Congratulations to Associate Professor Karen Fresco, Head of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s French Department, for being recognized Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques. This prestigious title is awarded to members of the international community for outstanding contributions to French pedagogy, scholarship, and culture, as well as to the French language. L’Ordre des Palmes Académiques was instituted by founded by Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte on March 19, 1808. For more information on the award, click here.

Dr. Fresco, who also serves as an Associate Professor in the Gender and Women’s Studies and Medieval Studies Department, has been affiliated with the University of Illinois for over twenty years. She has edited or co-edited five essay collections, including, most recently, Collections in Context: The Organization of Knowledge and Community in Europe (2012, Ohio State University Press) with Anne D. Hedeman. The book is part of the Literature and Languages Library collection. Fresco has also produced several critical editions and is currently working on one for Christine de Pizan’s Les Enseignements moraux (ca. 1398-1401). She has also published half a dozen scholarly articles.