Staff
PRESIDENT
 |
Nora CALLANAN Nora CALLANAN is President of Alliance Française de Cork, Ireland and Director of Cork French Film Festival. Nora has a diploma in public relations, and a dedicated involvement in the artistic and cultural life of the city. She was awarded Chevalier des Palmes Académiques (1993) for initiating a Theatre and Education Programme bringing Irish theatre into second-level schools in France as part of students’ curricular studies. Theatre Companies such as UCC Dramat, Corcadorca, Graffiti etc. In 2007, she was awarded Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (2007) by the French Government for her work and achievements in fostering Franco-Irish bonds in the cultural and educational field with Alliance Française de Cork. She is also a director of VECSI Ireland, a not-for-profit organization promoting linguistic and cultural exchanges between Ireland and France. In 2008, Nora was nominated Irish Delegate for the Institut Robert Schuman at an international symposium at UCC. See our President’s Interview by the Fondation Alliance Française. |
DIRECTOR
 |
Salim BACHI Salim BACHI was born and grew up in Algeria. He studied literature at the Sorbonne in Paris and published his first novel The Hound of Ulysses in 2001. He has won numerous awards and has begun an ambitious work on the history of Algeria. He travelled to Europe and North Africa to defend a certain idea of literature, giving lectures to students and general public at universities and cultural institutions. In 2005 he was a resident at the presitigious French Academy in Rome. Interested in literature but also in cinema and arts in general, he took up his position as director of Alliance Franҫaise de Cork appointed by French Foreign Office at the beginning of November 2010. |
ADMINISTRATION
 |
Niamh SWEENEY – Course and Exams Coordinator Niamh SWEENEY (BA MA) has worked at Alliance Française de Cork since 2006 as administrator as well as Course and Exams Coordinator. She has completed training in AF Frames, one of the Alliance Française network’s internal applications of the CEFR (Common European Framework Reference for languages). She is currently completing a PhD with the French Dept UCC, where she has also worked part-time as an assistant lecturer and examiner. She was an IRCHSS scholar from 2002-2005, and has published work on Paris and Baudelaire. |
 |
Vytene LAUCYTE Vytene LAUCYTE, came to Ireland from Lithuania in 2000 as an Erasmus student in UCC in the Arts Department, joined the Alliance Française de Cork, Ireland in 2005 as Cultural Coordinator. Cork French Film Festival Coordinator since 2007. Vytene also works as a translator, EFL teacher, and is actively involved with the international community living in Cork. |
TEACHERS
 |
Valérie DAVID - Leaving Cert Coordinator Valérie has been working fo Alliance Française de Cork since 1999 and is thus the third most senior teacher, after Anne and Marie-José. She specialises in teaching adults, secondary school students and College students. Her training includes a BA and language teaching-training from Université d’Artois and postgraduate studies in translation theory and comparative linguistics (French/English). As a certified examiner of DELF and DALF diplomas since 2005, she teaches adults of every level, from Beginners to Advanced, from A1 to C2 CEFR levels. She also worked for UCC as a temporary language teacher and coexaminer for College students preparing a Degree in French and for adults. In addition, Valérie prepares secondary school students for their Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate French examinations. She was appointed as a Leaving Certificate oral examiner by State Examinations Commission several times and therefore became the Alliance Française de Cork Leaving Certificate Coordinator in 2009. |
 |
Anne HYLAND Living in Ireland, Co. Cork since October 1982, Anne HYLAND is by far the “most senior member” of Alliance Française de Cork teaching staff and have witnessed a formidable development of this famous institution since she joined in 1985. She holds a BA in English language & litterature from the university of Amiens and completed a higheer Diploma in Education from UCC in 1985. She has taught French “with passion” from primary to secondary and university level, to children and adults in Alliance form Beginners to Advanced Level. |
 |
Christelle MOISAN - Junior Cert Coordinator Christelle has been teaching in Alliance Française de Cork since 2004. She holds a BA in English from Tours University, attended the “Institut de Formation des Maîtres” in Tours and studied for the “Diplôme d’Aptitude à l’Enseignement du Français Langue Etrangère”. She is the Junior Certificate Coordinator for A.F. de Cork. |
 |
Matthieu NIVARD - Children’s Coordinator Matthieu earned two Masters degrees from Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux III, one in Linguistics and one in French as a Second Language. He taught in primary and secondary schools, University and private schools in France, Denmark and Ireland. He has been teaching children, teenagers, college students and adults in Alliance Française de Cork since 2007. He’s also been teaching in primary schools around Cork metropolitan area since 2007.Matthieu’s Interview by Studyrama |
 |
Marie-José O’SULLIVAN Born and educated in Bordeaux, Marie José taught French in London, Madrid and Bilbao at the Berlitz school, then worked as a temporary secondary-school teacher in Cork. She is the second most senior teacher of the Alliance Française de Cork, having joined the team in 1988. As a certified examiner of DELF & DALF, she enjoys teaching adults from beginners to higher advanced as well as secondary-level students. |
 |
Aude TARREGA Coming from the south of France, Aude joined the south of… Ireland in 2008. Passionate of education she began her career as a teacher in preschool where she was able to associate her taste for plastic art and early childhood. As she wanted to discover life in a foreign country she edged her way in the FLE area (French as a foreign Language). It is after a Master FLE with the Grenoble University and several months in practice at the Alliance Française that she’s joining our teacher team. Since she arrived she created the “Learn French through Art” class and shaped the French passport for children classes, which is an evaluation booklet adapted from The European Portfolio. This work gave her the opportunity to be published in the revue le Français dans le monde (N° 369 – Mai -Juin 2010). |
