The Department of French Studies Graduate Student Association held its Third Annual Graduate Student Conference this weekend. The conference included students challenging and exploring the concepts of sexuality, eroticism and gender in French literature and linguistics.”These topics are endless, and they are always changing in French literature,” said Melanie Hackney, graduate student and DFSGA president.For the past two years, the DFSGA has held a conference including the topics “Stirring the Gumbo Pot” and “Questioning Authority”, which both related to French literature and linguistics.  Hackney and Aaron Emmitte, graduate student and DFGSA member, said this year topics were chosen based on a collaborative effort within the graduate students in DFSGA.”It is also an attention grabber,” Emmitte said. “Gender is influenced in linguistics, so you can study how men communicate differently than women.”Graduate students were given a November deadline to submit their paper proposal that challenged sexuality, eroticism and gender in French literature and linguistics for the conference.”We selected participants from at least 20 different colleges and universities across North America, such as Duquesne University, Brigham University and University of British Columbia,” Hackney said.The selected participants were given 15-20 minutes to present their paper proposals about sexuality, eroticism and gender in English or French at the two-day conference.The participants challenged topics, such as gender in society, misogyny and race, masculinity and androgyny in several French novels or plays, by referring to the concepts of sexuality, eroticism and gender.Gaetan Brulotte, a Distinguished University Professor of French and francophone literature at the University of South Florida, was the keynote speaker at the conference. Brulotte is an award-winning creative writer who has authored dozens of books, including the Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature.The conference also included a closing banquet and a live Cajun band, which consisted of Louisiana-styled foods like jambalaya and bread pudding.”The important thing for us was to bring prestige to our conference,” Hackney said. “Louisiana is a place to hold our French conference, since we have a French heritage here.”Greg Stone, director of the program in comparative literature, said there are plans to publish a selection of the graduate students’ paper proposals with a press [with a prestigious name] by May 1.Contact Kimberly Brown at [email protected]