Lingua Franca

¿Qué pasa? Quoi de neuf? Novità?
Department News Abounds (8.2)

Departmental News

The 2010/2011 school year is drawing to a close and we are excited to announce that a total of 55 students will be graduating with MATs, BAs, and minors in Foreign Languages, Italian, French, or Spanish.  We are proud of the hard work that these graduates have put into their educations and we wish them the best wherever they bring their language skills.

Five of our new graduates have earned the opportunity to change study abroad into working abroad.  They have been awarded grants from the Spanish government and the Italian government to teach English during the next academic year in schools in the Piedmont region of Italy and various locations in northern Spain.  This is an amazing opportunity to live outside the U.S. while earning money and experience.  Congratulations to all and best of luck!

The department must thank Fátima Serra’s work this year as Acting Chair.  She did a great job filling in for Elizabeth Blood who was away on sabbatical.  Dr. Blood returns this summer and has been reelected to another term as Department Chair.

Faculty News

The Spring 2011 semester has been a busy one with faculty members balancing teaching, conference presentations, publishing, and work with the community.

Recent and upcoming conferences are local, national, and international.  Nicole Sherf will serve as the official delegate of Massachusetts at the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL) and the National Council for Languages and International Studies (NCLIS) Annual Legislative Day and Delegate Assembly in Washington DC in mid-May.  Give her any language policy questions you want directed to our state Senators and District 6 Representative.  She also just returned from the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Baltimore, MD, where she presented a session called “Advocating for an Elementary Foreign Language Program in Your District.”  Anna Rocca participated in two conference panels this semester. The first was at NeMLA, in New Brunswick, NJ, on April 7, entitled: “Exploration of Senses in Contemporary Francophone Women’s Autobiography.” The second panel, entitled “Écrits des femmes postcoloniales : le voyage imaginaire ou réel en tant qu’exploration des sentiments,” will be presented on May 30 at CIÉF –Conseil International d’Études Francophones– in Aix-en-Provence, France. Dr. Rocca will chair and present her paper entitled: “Nina Bouraoui et le voyage ontologique dans Nos baisers sont des adieux.”  Kristine Doll will be reading selections of her translations of August Bover’s poetry at the “Gathering the Tribes” International Poetry Festival here in Salem as well as her own work at both the Massachusetts Poetry Festival (where she will chair a panel) in May 2011 and the International Poetry Festival to be held in Swansea, Wales in June 2011.  She has also been invited to read her translations of Catalan poetry at the Atheneum of Barcelona.

There have also been several publications in recent months. Michele Dávila published the article “Una nueva estética de la violencia latinoamericana: Archivo de oscuridades de José E. Santos” in the International Journal in Humanistic Studies and Literature as well as her first poetry book titled  Mosaicos  (Puerto Rico: Casa de los poetas, 2011).  Anna Rocca has been working on chapters in two books about Assia Djebar’s last autobiographical work. The first, entitled “Shame and Belonging in Assia Djebar’s Nulle part dans la maison de mon père,” will be published by Indiana University Press. The second, entitled “Assia Djebar’s Nulle part dans la maison de mon père. Telling Her Truth and Reconfiguring the World,” will be published by Women in French, an allied organization of the Modern Language Association. Furthermore, Dr. Rocca’s abstract submission for a special issue on Women from the Maghreb, published by Dalhousie French Studies has been accepted. Her article entitled “In Search of: Essaydi’s Tactile Imagery of Beauty in Space” is an interview with Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi.  Fátima Serra’s chapter “Instrucciones para salvar el mundo de Rosa Montero”  was accepted for publication in a special issue of Letras Femeninas, the journal of the Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica.  Kenneth Reeds’s article “Urban Pessimism and the Optimism between the Lines: Literary Latin American Cities and Roberto Bolaño’s 2666” will be published in the summer edition of Hipertexto.

The Department of Foreign Languages has long been a university leader in community participation.  This service was showcased at the university’s annual Civic Engagement Festival where Kristine Doll was nominated to be one of the school’s first inductees to Salem State’s new Hall of Civic Engagement.  Other recent activities with the local community have included Dr. Serra’s coordination of a cooperation program with the Clarke Elementary and Stanley schools in Swampscott as well as her work with Dr. Dietrich from the Center for International Education to coordinate Language exchange sessions between Salem State Spanish students and a delegation of 15 Mexican students from the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas.