Archived News

It is with a heavy heart that the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures announces that Dr. Frédéric Fladenmuller passed away on May 25. Dr. Fladenmuller taught French, Spanish, and literature at ECU for many years until his retirement in 2017 when he became Professor Emeritus. He was known for his lively sense of humor, scholarly interest in all literature (but especially Proust), and eternal smile. Frédéric is a pillar of FLL, always will be, and he will be deeply missed.

Dr. Marylaura Papalas, French Studies Professor, finished co-editing a new book New Directions in Flânerie, Global Perspectives for the Twenty-First Century. The book was published by Routledge and co-edited with Kelly Comfort. It is out and available! Congratulations!

“‘We had to cancel the trip and it’s not quite as you might think, that we were all set to go and we canceled it because of the war in Ukraine,’ Justin Wilmes said. ‘It was more that the trip didn’t enroll properly because people were apprehensive about potentially taking a trip to this part of the world where these things are going on.’

[Dr.] Wilmes, who’s an associate professor of Russian studies at ECU, expressed how disappointing it was to cancel.

‘In the past, we’ve had them living with host families,’ Wilmes said. ‘Speaking the language, seeing how Russians live, and really just getting an immersive experience. That was the goal of the trip. It really does, I think, open eyes for the students and it’s a lifelong memory for them.'”

Continue reading here!

Join us in commemorating Dr. Medina and Soumya Kamath, one of our students, who presented their research on L2 Spanish Listening Comprehension this weekend at the SLISE conference, in Greenville SC! A huge kudos is in order to them for all of their hard work and research!

Dr. Dale Knickerbocker, Hispanic Studies Professor, finished working on his new book Spain is different? Historical memory and the ‘Two Spains’ in turn-of-the-millennium Spanish apocalyptic fictions. The book is printed by the University of Wales Press. It is out and available! Congratulations!

Current FLL, Hispanic Studies Education major, Mariel Ortega Guerrero, has been awarded the Mitchell-Buck Scholarship by the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina! This is the second time in the last five years that a major in our Foreign Language Educator Preparation Program has received this prestigious scholarship from our state’s professional association. This is a particularly special honor for our program because one of the language educators this scholarship honors was a professor at ECU, and because FLANC awards this scholarship yearly to only ONE student in their last year in a foreign language educator preparation program across the state. “It truly means a lot to me,” Guerrero said. “I’m so thankful to be part of a program that is truly there for their students. Had it not been for professor Laura Levi Altstaedter, I would not have been able to accomplish this.”

Dr. Katherine Ford has authored a chapter in the recently published volume, Greeks and Romans on the Latin American Stage, edited by Rosa Andújar and Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Ford’s contribution is “Challenging the Canon in the Dominican Republic: Lisístrata odia a la política by Franklin Domínguez.”

Dr. Elena Murenina presented her research paper “Transposing Turgenev’s Play: Vera Glagoleva’s Two Women (2014) within the Literary Adaptation Discourse” during a panel on “Contemporary Russian Film Adaptations: Redefining Russian Classics in 2009-2017” at the ASEEES Annual National Convention, Nov. 23-26, in San Francisco, CA.

Dr. David Smith has authored a chapter for the newly published volume, Johann Klaj: Aukteur – Werk – Umfeld, edited by Dirk Niefanger and Werner Wilhelm Schnabel, DeGruyter, 2020. Smith’s contribution is “Fingierte und Simulierte Oralität bei Klaj.”

On November 14th, the FLL Department held a democracy symposium entitled Democracy and Its Discontents in Germany and Around the World. While inspired by three important anniversaries connected to German experiences with democracy, the symposium sparked dialogue about the challenges and potential of democracy as it exists today, both in other countries but also here in the U.S. Keynote speaker Dr. Nancy MacLean (photo), William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, shared very intriguing research published in her most recent award-winning book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. Her talk was followed by a spirited panel discussion by scholars from History, Political Science, Sociology, Communication, as well as FLL, spanning topics such as the elections, democratic participation of marginalized communities, media influences on the democratic process, civic engagement, and political activism.

Dr. Steven Cerutti, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, finished working on his new book Roman History for Latin Students: Ambush at Caudium, Livy Ab Urbe Condita Book 9.1-12.328. The book is printed with Peter Lang Publishing. It is out and available! Congratulations!

 

“The seven top characteristics of [managerial] success at Google are all soft skills: communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.” The majority of these soft skills are byproducts of the hard skill: learning a foreign language. The benefits afforded by foreign language study are not limited to employable skills. Educators and employers have many reasons to emphasize languages with the same intensity as STEM. Continue reading here!

Dr. Birgit Jensen, Associate Professor of German, presented “Functional Proficiency and Transformative Learning in the Modern Language Classroom” at the Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference in Greely, CO, as well as “What is Flipped Learning?” during the annual EdCamp conference of the Eastern North Carolina Digital Learning Collaborative. In addition, Jensen recently completed certification for Flipped Learning 3.0 – Level II, Flipped Learning 3.0 Lesson Planning Specialist, and Flipped Learning 3.0 Differentiation Strategist, all issued by the Flipped Learning Global Initiative. She also obtained the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) Associate Credential Level I, awarded by the official UDL platform Learning Designed.

Dr. Elena Murenina, Director of Russian Studies Interdisciplinary Program, presented her research paper “Dostoevsky’s ‘The Idiot’ 150 years later: New approaches to the novel on the modern stage” at the XVII International Dostoevsky Symposium held at Boston University, July 14-19. The symposium was made possible with the support of Harvard University, Brown University, Columbia University, and the North American Dostoevsky Society.

Congratulations to Dr. Irina Swain for being recognized with the 2019 Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Junior Staff Excellence Award. Dr. Swain also received an NEH grant to attend a workshop on Digital Humanities in Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in January.

Dr. Paul Fallon, Associate Professor of Spanish and Dr. Justin Wilmes, Assistant Professor of Russian Studies Interdisciplinary Program, were awarded a THCAS Summer Research Award to conduct research this summer. Dr. Wilmes’ topic of research is ”Re-Constituting Truth: Documentary Cinema as Discursive Battleground in Contemporary Russia.” Dr. Fallon’s topic of research is “A critical moment? Posting the Border” (it will serve as the conclusion to the book Time on the Line: Negotiating Community at the U.S.-Mexican Border between NAFTA and the Net).

The Office of Global Affairs will match incoming international students with a current ECU student for one academic year or one semester (for short-term exchange students).  This program strives to create real connections between current domestic students and our new international students. Check it out at First Friends program website. (The photo is from Flickr by CollegeDegree360)

Seven Russian Studies undergraduates showcased their research projects to a large audience on April 16, 2019 in Joyner Library. The topics covered a wide range of interdisciplinary interests include: Russian hybrid warfare and hacking; religious symbolism in the works Fyodor Dostoevsky; the cinematic techniques of Russian film director Dziga Vertov; U.S. – Russian nuclear arms agreements; Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the “father of rocket science,” within Humanities; modern theatrical adaptations of Chekhov & Shakespeare, and others. Among the presenters mentored by FLL and THCAS faculty were 4 URCA award winners, and 3 senior thesis projects students: Chase Neese, Katie Collins, Elizabeth LaFave, Jason Port, Christa Gordon and Brian Thaxton.