Faculty Focus
John Beusterien
Professor, Spanish
2006 -
His parents met while his dad was substitute teaching at the high school where his mother taught. His mother wanted six children—three girls and three boys—and got them. Of the six siblings, John Beusterien was the second and the only one that followed his parents' profession and became a teacher.
After teaching a year in Barcelona in 1988, he returned to the US and has taught here ever since. While teaching, he has been studying, getting advanced degrees in English and Spanish, writing, and working as a college professor.
Since arriving to Lubbock ten years ago, Beusterien has been fascinated with the Llano Estacado region. Its history is a book whose pages are blank; its beauty a canvas whose surface is waiting for color.
While writing his PhD thesis which he finished in 1997, Beusterien found out the wonderful connections between teaching and research. Ever since, he has been writing academic papers and books. He also writes poetry and short stories. After writing poetry for more than three decades, he published his first two poems in 2015. They are written in Spanish and appeared in a journal in Seville, Spain.
He will be giving invited talks next academic year at Middlebury College, Princeton, Dartmouth, and the University College of London.
The theme of the talks will cover aspects of his research which include theater, the history of race, and animals, especially Texas animals like the armadillo.
Farewell to Dr. Joseph Price and Ms. Francesca Beretta
CMLL would like to thank Dr. Joseph Price and Ms. Francesca Beretta for their contributions to teaching and service. Each one had greatly enriched their respective program as detailed in the following personal notes. The department would like to wish each of them the very best in their new endeavors!
Joe Price
Assistant Professor, French
2007-2016
Dear Colleagues, Students and Friends,
As I prepare to leave Texas Tech, I've been asked to reflect on all that I've done since I've been here. It took a while (!), but here is a short list of my activities in CMLL since I arrived:
I arrived at Texas Tech in the fall of 2007, along with Chris Bains, who was then a Visiting Assistant Professor. Since my time here, I have taught in both French and Applied Linguistics, and have been in charge of the coordination of lower-level French, the training and supervision of instructors, and all decisions about the lower-level curriculum. I replaced the textbooks, got rid of the large lecture sections and put discussion groups in place, and put the instructors in the classroom as the main instructors. With Janie McNutt, I created and organized the departmental-wide new instructor orientation in 2008, which has been held every year since. I have served as scheduler since 2008, served on the Core Curriculum Committee for 5 years, and the CMLL Awards Committee for 3 years. I have also served on 8 different search committees, served as the Graduate French Proficiency examiner since 2007, served on 8 thesis and dissertation committees (directing one myself), and on the examination committee for 46 students in French, Spanish and Applied Linguistics, at last count. I served as faculty advisor for Pi Delta Phi French Honor Society from 2009 to 2016.
Since arriving in CMLL, I have taught over 30 courses, including over 200 graduate students, and over 520 undergraduates. Since 2007, I have coordinated over 170 sections of French and over 30 instructors. I have taught basic French courses (FREN1502, FREN1507, FREN2301) over 10 times, and have taught French Conversation (4 times), Advanced Conversation (twice), Grammar (three times), Advanced Grammar, Teaching Methods (three times), Sociolinguistics (twice), Bilingualism (four times), Intermediate Methods (twice), Major French Writers, French Linguistics, Français langue étrangère, French Civilization, Cultures of the French-Speaking World, the large CMLL2305 Introduction to Languages and Cultures (twice), French Phonetics, and FREN5342 (French for Graduate Research). This summer, my last semester at Texas Tech, I will teach FREN4341 in Summer I.
My new position at the University of Arizona is a Tenure-Track position in the Department of French and Italian, where I will be responsible for the Direction of the Basic French Program. The program is a large one, with over 10 Tenured or Tenure-track faculty members in French and over 20 sections of Basic French (1st and 2nd year) to coordinate.
My plans for the future include building the French Program at University of Arizona and continuing my research in French pedagogy, language acquisition and the role of sociolinguistic factors in L2 instruction. I also plan to try to find time to relax and spend time with my family and perhaps sleep some more.
Leaving TTU and CMLL will be difficult, but I feel honored and humbled to have been part of the TTU and CMLL community. I am very grateful to have had so many wonderful colleagues, excellent students, and the best administrative staff anywhere. I will never forget you or the many hours we spent working, learning, talking and sharing together. Thank you for your friendship, support and kindness. I wll miss you all. Please keep in touch!
I can be reached at joeprice@email.arizona.edu.
Francesca Beretta
Instructor, Italian
2009-2016
Francesca Beretta (center)
I started work at Texas Tech University in 2009 thinking that it was going to be for a couple of years. Instead, I have been a Red Raider for the past seven years. This time allowed me to grow professionally and gave me the chance to achieve many goals. I became the Coordinator of first year Italian and with the support of Dr. Erin Collopy and Elizabeth McDaniel, I created the Texas Tech Study Abroad program in Italy. In summer 2016, I will take students to Tuscania, a little town north of Rome in the middle of the Maremma, where the butteri (the cowboys of Italy) still live today. We will spend a day riding and doing activities with them. I started fundraising activities in the fall of 2015 for Study Abroad Scholarships. Fundraising activities that I organized includes: the Panetteria Italiana that we set up for a day in the Foreign Languages building, a give back day at Italian Garden and two baked goods sales at the First Friday Art Trail near the Tornado Gallery. With the help of my advanced conversation students, we raised $1,200. Currently, I am co-writing the book, Italian for Musicians, and I am under contract with Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
I would like to thank everybody for this wonderful time and in particular: Dr. Surliuga for giving me the opportunity to work for the Italian Program; Drs. Cattell, Cole, Edwards, Pereira, Price, Tecedor and Zamora for their precious help and their bright smiles; my friends and colleagues Monica, Yuriko, Josh, Maria Luz, Irina and Rula. Last but not least, I would like to thank the CMLL staff: Lloyd for the chocolates, Theresa for her friendship, Stephanie for the last minute copies and Carla for documenting and supporting my events. I feel I gave to the Italian Program everything I could and it is now time for new ideas and new adventures for which I am very excited. To be continued...and guns up!
Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures
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Address
CMLL Building, 2906 18th St, Lubbock, TX 79409 -
Phone
806.742.3145