Jerome Charyn 's latest novel, The Green Lantern, has been selected as one of the four finalists for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner award in fiction

Steven Ekovich published an article about presidential campaigns in the U.S. and analyzed President Bush's inaugural address

Steven Ekovich published an article on the media and presidential campaigns in the United States, "Campagnes à l'Américaine," in Texte et Documents Pour la Classe (No. 889, February 2005), a publication of the French Ministry of Education for teachers and professors. Ekovich appeared on French television to analyze President Bush's inaugural address. He also published "Welfare and Personal Responsibility: The View from America," in Strategic Prospective (No. 19-20, September-December 2004), a publication of the Centre d'Etude et de Prospective Stratégique, and spent a month in Washington, D.C. at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (affiliated with George Washington University).

Ali Fatemi has been invited to address the American Jewish Committee’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 5. This meeting is one of the preeminent international gatherings in the U.S., bringing together hundreds of American and international Jewish leaders.

Hall Gardner published the Second Presidential Conference papers, "World Hegemony and its Aftermath," presented at UNESCO in May 2004, in the journal Sens Public No. 3, March 2005 (http://www.sens-public.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=47).

Yudhishthir Raj Isar was a featured speaker at a seminar on ‘Citizenship and the New Europe’ organized in London on February 15 by EUCLID, the Cultural Contact Point with the European Commission in the United Kingdom. On February 17 he represented the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage at a one-day conference entitled ‘NGO Space for Debate: Ratifying the Constitutional Treaty and developing Participatory Democracy’ organized in Brussels by the Civil Society Contact Group. In his capacity as a Jean Monnet Professor he returned to Brussels on February 25-26 in order to take part in the conference entitled ‘Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures – the Artists and the Cultural Actors’ organized by the European Commission and the Brussels Bravo festival.

Oleg Kobtzeff was the guest commentator for the February 24 13h00 newscast on France-Culture (the French equivalent to NPR). He discussed that day's headlines: the Bratislava summit, Russian-American relations, and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Charlotte Lacaze has published two articles in the Journal d'Exposition, No.14, 2005 of the Musée des Alpilles of Saint Remy de Provence for the exhibition “Anges et Démons. Le monde enluminé d'Augustin Gonfond 1849 -1909” which will open in June at St. Rémy. One is entitled "Petite Histoire de L'Enluminure," the other "Tradition et Innovations dans l'Enluminure d'Augustin Gonfond." Professor Lacaze has been reappointed External Verifier of the Christie's Education in Paris Program by Cambridge University's External Examinations Board for the 2004/2005 academic cycle.

Linda Martz and Rebekah Rast's second coauthored TOEFL preparation book, published by Ellipse, was released at the end of January. Both volumes specifically target French speakers, and the first is doing well.