Departmental Newsletter for Modern Languages & Literatures at the College of William & Mary
Just like our students’ research, the Fête de la Recherche goes on! Once again, a highly motivated group of seniors organized, publicized, and graciously hosted this signature event of the French & Francophone Studies Program. The 2020 Virtual Fête was a unique opportunity for students, faculty, and alumni to hear about research recently conducted… Read More
Professor Emeritus of Hispanic Studies George Greenia, recently received a from the Virginia General Assembly, introduced by State Senator Monty Mason. What makes this award extra special is the fact that Monty Mason was once Prof. Greenia’s student in 1985-86 and took Spanish classes with him here at W&M! Prof. Greenia joined the Modern Languages… Read More
This spring, Professor of Hispanic Studies Silvia Tandeciarz was appointed Chancellor Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures. Prof. Tandeciarz has served as Chair of Modern Languages and Literatures for several years, and is also part of many initiatives on campus. She is the founder of the William & Mary National Security Archive Project and the… Read More
Congratulazioni to our Italian Studies graduates: Tianyi Vanessa Cai (Art & Art History Major, Italian Minor) – recipient of the Italian Studies Book Award Tyler Cox-Philyaw (History Major, Italian Minor) Kathryn Donati (English Major, Italian Minor) Marisa Lemma (Government Major, Economics Minor, Italian Honorary Minor) Zoe Nelson (Government Major, Self-Designed Italian Major) – recipient of the MDLL Outstanding Achievement… Read More
By Prof. Monica Seger This year’s spring commencement was, like so many things right now, quite different than usual. Rather than gathering on campus with friends and colleagues from throughout Modern Languages and Literatures for a department-wide ceremony, students and faculty in Italian Studies celebrated from afar with a Zoom commencement of our own. Just… Read More
Zoe Nelson (Government Major, Self-Designed Italian Major ’20) shares her experience in the Italian Program over the past four years. In bocca al lupo per il futuro, Zoe! «The Italian Department’s smaller size was a fantastic fit for me, as it allowed for me to form meaningful individual relationships with other Italian Studies students, along with all of… Read More
Tianyi Vanessa Cai (Art & Art History Major, Italian Minor ’20) shares with us her special relationship with Italian language and culture. Grazie Vanessa! «Being a violin player and a fan of the virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, I registered for an Italian class when I entered college hoping to learn more about the language and its culture…. Read More
Margot Baden, the Modern Languages and Literature Book Prize winner for overall excellence in the Japanese Studies program, has displayed exemplary academic and extracurricular achievements. A Japanese Studies and International Relations double major, she strives to deepen her understanding of Japanese culture, history, language, and politics. Ms. Baden decided to pursue Japanese Studies after participating… Read More
MLL’s unique Language Houses, a foreign-language immersion experience right on our campus, had to close down after Spring Break just like all other residential buildings. Daily life in another language, the countless small exchanges and learning moments that occur as students interact with each other and with the respective International Fellow, came to a halt…. Read More
At its year-end graduation and awards ceremony, the Japanese Studies Program announced the recipients of the Kinyo Awards for Excellence in Japanese language study for the 2019 – 2020 academic year. The prize recognizes the hard work and achievement of the top student at each level of William & Mary’s Japanese language program, as selected… Read More
Grace Kier ’20 is among a select group of 12 students nationwide to receive a prestigious 2020-21 fellowship to the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). Congratulations, Grace! So well deserved! Full story…
Sydney Hamrick will conduct research this summer on an indigenous language of Guatamala: Ixil (pronounced: “ee-sheel”). She is working with Dr. Rachel Varra (Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures and Linguistics Program).
Kristen Popham ’20 (double major in French and Francophone Studies and Government) has been awarded the prestigious Lord Botetourt Medal, which was established in 1772 “for the honor and encouragement of literary merit.” The link to the full story can be found here: https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2020/wm-to-honor-faculty,-staff,-students-during-virtual-ceremony.php#bot Congratulations, Kristen!! Bravo!
W&M’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion has recognized three MLL faculty this year for their “outstanding work as an advocate of diversity and inclusion”: Katherine Kulick (French and Francophone Studies, TESOL), Magali Compan (French and Francophone Studies), and Jennifer M. Gülly (German Studies). Congratulations! You can read what others have said about their efforts, and… Read More
Congratulations to Bella Ginzbursky-Blum, the recipient of 2020 National AATSEEL (American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages) Excellence in Teaching Award! Professor Ginzbursky-Blum is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. She teaches Russian language classes at all levels, and also enjoys teaching classes on Russian literature and,… Read More
Lamar Shambley (’10) founded Teens of Color Abroad which helps students of color in high school study abroad. See the full story here.
During the American Revolution, five students at the College of William & Mary founded Phi Beta Kappa. They believed that a new nation required new institutions – cultural as well as political – and they were committed to intellectual fellowship shaped by the values of personal freedom, scientific inquiry, liberty of conscience, and creative endeavor…. Read More
Dr Julia de Leon Hernandez recently joined the faculty of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. We are so pleased to have her! How was your first semester at William & Mary? Excellent. I have felt very welcomed and part of a community since day one. My… Read More
Hispanic Studies welcomes Dr Andrea Gaytán Cuesta, who recently (re)joined the W&M community as a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. We interviewed Dr. Gaytán Cuesta about her first semester back with us! What is the focus of your research? What projects are you working on right now? In my… Read More
In the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, advanced language students have had the opportunity to work as Teaching Assistants for many years. The assistantship model has changed since its inception but the unique role of undergraduate TAs in language classes remains a key feature of our department. Professor Mattavelli, who became interested in teacher preparation and mentoring… Read More
Last month, our Italian Studies Program participated in a series of events in Washington D.C. hosted by the W&M Alumni Association. On November 7, Professor Monica Seger gave a talk at the W&M Washington Center and shared her latest research which is based in Italy’s Puglia region. Professor Seger studies the rich wave of novels and films that have emerged… Read More
Our International Fellows in the Language Houses just received a glowing endorsement from the Flat Hat! One of the aspects stressed in the article is the community that the IFs create in the Language Houses, community that students often miss after they move on from their freshman dorms. Check out the article and apply to… Read More
For the first time in the history of W&M’s Language Houses, residents and International Fellows marched as a group in the Homecoming Parade! Wearing branded T-shirts and carrying banners, flags, and sugary treats, over fifty students walked from Boundary Street to Kaplan Arena, greeting the onlookers in the various languages they study. MLL faculty assembled… Read More
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, Hispanic Studies has a new media intern! Meet Hayes Pearce, who maintains our Instagram account, interacts with clubs and organizations on campus, and promotes events sponsored by Modern Languages and Literatures and other departments by keeping the HISP community up to date and sharing our news and accomplishments! Check out… Read More
This year’s J Worth Banner Award has awarded to Carrington Metts and Kiera McKay. Professor Banner was a well-liked Spanish professor at W&M and a respected Chair of Modern Languages & Literatures for many years. In the past, this generous award has helped support the recipient’s pre-honors research, international travel, or participation in study abroad programs…. Read More
This fall, MLL welcomes a new group of International Fellows (formerly: Language House Tutors)! We are excited to have Gaoussou Diarra (French House) and Chiara Di Maio (Italian House) back, and look forward to working with Claire Hao (Chinese House), Claus Heinze (German House), Celeste Cabral (Hispanic House), Rina Okada (Japanese House) and Sasha Orlova… Read More
The latest issue of Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, one the foremost publications on Nahua communities in Pre-Columbian and Colonial Mexico, includes a study of a 16th-century epiphany play co-authored by Katherine Brown (HISP ’13; PhD candidate, Yale University) and Prof. Jorge Terukina. Published by the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de… Read More
On Friday, April 12th, graduating seniors, theirs friends, and faculty gathered to attend the inaugural MLL Research Showcase. Eight students from the Chinese, French and Francophone, German, Hispanic, Italian, and Russian Studies Programs presented on projects they had been working on for the past year and more. Posters featuring images that illustrate their arguments and… Read More
German Studies Visiting Assistant Professor Anna Horakova has received two grants to conduct research over the summer, one from Women in German (WiG) and one from the Max Kade Foundation. The research grant from WiG is to expand her published article on Christa Wolf into a more fully fledged book chapter with new archival research. The Max… Read More
MLL is honored to have received both of the 2019 Jefferson Faculty Awards. Silvia Tandeciarz, Chair of MLL and Professor of Hispanic Studies, is the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award, and Jennifer Gülly, Senior Lecturer and MLL Associate Chair of Departmental Affairs, has received the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award. The award ceremony took place… Read More
Saturday, February 2, 2019 2:30pm – 4pm Tucker Hall, 127A (Tucker Theater) Directed by W&M professor Nathan Rabalais, Finding Cajun (2018) makes its Virginia premiere during the W&M Global Film Festival. The documentary presents a critical perspective on the origin and evolution of Cajun identity. Q&A with director to follow. In the film, we see… Read More
Prof. John Eisele and Prof. Driss Cherkaoui are putting the finishing touches on the first volume of a textbook series for the Arabic language which will be published by the American University in Cairo Press, entitled “Arabic Links” (in Arabic: كتاب التواصل). The series attempts to handle the issue of Arabic language variation (often termed… Read More
(This story appeared previously here.) Stephen Sheehi, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Chair of Middle East Studies and director of the Asian and Middle East Studies program, organized the “Great W&M Asia Cook Off.” He brought in celebrity chef Katsuya Fukushima, chef and co-owner of Daikaya-Izakaya, Haikan and Bantam King, and restaurateur Yama Jewayni, co-owner of Daikaya-Izakaya,… Read More
By Arika Thames (Theatre and Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies double major ‘19) This summer I had the pleasure of living and working in Italy for six weeks. After studying Italian for two years I was determined to spend my summer in the country in some capacity. Instead of studying abroad, I searched for… Read More
By Antonella Nicholas (Public Policy major and Italian minor, ’20) When I arrived in Italy, I found myself immersed in a hurricane of terms of endearment. Before starting my studies in Florence, I stayed in Rome for a few days, and in restaurants, shops, and downtown, I always heard “Ciao, bella” and “Grazie, amore.” It… Read More
By Alexa Conti (class of 2021) Every year, the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) sponsors 20 Italian-American college students to travel to Italy (for free!) for their first times. The Ambassador Peter F. Secchia Voyage of Discovery Program is meant to strengthen the Italian American identity by bonding young Italian-Americans to the country, culture, and… Read More
By Marisa Lemma (Government major & Economics minor, ’20). I had been dreaming about going to Italy for as long as I can remember. I remember telling my parents even in third grade that I would one day visit Italy. I would pore over my “First Thousand Words in Italian” book trying to soak up… Read More
By Erin Kitchens (Anthropology major and Italian minor ’19) I found Italian mostly by happenstance. On a whim I signed up for Italian, remembering how much I had admired the landscape and the melody of the language when I had visited as a 13-year-old. This decision, which I decided in five minutes, would shape my… Read More
By Kelly Konrad (Linguistics and French & Francophone Studies ’20). During the summer of 2018, I spent a month studying in Florence, Italy, where I took Italian language and art history classes at LinguaViva, an institution designed for international students. Spending time studying in Italy was the best choice I’ve made so far as a… Read More
By Chiara Di Maio Is there a better way to celebrate World Pasta Day on October 25th than making pasta from scratch just like our grandparents used to? We invited Chef Eric Christenson, owner of LOKAL, a nearby restaurant, to the Italian house to teach us how to make different types of pasta. Eric is… Read More
Welcome to our new Faculty member, Matteo Cantarello, Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies with a specialization in crime fiction in contemporary Mexican and Italian literature, especially the cultural representations of organized crime, violence, and youth cultures in urban spaces and on the border. How your first few weeks have been at William & Mary? The first… Read More
Introducing our 2018-2019 Language House Tutors: Traveling from all corners of the world, our tutors arrived at W&M on August 17th. The Language House Advisors prepared a welcome brunch for everybody to get to know each other! Our tutors clockwise from the left: Lena Böse (returning), Li Zhao (returning), Juan Hidalgo, Zoia Maslennikova (returning), Chiara… Read More
Prof. Terukina’s book El imperio de la virtud. ‘Grandeza mexicana’ (1604) de Bernardo de Balbuena y el discurso criollo novohispano (Woodbridge [UK]: Tamesis, 2017) was recently distinguished with an Honorable Mention for the Premio Roggiano para la Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 2018. Awarded by the Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (IILI), the Premio Roggiano recognizes an outstanding scholarly monograph on Latin American… Read More
The Gamma Kappa Alpha National Italian Honor Society acknowledges superior scholastic performance in the field of Italian language, literature, cinema, and culture of students in higher learning in the United States and Canada. In spring 2018 the Gamma Kappa Alpha Chapter of William & Mary proudly recognized the outstanding undergraduate scholarship in Italian Studies of… Read More
Prof. Brett Brehm sat down with Nathan Rabalais to talk about his new book of original poetry in French, Le Hantage: un ouvrage de souvenance, just published by Éditions Tintamarre. BB: I’m intrigued by the play of text and image in this book. Could you tell us how you conceived of that interplay? NR: I… Read More
In March 2018 students in Professor Mattavelli’s class Italian Through Film had an exciting opportunity to skype with Pierfrancesco Diliberto (known as Pif), TV host and director of the movie The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer. The students watched the movie, read some articles and prepared a few questions for him. One of the… Read More
When she took Prof. Greenia’s class on the Medieval book as a freshman, Alexandra Wingate could not have imagined that she would eventually write an Honors Thesis on the political value of private libraries in Early modern Navarre. As a sophomore, Alex joined Prof. Greenia to do archival work at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John’s… Read More
Three W&M students from the Chinese Program went to Boston to participate in the 17th Chinese Bridge Speech contest (East USA Preliminary) last Saturday at U Mass Boston. We achieved a great success! Michael Briggs (白杨)won the 2nd place and Grace Klopp (格蕾丝)won the 3rd place in the Beginners Group. Emily Pearson-Beck(李美丽) won the 2nd… Read More
Every year, the month of March features a week dedicated to the French-speaking world: la Francophonie! The diverse cultures and accents of la Francophonie are celebrated throughout the world with art, festivals, and cultural events; and William and Mary is no exception! Prof. Angela Leruth organized a series of fun and engaging events including an… Read More
This exciting new lecture series recognizing the distinguished career of Prof. Maryse Fauvel began with a lecture entitled “Screening Racialized France: Immigration, Discrimination, and Citizenship in Contemporary French Cinema”. The thought-provoking lecture was given on Feb. 23 by Prof. Cybelle McFadden (W&M ’97) from University of North Carolina, Greensboro following a screening of Ligne de couleur… Read More
The Chinese Program presented the talk entitled “Critical Lyricism in Postwar East Asian Cinema: Fei Mu’s Spring in a Small Town and Ozu Yasujiro’s Late Spring” on October 3, 2017. The speaker is Professor Satoru Hashimoto, Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a specialist on comparative East Asian literature and culture…. Read More
Prof. Terukina specializes in the transatlantic Hispanic world (Spain & the New World) during the early modern period (16th and 17th centuries). His teaching and research pay due attention to the relations between pre-modern disciplines, political context, and cultural production. He is the author of El imperio de la virtud. Grandeza mexicana (1604) de Bernardo de… Read More
The Japanese Studies Program is happy to welcome Dr. Huang-wen Lai! Dr. Lai is a specialist in Japanese colonial literature and cinema–that is, works about the areas colonized by Japan before and during World War II (or, the Pacific War), including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Okinawa, written in Japanese by both Japanese and local authors. Dr…. Read More
Meredith Wolf will be teaching English at the Staatliches Gymnasium “Albert Schweitzer” in Erfurt. She has already gained valuable teaching experience as a TA in the German Studies section at W&M, and we are confident she will excel in her new position! Herzlichen Glückwunsch und Alles Gute! More info here.
Jack Weaver, a History Major and German Studies Minor, will be teaching English in the picturesque town of Lustenau, Vorarlberg. For more information on the Fulbright/USTA program, go here. Herzlichen Glückwunsch und Alles Gute!
Jessica Armstrong ’17 has received a Fulbright Research Grant to pursue graduate study in chemistry at the Universität zu Köln/University of Cologne. She had been the recipient of a DAAD Rise Fellowship in 2016. Read more about her application process here: http://peerscholarshipadvisors.blogs.wm.edu/2017/04/10/fulbright-awardee-profile-jessica-armstrong/. Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
![El imperio de la virtud. Grandeza mexicana (1604) de Bernardo de Balbuena y el discuso criollo novohispano. Woodbridge [UK]: Tamesis Books, 2017. 418pp + illustrations.](http://globalvoices.wm.edu/files/2017/06/9781855663114_1_1-150x150.jpg)
El imperio de la virtud. Grandeza mexicana (1604) de Bernardo de Balbuena y el discurso criollo novohispano is the product of several years of intense research by Prof. Terukina on one of the most canonical pieces of Mexican literature. During this process, Prof. Terukina was fortunate to receive invaluable assistance from W&M alums Katherine Brown (’13),… Read More
The Japanese Section awarded several prizes to mark the end of the 2016-17 academic year. First, we are proud to announce the recipients of this year’s Kinyo Awards for Excellence in Japanese language study. The prize recognizes the hard work and achievement of the top student at each level of William and Mary’s Japanese language… Read More
By Prof. Carmen Sanchis-Sinisterra Many years ago I saw a play that changed my relationship to theater; it was a rupturist staging of La vida es sueño, a 17th-century masterpiece by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It touched some place very deep in me and, since that day, theater is one of the art forms… Read More
Two French and Francophone Studies seniors recently defended their honors theses. Zarine Kharazian and Paul Naanou both conducted innovative research and received highest honors following the oral defense of their work. Financial support through the McCormack-Reboussin and the Charles Center, respectively, helped make these ground-breaking studies possible. Their work shows the interdisciplinarity and relevance to… 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
March was a very busy month for the Italian Studies program! We were lucky to host three wonderful guest speakers. On March 13-14 Professor Millicent Marcus of Yale University came to meet with students in Italian and Religious Studies, and to host a public screening and discussion of the classic film The Garden of the… Read More
The RiverRun International Film Festival is one of the premier film festivals in the southeastern US. Celebrated in Winston-Salem, NC, this year (March 30-April 9 2017) the organizers invited Prof. Ann Marie Stock to present a special program entitled “Cuba on Screen: Perspectives through Retrospectives.” The program included a selection of short films such as Conexión (2016),… Read More
This past semester, spring 2017, my students and I took part in a collaborative project with a group from Johns Hopkins University and two Italian filmmakers. The experimental documentary film Non Perdono (Non Pardon / I Don’t Forgive, 2016) explores current environmental, health and economic crises in the town of Taranto, Italy, long home to… Read More
On March 29th the Italian Program organized a guided tour of the wonderful exhibition Botticelli and the Search for the Divine hosted at the Muscarelle Museum. This is the most important Botticelli exhibition in the United States so far. A group of about 25 students, currently enrolled in our language classes, was guided through the… Read More
This year I had the wonderful experience of being a part of the group of student interns at the Muscarelle Museum of Art during the exhibition, Botticelli and the Search for the Divine: Florentine Painting Between the Medici and the Bonfires of the Vanities. Studying Italian and Art History while working in the museum have been… Read More
By Daniel Tay (’19) I was unbelievably fortunate to be able to study abroad at Akita International University in the Fall of 2016, as I had an amazing experience while I was there! One of the highlights was the opportunity to get involved in the AIU School Festival held in October. It was an incredibly… Read More
By Norie Sakuma, Japanese House Tutor Imagine our excitement: tens of thousands of visitors flock to the National Cherry Blossom Festival from every year from March 20th to April 16th. The spectacular array of cherry blossoms dazzles the eye then and enchants the soul, even when the weather is reluctant to release winter. And amid… Read More
This year’s induction of new members into the German Honor Society Delta Phi Alpha took place on April 21, 2017. Language House Advisor Jennifer M. Gully and German House Tutor Kim Mutmann officiated the ceremony. Afterwards, we had a delicious Abendbrot with belegte Brote, Apfelschorle, and Apfelkuchen. Our inductees from left to right: E. E. J. … Read More
Founded in 2014, the William & Mary Russian Music Ensemble (RME) is the latest formation to emerge out of W&M’s diverse array of musical groups. What began as a labor of love for ethnomusicologist Jonathan Johnston has evolved into a one-credit course that students across all disciplines can take in order to learn about the… Read More
Let us start at the beginning. I remember arriving in St. Petersburg so clearly, sitting on the airplane as it landed at Pulkovo Airport and thinking, “Blin, what have I gotten myself into!” After that, I successfully went through customs and accomplished my first language snafu as I told the officer that I spoke “American.”… Read More
Gabriella Hibbert successfully defended her Honors Thesis Alternative Notions of Dissent: Punk Rock’s Significance in the Soviet Union and East Germany in April 2017. Her thesis asserts that the initial punk rock movements of the United States and Great Britain served as a foundation for the Soviet Punk and Ostrock movements of the Soviet Union… Read More
When I tell people that I studied abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia in the summer of 2016, I am always asked: “What was it like? Was it scary?” Well at first, yes. On the two-hour trip from the airport to my homestay, all of us wondered what the next six weeks had in store for… Read More
After a few years of varied, enriching, and meaningful experiences–domestically and abroad–, some of our recent HISP graduates have decided to pursue further studies in their aims of becoming stronger civic-minded individuals, activists for education, critical thinkers who question social asymmetries, and forgers of global relations. During her time at W&M, Maisoon Fillo (Hispanic Studies & Psychology… Read More
Thirteen W&M seniors are publishing a brief biography in French to the forthcoming open-access biographical encyclopedia on important figures of francophone Louisiana. The Class of 2017 seniors in French and Francophone Studies got a chance to engage with the authors, poets, and researchers whom they were studying, thanks to a collaboration between Prof. Nathan Rabalais and… Read More
Three Hispanic Studies majors teamed up to translate an essay by Cuban filmmaker Carlos Rodríguez. Nathaniel Clemens (’17), Kyle McQuillan (’17) and Morgan Sehdev (’17) will have their work published in the forthcoming book, The Cinema of Cuba: Contemporary Film and the Legacy of Revolution, co-edited by Professor Ann Marie Stock. This faculty-research project was… Read More
Undergraduate students in the Chinese program presented their research projects in “Rewriting Modern Chinese Literature: An Undergraduate Conference” on April 18, 20 & 25, 2017. During the conference, students discussed how modern and contemporary Chinese literature is written and rewritten vis-à-vis the larger sociopolitical, cultural, and theoretical context. Topics presented in the conference included trauma… Read More
Professor Calvin Hui, Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies, gave a keynote speech at the Modern Chinese Humanities Conference at Stanford University on April 15, 2017. This conference is jointly organized by the faculty and the graduate students at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. In his keynote address entitled “Copycat China,” Professor Hui introduced his first… Read More
A warm April afternoon and an inviting room at the Cohen Career Center ornamented by faculty and students were the perfect scenario for an eagerly anticipated celebration of the community forged by Hispanic Studies students, faculty, alums, and enthusiasts. The intellectual and affective community that the Hispanic Studies program at large nurtures every day was able to share some… Read More
Please join us in congratulating Professor Calvin Hui, Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies, for winning the prestigious Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Scholarly Exchange Junior Scholar Grant in 2016. He will use his fellowship year to work on his book project entitled “Fashion, Media, and Chinese Consumer Culture.” In addition, Professor Hui was awarded the 2016-17 China Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship… Read More
The Chinese Program presented the talk entitled “Hollywood Made in China” on April 20, 2017 (Thursday). The speaker is Aynne Kokas, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. W&M students and faculty learned about how Kung Fu Panda 3, Iron Man 3, and Transformer 4 revealed the culture and politics of U.S.-China transnationalism in the 21st century. Poster According… Read More
Elena Prokhorova displays a dedication to her students and the university that has earned her the respect and recognition of both her colleagues and the student body. Since becoming a member of the William & Mary faculty in 2003, she has taken on a multitude of leadership positions, including director of the Russian and Post-Soviet… Read More
As part of the Bellini Colloquium series for spring 2017, Prof. Christina Baker shared her research with colleagues and students. On April 20, Prof. Baker presented a talk entitled “(Re)EnActments of Belonging: Performances of Mexicanidad in Cabaret and Film.” Prof. Baker’s presentation focused on how the Mexican contemporary cabaret group, Las Reinas Chulas, uses performative means to critique definitions of mexicanidad (or, Mexicanness)… Read More
Katie Freund, a HISP and Econ double major, has recently been awarded a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach in Mexico next year. After a successful semester abroad in Chile, and hoping to foster intercultural understanding and communication, Katie decided to apply for a Fulbright scholarship that would give her the opportunity to live and… Read More
Spring semester saw the publication of two new books by Michael Cronin, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies. Osaka Modern, published in February by Harvard East Asian, is a monograph on the city of Osaka as imagined in literature, film, and popular culture of the transwar period, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Japan’s “merchant capital”… Read More
On April 12, Executive Director of Freedom University, Laura Emiko Soltis, and three undocumented student leaders, shared with a packed Commonwealth Auditorium the experiences and insights from their bold experiment: to empower undocumented youth and fulfill their human right to education. Inspired by the legacy of the Southern Freedom School tradition, Freedom University provides tuition-free classes, college… Read More
This past winter break, I had the opportunity to go to Göttingen, Germany, after proposing a research project revolving around the African and African American or multicultural experiences of college or high school students. Alongside my research, I posted daily on my blog. Professor Jenny Taylor and Professor Anne Hudley sponsored and supported my trip…. Read More
During 2016-17, the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures, and the W&M community at large, enjoyed an informal and lively film series on the representation of women in film. The film series, aptly titled Mad-Made Women, was a unique opportunity to engage in discussions of gender, psychoanalysis, sci-fi, etc., and watch a variety of movies…. Read More
As part of the Bellini Colloquium series for spring 2017, Prof. Tomoyuki Sasaki shared his new research with colleagues and students. On March 30, Prof. Sasaki presented a talk entitled “History, Unevenness, and Urban Space in Japanese Cinema: A Case Study,” which is part of his new research project. Prof. Sasaki’s presentation examined the intersection between historical narratives and cinema. Postwar… Read More
The timing couldn’t have been better: as she was finishing the syllabus of her French literature course, “Circus Freaks and Bad Mothers,” centering on depictions of monsters in the 19th-century, Visiting Assistant Professor Julie Hugonny received a call for papers for the 2017 Institute of Nineteenth-Century Studies conference titled Odd bodies. “When I saw the… Read More
By Prof. Christina Baker. Seniors, Katie Freund and Rachel Merriman-Goldring, presented at the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), held at the University of Virginia, March 24-5. The senior Monroe Scholars attended panels on the topic of articulating Latin/o American identities in the United States on Friday, March 24th, engaging with presenters during… Read More
Cuban filmmaker Aram Vidal was invited to W&M to participate as a special guest at the W&M Global Film Festival this spring. On February 24, Aram screened a director’s cut of his debut feature film El pez azul [The Blue Fish] and discussed his filmmaking process. El pez azul follows Ernesto after he leaves Cuba, abandoning the love… Read More
On February 11, 2017, the William and Mary Japanese Culture Association participated in a trailblazing event when we journeyed to Virginia Tech for the first annual Intercollegiate Japanese Organization meeting. This event required exceptional coordination and planning among the Commonwealth’s educational facilities and Japanese instructors; yet how better to interact with myriad other students and… Read More
By Prof. John Riofrio. On December 8, 2016, William and Mary held it’s first-ever Latinx Alumni Reunion in the William and Mary Washington, D.C. Office. Entitled, Encuentro Latino, this exciting first-time event was conceptualized as an opportunity para encontrarse y encontrarnos – to encounter and reconnect with one another. Associate Professor of Hispanic and Latinx… Read More
At the J.LIVE competition held at George Washington University in November 2016, Ms. Kexin Ma (’17) presented a dynamic and engaging talk about「黒い茶碗の中の世界」,”The world inside a black tea cup.” In this presentation, Ms. Ma cleverly introduced the audience to Jian ceramic wares, an ancient Chinese black-glazed ceramic popularized during the Song dynasty (960-1279). She explained… Read More
We were lucky to have Sara Mattavelli join us this year as a Lecturer of Italian Studies. Please enjoy the following video to learn more about her and what she brings to William & Mary!
This year we welcome Lu Lu to join Chinese Program. Lu Lu is Visiting Instructor of Chinese Studies. She is a PhD candidate of Chinese Linguistics at the University of Wiscosin-Madison and teaches Chinese language at William and Mary. How do you feel teaching in the Chinese Program at William and Mary? Lu: Teaching in… Read More
Professors Alexander Prokhorov and Elena Prokhorova have published a pioneering book that examines Soviet film and television of the 1970s as mature industries articulating diverse cultural values via new genre models. During the 1970s, Soviet cinema and television developed a parallel system of genres where television texts celebrated conservative consensus while films manifested symptoms of… Read More
Jessica Armstrong Over the summer between my junior and senior years at William & Mary, I completed a chemistry research internship at the University of Cologne through the DAAD RISE program. Throughout the summer, I worked with a PhD student who advised my project. Every morning, I met with him to discuss my goals for… Read More
(or Building Regional Connections Through Scholarly Exchange) On the final day of this fall semester I had the opportunity to participate in a symposium just up the road in Charlottesville, at The University of Virginia. The symposium, “Post-Humanism in the Anthropocene,” was sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and UVA’s Institute of the Humanities & Global… Read More
Prof. Brett Brehm sat down with Nathan Rabalais to talk about his new book of original poetry in French, Le Hantage: un ouvrage de souvenance, just published by Éditions Tintamarre. BB: I’m intrigued by the play of text and image in this book. Could you tell us how you conceived of that interplay? NR: I… Read More