Spring 2008 Newsletter

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Contents

SLLC Welcomes New Faculty and Staff

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SLLC Profile: Jeff Maurer

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Study Abroad Programs 6 Elena LoZinsky: interview with Joseph Brami FOLA

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Student and Faculty Awards & Activities

Faculty Profile: Elke Frederiksen

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SLLC Recent and Forthcoming News & Events Newsletter Staff

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Chair and Advisor: Mike Long | Editor and Advisor: Lauretta Clough Editor: Mike Fekula | Layout: Jeffrey Maurer Production: Bob Masiulis, UM Dept. of Business Services

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Heather Ettus Coordinator, SLLC Academic Affairs

Marianna Landa Assistant Professor of Russian Marianna Landa holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University (2001). She specializes in the literature, culture, and visual experience of Russian Modernism, also called the Silver Age of Russian literature (1880s-1920s). She is particularly interested in the Symbolist experiment in art and female authorship, including mysticism, mystifications, anonyms, pseudonyms, and literary jokes. Marianna has published articles on Russian Symbolism, as well as a critical biography of the long-neglected symbolist poet Elizaveta Dmitrieva (Cherubina de Gabriak), which presents the first complete collection of her poetry. She is currently working on a book entitled: “The Best Woman Poet: Russian Modernist Gender Experiments and Scandals, 1890-1916.”

Marianna has a passion for art history, having spent much of her childhood in the Hermitage Museum, where her mother was a curator. In addition to museum-going, her hobbies include reading, going to the theater, and spending time with her family and friends.

SLLC Welcomes New Faculty and Staff

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Heather Ettus has recently joined the School’s staff as the new Academic Affairs Coordinator, working with Director Mike Long and Associate Director Pierre Verdaguer. Heather comes to the School from the UM Computer Science Department, where she managed the department’s APT work, processed visa requests, and handled a variety of business-related matters.

Heather holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from C.U.N.Y. Law School. Prior to working at the University, Heather taught adult education and ESOL classes in Prince George’s County. She also practiced as a public interest attorney in New York City for a number of years. Heather has always enjoyed nature photography, and she and her family are big Terp fans.

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SLLC Profile: Jeffrey Maurer

Coordinator of Language Media Services

Where are you from and how long have you been with the University?

I am a native Marylander; I was born in Columbia and have spent most of my life here. Both my parents were UM alumni, so I have been coming to the campus for various events since I was a child: Terrapin football games, Latin Day, and the like. When I graduated from high school in 2000, the University of Maryland seemed like a given to me. I came into the University with a major in mechanical engineering, but soon became disillusioned with the heavily technical program and began my transition to art.

What drew you from engineering to art?

I always tell people who seem surprised by this transition that it is really not uncommon. A lot of very technical people enter engineering hoping for a program more centered around design, and find the heavy emphasis on theory as opposed to application in the early part of the course of study to be off-putting. The natural progression seems to me to go from engineering to art. The only difference in my mind is one of purpose. Engineering deals with solving real world problems whereas art deals with an inherent “unreality” and the need not necessarily to solve the questions we have, but to invoke more.

What field of art did you specialize in?

I think in a three-dimensional space. Sculpture has always come naturally for me. When I studied in the Art Department, I took advanced courses in steel work, digital mediums, and drawing. Digital mediums were easy for me; I’ve been computer savvy since I was very young and even attempted a brief stint as a computer science major at UM. As for drawing, one of my favorite mediums is charcoal. I’ve never been able to wrap my head around painting, but with charcoal I can lay out a base on a flat sheet of paper and with my eraser, “carve” out of that whatever may come. For me, working with charcoal is less like drawing than it is like sculpting on a flat surface. Steel is amazing. That you can take something so rigid, heat it to the consistency of putty, and bend it to your will has always fascinated me. I mirror the sheer danger of the materials and methods I work with in my aesthetic, juxtaposing the flat metallic nature of the steel with curving, flame-like, organic edges. The result is something that looks sharp, blade-like, and is almost always difficult to transport.

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Do you still do any artwork on the side?

Currently, no. My artistic side has been put on temporary hiatus. I recently got married and now have a little one on the way, so most of my life outside work is devoted to my family. I still find myself drawing when I need an escape, or simply wanting to build, but until I work out a place where I can work with steel safely and simply have the free time to do it, I’m stuck in the real What then, being an art major, brought you to the SLLC world.

and Language Media Services?

What does your LMS job entail?

I worked for two years prior to my graduation with Arts and Humanities Classroom Support. I always joked when we got a call about Jiménez room 0220, or a language instructor furious that they could not get equipment from LMS. “What the heck does LMS actually DO over there?” It seems fate has quite a sense of humor, as here I am today thrown into the very thick of it. When I applied for the multimedia technician job, I figured I had a good background in what to do thanks to my time in ARHU, but I had no idea that I would be supervising the very LMS I had been talking about those years.

It has not been a difficult transition; I had dealt with many of the instructors before, and the equipment is much the same. I like to think that I have brought some order and simplicity to what was becoming in the hands of undergraduate and graduate supervisors, a hectic and cluttered service operation. This speaks nothing to their abilities, of course. I can simply dedicate my full attention to the office, whereas they were still embroiled in the steely clutches of the University course load.

I am a fireman. I put out fires when they crop up and do my best to keep things from burning in the first place. I also supervise a great group of undergraduate staffers who cover the office while I run about. They take a bit of the workload off me to keep me from going insane. When I first came to LMS, I likened my job to chasing a car that’s rolling downhill. I first had to figure out where everything was and how it all worked, while fixing the occasional technical issues that arise. Good troubleshooting skills are essential to this job.

I can never be completely sure what is happening with the equipment until I get my hands on it, but over the years I’ve developed a sort of intuition that allows me to guess what is wrong or what will go wrong before it happens.

Most people make technology out to be much more complicated than it is. The key thing I tell them they need to learn in order to be compatible with most forms of technology is that computers are not going to conform to the way they work. People are infinitely adaptable creatures, but most expect computers to perform according to their commands. They must learn to work within the constraints of a system if they expect it to work for them.

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Study Abroad

Nice, France

Founded in 1989, the Maryland-in-Nice Program is one of our oldest study abroad programs. Students take courses in language, literature, and culture at a division of the University of Nice; they explore the complexity and richness of cultural relations between France and the United States in a course with the Resident Director, a member of the UM faculty; they take part in group outings locally and in other regions of France. Students can choose to stay for the full academic year or for the fall or spring semester and they can choose to live with a host family or in apartments. The proximity of Nice to other countries makes it a vibrant gateway to the Mediterranean world.

Montpellier, France The three-week Maryland-in-Montpellier program, now in its fourth year, combines classroom work in language and culture, excursions, and a family stay in a city known for its student life. Participants experience immersion language learning, strengthen their cross-cultural knowledge and sensibility, and explore a region of France with deep historical roots. In addition, as a miniature Paris with good weather, Montpellier is a roamer’s paradise!

Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir -Russia After nearly 30 years of collaboration, the American Councils Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP) has become the official UM program for study abroad in Russia. Virtually all of our majors spend at least a semester in Russia, and some study for an additional summer or the entire year. The academic programs are designed to improve participants’ oral, listening, reading, and writing proficiency in Russian and to develop their knowledge of Russian history, politics, culture, and society.

The academic year, semester, and summer programs provide approximately twenty hours per week of in-class instruction in Russian grammar, phonetics, conversation, and cultural studies at Moscow International University, the Russian State Pedagogical University (Gertsen Institute) in St. Petersburg, and the KORA Center for Russian Language in Vladimir. One day per week of the academic program is set aside for local cultural excursions.

Alcalá de Henares, Spain Since 1997, the Department of Spanish & Portuguese has conducted a spring semester program in language and culture in Alcalá de Henares, a town about 15 miles northeast of Madrid. Students take language courses at Alcalingua, a division of the University of Alcalá, a course with Maryland’s Resident Faculty Director, and either additional content courses at Alcalingua, a credit-bearing internship, or a course at the University of Alcalá. They are housed with local families, in dorms, or in private apartments. Alcalá de Henares offers the hustle and bustle of a small city while providing an intimate experience of Spanish life. The birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, this historic city is known for its animated streets, especially in the hours following the afternoon siesta. Alcalá’s location provides students with easy access to surrounding Spanish cities such as Toledo, Salamanca, Barcelona, and Valencia.

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Berlin, Germany In Fall 2007, the Department of Germanic Studies established a third SLLC semester-long study abroad program, in conjunction with the Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin), one of Germany’s premier institutions of higher education. Dr. Gabriele Strauch developed the program and served as its first Resident Director. Students receive daily language instruction, participate in weekly excursions, and enroll in content courses taught in English in areas such as German history, art history and architecture, philosophy, film and literature, Islam and its presence in contemporary German society, and Germany’s role in Europe. Program “perks” included, this first year, field trips to the Reichstag building and the Chancellor’s Office, the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, two memorial sites focusing on the former East German secret police (Stasi), the royal palaces of Frederick the Great and 1945 allied conference site in nearby Potsdam, as well as a week-long excursion by train to Munich, Vienna, and Bratislava.

In Fall 2008, the UM Resident Director will be Dr. Richard Walker, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Germanic Studies.

Salamanca-Barcelona, Spain A third program offered by the Department of Span­ish and Portuguese is the six-week intensive summer course in language and culture that since 2003 has taken students to Salamanca, in the northwest region of central Spain, and to Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, in the east. Students participate in academic classes, live with families, interact with Spanish and international students, and participate in excursions to urban and natural sites. Directed by Drs. Carmen Benito-Vessels, Manel Lacorte, and Eyda Merediz, the course encourages students to become close observers of the historic and modern elements of Spanish life.

Seville, Spain Under the direction of Dr. Eyda Merediz, and in collaboration with the Center for CrossCultural Studies in Seville, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers a winter term CORE course entitled “Cultures of the Contact Zone—Seville, Al-Andalus, and the Atlantic World.” Drawing from the cultural mosaic of the city of Seville and its surrounding region, students explore the Mediterranean and Transatlantic contexts that have shaped Spain’s history, identity, and cultural and artistic expression. Special attention is given to the so-called convivencia period, when Jews, Muslims, and Christians coexisted in medieval Spain. Students stay with local Spanish families and in hotels.

Quito, Ecuador In January 2009, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese will launch a winter term course in Ecuador entitled: “Andean Spaces – Traversing the Colonial City and the Natural World.” Designed for advanced undergraduates in art history, history, religion, anthropology, and Spanish, the course covers the history and cultures of Ecuador from the colonial period to the onset of independence through an examination of the socio-spatial configuration of the colonial city. Dr. Eyda Merediz will team teach the course with scholars from the University of San Francisco of Quito; taught in English.

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Elena Lozinsky, Distinguished Graduate Student You have published 30 to 40 works of French literature Interviewed by Joseph Brami in Russian. What led you to translation? How did you go about choosing the particular texts you translated?

It all began with poetry, which I have always loved. There was a time when I even wrote some. One day, as a freshman in French literature at the Herzen University in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), I was given the assignment of memorizing a Gérard de Nerval poem. And I just loved it. I got Nerval’s collected works out of the library, and as I sat in a café turning the pages, I sensed as if instantly how one of his poems would read in Russian. I scribbled it out on a piece of paper right there in the café. It was a surprise.

The first in a long line. I had never done anything so engaging.

I quickly discovered other French poets who were “mine.” After I had translated a dozen or so poems, I showed them to a literature professor who I knew to be translator. He was very critical of my efforts. He quickly outlined the basics of translating poetry, as well as comparative stylistics, and he offered to have a look at all my subsequent work. A year later, I began a seminar in translation through the Writer’s Group, where I found both a literary community and contact with editors. In the Soviet Union, literary translation was a kind of island of ideological freedom. When translating François Mauriac or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, I was free of the obligatory Marxist clichés of the day, while as a teacher or a literary critic, we were bound by them. Not to mention that as a free-lancer, I was spared the meetings and discussions that were likewise laden with abhorrent ideology.

It was usually the publishers who chose what I translated, but I occasionally managed to persuade them to publish something of my own choosing, such as Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, a play I had loved since I was a child, and Gautier’s Mademoiselle de Maupin.

You are tri-cultural. Russian first, of course, but nearly as French as Russian, and now, a naturalized American. Multiculturalism is not particularly unusual in a country like the United States, or in a School such as ours, but could you tell us some of the highs and lows of your own experience?

For me, living abroad is only meaningful if you take part in cultural exchange every day. If you are not making daily discoveries, if you are not entering into conversation with people -- teachers, colleagues, students, whomever – it is tremendously difficult to live as a foreigner, to do the constant adapting it takes. Sometimes the experience can be overwhelming, but I think that without this kind of openness to difference, we would not be able to translate great poetry or prose, or to teach language and literature very well.

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Would you advise doctoral students in literature to include translation as part of their professional preparation?

Yes, but only if they are attracted to writing.

Doing literary translations is in a way no different from writing novels or poems. Great writers have always done translations, for this very reason. The young Gérard de Nerval translated Goethe’s Faust. The young Dostoevsky translated Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet. Translation requires an exceptional degree of stylistic analysis, but it also requires imagination, intuition, emotional investment. And self-control. You have to keep your intuitions and your feelings in line with the enormous responsibility you bear toward the author.

Does your experience as a translator help in your teaching?

All the time, however indirectly. They’re the same thing, really. The transmission of an important cultural message.

How has translation led to your dissertation topic? Is there a link between your life as a translator and your current doctoral work?

Absolutely. About five or six years ago, I began a new translation of Proust into Russian. Primarily because I loved his novel, but also because I had been dissatisfied with two translations already on the market, for a number of reasons. And after translating the first section, I felt that my vision did not go far enough, that I had been skimming over the surface, and that I would need to do a serious study of the novel before presuming to present a new reading of it to the world. So I decided to go back to school and work with a specialist in Proustian studies here at College Park (my interviewer, as it happens). Knowledge of a literary work includes understanding how it is rooted in its place and time, discovering how it was put together. The subject of my research has come to be Proust’s use of fin-de-siècle poetic forms in A la recherche du temps perdu.

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FOLA:

The Self-Instructional Foreign LAnguage Program.

30 years and counting‌ The FOLA program, directed by Dr. Naime Yaramanoglu, Vice President of the National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs, offers elementary and intermediate-level instruction in what are known as less commonly taught languages. In 2007-2008, students could choose from among the following languages: Armenian Dutch Hindi Hungarian Polish Swahili Tagalog Turkish Urdu Vietnamese In the FOLA program, the mode of instruction differs from that of courses offered in traditional language programs. Students work on their own with written and audio resources, as well as with a native-speaking tutor. FOLA courses emphasize oral communication skills: listening and speaking. Testing is done by outside examiners at the end of each semester. The program primarily serves heritage students interested in learning the language of their parents and grandparents.

For information, visit the FOLA webpage: www.languages.umd.edu/fola or contact Dr. Yaramanoglu at: nya@umd.edu.

Dr. Naime Yaramanoglu

Four New Academic Programs The SLLC is pleased to announce the addition of four academic programs to its offerings. The University Senate has recently approved a BA in Arabic Studies, a BA in Persian Studies, a Minor in Arabic, and a Minor in Persian Studies, considerably extending the range and depth of Middle Eastern studies on campus. Students interested in the study of Arabic or Persian language, literature, and culture should contact, for Arabic: Dr. Alaa Elgibali (elgibali@umd.edu); for Persian: Dr. Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak (karimi@umd.edu).

(BAs pending MHEC approval)

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Awards: The University of Maryland’s General Research Board (GRB) has awarded 5 of a campus total of 19 semester research grants to SLLC faculty members: Jorge Aguilar Mora (Spanish), Andrea Frisch (French), Regina Harrison (Spanish), Alene Moyer (German), and Eric Zakim (Hebrew).

Following on Cauleen Gary’s 2007-2008 award (German), Elena Lozinsky (French) and Karen Vatz (Second Language Acquisition) have been awarded Ann Wylie Dissertation Fellowships for the year 2008-09.

Student and Faculty Awards and Activities Publications: José María Naharro-Calderón, Associate Professor of Spanish, has three recent publications: Hacia el exilio, coauthored with Beatriz García Paz: Madrid, FPI, 2007; and critical editions of Max Aub’s El rapto de Europa, forthcoming, Madrid, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2008 and Campo francés, forthcoming from Valencia, Fundación Alfonso el Magnánimo, 2008.

Mary Ellen Scullen, Associate Professor of French, has published Points de départ, a first-year French textbook intended for accelerated courses (Prentice Hall, 2008).

Dissertations:

Cerue K. Diggs (Germanic Studies) successfully defended her dissertation: Marilyn Matar (French) and Sylvia “Brazil after Humboldt: Triangular Perceptions and the Colonial Gaze Naylor (German) have been selected in Nineteenth-Century German Travel Narratives.” Directed by Dr. Elke as Distinguished TAs for 2007-2008 Frederiksen. by their Departments and the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Gustavo Fierros (Spanish and Portuguese) successfully defended his dissertation: “Pasión por el método: Poéticas del modernismo y la vanguardia.”

Valerie Orlando, Associate Pro- Directed by Jorge Aguilar Mora. fessor of French, has received a grant from the American Institute Cauleen S. Gary (Germanic Studies) successfully defended her dissertation: of Maghrebi Studies (AIMS) to con- “’Bildung’ and Gender in Nineteenth-Century Bourgeois Germany: A duct research in the summer of Cultural Studies Analysis of Texts by Women Writers.” Directed by Dr. Elke 2009 for a book she is writing on Frederiksen.

Moroccan film.

Rachel Linville (Spanish and Portuguese) successfully defended her dissertaAppointments: tion “Imaginarios de la resistencia antifascista española: memoria, literatura, cine.” Directed by José María Naharro-Calderón.

Theresa Kennedy, a recent Ph.D. in French, has accepted a position Sheila Turek (French) successfully defended her dissertation: “In the Maras Assistant Professor at Baylor Uni- gins: Representations of the Other in Sub-titled French Films.” Directed versity in Waco, Texas. In addition, by Dr. Caroline Eades. her book, “L’Agathonphile martyr, tragi-comedie: An Annotated Criti- New Scholarships! cal Edition” has been accepted for publication by Gunter Narr Verlag Lengthening the list of scholarships provided by SLLC to undergraduate Editions. students, including the SLLC Scholarship for International Understanding, the Hirsch Scholarship, the Anneliese and Alfred Strauch ScholarRachel Linville has accepted a ship for Language Study, and various departmental and community position as Assistant Professor of scholarships, are two new awards: the Taiwan Huayu Enrichment ScholSpanish at SUNY Rockport. arships for study in Taiwan, administered by the government of Taiwan, and Japanese program scholarships for study in Japan.

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Faculty Profile: Elke Frederiksen Professor of German

Dr. Elke Frederiksen is an internationally known professor of German and Austrian literature and culture in the Department of Germanic Studies, where she has served as Graduate Director since 2000. She has lectured and published in Europe, the United States, Canada, China, and Japan. Her 1990 discovery of a manuscript by the nineteenth century German-Jewish writer Heinrich Heine in Kraków, Poland drew attention all over Europe. She has published six books (two authored and four edited and co-edited) and more than sixty articles and book chapters. Her latest book, Within Global Contexts: Literature and Culture of German-Speaking Europe, will appear this year from the prestigious Berghahn Publishers (Oxford/ New York). Professor Frederiksen has been a Distinguished University Scholar-Teacher since 1987.

Since 2004, she has been a Fellow in the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. In 1999, she was a Distinguished Visiting Professor (Friedrich Kittler Chair) at the Ruhr Universität in Bochum, Germany. In August, 2007, she accepted an invitation to serve on the Editorial Advisory Board of Cornell University Press.

Where are you from and where did you receive your education?

I grew up near Hamburg, in northern Germany, and studied at the universities of Tübingen, London, and Kiel, receiving the equivalent of an M.A. in History, English Literature, and German Philosophy before coming to the United States. My intention was to perfect my (American) English and then return to Germany to pursue a Ph.D., but soon after my arrival, I met my American husband, and we both went on to study at the University of Wisconsin/Madison. It was there that I had the privilege of working with Jost Hermand, one of the most renowned German studies scholars of the 20th century. He opened my eyes to approaches to German literature and culture that I had never dreamed of. I received a second M.A. in German Literature and began studies towards the Ph.D., which I completed at the University of Colorado/Boulder in 1973.

What was your experience when you first came to the University of Maryland?

After a brief stay in California (San Diego), my husband and I moved to Maryland in 1976, where I joined the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages (later Department of Germanic Studies) as an Assistant Professor. I became the first woman to be tenured in that department, with eight male colleagues who were at times puzzled by someone who, in addition to traditional “male” scholarship, insisted on pursuing feminist and gender issues. In fact, at my third year review, the department chair gave me the friendly advice to abandon my feminist research if I wanted to receive tenure. I decided not to follow his advice, because that would have meant giving up scholarship that I firmly believed in, but I also knew that if I wanted to be tenured, I had to produce research of the highest quality, in large quantity, with excellent publishers. It is interesting that the same chair, who left the University of Maryland in the late seventies, attempted to hire me fifteen years later at the university where he had become chair and provost! Times had obviously changed!

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What are your major research projects, past and present?

My research has focused on 19th and 20th century German and Austrian literature and culture, on theoretical and methodological issues concerning German studies/German cultural studies, and on post-colonialism and the literature of German-speaking countries. My scholarly work has evolved over the years from a focus on the works of the 19th century Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer to the investigation of texts (including letters and travel literature) by women writers within the theoretical frameworks of feminist and gender studies. This research resulted in studies focusing on authors such as Bettina von Arnim, Rahel Varnhagen, and others that also led me to the discovery of a previously unknown Heinrich Heine manuscript in 1990. My Women Writers of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland received an “Outstanding Academic Book of 1989” award.

Over the last ten years, my research has centered on issues in German cultural studies, and in particular, German post-colonial studies and gender studies. I have just completed editing the manuscript for the abovementioned Within Global Contexts: Literature and Culture of German-Speaking Europe, which contributes to the latest debates in German cultural studies on national identities by looking at German/Austrian/Swiss literature and culture within European and global contexts. Some of the most distinguished scholars in the field are exploring new methodological and theoretical approaches to issues of globalization and German studies.

My current book project, “German Visions of Africa in the Early and Late Twentieth Century, ” investigates representative visions of Africa by German writers, contributing to an understanding of Germany’s colonial and fascist past. It also contributes to ongoing cross-cultural and transnational scholarly debates on European, as well as global, colonialism and post-colonialism, which need to include Germany’s participation. I have presented sections of the book at various conferences over the past several years and hope to make significant progress during the coming summer months.

Finally, I am planning a third edition of my Die Frauenfrage in Deutschland 1865-1914, a work that investigates the complex issues surrounding the first German women’s movements at the turn of the 20th century. Published by the prestigious German publisher Reclam in 1981, it appeared in its second edition in 1994. The revised version will include a discussion of German colonialism and gender in the Wilhelmine Empire, with original text selections from a wide variety of journals to support its arguments.

How do you see your role as a teacher and scholar?

Research and teaching have always been closely linked for me, and I have tried to incorporate the latest, cutting-edge scholarship into my courses. Breaking from traditional approaches to reading literature, I have incorporated concepts of gender, class, race, ethnicity, and nationality into my teaching. Over the years I have considered it a particular privilege to work with our many intelligent, creative, and enthusiastic graduate students. I have learned from our dialogues and I have enjoyed teaching them the foundations of our discipline, while at the same time conveying to them the excitement of what is happening in the field of German studies at the present time. The paradigm shift within the field of German language and literature, expanding the focus of “Germanistik” to a concentration on German cultural studies, including gender studies, film studies, and post-colonialism, has widened their intellectual horizons and is providing them with a variety of job options that go beyond the traditional professorial career.

I have always considered careful advising and mentoring of graduate students an important part of my responsibilities and I have watched with pride the professional successes of our students. To name just a few: Monika Shafi (Elias Ahuja Professor of German and Director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Delaware), Tamara Felden (Director of International Affairs at the University of Chicago), Elizabeth Ametsbichler (Professor and Department Chair at the University of Montana), Kathrin DiPaola (Director of the Deutsches Haus and Cultural Programs at New York University).

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New Programs, Recent & Forthcoming Events

6th Annual Graduate Student Conference

On March 6 and 7, SLLC graduate students hosted the Sixth Annual Graduate Student Conference. This year’s event – “Silence, Erasure, Ruins” -- organized primarily by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, brought together a committee of students from across the School to plan and organize the forum over a period of seven months.

The committee included: Nadine Ahmed, Jason Bartles, Cristina Burneo, Carolina Gómez-Montoya, Tom Hildebrandt, Marilyn Matar, Diego Panasiti, Kate Taylor, and Christine Willie.

Headlined by Harvard professor Dr. Susan Suleiman and her research into Jonathan Littell’s Les bienveillantes, the conference saw presentations not only from a significant group of SLLC students, but also from students from Rutgers University, the University of Maine, and the University of Toronto, among others. The topics spanned American, French, German, Hispanic, Icelandic, and Iranian literatures, as well as topics in cinema, technology, linguistics, and museum studies. In order to rethink the relations between these varied disciplines, the committee organized the panels along comparative and interdisciplinary lines.

The support of the SLLC is a key component of the conference, allowing both new and veteran graduate students an opportunity not only to present their research, but also to gain professional experience as they plan and organize the event from start to finish; we look forward to next year’s conference, to be spearheaded by graduate students in French.

Lecture by Christopher Domínguez Arabic Linguistics Conference Michael On March 27th, Mexican writer Christopher Domínguez Michael presented a lecture based on his recent book, Vida de fray Servando. His lecture, entitled “Historia, Crítica, Biografía. Como escribí Vida de fray Servando,” presented evidence for the historical accuracy of Servando’s autobiography, as well as its importance in the formation of Mexico in the early 19th century.

On March 8 and 9, Maryland hosted the 22nd Annual Meeting and Conference of the Arabic Linguistic Society of North America, organized by Dr. Alaa Elgibali. The conference was attended by 85 international participants, with 24 scholars and 5 keynote speakers making presentations throughout the weekend. Following the conference, the executive director issued a formal statement congratulating UM on the event. SLLC provided seed money, with the bulk of the funding coming from the Center for Advanced Study of Language, the National Foreign Language Center, and registration fees. A refereed volume of selected papers will be published by John Benjamins.

15 Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador to the US from Germany On April 1, Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador to the US from Germany since March 2006, spoke on US-German relations. His 30-year career in the German Foreign Service includes postings in Ecuador, the UN, and the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

Lecture by Dr. Mohamed Esa On April 8th, Dr. Mohamed Esa, Associate Professor of German and Chair, Dept. of Foreign Languages, McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland gave a talk on “Muslims in Germany.”

Lecture by Professor Andre Rupp The Second Language Acquisition program recently hosted Dr. Andre Rupp of the University of Maryland School of Education, Department of Measurement, Statistics & Evaluation for a talk entitled “Psychological vs. Psychometric Dimensionality in Diagnostic Reading Assessment: Towards Integrated Assessment Systems.” Dr. Rupp is a specialist in testing, a growing subfield of SLA.

Lecture by Professor Susan McCready On April 21, Dr. Susan McCready, Associate Professor of French at the University of South Alabama at Mobile, presented a lecture entitled “Text, Authenticity and the Evolving Role of the Metteur-en-scène in Third Republic France.” Her areas of research include nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature, French theater, and performance studies.

Lecture by Dr. Dietrich Stein On April 3rd, Dr. Dietrich Stein of the Gustav Frenssen-Archiv in Barlt, Germany presented a lecture entitled: “Concepts of Colonialism, Nationalism, and Racism in Late Nineteenth Century Germany: Gustav Frenssen’s Controversial Texts.” Dr. Stein is the editor of Gustav Frenssen in seiner Zeit: Von der Massenliteratur im Kaiserreich zur Massenideologie im NS-Staat (1997) [Gustav Frenssen in his time: from mass-literature during the German empire to mass-ideology in the national socialist state].

SLLC Awards Ceremony Coordinated by Karen Remson, Undergraduate Advisor in Spanish, and Ida Seibert, UG Affairs Office, the annual undergraduate awards ceremony took place on April 30 before a standing-room-only crowd. Students of Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish were recognized for their achievements in language study with awards, scholarships, and induction into national honor societies. Photos available at: http://www.languages.umd.edu/awards/

The Third SLLC Research Forum On April 14, Dr. Sandra M. Cypess delivered a lecture entitled “Mexican Wars in Black and White: A Re/Vision of Elena Garro and Octavio Paz,” based on a current book project in which she compares the ideas of Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz and his former wife, the writer Elena Garro, on Mexican history, gender, and ethnicity.

Professor of Latin American literature and former Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Professor Cypess works in theatre and performance studies, Mexican literature and cultural studies, literary theory and feminism. Her signature publication, La Malinche in Mexican Literature: From History to Myth (1991), serves as one of the most important texts on this iconic cultural figure.

The SLLC Faculty Research Forum will resume in Fall 2008, with Dr. Carol Mossman, Professor of French, as inaugural presenter.

Symposium on Clarice Lispector On April 26, Dr. Regina Igel hosted a day-long symposium on the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977). Born in Ukraine as her family fled anti-Semitic disturbances, Lispector arrived in Brazil as a newborn, and she identified herself as Brazilian throughout her life. She is credited with radically changing Brazilian literature. Her novels have been translated into several languages, with English versions including: The Apple in the Dark, The Hour of the Star, The Passion According to G.H., The Stream of Life, The Foreign Legion: Stories and Chronicles, and Family Ties (short stories).

Four Lispector scholars presented their work: Dr. Nelson Vieira (Brown University), Dr. Naomi Lindstrom (University of Texas, Austin), Dr. Marta Peixoto (New York University), and Dr. Lucia Helena ( Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). The conference closed with a screening of The Hour of the Star, based on a novel by Lispector.

The symposium was sponsored by the SLLC, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Office of International Affairs, the Latin American Studies Center, and the Embassy of Brazil

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Japan ARHU Speaker Series In the interest of bringing diverse, timely, and significant scholarship on Japan to the UM community, the Japanese Program has launched a new speaker series.

Three guests were invited this spring.: Dr. Richard Emmert, Professor of Asian Theater and Music at Musashino University in Tokyo, licensed Noh drama instructor, and founder and artistic director of Theatre Nohgaku, offered workshops, demonstrations, and lectures on March 5th and 6th.

Dr. Robert Tierney, Professor of Modern Japanese Literature at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and winner of the prestigious Shizuoka International Translation Competition in 1999, visited on April 10 to deliver a lecture entitled, “Shakespeare in Tokyo: Performing Empire, Gender and Race in Early 20th Century Japan,” addressing the politics of translating across cultures in imperial Japan.

On April 24, Linda Hoaglund, renowned Japanese film translator and critic, cofilm-maker of Wings of Defeat, a newly released documentary about kamikaze pilots, gave a public lecture, “Reel Japan Today,” that highlighted pressing social issues in Japan as represented in recent films.

Dr. Jennifer Robertson, Professor of History, Anthropology and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, will speak on the newly forged topic of Japanese robots and gender when we resume our series again in September 2008.

Shirin Ebadi at Iranica Heirloom On May 4, the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian Studies cohosted a celebration of The Encyclopaedia Iranica, a publication thus far 35 years (or 3,000 years) in the making. Featuring welcoming remarks by Dr. Nariman Farvardin, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and panel presentations by Dr. Marianna Shreve Simpson (University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Ernest Tucker (US Naval Academy), and Dr. Ahmad KarimiHakkak (SLLC), the afternoon closed with an impassioned speech on human rights and international relations by Shirin Ebadi, 2003 winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Dr. Richard Emmert

Juan Ramón Jiménez Distinguished Scholars: Lectures and Seminars The newly created “Juan Ramón Jiménez Distinguished Scholars: Lectures and Seminars” series, in honor of Juan Ramón Jiménez, former professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (1951 to 1958) and winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize for Literature, brings distinguished scholars in the area of Spanish language, the history of ideas, and the literary and historic identity of the Hispanic world to campus as visiting professors. The invited participants will be among the world’s top ten in their area of specialization. Our first scholars will integrate their lectures into seminars on the history of the Spanish language and in literary theory, taught by Drs. Carmen Benito-Vessels, Jorge Aguilar Mora, and Juan Carlos Quintero-Herencia. This series is intended as a first step toward the founding of a “Juan Ramón Jiménez Endowed Chair.”

17 Lecture by Dr. Rolena Adorno On May 5, Dr. Rolena Adorno, Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Spanish at Yale University, delivered a lecture entitled: “The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative.” Dr. Adorno is the prize-winning author of numerous books and articles in Latin American studies; she has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1986) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1989). She is an Honorary Associate of the Hispanic Society of America and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Comparative Literature Program, the Department of History, the Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.

Brazilian Cinema Collection UM has recently become the home of the largest Brazilian film collection held at any university in the country!

Formerly housed at the Brazilian American Cultural Institute (BACI), which has closed its doors after 50 years of cultural service to the people of greater Washington, the 400 titles, all in excellent condition, are now to be held in the Nonprint Media Services Library, located in Hornbake Library. Dr. Regina Igel, Professor of Portuguese, upon hearing of the plans to close the Institute, worked with Carleton Jackson of the Nonprint Media Services Library to arrange through Dr. José Neistein, BACI’s executive director, to have the university acquire the impressive collection. Once cataloguing is complete, students and scholars will be welcome to view the films in the library’s ground -floor viewing room.

SLLC’s International Film Series The International Film Series presents some of the finest contemporary films from around the world to the UM community. This year’s theme has been “ the road movie.” The semester began with Andrei Zvyagintsev’s 2003 film, THE RETURN, hosted by Dr. Elizabeth Papazian, Associate Professor of Russian and director of the International Film Series. Zvyagintsev’s first feature film tells the story of two Russian boys whose absent father returns home after a twelve-year absence.

Our second film, hosted by Dr. Regina Igel, Professor of Portuguese, was CENTRAL STATION (2000), from the Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles. Dora, who has been eking out a living as a letter writer at Rio de Janeiro’s central station, accompanies a boy who is on a journey to locate his father.

Third in the series was SUD-EXPRESS (Chema de la Peña and Gabriel Velázquez, 2005), a Spanish & Portuguese film that offers a window into the lives of those who live alongside the Sud Express, a train line running from Paris to Lisbon. The filmmakers originally intended the film to be a documentary, but decided to turn it into a fictional story. Host for this presentation was Dr. José María Naharro-Calderón, Associate Professor of Spanish.

Next in the series was TEN, by renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. This 2002 film depicts a beautiful divorced Iranian woman who drives around Tehran, picking up and dropping off passengers along the way. The “Ten” refers to ten conversations she has with her passengers, including her son, her sister, and rank strangers. The film is a study of life in contemporary Iran, especially from the perspective of women. Host for this presentation was Dr. Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, Director of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian Studies.

Our final presentation was a screening of HAPPY TOGETHER, by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai. This 1997 film depicts two men who travel to Argentina on holiday in order to rekindle their relationship, with their journey taking strange twists and turns.

Host of the event was Dr. Jianmei Liu, Associate Professor of Chinese.

New Student Organization: The Polish Cultural Club A Polish Cultural Club is now forming on campus; contact Monika Kalinski at mkalinsk@umd.edu for information.

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How well do you know the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures? (answer edition)

1.

Which SLLC staff member used to be a keen rugby player? (Hint: She played scrum-half.)

Angela Wish 2.

Which faculty member has built his own house in Italy?

Dr.Tony Barilla 3.

Who is the longest-serving SLLC faculty member at UMD? Dr. Donald Hitchcock 4.

How many students take SLLC classes each semester?

Approximately 4,400 5.

Which staff member moonlights as a professional sports writer for the Terrapin Times?

Mike Fekula 6.

Which world-famous poet had lunch with SLLC faculty and undergraduates this semester?

Yevgeny Yevtushenko 7.

There are two (admitted) chocoholics in SLLC. Can you name them?

Naime Yaramanoglu and Pierre Verdaguer.

8.

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How many languages are taught in SLLC?

9.

Whose 800th birthday was celebrated in the School this year? (Hint: Not a current faculty or staff member.)

Rumi 10. Which staff member teaches tai chai?

Phoenix Liu

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Giving to the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures You can contribute to the School or your favorite program within the School

A message from Mike Long, Director, SLLC

The faculty, staff and students of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC) are going from strength to strength.

The quality of our undergraduate and graduate programs, of our faculty members’and students’research and scholarly publications, and of the services our faculty and staff provide for the campus and surrounding communities is truly exceptional.

But we need your help. As State funding declines, generous gifts from alumni, friends, embassies, cultural organizations, and businesses become ever more important. Private support is needed to increase funding for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, lectureships, and professorships. If you can support the School’s work in any way, please contact either of the following individuals:

Claire Goebeler, Associate Director, SLLC, 301-405-4927 email: cgoebele@umd.edu

Laura Brown, ARHU Director of Development, 301-405-6339 email: lwbrown@umd.edu Michael H. Long Director, SLLC

Chose the Giving Method that’s Right for You Online Giving Make a donation to the department online at https://advancement.usmd.edu/OnlineGiving/umd.html Please designate “SLLC” on the form.

Gifts By Check Gifts may be made by check to “University of Maryland College Park Foundation (UMCPF).” Please designate “SLLC” in the memo line. Checks can be mailed to:

Claire Goebeler

Associate Director for Administrative Affairs

3215D Jiménez Hall

University of Maryland

College Park, MD 20742 Other Gift Options You can also donate to the School or to specific SLLC programs through matching gifts, appreciated securities, real estate, annuities, estate planning, and more.

The School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures JimĂŠnez Hall, University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742