L’Indécis au Précis, the undergraduate journal in French and Francophone Studies, published its second volume in December 2022. Despite the pandemic and exceptional circumstances, students demonstrated exceptional resilience and commitment to the journal. When they sat down in Fall 2019 with the journal advisor, Laurence Denié-Higney, to talk about the second volume, they imagined a collection of short stories to explore students’ creativity. Little did they know that a few months later, they would all be confined at home. As courses were taught online, the Indécis au Précis students moved to online meetings and continued their work of selecting and revising stories. Indeed, the editors never abandoned the project: when Maddie Britt graduated, she passed the baton to Thomas McDowell, who himself passed it to Sarah Fatkin. Each of them participated in the elaboration of this second volume. Finally, Théophile Gatté completed the work by formatting the short stories.
This Indécis au Précis second volume showcases a collection of three short stories written in French by UCLA undergraduates. The first one tells the story of a winemaker faced with a terrible storm and its aftermath, the second one takes place in Paris during World War II, while the last one recounts a charming love story.
The Department of French and Francophone Studies has now merged with other UCLA language departments to become the European Languages and Transcultural Studies Department. Our new department offers rich opportunities to students, building bridges between languages and cultures. Future volumes of Indécis au Précis will encourage such dialogues, opening its pages to not only works on French and Francophone cultures but also on Germanic, Italian, and Scandinavian cultures. The journal will also encourage submissions exploring the experimental humanities, may it be the digital, environmental, or medical humanities.
To read the full article, please follow this link: https://escholarship.org/uc/lindecisauprecis/2/1