The Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Hope College and its French Cultural Studies Colloquium will feature the address “French Migration to Algeria in the 19th Century: The Life Story of Henriette Orcière” by Dr. Michel Pichot of the Aquinas College French faculty on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 4 p.m. in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium (room 135) of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Henriette Orcière was a Waldensian from the Freissinieres valley in the French Alps who immigrated to Algeria in 1881. The Waldenses were dissenters from the Roman Catholic Church who arose about 1170 in the South of France. They were founded by a French merchant named Pierre Waldo from Lyon. The Waldenses preached fidelity to the scriptures, evangelical poverty, and nonviolence and adhered to the 16th century Reformation.
Pichot’s areas of specialization are French culture and civilization, French translation and French for the professions. He has lived in Algeria and published articles on “Waldensian Immigration to Algeria” and “Educational Policies of the French Third Republic (1870–1939) in Algeria” in journals such as the International Journal of Francophone Studies and the Michigan Academician. He holds a Ph.D. in French from the Pennsylvania State University.
The Martha Miller Center for Global Communication is located at 257 Columbia Ave., at the corner of Columbia Avenue and 10th Street.