Departmental Newsletter for Modern Languages & Literatures at the College of William & Mary
Thomas Bettge (German Studies, ’14) checked in with us. Here is what he reported: I matriculated at Penn State’s Dickinson Law School in 2014. My background in German Studies enabled me to secure work the following summer with one of my professors, who was completing a dissertation comparing the horizontal dimension of constitutional rights in… Read More
Allison Corbett (’09) is a Spanish interpreter and oral historian based in New York City. She has worked in Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Mount Sinai West as a staff interpreter, and is currently working on The Language of Justice/El lenguaje de la justicia, a multimedia oral history project documenting the stories of language workers and… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies & Linguistics) Before I graduated in May 2014, I had vague thoughts of traveling the world, or at least having some (any) plans to explain when people inevitably asked what was next for me. When Prof. Terukina mentioned the English Opens Doors Program in Chile to me, I jumped on the opportunity. I… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies & International Relations) In many ways I have had an interesting career trajectory. At William & Mary, I double majored in Hispanic Relations and International Relations with the idea that I could get involved with policy decisions in Latin America. My experience with the La Plata program in Argentina had a profound… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies & Psychology) Soon after graduating from William and Mary, I spent the summer in Vermont studying Spanish at Middlebury Language Schools. This program not only provided an environment of total language immersion, but exposed the linguistic depth of the Spanish language. Shortly following Middlebury, I spent a semester abroad teaching English in… Read More
La Fete de la Recherche is an annual conference that showcases our students’ research projects. It is an opportunity for students to present to their professors and peers the research they are doing for an honor thesis, courses, internships or, projects completed during the summer program in Montpellier. Presenters explain their motivations, research process, discoveries,… Read More
MLL Graduation Ceremony (15 May 2016) Picture 1: Marshall Richards, Isabel Perrin, Benjamin Neville, Jacob Keohane, Skyy Eshleman, Gille Cuda (Note: Five other seniors, including Max Lipkin, Charles Kelly, Rachel Johnson, Kathy Shi, and Lauren Leupold, also graduated. They could not attend the MLL graduation ceremony because of other commitments.) Picture 2: Chinese majors and… Read More
“After leaving W&M in 2005 with a concentration in Hispanic Studies and certification in secondary education, I moved to Philadelphia to start a PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, I met some amazing people and found the environment wonderfully challenging and intellectually stimulating. However, I was no longer certain I wanted… Read More
Nathan Hoback, a HISP alum (’10) who went on to pursue an M.A. with the School of Education at W&M, has recently been distinguished as Matoaca High School Teacher of the Year 2016. A native of Roanoke, Nathan has been a member of the Matoaca High School faculty for five years, where he currently teaches Spanish 1… Read More
Kevin Lonabaugh, W&M Class of 2010 discusses the lessons he learned while a French and Francophone Studies major at William & Mary, and how his experiences here at the college are currently at play in his new life at pharmacy school at the University of Virginia.
American chefs and gourmands have recently rediscovered seasonality and locality —eating and celebrating the ingredients specific to the season and region. In Japan these notions never faded from the cultural imagination. On November 4, the college community was treated to a fascinating lecture on the significance of “shun,” or “seasonality” to Japanese cuisine, and the… Read More
Last summer several graduating seniors jetted off to Japan—in order to become “JETs.” The Japan Exchange and Teaching, or JET, Program was established by the Japanese government in 1987 to “promote grass-roots exchange between Japan and other nations.” The Department of Education selects college grads from around the world to teach English in Japan for a… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies & Sociology, 2004): Lauren was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award for the United Kingdom during 2012-2013. You can read more about her experience here. (Updated 2012)
(BA History & Hispanic Studies): Eleonora recently started graduate studies at the University of Virginia. You can read more about her experience here. (Updated 2012)
(BA Hispanic Studies & History) recently spent a year in Spain teaching English at a High School in Madrid with the Cultural Ambassadors Program. You can read more about her experience here. (Updated 2012)
(BA Latin American Studies & History): On Friday, May 14, 2010 Wm & Mary alumnus Doug Mercado was inducted into the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Mercado graduated in the class of 1985 with a double major in Latin American Studies and History and extensive work in Spanish; he was also a resident in… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies): Before graduation I joined a pharmaceutical consulting company in Williamsburg serving as a translator as part of my practicum. After graduation I was offered a salary and have continued to work as a translator and now an ambassador manager in the global department working with European patients with chronic diseases, as well… Read More
(BA International Relations & Hispanic Studies): Kendra taught high school Spanish with Teach For America in Washington, D.C. for the last two years and found that her Hispanic Studies training was helpful aside from the language skills! She spent a lot of time in her second year working with Hispanic students and helping to make… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies): Work post-WM: 2006-07: Bilingual paralegal at Brown Goldstein Levy, LLP 2007: Interim Project Director with Students Helping Honduras, 501(c)3 2008: Fulbright ETA Grantee, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina 2009: Campaign Assistant, National Immigration Forum. Current status: In my first year of law school at American University. Dean’s Fellow at the Academy on… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies): Hello, dear professors! I stumbled across this update form a couple weeks ago and wondered if it was too late to share my updates, but decided with Regina’s Facebook reminder today that it’s not! Please feel free to share anything you wish… I began the University of Pennsylvania’s PhD program in Hispanic… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies): Graduated in May 2009 from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a Master of Public Health in Sexuality and Health. Currently working at International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region in New York City as an Evaluation Coordinator. (Updated: 2009).
(BA Hispanic Studies & English): After college, I spent two years working as an English teacher in Kyoto, Japan. After that, I traveled around quite a bit – around Japan, then spending time in San Francisco, Australia and D.C.. I then got into journalism, working first as a reporter for The Daily Iberian, a newspaper… Read More
(BA Hispanic Studies) I went on to do an MA in Spanish Translation at Rutgers and became a court interpreter. After working for several years in state court in New Jersey, I have been working for four years as a staff court interpreter at the Federal District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Updated 2009)
Sarah Parks received a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies in 2003, and went on to earn a Master of Social Work degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2006. She has worked in clinical settings including a community health clinic, a low-income housing community center, private adoption agencies, and the Family Reunification program at the… Read More
Maybelline Mendoza is a 2007 undergraduate alum that double-majored in Hispanic Studies and Business Marketing. Maybelline has worked for a higher education magazine, but has spent the majority of her career in the beauty industry, as a part of the MaybellineNY*Garnier products’ division team, where she held increasing responsibilities in Sales and Marketing. One of… Read More
Ben Boone graduated from the Hispanic Studies program in 2007, taking mostly courses in Latin American culture. He went directly into the Master’s program in Higher Education Administration at the School of Education. Concurrent to enrolling in the Higher Education program, Ben helped develop a non-profit that works with children in Managua, Nicaragua to provide… Read More
Suzanne Reed works for Yandex Money. (update: 2013)
Kate Mrkvicka has just received her MA from Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Her thesis was entitled “Martyrs or Statistics: Self-immolation and Regime Security’ and it examined what societal or political factors make self-immolation incidents a greater threat to a regime’s security, using Vietnam, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania and Tibet as… Read More
Alex is heading to Novosibirsk, Russia in September as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant! From September 2013 to June 2014 he will be teaching at Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute (update: 2013)
Kristine Mosuela has been selected for a Fulbright U.S. Student award for 2013-2014 to Mongolia.
Ed Geist defended his dissertation “Two Worlds of Civil Defense: State, Society, and Nuclear Survival in the USA and USSR, 1945-91” at UNC Chapel Hill. Ed also received a postdoc for the next academic year — he will be a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at RAND Corporation in Washington, where he will be conducting research related… Read More
Ariana Berger (Business and German Studies ’11) has finished her internship in the Corporate Ratings department of Standard & Poor’s in Frankfurt, and will be working with S&P Capital IQ as an Account Manager. The position in fixed-term for one year with a relatively good chance for her to stay on afterwards. Ariana writes: “I… Read More
Valerie Hopkins is pursuing an MA in Journalism at Columbia University. She posted her recent article on FB today (http://www.opendemocracy.net/valerie-hopkins/life-liberty-and-pursuit-of-homeschooling). She also received a summer fellowship to report with Reuters in Belgrade. (update: 2013)
Christina studies at the University of Pittsburgh Law School (update: 2013)
Next fall Lauren Shaw (German Studies, ’09) will be starting a master’s program in global migration at University College London. The program looks at the social, economic and political causes and implications of human migration, while seeking to better understand the lived experiences of local and international migrant communities. Courses are drawn from a number… Read More
by Emily Wilcox The W&M 2012 graduating class boasted a stellar group of seniors in the Chinese Program. Three students received High Honors for senior honors thesis projects advised by Chinese Program faculty, and more than eighty-five percent studied abroad in China at least once as part of their undergraduate experience. Students double-majored in… Read More
Claire Lehnen (German Studies and International Relations, ’07), Graduate Student at the University of Michigan – Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, has assumed the position of German teacher at the German School of Ann Arbor, Michigan. After graduating, Claire spent two years in the Peace Corps in China, where she developed innovative foreign… Read More
Peter Lecce (’12), Economics and International Studies Major with strong training and interests in German Studies, will be interning in the spring at the U.S. Consulate in Munich, where he will be working in the political/economic section. Peter took part in the W&M Potsdam Summer Study Abroad Program in 2010. Peter also recently found out… Read More
Jacob Lassin (’13) Jacob is currently studying Russian in Ufa, Russia. He is also interning at a local tv station, and has worked translating at a summer biathlon championship. In fall 2013 Jacob starts graduate program at Yale University (update: 2013).
After graduating in May 2011 with a B.A. in French and Francophone Studies (Highest Honors/McCormack-Reboussin scholar) and Women’s Studies, Eve is now a Flagship Fellow starting her first year in the Women’s Studies Ph.D. Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. There, she will continue integrating her interests in French and Francophone studies and… Read More
After graduating from William and Mary in 2009 with a major in Biology and a minor in French, Abby attended Harvard Law School where she studied intellectual property law. She is now an Associate in the intellectual property department at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in the law firm’s Washington, DC office. Studying French at William… Read More
Following graduation in 2009, Laura Wagstaff (McCormack-Reboussin Scholar 07-09) moved to Washington, DC to pursue a career in higher education and multicultural exchange. She has held positions in the Development & Special Events department of Washington National Opera and in Georgetown University’s Office of Advancement. Currently, Laura serves as the Assistant Director in the Georgetown… Read More
Bridget, the 2011-12 Reboussin scholar write: “I currently hold a term appointment (renewable for up to four years) at the U.S. Dept. of Justice Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C. as a “paralegal specialist.” In the Antitrust Division I have the opportunity to work side-by-side with the attorneys preparing for depositions, serving subpoenas, interviewing witnesses, and… Read More
Hispanic Studies major Leksa Pravdic (’12) is one of only nine W&M 2012 graduates to receive a prestigious Fulbright US Student Grant. During 2012-2013, Leksa will act as an English Teaching Assistant in Serbia. You can read the full featured story here. Congratulations, Leksa!
Emily is moving to London to attend Kingston University’s Master’s program in Human Rights and Genocide Studies (update: 2012).
Sabina is a grad student in Russian Studies at NYU (update: 2013).
MK currently is a graduate student. In 2012 MK worked as a Junior Fellows Intern at the Library of Congress. Her official assignment is to work in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and within this department, specifically, the Yudin Collection. The collection is comprised of more than 80,000 documents donated to the LIbrary of Congress in 1906 by a wealthy Siberian businessman, Gennadii Vasil’evich Yudin. Yudin Collection: http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/268.html (update: 2013).
Caitlin will be working this summer as a Junior Fellows Intern at the Library of Congress. Her official assignment is to work in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and within this department, specifically, the Yudin Collection. The collection is comprised of more than 80,000 documents donated to the LIbrary of Congress in 1906 by a wealthy Siberian businessman, Gennadii Vasil’evich Yudin. Yudin Collection: http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/268.html (update: 2012)
Maggiewill be working this summer as a Junior Fellows Intern at the Library of Congress. Her official assignment is to work in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and within this department, specifically, the Yudin Collection. The collection is comprised of more than 80,000 documents donated to the LIbrary of Congress in 1906 by a wealthy Siberian businessman, Gennadii Vasil’evich Yudin. Yudin Collection: http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/268.html (update: 2012).
Monika is the recipient of 2012 Fulbright ETA to Belarus. Also Monika’s article on Pushkinskaia 10 Art Community in St. Petersburg was published in the online journal artinrussia.org, http://artinrussia.org/the-legacy-of-unofficial-art-in-st-petersburg-the-case-of-pushkinkaya-10-art-center/ (update: 2012)
Max is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Slavic Studies at Northwestern University (update: 2012).
Vadim is a Ph.D. student at Yale University (update: 2014).
Arthur Schechter (W&M, 2009-2011; Brown University, 2011-Present) has won the American Psychoanalytic Association Prize for the best essay written by an undergraduate. Arthur’s essay, “Wagnerian Volksideologie, Narcissism, and Aesthetics: A Study in the Totalitarian Imaginary,” emerged as the final paper in Rob Leventhal’s Modern German Critical Thought II: Marx to Habermas course in the spring… Read More
Michael works for financial industry in the Richmond area (update: 2013).
Michael Berman ’05 is in the master’s program of social sciences at the University of Chicago. (2007)
Amy Palesko ’06 was William & Mary’s first Fulbright to Japan. She studied at the University of Osaka and is currently residing and working in Japan as a design engineer at Nokia. (2008)
Nancy Marsden ’08 is a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa studying ethnomusicology. She’s combining her East Asian Studies and Music majors from W&M into the area of Japanese music. She hopes to focus on popular music in Japan. (2009)
Jenny Davy ’08 did a year of study abroad in Tokyo at Keio University. She went on to a two-year course of study at the Cooperstown Graduate Program doing a Master of Arts degree in History Museum Studies. (2008)
Julian Oreska ’09 works as a product developer for the toy company Bandai at their headquarters in Asakusa, Japan. Julian was a double Business and East Asian Studies major who also completed the Canon Corporation internship in summer 2009. (2010)
Megan Locke ’10 is on the JET program teaching English in Japan. (2010)
Loretta Scott ’10 is currently working in NYC in marketing/business development. She started a Youtube series called “The Difficulties of Japanese” in 2007, and was eventually contacted by YesJapan Corporation, which provides real-world and online courses for Japanese langauge learning. She’s now contracted as a video producer, and creates youtube-style education videos for their website www.yesjapan.com ! (2011)
Nathan Revere ’10 is doing graduate work at University of Wisconsin-Madison in their Anthropology Ph.D. program, focusing on language and culture in Japan. (2011)
Peter Luebke ’05 is currently a student in the graduate program on Southern History in the American History Ph.D. program at University of Virginia. He has an article, “Maruo Suehiro’s ‘Planet of the Jap’: Revanchist Fantasy or War Critique?” that he co-authored with Professor Rachel DiNitto, forthcoming in the Australian journal Japanese Studies. (2011)
Pam Kennedy ’10 is working in bank examination with the Federal Reserve Bank out in Los Angeles. Her examination team will work with many Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese banks. (2011)
Mike Crandol ’07 is currently in University of Minnesota’s Ph.D. program in Asian Literatures, Cultures, and Media, and attended Stanford University’s InterUniversity Center Japanese language program in Yokohama Japan 2009-2010. Mike is working on Nakagawa Nobuo, a horror-movie director from the 1950s and 60s who influenced the J-Horror boom. He has also written reviews of Asian… Read More
Lauren Klaasse ’11 is starting a graduate program in Public Policy at George Mason University. (2011)
Jeff DeMars ’11 started a job at the Japan Information and Cultural Center, Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C. He is working as the Webmaster/Office Manager for the JICC and is really enjoying working with everyone, planning events, and updating the website. (2011)
Lauren Shaw has been going places lately– Slovenia, the Baltic States, Carinthia/Austria — and returning to the DC area. After finishing a two-year Fulbright ETA in Austria, Lauren (German Studies, ’09) has returned to the United States and taken a job at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. as a paid research assistant. At… Read More
We look forward to seeing you at homecoming this year! Fill out the form below to let us know we can expect you! Modern Languages and Literatures will host our homecoming wine and cheese reception in the Reves Room on Friday, October 21 from 4-6pm.
Lenore Dukes taught English in 2010-2011 in the Académie of Creteil (just outside of Paris, France). “I’m excited to bring my experience and knowledge of American society to my teaching. I hope to continue my research on French engagements with diversity through the institution of public schools – as well as to enjoy living in… Read More
In the Fall of 2010 Casey Czajka started a PhD program in the Department of French and Italian at Tulane University. She intends to research the politics of death and mourning in France. In particular, she plans to study state funerals under the French Third Republic and the ways in which such public displays of… Read More
Elise Thorsen (’06) is currently working on her Ph.D. dissertation. In 2013 she has been awarded a prestigious Cultural Studies Ph.D. Research Scholarship. In her own words: “I did embarrassingly well, even, and I think I have support in my department for a dissertation that extrapolates to an abstract level about epos-building and aesthetics from… Read More
Erin Alpert has just received a prestigious Lillian B. Lawler Fellowship for advanced Ph.D. research. Her new articles have just been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals Studies in Documentary Film and Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema. Her research interests include documentary cinema, GULAG studies and Holocaust studies. (update: 2013).
William Sinnott accepted his offer to Georgetown’s MA program in Russian and East European Studies. In 2011 Will received the Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award. (update: 2012).
Julia Osman (’04) will be returning to campus in November to meet with the students currently enrolled in Prof. Pacini’s senior seminar. In addition to speaking on Laclos’ novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (on this year’s syllabus for French 450), Osman will talk about her research and writing methods, and in particular about how she transformed… Read More
“I’m currently living in Washington DC, after having completed an MA in international administration at the University of Denver and 2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. I now work for Population Services International (www.psi.org) an international NGO that works in malaria, reproductive health, child survival and HIV in over 60… Read More
Ariel received a Fullbright Scholarship to teach English in Andorra and is currently working at the Chronicle for Higher Education “I came to William & Mary as a near-native French speaker and I was looking for a program that could offer insightful and current commentary on French language and culture. Throughout my four years in… Read More
Kevin Lonabaugh (French/Francophone Studies and Biology, Monroe student and Phi Beta Kappa), has just been informed by the French Embassy that he received an Assistantship for next year and that he will teach English in 2010-11 in a French lycée in Corsica. “During my four years at the College, I decided to double major in… Read More
On June 5 I was ordained to the Catholic priesthood for the Diocese of Richmond. I currently serve at a cluster of four parishes in Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia. I don’t use my French as much, but I put my developing Spanish to use regularly to serve our Latin American parishioners.
I taught French at the University of Richmond for over 20 years, retiring in 2000 I but did some night school classes for a couple of years after that. At UR, in addition to teaching, I was the Director of the Intensive French Program, hiring and training Drill Instructors, and I was also the Director… Read More
Would you believe that one can combine language skills with teaching skiing? Yes, it is possible. For a decade straight out of W&M I used French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish with private clientele at Keystone, CO, part of Vail Resorts. Then fell into international bike guiding with Vermont Bicycle Touring http//www.vbt.com headquartered in Burgundy, France…. Read More
Immigrated to Australia in 2004. Currently working as an R & D chemist for a scientific instrumentation company. Missed homecoming this year, but had a great time last year when I attended with my wife ( class of 1989)
Since graduation in 2003, I worked for two years as a legal assistant before returning to graduate studies in the language I love, French. I received my Master’s degree in French in 2007 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and am currently writing my dissertation in Geneva, Switzerland thanks to a dissertation fellowship. The Ph.D. is… Read More
When I got to college, I’d completed my language proficiency requirement and was fully prepared to stop taking French, and in fact I didn’t take any French my first semester at William and Mary. However, I can honestly say that restarting French was one of the best decisions I’ve made since arriving on campus. I’ve… Read More
Shannon has just begun her masters in the Regional Studies-East Asia Program at Harvard University. Her research focus will be modern Chinese literature, which she also worked on for her Honors thesis. “On a side note,” she writes, “you and the other W&M professors may be intersted to know that 4 years of W&M Chinese… Read More
Devon is finishing his master’s in painting this coming spring at the University of Indiana. He plans to continue working in the art world, and hopes to teach painting.
John describes his travels and studies of the past year: “After completing a Chinese major at the College of William and Mary, including a summer and a semester studying abroad in Beijing, I was awarded the Chinese Government Scholarship. Through this scholarship, I was able to study Mandarin for two semesters at Sichuan University in… Read More
John spent the summer at the American Dance Festival at Duke University and performed as Tony in the mainstage production of West Side Story Suite while there. He is currently working as a free lance dancer in NYC and lives in Brooklyn.
Allie is currently working with ESL students and based in the Philadelphia area.
Megan graduated with majors in Chinese and English (High Honors). She is currently working towards a Ph.D in Comparative Literature with a focus on modern Chinese drama at the University of California, Davis.
Christopher is currently completing a master’s degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He is writing a thesis on the popular press in Republican-era China.
Michael Roberts (’10) works for the government. (update: 2010)
Erin O’Grady (’10) works for the government. (update: 2013)
Rosa Mutchnick (’10) teaches English in Samoa (Teach for America) (update: 2010)
Seth Lacy (’10) works for the State Department. (update: 2010)
Richard Jordan (’10) is a Ph.D. student at Princetion University. (update: 2010)
Pete Giannino (’10) received Fulbright Scholarship and will be spending the next year in Germany. (update: 2010)
Kurt Carlson ( ’10) serves in the US Army. (update: 2013)
Sarah Argodale (’10) is a graduate student. (update: 2013)
Jacob Shier (’05) Received Fulbright and taught English in Ekaterinburg and Perm (Russia). Received M.A. in translation from Columbia University. “Right now I am in Daegu, South Korea on a one-yera teaching contract with Chungdahm Learning. I’ve been doing lots of hiking and weekend traveling, and still read in Russian regularly, Anna Karenina being my… Read More
New German Studies faculty member Jennifer Gully talks with Mike Blum about her research and teaching. Jennifer received her M.A. at the University of Vienna and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at UCLA. Her research focuses on translation as a conflicted and often antagonistic process in literature and film. The “clash of languages” has become… Read More