2007 News
Persian Language Program highlighted in Washington Post article
November 14, 2007
"Persian studies is growing at U-Md., where students are speaking the language, reciting poetry by Rumi and other Persian writers, watching Iranian movies and, sometimes, debating the country's politics and its fractious relationship with the United States. The school hopes to add a major and a minor in Persian this year, according to Provost Nariman Farvardin.
The 17th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society
August 31, 2007
The Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS) held its 17th annual meeting in St. Mary’s Hall and Jiménez Hall on the weekend of August 31st to September 2nd. Over forty papers were presented by researchers from around the world on a wide range of linguistic topics, such as syntax, phonology, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics, all focused on languages spoken in and near Southeast Asia. The languages included Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Cantonese, and a variety of ethnic minority languages in the region, such Amis, an indigenous language spoken in Taiwan, and Ede, a minority language in Vietnam. The keynote speaker was Michel Ferlus, retired from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, gave a paper entitled “A Layer of Dongsonian Vocabulary in Vietnamese,” based on his decades of research on the history of the Vietnamese language. Selected papers from the SEALS conference will be published in the proceedings. The abstracts are posted at http://www.geocities.com/sealsxvii/.
Commencement 2007
December 21,2007
Congratulations to our 2007 graduates and their families! The SLLC had the pleasure of awarding nine Doctoral degrees, fifteen Master's degrees and 117 Undergraduate degrees. The commencement speaker was Maryland State Senator, Jamie Raskin.
Multilingual Poetry Reading
April 28, 2007
Students and faculty, including native speakers, learners, poets, and translators, read poems in ten languages on the Global Village Performance Stage for Maryland Day, April 28, 2007
SLLC Staff Member recognized for 20 years of service to the University
April 26, 2007
Along with other members of the University staff who have served for 20, 30, or 40 years, Ms. Mildred Yen, Coordinator of Business Services in the School of Languages, will be recognized by President Mote this evening at the 2007 Service Award Reception. During her 20-year tenure with the University, Mildred has ably performed a wide range of progressively more responsible budget management duties and, along the way, earned a second Bachelor?s degree (awarded Magna Cum Laude) and a Master?s degree. While Mildred can crunch numbers with and wrestle savings from the best of them, when asked about what she?s most proud of, it?s not of her accounting expertise, attentional to detail, or the helpful customer service she willingly provides; instead, Mildred enjoys helping student-staffers under her supervision acquire valuable on-the-job training and experience to help them gain the skills and confidence, Mildred says, "to be the best they can be."
Annual SLLC Awards Ceremony
April 25, 2007
The annual SLLC Awards Ceremony, held on April 25, includes presentation of scholarships, academic awards, and induction into language honor societies, followed by refreshments. There was increased program participation this year, with some 20 faculty members and 84 awardees/inductees in attendance, along with friends and family.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2007 German American Merit Award
April 9, 2007
Congratulations to the winners of the German Society Merit Award 2007. They are German majors Sophia Burton, Lucy Erickson, and Stephen Paul. The German Society of Maryland Merit Award for German majors was established in honor of Dr. Carrie May Kurrelmeyer Zintl who was a scholar of classics and languages. A professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins, she was professor emeritus of German at Loyola College at the time of her death in 1992. In addition to creating the Kurrelmeyer Chair, her estate endowed a fund in her name in the Department of History to support library acquisitions, fellowships, and the William Kurrelmeyer Curatorship of Special Collections in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University.
Celebrating Francophone Week
March 13, 2007
Faculty, TAs, Language House French cluster members, and senior French majors, as well as distinguished guests, attended the dinner held at the Language House. The highlights of the event were an overview of Francophonie by Mr. Eric Marquis, Director of the Bureau du Qu?bec in Washington, and a performance by Farafina Kan, an African drumming group.
Annual Language House Showcase
March 6, 2007
The annual Language House Showcase kicked off National Foreign Language Week at UMD. More than seventy guests, including parents, faculty and LH alumni, were treated to an evening of education and entertainment. Audience members learned to say several Russian expressions, listened to the historical background of Italian Tarantella Dance and tapped their feet to the dance, watched a a short play of the Chinese "Monkey King," compared German, French and Japanese TV game-show customs, and witnessed several acts prepared together by students of Hebrew and Persian clusters, whose collaboration underscored the entire program's theme of understanding and equality across cultures.
The interactive portion of the Showcase was especially successful. Several clusters did a fabulous job integrating short films and live shows, displaying their computer savvy, creativity with costumes and near-professional acting skills. All students memorized their lines fluently in the target language.
Wrapping up the evening were international refreshments prepared by the students. The Showcase was a great success and a real testament to the LH students' hard work. We hope to see you at next year's performance and the Around-the-World Dinner in the Fall.
Graduate Student Conference, "History as Text, Text as History"
March 1, 2007
The Graduate Student Conference is one of the most important scholarly events in SLLC each year. This year's fifth annual event tok place February 23 - 24th. The conference is a vital part of students' education, and an occasion that unites faculty and students from every part of the School. Over 80 abstracts were submitted, with many coming from prestigious universities throughout the USA and overseas. 23, including six from UMD, emerged from a rigorous review process. The forum also included a top-class plenary speaker, NYU Professor, Tom Bishop.
SLLC congratulates the following six graduate students who served on the organizing committee: Bethany Applebaum, Silvia Baage, Elodie Lafitte, Veronica Rodriguez, Christina Wall, and Mary Cobb Witrock, as well as other students who offered last-minute assistance of many kinds. Special thanks also goes to Germanic Studies Professor Elke Frederiksen, who provided enormously valuable behind-the scenes energy, expertise and advice, and to Graduate School Dean, Chuck Caramello, who graciously agreed to open the conference.
SLLC programs highlighted in latest issue of TERP magazine
February 26, 2007
Several articles featuring SLLC faculty and programs recently appeared in the Winter 2007 edition of TERP Magazine. The article "Maryland Grows Globally" describes the high demand for SLLC language courses, and also discusses the increased marketability of students with enhanced foreign language study. Another article focuses on the Center for Persian Studies and the new Institute for Israel Studies. SLLC's Mike Long, Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, and Eric Zakim are quoted. The online version will be available in two weeks at www.terp.umd.edu
Faculty member honored for contributions to Education and Faculty Development
February 23, 2007
On February 16, 2007 SLLC faculty member Roberta Z. Lavine and Jim Greenberg, Director, Center for Teaching Excellence were honored by the Universidad Tecnol?gica Equinoccial of Quito Ecuador, for their outstanding contributions to Education and Faculty Development, at that University and throughout Ecuador. At a Convocation equivalent to our Special Awards Ceremony, Roberta and Jim were named "Honorary Professors" in Ecuador. In attendance were first rank authorities in the political and educational fields, including Senators, two former Vice-Presidents of Ecuador, and the current Mayor of Quito.
SLA Brownbag: Results of Student Needs and Expectations Survey
February 21, 2007
Dr. Cynthia Martin of the Russian department presented at the first SLA Brownbag lunch of the semester. Dr. Martin's talk entitled "Student Needs and Expectations in Studying Foreign/Second Languages in SLLC" presented research she conducted with Dr. Roberta Lavine and Dr. Manel Lacorte of the Spanish Department, in which every student taking an udergraduate language course was surveyed on their expectations, needs and wants regarding their foreign language education during the Fall 2005 semester. Students' answers were compared to instructors' answers. This research not only shows what students hope to get out of foreign language classes but also where instructors' views both correspond to, and conflict with, those of students. It is hoped that this research can have practical implications for how the SLLC teaches languages, and can lead to more informed decisions on how to assist students in reaching their language goals. The database of questions and answers is set up in such a way that it can be analyzed in terms of many factors, and is available for anyone wishing to use it for their own research. link to powerpoint presentation in pdf format
