Academic Excellence

Jasmin G. Euceda Torres, Spanish Ph.D. (August, 2022)

Dissertation title: La Pedofilia en el Inconciente Colectivo Del Varón HispanoAmericano a través de Algunos Autores Hispanoamericanos

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Genaro Pérez (Director); Dr. John Beusterien, Dr. Antonio Ladeira, Dr. Jorge Iber (Dean's Representative) 

Master of Art: Languages & Cultures

Cusson, Naydu M. - Applied Linguistics

Bachelor of Arts – Fall 2022

Alsweiti, Nour E. -Spanish
Boleng, Lauren M. - Spanish
Clough, Payton R. - Spanish
Gring, Nathan – Languages & Cultures- Classics
Gordon, Patrricia – Languages & Cultures- ASL/English Interpretation; Global Readiness Certificate
Kramer, Alyssa C. - Spanish
Lancaster, Emma E. - Spanish
Lopez, Luis F. - Spanish
Rey, Analhi A. - Spanish
Reyna, Andrea – Languages & Cultures- French
Ripley, Kira A. - Spanish
Sanchez-Badillo, Jocelyn – Spanish

Faculty Excellence

Rula Al-Hmoud, Director of the Arabic Program and Lecturer, was awarded the Apple-Polishing Award by the Mortar Board after being nominated by one of her students, Prash Ghimire.

She was also accepted to the 2022-2023 Teaching without Borders Workshop.  This workshop is for teaching-faculty to be introduced to innovative approaches and techniques in course internationalization. She is assigned a mentor who will assist her in developing global content and intercultural competence for the classroom.

Bernd Reiter, Professor of Spanish, received the 2021-2022 Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Public Policy, Brazil 2021-2021. “No Sustainable Territorial Development without Indigenous Voices: For an inclusive Public Policy and Regional Integration.” He conducted this research during the summer of 2022 and submitted an article summarizing his findings, in Portuguese, to the Brazilian journal Ciência & Trópico.  

Kate Brooke, Assistant Professor of Practice and Spanish Foundations Director, received the AAUSC Excellence in Language Program Direction Award.  This award seeks to “recognize outstanding examples of curricular and pedagogical innovation in the field of foreign/second languages education within institutions of higher education”.  Brooke was recognized for her efforts to redesign the Spanish Foundations online program, opening large-enrollment sections with native-speaker coaching services to increase access to beginning and intermediate Spanish courses. AAUSC 

Sara Guengerich, Associate Professor of Spanish was interviewed by the New Books Network podcast about the book she co-edited with a colleague, Cacicas: The Indigenous Women Leaders of Spanish America, 1492-1825(U of Oklahoma Press, 2021). You can listen to the podcast streaming following this link:
https://newbooksnetwork.com/cacicas

 

She was an invited speaker at the XI Congreso Internacional de Etnohistoria at the University of Santiago de Chile (November 8-11, 2022). Her participation in this event included a book presentation, two panels, and one discussion of a pre-circulated paper.

Above and Beyond Award

 

Melissa Hays, director of the ASL program and lecturer, was awarded the Above and Beyond award for service to people with disabilities by LIFE Inc at the awards ceremony on October 16, 2022, at the TTU McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center.  As a recipient of this award, she is one who goes above and beyond the normal duties of the department to make remarkable contributions to both the Lubbock and TTU communities and consistently goes the extra mile to help students achieve their goals. 

 

Volunteers at the gala included some ASEI majors demonstrating a great show of support to Hays.  Additionally, the spouse of one major donated beautiful artwork to the fundraiser auction.

Texas Tech Teaching Academy

On September 16, 2022, Dr. Belinda Kleinhans, Associate Professor of German in CMLL, was inducted into the TTU Teaching Academy. The Teaching Academy was founded in 1997 and advocates for excellence in teaching, promotes service related to the university's teaching mission, and advises and mentors colleagues and others about teaching strategies and their implementation. Membership is limited to no more than 20% of the Texas Tech faculty.

What inspires me to teach? "I love being able to introduce students to a world of knowledge and new ways of thinking. As a first gen university student myself, I cherish the opportunity to be a mentor who can help students navigate our complex world and empower them to find and use their own voice. 

I am also continually challenged and inspired by the diverse perspectives my students bring to the classroom, to learn from them how they see the world, and thus to become a co-explorer of knowledge. This process helps us to understand the way our identities inform how we experience the world and enables us to create opportunities to shape it." - Kleinhans

 

Kristen Michelson, Assistant Professor of French & Applied Linguistics, and project-lead Heather Allen (U-Wisconsin) were awarded a grant co-sponsored by the U.S. French Embassy and the FACE Foundation for the project "Critical Competencies and Advanced French Studies: A Toolkit for Collegiate Educators and Advisors”, which aims to increase the number of students majoring and minoring in French. The project will run from January 2023 through December 2024.

Carmen Pereira-Muro, Professor of Spanish and CMLL Chair, was recognized for her exemplary contributions to the academy at the 2022 Texas Tech University Diversity Awards Banquet on November 17.  The Office of Institutional Diversity hosts this event to generate scholarship funds for deserving students while recognizing those within the Texas Tech and Lubbock communities who exemplify Inclusive Excellence.

Bernd Reiter, Professor of Spanish, received the 2021-2022 Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Public Policy, Brazil 2021-2021. “No Sustainable Territorial Development without Indigenous Voices: For an inclusive Public Policy and Regional Integration.” He conducted this research during the summer of 2022 and submitted an article summarizing his findings, in Portuguese, to the Brazilian journal Ciência & Trópico.  

Dr. Meixiu ZhangReceives ACTFL's 2022 Research Priorities Initiative Award 

Dr. Meixiu Zhang received a research award in the amount of $3800 as part of ACTFL's 2022 Research Priorities Initiative. Her research study, Integrating Multimodal Literacy into Foreign Language Teacher Education, was selected and may be selected for publication in Foreign Language Annals when the final version is publishable.

Graduate Student Presentations & Awards

Missael Duarte Somoza, Ph.D. candidate in Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies was awarded the 2022-2023 Helen DeVitt Jones Graduate Fellowship and the Good Neighbor Scholarship.

2022 Arts & Humanities Conference – First Place

Marni Reecer a Languages & Cultures-German MA student, won first prize and $250 in the Literary Analysis category of the 2022 Texas Tech Arts & Humanities Conference. The title of her prize-winning presentation is, “Antithesis and Justaposition in Momo: Michael Ende's Surreal Approach to Writing”.  

Presentations

In the summer of 2022, Spanish graduate students Dakota Tucker and Veronica Cora-Castillo presented papers about The Gawkers, a Spanish play, at international conferences in London and Almagro, Spain.  The conferences coincided with performances of the play before international audiences in London and Spain.  The Texas Tech theater department is planning to perform the premier of The Gawkers in Lubbock in the Spring of 2023.

Spanish graduate students Yazarei Bazaldua and Yesica Amaya won an international award for their adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes's El coloquio de los perros (The Dialogue of the Dogs).   The award was granted by a jury at the New Gold Digital Theatre Festival (2022), sponsored by various universities and the Association for Hispanic Classical Theater. Our New Gold features the work of students exploring new ways of approaching, understanding and adapting Spanish classical plays focusing on current social issues, such as gender, racial and social inequality, systemic oppression, cultural identity and the environment.

Marcus Valadares, (Spanish doctoral candidate) published a paper, “Questionários em Pesquisas na área de Bilinguismo e Aquisição de Segunda Língua: elaboração e uso para perfilamento de participantes.” in the book Métodos experimentais em Linguística Aplicada. 

He presented three papers this fall: 

“Resistance and mobility in Snow Tha Product's lyrics: Rapping on the borderline of intersections” at the 75th Annual Convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, in Albuquerque, New Mexico

“Crossing borders and transgressing narratives: new paths for transgender representation in Brazilian cinema” at the Women's & Gender Studies Annual Gender & Sexual Identities Colloquium, Fall 2022, at Texas Tech

“De que bilinguismo estamos falando? Uma análise das ideologias linguística de programas bilíngues de escolas da região metropolitana de Belo Horizonte” at the Simpósio Internacional de Estudos sobre Língua, Literatura e Interculturalidade. (Brazil / online)  

Dr. Britta Anderson traveled with two doctoral students in Spanish and Portuguese, Marchus Valadares and Nicolas spencer, to present at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico October 13-15, 2022. 

 

 

 

CMLL News

Issue 27 Home

Recent Events

Meet the Staff

Academic Excellence

Faculty Book Publications

Faculty Spotlight

Alumni Connect

Student Spotlight

Recruitment and Retention

Contact & Subscribe

Give to CMLL