2009 Study Abroad Reunion. Click on Mosaic to See Pictures.	2009 Study Abroad Fair. Click on Mosaic to See Pictures.

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OVFLA at Ohio University

The Ohio Valley Foreign Language Alliance celebrated it's 26th year on Saturday with a lively and invigorating conference. The more than 30 participants learned about "Information Gap Activities" from the dynamic Amanda McAnulty and Kirk Lentz who teach in the Blairsville School District, PA. After their presentation entitled "From Speaking to Writing: Thematic Information-Gap Activities, " there was much discussion and sharing of ideas on how to  help students be more productive with oral communication through guided information gathering activities.

The second half of the conference dealt with 6 mini-lessons on everything from creating a language centered newspaper to singing about Halloween a la française! OU student Liam Purdy presented a computer animated lesson in German on the superlatives that proved that grammar points really can be taught entirely in the target language.

Thank you to Mary Jane Kelley and Fred Toner who made this conference a reality, and to all of you who attended.

Recipient of the Provost Undergraduate Research Fund grant (PURF): Spanish HTC student Carolyn White has received a grant from PURF to do research over the intersession on the Dominican Diaspora in New York City. She will incorporate her findings in her HTC senior thesis. Congratulations, Carolyn!

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OUTREACH: Want to teach Spanish in the elementary schools? Here is your opportunity. If you are in a SPAN 341 or higher course you can apply to teach once a week in the Alexander Elementary School. Just fill out this form  and send it to Dr. Partyka, or leave it in her mailbox in Gordy Hall.

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DML undergrads participate in OU's Research and Creativity Fair May, 2009

Alicia Buckenmeyer (Spanish):Writing a senior thesis was one of the most rewarding experiences of my undergraduate career. In order to complete it, I had to dedicate myself to the project, research in depth, write multiple drafts, handle suggestions, and manage time responsibly. The thesis provided many interesting opportunities like corresponding with the Paraguayan author (Ester de Izaguirre) of the novel about which I wrote my thesis. I presented portions of my literary analysis at the Ohio Latin Americanist Conference and here, at the Ohio University Research & Creativity Fair. Creating presentations and sharing my thoughts with others helped me organize my ideas, gain confidence in my knowledge and creativity, and maintain excitement for the year-long project.
	Nicky Re (French): With funding from the PURF, I flew to Provence, France in March 2009 to conduct research for my HTC Undergraduate French Thesis. My thesis focuses on Occitan, a regional language spoken in the south of France, and the current measures that are being taken to promote and maintain its usage today. I spent two weeks in the cities of Orange, Avignon, Montpellier, and Marseille interviewing six Occitan speakers who work with different organizations that focus on encouraging the use of the language in the region.  My interviewees included the president of an association of schools that teach subjects exclusively in Occitan and a writer that has a weekly Occitan-language column in the French newspaper La Marseillaise.
Carolyn White (Spanish): This past Spring, I presented the research I completed in the General Archive of the Indies in Sevilla and the National Library in Madrid at the Creativity and Research Fair at OHIO. This presentation discussed the historical pattern of authoritarianism, adulation, and racial prejudices in the Dominican Republic. My sources span from the primary documents I found in Spain, which exemplify colonial communication between the Catholic Kings and the island, to 21st century literature reflecting upon the Trujillo dictatorship. This range of perspectives provides an intriguing view of the prominent characteristics of the “Dominican Identity”, which I will be discussing in my Senior Thesis.
	Jaime Moore (Spanish) and Olga Kooi (VisCom): With the rapid immigration trends of Latinos to the United States, it is no wonder magazines such as Latina and Mujer have experienced success.  These trends have led to the broadening of the very definition of Hispanic to include bilinguals and heritage speakers (individuals who speak at some level of fluency in Spanish and are usually also bilingual in English).  The magazine presented at the Research and Creativity Fair, Variedad, begins to fulfill the needs of a new target audience and offer a useful teaching tool that can be used at multiple levels of language skill. The publication balances contextual code switching in order to be useful to bilinguals, heritage speakers, and classroom assignments.

Dr. José (Pepo) Delgado has been awarded the Jeanette Grasselli Brown Faculty Teaching Award in the Humanities for 2008-09. The Department of Modern Languages is proud to showcase our many outstanding teachers who have received this recognition over the years beginning in 1991. Lois Vines (1991), Karen Evans-Romaine (2001), Molly Morrison (2002), David Burton (2003), Betsy Partyka (2004), Carole Cloutier (2006) Herta Rodina (2007).

Daniel Torres presents his latest book

Bellaqueras is a work of erotic poetry whose subject is the search for perfect love. Daniel Torres specializes in alternative literature, and the erotic is always present in his own creative works whether they be poetry, novel, narrative or essay. Torres has been a professor of Spanish at Ohio University since 1990.

http://www.television.uady.mx/produccionesru.php(entrevista del 10 de julio)  

News from the OU regional campuses:

Beatrice Giannandrea, a professor at OU Zanesville with a PhD from Florida International University, has just published a book entitled:Literatura y pintura en elcostumbrismo argentino, siglo XIX.The text explores the world of “costumbrismo” in the Rio de la Plata region through the eyes of 19^thCentury European travelers, writers and painters.

DML Alumni in the News: 

Pardon our fonts, we are in transition!