Professor Receives Prestigious Award from French Ministry of Education

Dr. Frances Malino, Sophia Moses Robison Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Wellesley College, has been named a Chevalier (knight) of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. The award, given to her to recognize her outstanding academic research and instruction in French history, was conferred in a ceremony held at Wellesley College on March 5, 2012.

In a letter read at the ceremony, Malino’s colleague Jean-Claude Kuperminc, director of the Library and Archives of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris and president of the Commission Française des Archives Juives (French Commission on Jewish Archives) called the recognition a “much deserved honor” that “materializes the deepness of [Malino’s] research and the inventiveness of [her] writing and teaching on French history.”

The Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Order of Academic Palms) is an Order of Chivalry of France for academics and cultural and educational figures. It was founded by the Emperor Napoléon as a reward for devotion and accomplishment in the realm of teaching, scholarship, and research. Later, it was extended to non-French citizens to acknowledge their promotion of French language or significant achievement in the field of education.