French Government Honors UK Professor

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2005) -- John Erickson, University of Kentucky French professor since 1994, has received the highest academic honor awarded by the French government for outstanding contributions to the spread of the French language, literature and culture in the world.

Erickson, whose doctorate is from the University of Minnesota in comparative literature and French, was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques (Knight of the Order of Academic Laurels) for “services rendered to French culture.” These include his numerous publications and the international journal L’Esprit Createur, which he founded and edited for 42 years. The journal is devoted to French literature and culture.

The award was made by Francois Fillon, French Minister of National Education, Teaching and Research.

At UK, Erickson teaches both undergraduate and graduate students in the Division of French and Italian, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures, in the College of Arts and Sciences. Erickson also has taught as a visiting lecturer or visiting professor in many other universities here and abroad, including the Universite de Paris IV-Sorbonne; the Universite de Provence; Marseille I; the Universite Mohammed V (the University of Morocco), where he was a Fulbright Scholar; and Rice University, where he held a distinguished Chair.

In 1983 Erickson founded the Center for French and Francophone Studies at Louisiana State University and served as its director before moving to UK. He founded L’Esprit Createur in 1961 and edited 42 volumes of the literary magazine until 2003 when he turned the magazine over to its new editors, Daniel Brewer and Maria Minich Brewer, at his former alma mater, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus.

The magazine is addressed to the scholar, critic, and amateur (devotee) of French literature, theory and criticism. Among the many critics, theoreticians, philosophers and writers whose works have appeared in the journal are Octavio Paz and Jean-Paul Sartre, both winners of the Nobel Prize in literature.

Rupert T. Pickens, who is the acting head of the UK Division of French and Italian, said, “Professor Erickson’s colleagues in French and the other languages and literatures are proud of his achievement. He is known internationally for founding and editing for some 40 years one of the foremost journals in French studies which is unique in that every edition contains articles devoted to a single topic.”

Pickens called Erickson, “The American leader in the field of francophone literature and culture, that is, of French expression outside of France.”