as the two began talks on increasing economic ties between Alabama and France. Marty, who is also an economic and commercial counselor, said the talks concerned ways to strengthen economic ties involving several major industries. Those industries include tire producer Michelin, which is one of the state's largest manufacturers.
France is the ninth largest foreign investor in Alabama and the second largest in the U.S., behind Great Britain.
In her role as honorary consul, Spencer will help arrange additional meetings with AU and state representatives and assist in efforts to increase cultural ties between Alabama and France.
The honorary consul designation is the latest major honor from France for Spencer, who was knighted in 1991 as a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academics. She has been a member of the AU faculty since 1972 and is executive director of the Women's Leadership Institute at Auburn.
Spencer, who learned the French and English languages as a child in her native Egypt and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, has published widely on 18th century French literature and culture, women and politics, and contemporary French culture and institutions. She edited the anthology "French Women and the Age of Enlightenment," has written numerous journal articles on French history and culture and is completing work on an edited encyclopedia on the French Enlightenment.
As an AU professor, she has led classes in the colleges of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences to Paris to study French culture and fashion.
The designation is one of two recent honors for Spencer, who received the 2004 Post-Secondary Outstanding Teacher Award of the Alabama Association of Foreign Language Teachers in March.
Auburn University is a comprehensive research institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff. Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn is Alabama's largest educational institution, offering more than 230 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs.
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CONTACT: Spencer, 334/844-6374 (spencsi@auburn.edu)