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Elyane Dezon-Jones, Ph.D., professor of romance languages in Arts & Sciences, recently has received the distinction of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French minister of culture.
The award, which recognizes her work as a literary critic and a mystery fiction writer, is given to those who have distinguished themselves "in the realm of literature and by their contribution to the diffusion of French culture throughout the world."
Dezon-Jones, a longtime scholar of 20th-century novelist Marcel Proust, penned what reviewers called "a wickedly witty satire of the world of Proust scholars" in 1994 while she was immobilized at home with a ruptured disc. The book, titled "Murder Chez Proust" in English and published under the pen name of Estelle Monbrun, earned critical acclaim and bestselling status in France.
In 1998, Dezon-Jones followed with another acclaimed novel, "Meurtre a Petite Plaisance," which features the same characters and is set in Maine. She also has written several scholarly studies, including two on Proust.
"I am delighted to learn that Professor Dezon-Jones has been accorded this high honor by the French government," said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences. "She is well deserving of this significant award, and we are very proud that her work as both a literary critic and writer are being recognized in this way."
Dezon-Jones joined the University in 1991 as professor of French. Previously, she had taught at Fordham University for one year and Barnard College for eight years, both in New York, and at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Before that, she taught at three universities in France.
She earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Poitiers in France in 1969 and a master's degree from the University of Virginia in 1973. She received a doctorate from the University of Paris IV Sorbonne in 1976.
Dezon-Jones received another prestigious honor from the French government -- L'Ordre des Palmes Academiques -- in 1995.
