On 19 February 2021, the UCL School of European Languages, Cultures and Society (SELCS) and the Department of French Studies lost a much-loved colleague with the passing of Dr Roland-François Lack, a specialist of nineteenth-century French literature and French and Francophone Film Studies.

Roland-François joined UCL in 1996 as a Lecturer (then Senior Lecturer), having done his BA and PhD in the French Department. He taught nineteenth-century French literature and Film Studies, and many former undergraduate and graduate students will remember his popular and inspiring modules on Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave and the Swiss New Wave. He was also the tireless Cine-Tourist, writing with his usual wit, passion and erudition about the films and places he loved – London, Paris, Geneva – and the many connections between both.

Roland was a wonderful colleague, funny, kind, and mischievous, and a dear friend to many of us. We will miss him greatly.

His colleagues in the Department of French Studies have thought it appropriate to set up a Dr Roland-François Lack Memorial Fund to help students; in particular, it will fund an annual Essay Prize in his name for the best undergraduate essay in French Studies.

Your generous contribution, as small or large as it be, will serve to encourage and help students studying French at UCL, and to celebrate Roland-François's important contribution to the Department of French Studies and SELCS for over twenty-five years.