Modern languages and literatures’ Cheryl Toman participates in French summit

Cheryl Toman, professor of French, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, was invited by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)—the French equivalent of the United Nations with 84 observer states—to participate in the 11th Summit for International Non-Governmental Organizations. The summit took place in Yerevan, Armenia, from Sept. 12 to 14.

About the summit

After having secured OIF accreditation for La Biennale de la Langue Française, the professional organization she has been leading since 2016, Toman joined presidents of the other 41 such organizations worldwide with this distinction. Michaëlle Jean, secretary general of the OIF, and Nikol Pachinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia, opened the summit. The summit involved drafting declarations and strategies to be sent to the heads of state of OIF’s member nations on topics such as Europe’s migrant crisis, universal equality for women and protection and rights for artists and artistic creation worldwide. Toman is now part of an OIF international commission on language, diversity and culture and is a signatory for a declaration completed at the summit calling for official rights and protection for artists.