Lingua Franca

¿Qué pasa? Quoi de neuf? Novità? Department News Abounds

On February 23, 2015, Ti-Cheng Balbo, Abdelkrim Mouhib and Michele C. Dávila from our department presented “It’s a Small World After All: Understanding Cultural Traits from Latin America, China and the Arab World” to the community of Salem State with the goal of creating awareness of perceived stereotypes ingrained in the American culture about people from Latin America, China and the Arab world. They identified cultural traits from these countries that affect the interactions with the international and diverse population of Salem State University.

The Richelieu Club of Salem celebrated its 50^th anniversary in February. The Richelieu Club promotes French language and heritage in the greater Salem area, gives annual scholarships to high school French students and does fundraisers for local charities. The French program was well represented at the 50^th anniversary gala by French faculty Dr. Elizabeth Blood (Richelieu Club Vice President), Prof. Brigitte Lagoutte (Richelieu Club member), Prof. Mary-Kay Miller, along with current French students Jeff Robinson (French major and Richelieu Club member), Gail Coughlan (French major), Monica Ciruelos (French minor), and former French students Erin McManus, Shawn Pinette and Steve Lacey. Steve Lacey’s jazz trio provided music for the event.

Ronni Wongus

The Department of World Languages and Cultures is proud to announce that the departmental secretary, Ronnette Wongus received the university’s “Employee of the Quarter Award”. We’re thankful for all of her hard work and proud of this recognition, even though it does not even begin to reflect how much she does and how essential she has become. Congratulations, Ronni!

The MAT in Spanish announces that seven of our graduate students will be presenting the results of semester-long research projects at this year’s Graduate Research Symposium on May 13^th at 1pm. Come by to hear these Spanish-language presentations about where culture crosses with pedagogy. Location TBA.

The Department of World Languages and Cultures would like to announce to our students that those of you who demonstrate superior knowledge of the subject area in our department, and have exemplary participation in co-curricular activities or voluntary service, or study abroad, may apply for Departmental Honors. In order to be eligible a student must have a grade point average of at least 3.5 in the major. Students may apply in writing to the chairperson of the Department of World Languages and Cultures by the end of the second month of their last semester before graduation to be considered for Departmental Honors.

The Center for International Education and Study Abroad office is now on North Campus in Sullivan 114

The Department of World Languages and Cultures has students going to Quebec and Oviedo this summer with strong enrollment.

Summer 2016: Costa Rica! Applications accepted in September 2015.

Faculty News

Michele C. Dávila presented “Bildungsroman en el tópico: El arca de la memoria de Dinorah Cortés Vélez” at the V International Conference of Literature in Arecibo, Puerto Rico on April 19, 2015.

Nicole Sherf published an article “Incorporating and Promoting Awareness of Student Progress in Proficiency” in ACTFL’s Jan/Feb 2015 The Language Educator.

In addition to chairing a session on translation for the Northeast Modern Languages Association’s annual conference in Toronto (NEMLA April/May 2015), Kristine Doll is the guest editor of a special edition on translation for The Seventh Quarry Poetry Magazine (Swansea, Wales UK). This issue focuses on translations of Catalan poetry into English and includes several of Dr. Doll’s translations as well as her introduction to the six Catalan poets featured in the magazine. Additionally, Dr. Doll’s translation of the Catalan poem “Hores angleses” by August Bover recently appeared in Jaén i Urban’s London’s Rivers, published by the University of Alicante (Spain).

Elizabeth Blood was recently interviewed with Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello (IDS) for a Franco-American geneology podcast called “Maple Stars and Stripes” about Salem’s French-Canadian and Franco-American Heritage.

Anna Rocca has been elected as the Regional Representative of Women in French in the New England and Eastern Canada. This MLA-allied Organization, is a scholarly association whose goal is to promote the study of French and Francophone women authors, the study of women’s place in French and Francophone cultures or literatures, and feminist literary criticism. Dr. Rocca’s primary goal is to also reach a broader representation of women, particularly those in developing countries, who would enrich WIF and the reciprocal understanding of the forms in which feminism manifests itself.