Margot Steinhart was designated by La Renaissance Française-Paris as an award recipient at the international level on November 15, 2022.
Margot has been recognized for her engagement as an educator, a leader, and one who seeks collaborative opportunities to promote and support French studies and to connect groups and individuals with a mutual interest in French language and francophone cultures.
Projects that she has undertaken have focused on the promotion of and advocacy for French programs, chairing a partnership between the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) and the Fédération des Alliances Françaises (Fédération), and collaboration with the French Cultural Services and the Quebec Ministry of International Affairs to produce videos which validate learning French. Margot’s contributions also include coordinating the French Advocacy Resource Bank, comprising 200 digitized materials on the AATF website, serving as co-chair and editor of national learning standards K-16, presenting sessions at numerous national language conferences, and authoring several published articles. While president of her Alliance Française chapter, she coordinated a video recording in French with English subtitles and a companion bilingual publication of World War II stories recounted by 18 chapter members representing 14 countries.
Margot holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in French Literature from Northwestern University and a B.A. in French from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. For over 40 years, she taught French in two Chicago-suburban school districts and at Northwestern University.
She currently serves as vice-president of the American Society of the French Academic Palms (ASFAP), vice-president of La Renaissance Française-USA, and board member of the Fédération. Previously, she served as president of AATF and ASFAP and as The French Review editor for the rubric “Course Materials and Methodology.”
She is a recipient of several awards, including the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education, the AATF/Dorothy S. Ludwig Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Illinois Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Foreign Language Learning. Margot was promoted to the rank of Commandeur in the Ordre des Palmes académiques and awarded the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite.