Issue 26

Message from the Chair

Pereira

Dr. Carmen Pereira
Department Chair and Professor of Spanish

Happy New Year, everyone!

As we are getting ready to start 2023, I would like to pause for a moment, look back and celebrate the many accomplishments and joyful events that took place during the fall semester of 2022 in CMLL.

We welcomed three wonderful new members: Mathilda Shepard in Spanish, Jan Hohenstein in German, and Frank Torres as our new IT specialist (see the sections on them in this issue). As we say hello to new people, we also said goodbye to two long-time CMLL members, Genaro Pérez and Geazul Hernández. We wish them all the best in their retirement!

The semester was packed with extra-curricular activities. Take a look at the “Recent Events” sections for an awe-inspiring recounting of the impactful events hosted by Chinese, Arabic, ASL, the Spanish and Spanish Heritage programs, Applied Linguistics, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, French, Classics German and Portuguese. I would swear the newsletter has doubled its size just to reflect the sheer number of activities that took place over the fall. Besides the program-specific events, we also had two major all CMLL recruitment events: the Passport party at the beginning of the semester, geared towards introducing Freshmen to the study of languages and cultures, and Languages and Cultures Day, an outreach event coordinated with 7 LISD language programs. Over 150 highschoolers visited CMLL that day and enjoyed some top-notch micro-teaching, tables with representatives showcasing the language and culture programs in CMLL, and a festive closing act with a samba band and a beautiful ASL poem. We hope the visiting students enjoyed the day as much as we did!

With the pandemic (hopefully!) in recession, we celebrated our CMLL departmental party with great fanfare. As the current chair, I had the personal joy of reuniting at the party with my much-admired chair predecessors in CMLL, Dr. Erin Collopy and Dr. Lorum Stratton. It was a historical moment!

CMLL had the honor of receiving Dr. Rodolphe Baudin (U. of Strasburg) as Visiting Professor of Russian during fall 22. He graciously gave two talks in CMLL on his research of 18th century travel Russian literature. The popular lecturer series of Languages in Industry, started by Dr. Brendan Regan last year with the aim of showing our graduate students possible non-academic career paths, was again very well attended in fall 22. Dr. Britta Anderson's Work in Progress series, to showcase ongoing research by CMLL faculty, were also continued this semester, and a new Teaching Plan meeting series, organized by the CMLL Teaching Plan Committee, has been taking place every first Friday of the month since this fall.

If you knew CMLL before and come to visit now, I hope you will find changes and improvements. The Qualia room has received a facelift and colorfully represents the ethos and multi-culturalism of the department. Graduate student offices have also been upgraded, as has the Language Lab, with a cozy new tutoring center and a state-of-the-art ASL recording center. The administrative offices upstairs have been switched around in a more efficient manner. Acknowledging the importance of IT in our research and teaching, we have now an IT Suite in front of 203 where you can find the help you need for classroom, office technology and beyond.

At CMLL we know that nothing equals studying abroad to immerse yourself and learn languages and cultures. Therefore, we have devoted the earnings of textbook royalties to create a major Studying Abroad Scholarship. Students going abroad in summer 2023 will be the first ones receiving the benefits of these grants. If you are a student planning to go abroad, do apply at CMLL Study Abroad Scholarship If you would like to donate to increase the possibilities of TTU students to study abroad, please donate at Lorum Stratton Study Abroad Scholarship.

I wish you all the best for the coming year, and thank you for reading this and supporting our beloved department,

Carmen