Main collaborators of Bruno Susini :

Alain Di Meglio and Jacques Thiers

Alain Di Meglio

Alain Di Meglio was born in 1959 in Marseille. He is a university professor at INSPE (Institut National Supérieur du Professorat et de l'Education de l'Université de Corse) where he was Director of Studies until 2013 and where he currently teaches in the MEEF Masters program (métiers de l’éducation, de l’enseignement et de la formation, or Education, Teaching and Training Professions). Until his election to the vice-presidency of the University (VPCA), he was Director of the University Cultural Center (joint cultural service) and Vice President for the Corsican language mission.

            He attended the University of Corsica as a student employee in 1982, while at the same time working as a school teacher. He worked step by step to attain the various accreditations of the Corsican studies course, while simultaneously conducting field research on school bilingualism. After passing the first CAPES (Certificat d'aptitude au professorat de l'enseignement du second degré or Certificate of aptitude for secondary school teachers) in the Corsican language, he conducted research in language didactics in Corsican schools, the subject of his thesis, which he submitted in 1997.

            As a member of the UMR-CNRS- LISA 6240 laboratory (Lieux Identités eSpace Actions or Places of Identity, Spaces and Action), he focused his research on the field of minority languages, working for the recognition and development of the Corsican language and, more generally, for bi/pluri-lingualism in public education. His research is conducted through the disciplinary lens of sociolinguistics and didactics of languages in minority situations.

            Vice-president of the Agrégation des Langues de France (Cluster for the Languages of France), Alain Di Meglio has a rich national and international experience (Algeria, Canada, Italy, Morocco, and more).

            In his commune of Bonifacio, he has been elected since 2008 as deputy for Culture, Heritage and Communication.

Author and lyricist, he writes for various groups and Corsican singers. He collaborates with composers such as Jean-Pierre Marcellesi, Bruno Susini or Frédéric Poggi to give song texts to groups or singers (Voce Ventu, Surghjenti, Canta u Populu Corsu, Serge Vacca, Michèle Sammarcelli, Suarina, A Pasqualina,…)

            He also regularly publishes his poems in the literary review of the University Cultural Center, Bonanova, of which he is one of the editors. With Jacques Thiers, he now directs this review within the framework of a project that gives a broad platform to the writing workshops of the University of Corsica.

            Since his participation in the review Rigiru at the end of the 1980s, he has published poetry in most of the reviews existing in the Corsican language. After a collection of short stories in 2001 (Macagni, Albiana), he published in 2004 a first collection of unpublished poems under the title/theme of Migraturi (Ed. Albiana). This work opened the doors for him to contemporary anthologies (A Filetta, Onze poètes corses contemporains, ed. PHI, Luxembourg or Cinque poeti corsi ed. E. Cocco, "Quaderni della valle", Bari; and various appearances thanks to translations in French, Spanish or Italian reviews. In 2007, Migraturi will be translated into French by François-Michel Durazzo under the title Migratures (Al Manar, Paris) and published with illustrations by Julius Baltazar. In 2009, his second collection (Vaghjimi spizzati, Albiana) earned him the Corsican Book Prize and will be published in 2011 in its French version (Automnes en miettes, Al Manar with illustrations by Guy-Paul Chauder).

            In 2010 he appears in the review Nu(e) 44 devoted to 13 Corsican poets, in the review Décharges 145 (5 Corsican poets) and in the review Bacchanales 46, Ce qu'île dit. He participates in contemporary anthologies, among others: Une fenêtre sur la mer, Angèle Paoli (Dir.) in 2014; Florilège de la poésie corse Musa d’un populu, Norbert Paganelli, (Dir.) 2016; Par tous les chemins. Florilège poétique des langues de France, MJ Verny and N. Paganelli (Dir.) 2019, ed. Le bord de l'eau.

            His latest collection of poems Sintimi di sponda (Feelings of the shoreline) was published in Corsican in 2015 (Albiana/CCU).

Jacques Thiers

Born in Bastia in 1945 and now residing in Biguglia, Jacques Thiers has taught classical literature in Nice, Ajaccio and Bastia before joining the University of Corsica in 1983, where he currently holds a chair in regional language and culture with the status of University Professor. He holds a doctorate in linguistics and has held various administrative and pedagogical positions, including director of the Information and Orientation Service (Service d'Information et d'Orientation - SUIO) of the University of Corsica and director of the Diploma of Specialized Higher Studies (Diplôme d'Études Supérieures Spécialisées - DESS) in Communication Applied to the Valorization of Regional Resources.

Since 1994, he has also been at the head of the University Cultural Center (Centre Culturel Universitaire - CCU), which leads cultural activities on campus and throughout the University of Corsica's relations with higher education establishments on the European continent and in the Mediterranean: About 20 workshops on artistic and cultural expression, a periodical bulletin of cultural information (À l'asgiu), publications (including a literary review in the Corsican language entitled Bonanova), conferences, dramatic shows and international literary competitions are the vectors of this policy of cultural development and dialogue. About fifteen volunteers and four student-monitors accompany these activities which, for a good part of them, ensure a link between Academia and wider society. 

From 1995 to 1998 Jacques Thiers was president of the jury of the Corsican language and culture competitions for high schools and junior high schools, the CAPES or Certificate of aptitude for secondary school teachers (Certificat d'aptitude au professorat de l'enseignement du second degré) of the Corsican language. He is now president of the reserved competition. (concours réservé ??)

  His career is therefore that of a teacher and researcher, marked by research, conferences and scientific publications in the field of literature and language sciences.In addition to these academic and administrative responsibilities, he has also worked in the field of cultural expression, particularly in the Corsican language. Co-author of manuals of learning Corsican (Stà à sente o Pè !, Dì tù), Jacques Thiers is one of the cultural activists who identifies himself as one of the “1970s generation". He writes regularly in poetry since that period; he has authored the lyrics of numerous songs out of which Corsican singers and bands made popular hits, from E Duie Patrizie to Canta u Populu Corsu to I Muvrini and Surghjenti. Editor of literary magazines and in particular Rigiru (1973-1981) and today Bonanova, he is also a dialogue writer and playwright. In the 1970s he directed the Scola Corsa and Scola Aperta troupes. From 1979 to 1999, he wrote and performed L'Orcu, U Rè, Pandora, U Casale, U più hè per fà l'erre, I Strapazzi di Bazzicone and Tutti in Pontenovu, popular comedies which, through the use of irony, play on the different levels of representation of social, cultural or psychological reality.

Various collaborations (U Trionfu di a puesia, Matria, Medea), continuous ties with the theater of Sardinia (since the translation in Corsican of the drama Petru Zara by L.Sole in 1980) led to  work for a multilingual stage: Itaca! Itaca! on the theme of Ulysses written by three authors: J.THIERS, L.SOLE (Sardinia), F.SCALDATI (Sicily) and staged in Aiacciu in October 1997. The cycle continued with: Ciclope (September 1998) in collaboration with L.SOLE and Lelio LECIS (Cagliari); Baruffe in Mariana (September 1999), written with M.CINI (Pisa), A Memoria di l'Acqua (October 2000), Cosa mi manca à mè, a very free adaptation of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (January 2001), in collaboration with the company Teatro Sardegna of Cagliari.

Jacques Thiers is also president of the Corsican section of the Instituto del Teatro del Mediterraneo (IITM, Madrid) which pursues similar objectives.

  Jacques THIERS is also a prose writer (novelist with A Funtana d'Altea, Corsica Book Prize of 1990, published since in French, Italian and Romanian and A Barca di a Madonna (translated into French under the title of La Vierge à la barque or “the Virgin in the boat”).

Among his most important publications:

BOOKS

- Papiers d'identité(s) (“Identity Papers”) (1989, ed. Albiana), a sociolinguistic essay based on his thesis (University of Haute-Normandie, 1988) which analyzes the mechanisms of Corsican identity;

- Les Potirons, l'inspecteur et le gecko (“The Pumpkins, the Inspector and the Gecko”) (1994, ed. Albiana), a story about teaching in Corsica in the 19th century, based on documents from the National Archives;

- Memorie (“Memory”) (1996, ed. Piazzola), the critical edition (taken from his thesis, University of Provence, 1979) of the memoirs of Francesco Ottaviano Renucci (1767-1842), an essential work for the knowledge of the history of Bastia and its region, but also of the relations of Corsica with the Italian peninsula in a sensitive period.
- Les Itinéraires de Salvatore Viale (“The Itineraries of Salvatore Viale”) (1998, BU-CCU) of which he co-edited the articles and the publication, a set of studies on the relationship between Corsica and Tuscany in the Europe of the first nineteenth century (l’Europe du premier dix-neuvième siècle???)

ARTICLES

1993- "Language contact and corsican polynomia" in: Trends in Romance Linguistics and Philology, vol.5: Bilingualism and Linguistic Conflict in Romance (R.Posner and J.Green dir.), Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin-New York.

1995- "The theoretical implications of Polynomial Language" in European identities; Cultural diversity and integration in Europe since 1700 (Nils Arne Sorensen ed.), Odense University Press.

1997 - “Français-corse" ("French-Corsican"), article n°145 in: Kontaktlinguistik/Contact Linguistics/Linguistique de contact, vol.2: Manuel international des recherches contemporaines (“International Handbook of Contemporary Research”) (Hans Goebl, Peter H.Nelde, Zdenek Starý and Wolfang Wölck), Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin-New York.

1998- "Image(s) de Paoli et B(u)onaparte dans quelques témoignages contemporains (fin 18e début 19e)” ("Image(s) of Paoli and B(u)onaparte in some contemporary testimonies (end of 18th and beginning of 19th)"), in "La nascita di un mito : Pasquale Paoli tra '700 e '800" (M.Cini, dir.), minutes of the colloquium of Viareggio, edizioni BFS , Pisa.