Contents
News From French
News From Italian
News From Spanish
News From German
News From Russian
RGSLL Alumni Updates
Donors
Upcoming Events
First Day of Classes- Fall 2011
August 29th,
University Wide
Kudos
Kudos to All RGSLL graduates! We wish you all the best!
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Important
Links
RGSLL Homepage
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Chair's Message
This, the 2010 – 2011 Academic Year, was a very productive
and exciting time at the Department of Romance, German and Slavic Languages and
Literatures. Our instructors and professors taught 352 courses in French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish and Latin American languages, literatures and
cultures. This year was also filled with major scholarly and research endeavors
and accomplishments.
Highlights from the 2010-11 academic year include: Prof.
Jaime Marroquín co-organized a symposium and cultural festival commemorating
the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution with the Smithsonian Institution; the department
co-sponsored the DC festival “The Cold War and Divided Germany in East
Germany Cinematography,” at which Prof. Mary Beth Stein and Peter
Rollberg participated;
and we hosted three events for the Spanish and Latin American Writers Series.
Sergio Waisman, Chair
Associate Professor of Spanish and International Affairs
News From French
The
French full-time faculty completed a fifteen-month review and revision of the
French major. These revisions will be implemented next year. In addition, for
the first time ever, French majors presented the results of their year-long
research projects at the French Majors Symposium on April 27, 2011.
Congratulation to Kaitlin Lynch and Peter Wentzell, recipients of this year’s Goddard
Prize for
best-graduating French majors!
Leah Chang,
Associate Professor of French and Director of French Literature, participated
in two panels at the Sixteenth-century Studies Conference this year in
Montreal: the first on “Why we read (Renaissance) Poetry”; the second on the
recent publication of two books in the field, including her own Into Print:
The Production of Female Authorship in Early Modern France.
Masha Belenky, Associate Professor of French and
Deputy Chair of RGSLL, presented “Transporting Femininity: Women and Locomotion
in Nineteenth-Century Paris” at the Nineteenth-Century French Studies
Colloquium at Yale University.
Read more News From Italian
Lynn Westwater, Assistant Professor of Italian and
Program Director, received a George Washington University Facilitating
Fund to carry out research for the book length project The Tyranny and Triumph of Ideas in Counter-Reformation Europe. With the fund’s
support, she also completed a related article that was accepted for publication
in Renaissance Quarterly, and published another related article entitled “A Cloistered Nun
Abroad: Arcangela Tarabotti’s International Literary Career” in a volume of
transnational women’s writing. Prof. Westwater also completed with a
colleague a translation and critical edition of Arcangela Tarabotti’s Letters
Familiar and Formal,
which will come out in the Other Voice Series with the Centre for Reformation
and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto this year.
Prof. Joseph Levi, Adjunct Professor in Italian, was invited to present
at international conferences in Fall River, MA, Taiwan, Italy, and three times
in Portugal. In addition to his contributions to Portuguese studies, Professor
Levi published two articles in Italian studies and co-edited a book on Roberto De
Nobili, S.J.
The Italian program developed several important curricular
and cultural initiatives this year. The program’s cultural
initiatives included a visit in February by the ambassador of Malta, Mark
Micelli, with third-year students. In March, the program hosted a major event to
commemorate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, where some
seventy students and the dozen members of our teaching staff welcomed Cristiano
Maggipinto, First Counselor at the Italian Embassy, and Lucia dalla Montà,
Director of the Education Office at the Italian Embassy.
Read more News From Spanish and Latin American Languages and Literatures
The full-time faculty in Spanish and Latin American
Languages and Literatures completed a major reform of all its courses programs,
from Spanish 1001 through the Pro-Seminar. The curricular reform reflects developments in the
field as well as faculty expertise; it includes 15 new courses, and shifts the
focus of our Spanish minor and major programs toward a trans-historical and
cross-cultural approach. The curricular reform will be implemented next
academic year; new course titles and descriptions can be seen at RGSLL's website.
Congratulation to Eduardo Ayala, recipient of this year’s award for
best graduating major in Spanish and Latin American Languages and Literatures!
We also congratulate Eduardo Ayala, Marika Anastassiadis, and Alexandra Sugurel, who wrote very strong honors
theses—”La multiplicidad frente a manipulaciones: La política en la poesía de
Gabriela Mistral y Pablo Neruda,” “La España Sagrada destruida: Motivación de
un víctima traumatizado,” and “Don Quixote y Hollywood: El espejo de dos
imperios,” respectively.
“Creating an Archetype: The Influence of the Mexican
Revolution in the United States”: In September 2010 the department organized, along with
the Smithsonian’s Latino Center and the Museum of American History, among other
organizations and universities, a 3-day symposium and cultural festival on the
100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
A webcast
of the symposium can be found at: http://americanhistory.si.edu/webcast/mexicanrevolution.html
Prof. Marroquín and the Smithsonian’s Magdalena Mieri are working on an edited book of
the papers presented at the symposium, which will be published by the
Smithsonian Scholarly Press in 2012.
Mexican Symposium Panel at the Smithsonian
Sergio Waisman signing copies of his translation of The Underdogs
Jaime
Marroquín,
Assistant Professor of Spanish, was also the recipient of this year’s Excellence
in Undergraduate Academic Advising Award from CCAS.The Spanish and Latin American Writers Series continued with a visit and a
presentation by Argentine writer Sergio Chejfec (in November 2010), with a
roundtable of five Argentine poets (in December 2010), and with a reading and
presentation by Mexican poet and translator Pedro Serrano (March 2011). All three
events were held entirely in Spanish. The series continues in Fall 2011 with a
visit from the Chilean writer Diamela Eltit.
Lila Zemborain, Mercedes Roffé, Nela Rio, Luis Alberto Ambroggio, and Alicia Borinsky at GW
 
Sergio
Chejfec
Pedro Serrano
Christopher Britt,
Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of Spanish and Latin American
Literatures, received a
Columbian College Facilitating Fund to work on the collaborative research project “Enlightenments
and Emancipations in the Americas.” This research studies the ambiguous legacy of the
Enlightenment in the Americas, both North and South, and places it in dialogue
with the crises of our day. This work will culminate in the publication of a
multi-author volume of essays, entitled Enlightenment in an Age of
Destruction. It has
already resulted in the publication of two volumes of essays: Escritura y
esquizofrenia (Universidad de Guanajuato Press, Mexico, 2010),
and an online publication titled Intellectuals Against Academics
(Danielle Carlo, Ed., 2010).
Sergio Waisman, Associate Professor of Spanish and Chair of RGSLL, gave a
gallery talk on Guillermo Kuitca and J. L. Borges at the Hirshhorn Museum, and
presented papers at the “Shifting Paradigms: How Translation Transforms the
Humanities” conference at the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign and at
the ALTA (American Literary Translators Association) conference in Philadelphia.
Prof. Waisman also published an article in the “Traducción e historia en
América Latina” volume of the journal EIAL (Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el
Caribe), and presented his recently published novel Irse at the Centro de Arte Moderno in
Madrid, Spain.
María José de la Fuente, Teaching Assistant Professor of Spanish, published the third edition of Gente, a Basic Spanish language program
published by Pearson-Prentice Hall.
Prof. de la Fuente and Prof. Margarita Moreno, also published the third edition
of Gente: Students Activities Manual.
Prof. De la Fuente was
awarded a 2010 Student Choice certificate of recognition by GW’s Service
Excellence Committee for commitment to exceptional service. Congratulations
to Prof. De la Fuente!
Dolores Perillán, Adjunct Professor of Spanish, received a 2010 Faculty Choice Award for her
exceptional work with service learning education in Spanish at GW.
Congratulations to Prof. Perillán!
Read more News From German
In November 2010, our department co-sponsored a weeklong
film series in DC entitled “The Cold War and Divided Germany in East Germany
Cinematography.” The events were co-sponsored by RGSLL, as well
as GW’s Film Studies and the Institute for European and Eurasian Studies, the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Heinrich Boell Stiftung,
the German Historical Institute, and the Goethe Institute. Mary Beth Stein,
Associate Professor of German and Director of German Literature, organized two
well-attended film screenings at the film festival. Prof. Stein and Bernd
Schaefer, Professorial
Lecturer in German, were panelists for the roundtable discussion at
GW and the Wilson Center.
 
Films shown at the East German Film Series
Congratulations to Emily Sieg and Lilit Edwards, recipients of this year’s Buka
Family Prize and Heather
Niemetschek and Joshua
Shutze, recipients
of this year’s Schoenfeld Prize!
Prof. Mary Beth Stein
published “The German Village as Site of Ethnographic Knowledge” in Journal
of Folklore Research. While on sabbatical next year, Prof. Stein will be affiliated with the
Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur in Berlin. She will be working on
her book project on East German autobiography since unification, Lives and
Archives: East German Life Histories, Literature and the Stasi Files. During her sabbatical, Prof.
Stein’s courses will be taught by Visiting Prof. Malte Wessels (PhD, Johns
Hopkins).
During her sabbatical this year, Margaret Gonglewski,
Associate Professor of German and German Language Program Director, completed several projects
supported by a large GW-CIBER grant she received with GW School of Business
Prof. Anna Helm. That work included the article “An Examination of Business
Case Methodology: Pedagogical Synergies from Two Disciplines,” just published
in Global Business Languages, as well as the e-Handbook on Teaching Business Cases for Business
Languages,
an online video-based resource for foreign language faculty, emphasizing
critical perspectives and best practices. She gave one scholarly presentation
and led two workshops focused on business language teaching methodologies. Her
additional sabbatical project is the translation of a novel by Walter
Kempowski. She is currently working on revisions to the new (6th) edition of
the introductory German textbook Treffpunkt Deutsch, and she looks forward to returning
to the classroom in the fall!
Bernd Schaefer, Lecturer in German, published The East German State and
the Catholic Church
(Berghahn) and Coming to Terms: Dealing with the Past in United Germany (Stiftung Aufarbeitung), and was
awarded a 2011 summer fellowship in Potsdam/Berlin.
Read more News From Russian and Slavic
Golosa, Book 1, 5th edition, will be published by
Prentice Hall on July 15 this summer. Two of three co-authors, Richard Robin and Galina
Shatalina
are RGSLL faculty members. Golosa has been the world’s best selling
beginning college Russian language textbook for the last five years (and
“world” includes the former Soviet Union). The new edition features an entirely
rewritten grammar section, new videos, and MyRusianLab, a complete online
workbook.
Golosa
An American professor teaches Russians how to teach Russian in
Russia. Richard Robin spent a week in Kazan, Russia giving workshops on
teaching American students at the intermediate level as part of the State
Department’s Critical Languages Program. The CLS program sends intermediate and
advanced students to college sites in countries where strategically important
languages are spoken. The newest programs for Russia are in Kazan and Ufa. Both
colleges and their teachers in attendance. GW has placed almost a half dozen
students on similar programs, where the competition for the fully funded travel
study is about 30 to one.
The Russian national Honor Society, Dobro Slovo, in April, inducted
13 new members, a record. Dobro Slovo nationally requires that students who have
reached third year maintain a B+ average in Russian and a B average overall. At
GW, we set the standard a bit higher: we require at least an A- over all
Russian language and literature courses. The high number of inductees
represents a surge in interest in Russia that began three years ago with the
August 2008 conflict in the Caucasus.
Prof. Robin also published “Narration and Narrative in L2 Speakers of
Russian” in Foreign Language Annals 43(4), Winter 2010, and in July 2010 he was awarded the
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) prize
for best language educational website (The Simplified News in Russian).
Congratulation Prof. Robin!
Peter Rollberg, Professor of Slavic
Languages, Film Studies and International Affairs, published the article
“Tolstoi and Protazanov” in Transactions of the Association of
Russian-American Scholars in the U.S.A. Prof. Rollberg also gave a talk, “An Alien in Moscow/An
Alien in New York: The Cinema of Slava Tsukerman,” at the Kennan Institute for
Advanced Russian Studies, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, on 31
January 2011.
Professor Rollberg
In addition, Prof. Rollberg published six entries (“Wait for
Me,” “Academician
Ivan Pavlov,” “Thirteen,” “The Seventh Bullet,” “The Red Poppies of Issyk-Kul,” and “Ordinary Fascism” in the volume Directory of
World Cinema: Russia,
published by Intellect (Bristol, UK) and The University of Chicago Press in
2011. Abridged versions of the entries “Thirteen” and “The Seventh Bullet” were reprinted in the brochure Red
Westerns,
International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2011.
Read more RGSLL Alumni Updates
Fatima Allen (BA ‘96, Slavic Language and Literature) was awarded a
teaching grant from the State Department to travel to Ukraine, where she had a
wonderful time.
David Ewing Ryan (BA ‘86, French
Language & Literature) recently received an MA in Language
Testing from Lancaster University, England. Mr. Ryan has been living and
working in Mexico for the past 12 years working as a writer, editor and
researcher for the University of Veracruz´s English language proficiency
tests.
Jenna Hoffman Ben-Yehuda (BA ‘02, Spanish Language and
Literature) is the Senior Democracy Officer in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere
Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She lives with her husband and three
children in Chevy Chase, MD.
Donna Farina (BA ‘81, French Language & Literature),
with co-author George Durman, published the article “The Dictionary in an Era
of Change: Butuzov’s English–Russian Dictionary of English Slang” in Cunning
passages, contrived corridors: Unexpected Essays in the History of Lexocography (in the series Lexicography
Worldwide: theoretical, descriptive and applied perspectives).
After receiving her BA in French Language and Literature at
GW, Linda Trent (‘68),
spent a year in Paris. She also lived in Spain and Italy, and then went on to
become a French, Italian and Spanish tour guide in San Francisco. She not only
keeps up with her language skills, but has seen a great deal of the western
United States and Canada as well.
C. Joel Block (BA ‘68, French Language &
Literature) went on to complete his MA in French from Indiana University and a
PhD in French and Romance Philology at Columbia University. His daughter, Marcelline Block, is
finishing a PhD in French and Comparative Literature, with an emphasis on
women in postwar cinema, at Princeton University. Mr. Block is now in the
high-end watch and jewelry business in New York City.
After attaining her BA in French Language and Literature and
International Affairs from GW, Victoria Mitchell (‘05) completed her MA in
International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris, France. She is currently working
as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development
and is stationed in Cairo, Egypt.
Elaine Cannarella (BA ’75, Spanish Language & Literature) has been
teaching Spanish and Spanish Literature on the East and West Coasts for the
past 30 years. From teaching assistant to high school to community
college and university, she is still a teacher as well as student. Before
the close of her career, Elaine hopes to complete her PhD from Stony Brook
University.
Michel R. Doret (M. Phil. ‘80, Ph.D. ’82, French Language & Literature)
has just published his most recent book André Rigaud. La vraie silhouette, which will be available at
Xlibris. The internationally-researched work throws a new light on the life of
the French-Haitian General and on episodes of the Independence of Haiti.
Lucy Ramee-Likeness (BA ‘70, French Language & Literature) has been
a teacher and administrator at Santa Cruz Montessori since 1979. Ms.
Ramee-Likeness is now semi-retired and continues to teach French to the 4th-,
5th- and 6th-graders at Santa Cruz Montessori.
Kimberly Knight Wayland (BA ‘78, Spanish Language and Literature) is a
native Virginian from McLean, Virginia. She has two children, Bijan and
Shayan, ages 28 and 22 respectively. Kimberly Knight Wayland worked in
international consulting from 1980-1993, at which time she enrolled in law
school. She earned her Juris Doctor in 1996 at Nova Southeastern
University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Currently, Kimberly Knight Wayland
works as Corporate Counsel and Director of Operations for a construction company
in Northern Virginia.
Brett Gerson (BA ‘05, French Language & Literature, International
Affairs) served as Acting Executive Director of the U.S.-Baltic Foundation,
where she fell into recruiting. Brett now directs the HR/RPO/administrative
staffing arm of HireStrategy in DC.
Marina Grushin (BA ‘09, Slavic Language & Literature &
International Affairs) participated in the 2009-2010 Flagship Fellowship
program in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she interned for a local daily
newspaper. Since returning to the States, she has been working for Ergo, a
strategy consulting firm focused on emerging markets.
Read more Thank You to Our Donors
The Department of Romance, German, and Slavic Languages
and Literatures would like to gratefully acknowledge the following donors who made a gift to the department from June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011.
Ms. Cieu Lan Lafoley Dong, Class of
2012
Ms. Danielle Felice Friedman, BA
2000
Mrs. Lee Anne Lobuts-Layden, MBA
1991, BA 1986
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Foundation
Mrs. Gigi G. Lynch
Mr. Kieran Ryan Maher, BA 2003
Mr. Thomas E. McCullough, Former
Parent
Ms. Alison Anne McQuown, BA 2011
Mrs. Janet R. Menetrez, BA 1953, AA
1952
Dr. John L. Phillips, Parent
Mr. Mark E. Richter, BBA 1979
Ms. Marissa S. Rohrbach, BA 2008
Mrs. Marie-Claire Steinberg, MA 1972
Ms. Margit Angelika Williams, MA
1977
Mr. Joshua Samuel Wolf, Class of
2012
Ms. Ningxi Xu, Class of 2012
While we make every effort to ensure accuracy, we appreciate your contacting
our office at 202-994-6330 or kjwelch@gwu.edu to alert us of any issues or
concerns.
Read more We Need Your Help
Do you want to
contribute to the work of our department? Gifts to the Department of Romance,
German, and Slavic Languages and Literatures allow us to provide support for
faculty and student research and travel, cultural and literary events, and
academic enrichment activities including guest speakers, visiting faculty, and
symposia. Each gift, no matter how large or small, makes a positive impact on
our educational mission and furthers our standing as one of the nation's
preeminent liberal arts colleges at one of the world's preeminent universities.
You can make your
gift to the Department in a number of ways:
- Securely online at www.gwu.edu/give2gw.
- By mailing your check, made out
to The George Washington University and with the name of the department in
the memo line, to:
The George Washington
University
2100 M St. NW, Suite 310
Washington, DC 20052
- By phone by calling the GW
Annual Fund at 1-800-789-2611.
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