Academic Excellence

Degrees Awarded

Doctorate- Spanish

Ramona Isabel Castillo Cortes

Dissertation title: Las jefas del narcotráfico latinoamericano: Representación, tratamiento literario e hiperrealidad

Dissertation Committee: John Beusterien, Chair; George Cole, Antonio Ladeira; Mario Beruvides, Dean's Representative

Master of Arts 

Kevin Andia Hernandez – Languages & Cultures- Applied Linguistics
Lauren Brewer, Romance Languages - French
Taylor D. Clark, Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics
Aiime Duarte,  Romance Languages -Spanish
Joseph Garcia,  Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics
Katherine A. Gruber,  Languages & Cultures - Classics
Asako Higurashi, Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics
ChinNi Hsiao, Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics

Pictured L to R: Dr. Lucas Wood, Dr. Bruno Penteado, Aline Kenfack Djeumne, Dr. Carole Edwards

Aline A. Kenfack Djeumne, Romance Languages - French
Jinsol Kong,  Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics
Jazmyn Lee Martinez, Romance Languages - Spanish
Katie McQuien, Romance Languages - French
Jude Mensah, Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics
Patrick W. Mullins, Languages & Cultures – Classics
Angela Pineda, Languages & Cultures- Applied Linguistics
Marisa Stephens, Languages & Cultures - Classics
Daiki Suematsu, Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics
Reina Tanimoto, Languages & Cultures - Applied Linguistics 

Bachelor of Arts

Languages & Cultures

Isabella M. Allen,  ASL/English Interpretation
Russell A. Andrew, Russian Language & Area Studies
Austria, Micaela Gem O. Austria,  ASL/English Interpretation; dual Honors Sciences & Humanities
Prashtab Ghimire, Classics; dual GST
Magdalen Millichamp,  ASL/English Interpretation 
Haley R. Mimms, Classics
Maxim C. Niemann, German
Jack Poole, Classics
Jennifer Rayson, French ; double BA English
Deborah Romero, ASL/English Interpretation 
Jessica Thompson, Classics; double BA Anthropology
Emma Wolf,  ASL/English Interpretation ; double BA -Psychology

Spanish

Sydney M. Aguilar
Diana Arias
Rachel L. Behnke
Luis A. Caballero
Alicia D. Cove Lee
Johnathan Curtis
Maecy L. De La Cruz
Kristen L. Drumm
Lizeth G. Enriquez
Natalee A. Gomez
Eldy V. Juarez
Odalys Palomo
Molly Peterson
Anna L. Schmieding
Bailey K. Thompson
Romina A. Vernaza
Trenity G. Wall
Walker C. Weindorf

Faculty Awards and Recognition

Arts & Sciences Awards Ceremony

In the picture, Dr. Gorsuch (Academic Achievement Award), Dr. Ladeira, Dr. Regan (President's Excellence in Teaching Award), Rula Al-Hmoud (Global Vision Award), Dr. Pereira, Rebecca Zamora, Irina Drigalenko, Dr. Anderson, Mia Zamora, Dr. Beusterien. Sitting, Dr. Zamora, Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship awardee. Jorge, you made us proud!

A&S Recognition of Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship Award

Dr. Jorge Zamora - Professor of Spanish 

Tenure and Promotion and Continuing Appointment and Promotions

Rula Al-Hmoud – Senior Lecturer in Arabic (pictured left)

Irina Drigalenka - Senior Lecturer of Russian (pictured right)

Lucas Wood – tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of French

Carole Edwards Awarded AIMS Grant

Carole Edwards (Professor of French) was awarded the AIMS grant for her proposal titled Renegotiating authorship: Contemporary Moroccan Writer Mohamed Nedali for 7 months of research in Morocco in the amount of $12,000. AIMS is the American Institute for Maghrib Studies is a grant program that offers grants to U.S. scholars to conduct research on North African topics in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, or Tunisia.

Alumni College Fellows 

The Humanities Center at Texas Tech congratulates four CMLL faculty on being selected Alumni College Fellows through the Center for the 2023-2024 academic year. Alumni College Fellows showcase the innovative and border-crossing research of humanities faculty at Texas Tech. 

Sara Guengerich, (Associate Professor, Spanish), “Indigenous Bodies Beneath Spanish Fineries: Native Women in colonial Potosi”

Victoria Surliuga, (Associate Professor, Italian), “The Fran Lebowitz's Tale: Masks of a Public Persoa”

 

 Christopher Witmore, (Professor, Archaeology & Classics) “Teillager 6, Sværholt: The Archaeology of a POW camp in Finnmark, Arctic Norway”

 Lucas Wood, (Assistant Professor, French) “Writing Chivalry, conquest and Colonization in the Canary Islands: Le Canarien

President's Academic Achievement Award 

 

Greta Gorsuch, Professor of Applied Linguistics 

Presidents Excellence in Teaching Award 

Brendan Regan, Assistant Professor of Spanish

Texas Tech President's Leadership Institute

Belinda Kleinhans, CMLL Associate Chair and Associate Professor of German graduated in Spring 2023 from the TTU President's Leadership Institute. This is a competitive program that trains both faculty and staff in different skill sets and styles for leading in higher education. 

TTU recognizes Phenomenal Women of Texas Tech.

Sylvia Flores, Rula Al-Hmoud, Dr. Stefanie Borst, Melissa Hays, Kate Brooke, Dr. Carmen Pereira (not pictured)

Nominations were accepted for the Phenomenal Women of Texas Tech award.  These women have positively impacted others on campus and our community.  All women in CMLL impact and inspire students, faculty and staff within the department, and the Texas Tech and Lubbock communities.  Congratulations to these six women who received this phenomenal recognition this year.  

Linda Gosner, Assistant Professor of Classical Archeology awarded three fellowships for 2023-2024

ACLS Fellowship (American Council of Learned Societies), Barrington Foundation Centennial Fellow in Classical Studies (website announcement) 

Mellon Fellowship for Assistant Professors, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey)  

Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship

Global Vision Award of Global Engagement Community

 

Rula Al-Hmoud, Lecturer in Arabic

Completion of Texas Tech Teaching without Borders faculty development program – Fall 2022-May 2023.

Presentation of the APIDA medallion to Sewar Ali, student of Arabic

College of Arts & Sciences Excellence in Diversity Award Recipient 2023 

Sylvia Flores, Lecturer in Spanish- recipient of Engaged Communities.

This Award recognizes Sylvia Flores' efforts to connect with community partners, local and global, to promote change and create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive campus and society.

Length of Service Awards

5 Year – Lisa Melendez, Kristen Michelson, Veronica Morales, Brendan Regan, Lucas Wood, Pamela Zinn

15 Year – Lori Mallory

20 Year – Peter Barta

35 Year – David Larmour

Graduate Student Presentations, Awards and Recognition

Marni Reecer, candidate MA Languages & Cultures- German, was an award recipient at the Arts & Humanities Conference.  She received 1st Place in the Literary Analysis category with her presentation titled, “Antithesis and Juxtaposition in Momo: Michael Ende's Surreal Approach to Writing”.

Reecer pictured second from the left.

In February, Reecer presented digitally at Indiana University Bloomington's 2023 German Studies Conference a talk titled, “Words Matter: A Survey of German Children's Literature.

Spanish Graduate Students Present Research

Céfiro Conference CMLL Presenters

Nicolas Spencer –“Los Corridos y los Héroes Decoloniales de Tejas y Brasil, Gregorio Cortez y Lampião”

Angela Pineda, "Native and non-native processing of the Spanish subjunctive of doubt: An eye-tracking study”

Yunuen Velázquez Campos, “La nueva mestiza: el concepto de frontera y la construcción de identidad a través del personaje de Makina” 

Taylor Clark, “Voicing of The Alveolar Fricative /s/ in Mexican American Spanish”

Mia Clapp, “Sertãopunk: Ficção científica do nordeste brasileiro" 

Daniel Román Zuñiga, "Retroalimentación sincrónica multimodal en el desarrollo de infografías”

Lydia Ferris, “Task-based language teaching: Origins, current research, and pedagogical recommendation”

Alejandra Valentín-Rivera, “Como agua para chocolate: Aspectos culturales y sociales representados en la película”

Teresa Burticá, “Acercamiento analítico de las políticas aplicadas a poblaciones fronterizas en la era posmoderna”

Heath Hampton, “/b/ variation ([b] and [v]) in bilingual Texas Spanish”

Katheryn Bayouth, “The effect of proficiency level on the production of Spanish trill and tap"

Emily Conrad, “Phonetic variation of /ɾ/ between Mexican Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish”

Esperanza González Moreno, “Are we allowed to suffer “Por España?”: Samantha Hudson, Michel Foucault, and Sadomasochism”

Molly Peterson, “Examining differences between simultaneous and early-sequential SpanishEnglish bilinguals in the production of intervocalic /b/”

Ronny Azuaje, "Espacios y subjetividades abyectas en El Señor Gallinazo vuelve a Lima de Sebastián Salazar Bondy"

Esperanza Gonzalez Moreno: "The Sacred Spirit and the Disempowerment of Transcendence"

Marcus Valadares: "Challenging social-spatial borders and territorialities: transgender motion and agency in the Brazilian feature film Valentina (2020)"

National Association for Chicana/Chicano Studies: Tejas Foco Conference

Dr. Britta Anderson and graduated students Yunuen Velazquez, Omar Gonzalez, and Nicolas Spencer participated at the National Association for Chicana/ Chicano Studies: Tejas Foco conference in Brownsville, Texas in March 2023.

Presentations

Yunuen Velazquez, Omar Gonzalez, and Nicolas Spencer: "Where We Stand: Positionality and Responsibility in Teaching and Research"

Nicolas Spencer: "Sun Maid versus Sun Mad: Coming of Age in Helena María Viramontes' Under the Feet of Jesus"

Popular Culture Association conference

Dr. Britta Anderson and Esperanza Gonzalez Moreno, Marcus Valadares shared their research at the Popular Culture conference in San Antonio in March 2023.

TTU's Medieval & Renaissance Studies Center presented Centers and Peripheries: The Global Premodern - CMLL presenters

Dr. Sydnor Roy, Dept. of Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures (Classics), “From Peripheral Study to Center of Learning: Ancient Greek in Italy and Germany (1400–1550).”

Mia Clapp (Spanish), “Political and Economic Theory in Cervantes´ Exemplary Novels.”

Yazarei Bazaldua (Spanish) “Life is a Dream: Re-casting a Spanish Golden Age play from a Feminine Perspective.”

Nicolas Spencer and Marcus Valadares (Spanish) “No Damsel in Distress: From Rationality to Brute Force in Don Quixote's Female Characters.”

Esperanza González Moreno (Spanish) “A Woman Werewolf and Scapegoat in Cervantes's Persiles y Sigismunda.”

Kyna Bullard (Spanish) “Acts of Faith: The Aesthetics of Penance and Shame in The Spanish Empire, 1400-1700.”

Dr. William Tortorelli, (Classics) “Power in Lesbos between Greece and Anatolia.”

Yunuen Velazquez (Spanish) “Female Voice in a Medieval Spanish Ballad and A Corrido from the Mexican Revolution.”

Dr. Sarah Cantor (Italian) “The Armed Medusa: Protofeminist Snake Imagery in Fonte, Sarrocchi, and Marinella.”

Caliche 2023 Conference CMLL Presenters

Taylor Clark, Interaction between student evaluations and instructors' sociolinguistic profiles 

Ayday Koshmatova & Dr. Patricia Maloney, The impact of parental labor migration on children left behind in Kyrgyzstan

Kevin Andia Hernandez, Teacher training in higher education: A need or a problem?

Katie Weiss, English (CMLL alumna), Processing differences of adjectival and verbal participles between beginning, intermediate, and advanced learners of Biblical Greek

Asako Higurashi, Examining the effectiveness of learning Japanese through Japanese Anime: A comparative corpus-based analysis of Japanese Anime language and everyday conversations

Daiki Suematsu – A Corpus-Based Investigation into Lexical Bundles of Englis Test at Japanese College Entrance Exams

Jarrod Fischer, Comic books as corpora: An investigation in comic books as a practical representative of language usage in corpora

Jing Wun Wong, A corpus analysis of traditional Chinese informatl written texts on Instagram

Lydia Ferris, Rhetoric surrounding privacy: A corpus study of Facebook news articles in the United States

Sarah Schiffecker & Karina Oliveira de Paula, Curriculum & Instruction, (CMLL alumni), How to save (the) humanities

2023 Sowell Conference

Jorge Hernàndez Camacho, Criseida Santos-Guevara, Mathilda Shepard, Assistant Professor of Spanish presented, Ars Poetica Vibrante: Poetry and Environmental Politics in the Llano Estacado

 

Dr. John Beusterien, and Spanish graduate students Fernando Martinez, Teresa Buriticá, Missael Duarte, Mía Clapp, Jorge Hernández Camacho, and Dr. Griseida Santos Guevara (from the Humanities Center) published Céfiro's Creative Writing Special Issue. In this issue, they showcase their literary works, including poetry and short stories, produced during the Creative Writing in Spanish workshop.

Students Fernando Martínez, Esperanza Gonzalez Moreno, Mia Clapp, and Nic Spencer participated in the conference titled "CENTERS AND PERIPHERIES: THE GLOBAL PREMODERN." Dr. John Beusterien coordinated the discussion panel.

Dr. Matilda Shepard and graduate student Jorge Hernandez Camacho, together with Dr. Criseida Santos Guevara from the Humanities Center, participated in the 8th Annual Texas Tech Hispanic/Latinx Research & Creativity Symposium. They presented the visual poem "Ars Poética Vibrante: Un corrido ecopolítico sobre el Llano Estacado."

Undergraduate Student Presentations, Awards and Recognition

     

Anna Schmieding

Schmieding is pursuing a dual degree at Texas Tech University which include a B.A. in Spanish and a B.S in Animal Science.   She will represent the College of Arts & Sciences and the Alpha Phi chapter of Sigma Delta Pi at the 105th American Teachers of Spanish & Portuguese Conference in Salamanca, Spain from June 26-29. She will present during the “Best Practices” session for the Sigma Delta Pi national Spanish honor society.  Her presentation will be on the strategies of the Alpha Phi chapter that have made their organization so inclusive during their events and engagement in the Lubbock community.

Global Readiness Project Scholarship Competition 

Congratulations to the winners of the Fall 2022 Global Readiness Project Scholarship Competition! 

 The first-place award goes to Isabel Foster (RUSN 1501) for her presentation “Russian Language and Medicine” which, as she says in her description of the presentation, addresses “the cultural background of the Russian diaspora, and how American health professionals could apply this understanding when treating patients of these backgrounds.” Isabel will receive a $450 scholarship. 

 Allyson Gomez (CHIN 2301) will receive a $300 scholarship as the second-place finalist. Her presentation “The Importance of Chinese Sign Language” covers the use of Chinese Sign Language and the need for more translators. 

Third-place winner, Jessa Bulman (CHIN 1502) will receive a $250 scholarship for her presentation “Therapy in Chinese vs. Western Culture,” a comparative analysis on Chinese and Western attitudes and beliefs toward therapy. All three presentations show a strong commitment to the value of language study in their intended careers. 

 The global readiness project is designed to help students see the connection between their language and culture studies with their careers and to prepare them to use the skills they learn in language and culture classes professionally. Over sixty students participated in the project this semester.  

Undergraduate students Attend Céfiro 

Dr. Britta Anderson promotes research to undergraduate students by inviting them to attend Céfiro.   Students in her Latinx Literature course had the honor of meeting keynote speaker Norma Cantú.

 

 

 

CMLL News

Issue 28 Home

Recent Events

Academic Excellence

Faculty Spotlight

Faculty Book Publications

Student Spotlight

Next Steps

Contact & Subscribe

Give to CMLL