News and Events

Foreign Languages Department Newsletter

Read the most recent issue here: October2009. Click here for archived issues.

Tertulia

The popular Spanish-language conversation hour, the TERTULIA, takes place on alternate Wednesdays and Fridays, in Estabrook Hall Room 310 at 4pm. Spanish-language students of all levels and native speakers are invited to participate. Refreshments are served. Please join us !

Chinese Corner

Sponsored by the Foreign Languages Department and led by Visiting Assistant Professor Wenhua Jin, Chinese Corner takes place every Thursday night, 6:30 - 9pm, in Jefferson Academic Center 218. Please join us to practice your Chinese, learn more about Chinese language and culture, and not least, make friends and have fun.

Faculty Notes

Professor Carol D'Lugo's essay " Fictions of Apprenticeship: Following the growth of Narrative Strategies and Cultural Ideologies in Rosario Castellanos" recently appeared in Hispanofila, Num. 156, 2009.

Dean Simpson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish, published a book of poetry last spring. Cataratas is a collection of poems in Spanish and English about love, hate, death, and inquiry. Read more about it in the Department of Foreign Languages September 2009 Newsletter.

In early October at the University of Puerto Rico, Associate Professor Maria Acosta Cruz presented a paper,"Are We What We Speak? Language and Nationhood in the Latino Context"at a conference entitled " Rethinking the Mangrove. Second Synposium of Critical Practices of Caribbean Cultural Studies. "

Everett Fox, Professor of Judaica, spoke at a Boston University conference celebrating the 80th birthday of Elie Wiesel. The title of his talk was "Elie Wiesel as Interpreter of Biblical Narrative." He also wrote a piece for Expositions: Interdisci-plinary Studies in the Humanities on "Robert Alter and the Art of Bible Translation," scheduled to appear in Spring 2009.

Wendy Wagner, Visiting Assistant Professor of German, has an article appearing in the Fall 2009 edition of "The Exchange," the newsletter of the New England Faculty Development Consortium. "Suggestopedia: Sonatas Center Students" discusses the significant and positive effect classical music has on learning foreign languages. She lists her favorite composers and sonatas here: Composers to facilitate language learning .

Robert Tobin, Henry J. Leir Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies, attended the annual conference of the Modern Language Association in San Francisco in December, chairing a session on eighteenth- and early nine-teenth-century German literature and assumed the presidency of the Gay Lesbian/Queer (GL/Q) Caucus of the MLA, which represents gay and lesbian concerns at the organization.

Student Awards

This year the J. Fannin King Award for excellence in French goes to Kate Lerner. The Theodore and Phyllis Barbera Awards for excellence in Spanish goes to Caleb Evanter, Christine Gilland Rachel Reizen. The Barbera award is also awarded to Eva Mozena Brandon for excellence in Comparative Literature. Congratulations to one and all!