Texas Tech University

Faculty Focus

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Congratulations to three faculty members who received tenure and promotion in the Department of Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures. Each have done an outstanding job in every area of the profession and are outstanding persons as well.

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Dr. Belinda Kleinhans teaches courses on German language and culture, genocide and violence, as well as the Holocaust. Her research focuses on how discourses of exclusion, discrimination and violence against (animal) others are expressed and countered in literature. Her research interests are in the areas of biopolitics in literature, posthuman ethics, cultural and literary animal studies, zoopoetics, German comics, as well as in violence and genocide studies. She has published several refereed articles and book chapters in the field of cultural animal studies, combining literary analysis, ethics and animal studies. She is currently the Vice Program Director for the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German (CAUTG). In that role, she is co-organizing the 2019 and 2020 annual CAUTG conference, which is part of the annual Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Canada.

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Dr. Caroline Bishop specializes in Greek and Roman intellectual history, Cicero and the literature of the late Roman Republic, Latin prose, and the ancient and modern classical tradition. Much of her work focuses on questions of reading and interpretation in antiquity, and the way that ancient intellectual culture intersected with the literary tradition. She recently finished a monograph on how Cicero used Hellenistic scholarship on canonical Greek authors (Aratus, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes) as part of a larger strategy of fashioning himself into a canonical author. Her next project centers on the reception of Cicero within antiquity. Her work with the Women Faculty Writing Groups on campus has been featured in Inside Higher Ed and Diverse Issues in Higher Ed.

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Dr. Kimi Nakatsukasa received posthumous tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Kimi Nakatsukasa was originally from Japan and loved learning languages since when she first studied English at a junior high school in her hometown, Kyoto. Studying English and French at Sophia University in Tokyo, she received a B.A. in English Language and Studies, making her curious enough about language learning to pursue a Master's degree in Linguistics at Georgetown University. While working in the Second Language Studies PhD Program at Michigan State University, she spent her free time learning Spanish. Knowing different languages expanded her personal relationships and academic interests and she expressed how excited she was to be able to work as an applied linguist in the CMLL Department. In her dissertation, she investigated the effectiveness of teachers' gestures when used during oral corrections in ESL classrooms. Her other research interests included interactions in language classrooms, teachers' and students' gestures, learners' and teachers' individual differences, program evaluation, and technology and language learning. Aside from language learning, she enjoyed baking European pastries and experimenting with the cuisines from all around the world, yoga, and photography. She was married to Dr. Johannes Dahl (Texas Tech Geosciences) and had a son, Alain.

Kimi passed away unexpectedly, leaving a big hole in the heart of her CMLL family and in all those who love her. May she rest in peace.

 

Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures

  • Address

    CMLL Building, 2906 18th St, Lubbock, TX 79409
  • Phone

    806.742.3145