Other Modern Languages Contributions
2017
- Rebecca Bender attended The 4th Annual Gender and Sexuality in Kansas Conference at Wichita State University with undergraduate Spanish major Amy Hein. Amy worked with Professor Bender to translate and revise her Spanish American Literature seminar paper and expand the cultural analysis. Bender and Hein co-presented the revised and extended paper, entitled “Soulless Angels: The Dehumanization of the Traditional Housewife in ‘La muñeca menor’ and The Stepford Wives,” in Wichita on March 3.
- Melinda A. Cro received an Open/Alternative Textbook grant in the amount of $5000 to develop a fourth-semester French textbook.
2016
- Rebecca Bender worked with Spanish Club to organize the Celebración Cervantina / Cervantes Celebration: Reading Don Quixote in recognition of the 400 years since the death of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of the renowned novel Don Quixote de la Mancha. The event included and interactive workshop and guest lecture by Dr. Mirzam Pérez. Over 100 students and faculty from across campus attended this interdisciplinary event in Hale Library’s Hemisphere Room. Professor Bender worked with students in Spanish Club to secure a Student Governing Association Grant of $575. The event was sponsored by SGA, The Department of Modern Languages, and K-State Libraries.
- Melinda A. Cro published two articles articles in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals and was awarded a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Kansas Hall Center for the Humanities to work with her co-author, Dr. Kathleen Antonioli, on designing an advanced-level translation course with a strong digital humanities course based on the "Freedom Papers" archive at K-State's Hale Library. The articles stem from a secondary research interest in the rise of the comic novel and notions of fiction in seventeenth-century French literature. The first article, “Onomastic Deviations and Metaliterary Consequences in the Gascon extravagant” was published in Romance Notes, a peer-reviewed journal published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Onésime de Claireville’s comic novel, the Gascon extravagant (1637), has challenged readers with its seemingly fragmentary structure. This article proposes that the structure’s complexity is not a result of an unintentional fragmentation on the part of the author but rather a carefully composed metanovel that evokes the comic novel genre as a whole. The second article, “Antiroman ou métaroman? Extravagance, fragmentation et metafiction dans l’histoire comique,” was published in Oeuvres et critiques, founded in 1976 and focused on the critical reception of literary works in French. I contributed to a special edition focused on the comic novel and edited by Francis Assaf, a foremost expert in the field. T In my contribution, I propose that, examined through the lens of fragmentation and folly, one could better understand the comic novel as an example of metafiction rather than as an anti-novel as it is typically described.
- Laura Kanost translated over 400 loan profiles for crowdfunding microfinance nonprofit Kiva.org as part of its translation and review volunteer team.
- Janice McGregor co-edited a book addressing authenticity, language, and interaction in second language contexts with colleague Rémi A. van Compernolle in 2016. She is currently analyzing new data from short-term study abroad program participants as part of a project that resulted from the book. Later in 2016, she also co-edited a special issue in L2 Journal on study abroad in the twenty-first study with colleagues Wenhao Diao and Tim Wolcott. McGregor's contribution to the issue reports on students' imaginations of themselves as emerging multilinguals during study abroad in Germany and finds that they are often informed by common twentieth-century discourses about monolingualism. In 2016, as a part of K-State's first ever undergraduate linguistics symposium, Janice McGregor's German linguistics students designed hands-on activities for their peers and other colleagues. Alongside English students, the German students applied newly-learned linguistic concepts to another language. Students quickly discovered that although they'd learnedlinguistic concepts important for English or German, these concepts could be applied to other languages too. Students also learned that all languages change through use in interaction and due to major, global events.
2015
- Laura Kanost edited a Spanish translation of K-State’s Human Ecology guide, and edited a translated New Family Guide for Kansas 4-H with Modern Languages alumna and Kansas 4H intern Ruddy Yáñez. Her Spring 2015 students’ Spanish translation of web content for the Eisenhower Museum was published at http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/about_us/espanol.pdf. Kanost also passed a translation test in order to begin serving as a volunteer translator for microfinance nonprofit Kiva, which will allow her to learn more about microlending in Latin America and regional language variation.
- Kumiko Nakamura, with two of her students from Japanese 6, attended the 29th annual Japanese language speech contest at Consulate General of Japan at Chicago on March 21, 2015. Tori Matta and Weiyuan Xu delivered their speech flawlessly and received awards, respectively. She also met with a group of gifted student facilitators at Manhattan High School to discuss opportunities for their students to start Japanese language study before college. Kumiko explained the proficiency development of language learning and how critical to start learning difficult languages earlier. She also shared the information provided by Japan Foundation on Japanese language education advocacy program, summer study abroad program in Japan for high school students, online materials available for self-study as well as the Japanese language courses offered at K-State.
2014
- Kumiko Nakamura
- organized and hosted the information table of Japanese language programs in the state of Kansas to promote Japanese language study at college level during the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival, held at Johnson County Community College on October 11, 2014. At the festival, she also supervised the public performance, by students of the Japanese Language Program, of the "kamishibai" (traditional Japanese paper story-telling theater).
- participated in the Japanese language Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Tester Workshop conducted by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) from June 17 to 20, 2014 in Provo, Utah. She has started a full certification training in Japanese with an ACTFL OPI trainee. The travel was funded by Academic Excellence Fund from Office of the Provost.
- Pablo Martínez-Diente has been confirmed as a Peer Review of Teaching Program (PRTP) fellow for the 2014-2015 academic year. Dr. Martínez has also joined the Editorial Board of the journal, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, produced by the Modern Languages Department.
- Angélique Courbou and Melinda Cro served as the Kansas Board of Regents Core Outcomes Group Chair for Spanish and French respectively. On September 12, they met with representatives from other institutions across the state of Kansas to discuss the core learning outcomes for Spanish III and French II. They were charged with creating 4-6 shared outcomes in order to facilitate transfer by the Transfer and Articulation Committee of the Board of Regents.
- Li Yang and Janice McGregor co-taught an intensive seminar on Intercultural Communication for English Language Program instructors in May, 2014.
- Li Yang participated in the ACTFL Chinese language Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Workshop June 17-20, 2014, in Provo, Utah.
- Laura Kanost evaluated four books nominated for the Lewis Galantière Award, which the American Translators Association gives biennially for a distinguished book-length literary translation into English.
2013
- On September 27, 2013, Melinda Cro served as the Kansas Board of Regents Core Outcomes Group Chair for French; she met with representatives from nine other institutions across the state of Kansas to discuss core learning outcomes for French I. Angélique Courbou served as the Kansas Board of Regents Core Outcomes Group Chair for Spanish, and met with representatives from eleven other institutions across the state of Kansas to discuss the core learning outcomes for Spanish II. Each of these groups was charged to create 4-6 shared outcomes in order to facilitate transfer by the Transfer and Articulation Committee of the Board of Regents.
- Sara Luly participated in the Fulbright Seminar for American Faculty in German/German Studies. Fifteen applicants were chosen to take part in a 14 day seminar on current developments in German secondary- and post-secondary education. Session topics included the changing demographic of German schools and universities, new approaches to teaching German as a second language, and the role of the European Union in post-secondary education. All expenses were paid for by Fulbright and the University of Tuebingen.
- Laura Kanost was elected to serve as the editor of the journal Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Literature.
