MCL News

For the first time in 10 years, and the third time in its over 115 years of existence, the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA), the west coast affiliate of the Modern Language Association, will be meeting in Bellingham, Washington at Western Washington University.

Christina Keppie has been named director of the Canadian-American Studies program at Western Washington University.

Keppie has been an associate professor of French and Linguistics in Western’s Modern and Classical Languages department since 2008. She is the first Canadian-American Studies director with a background in French studies. She succeeds director David Rossiter, who will return to his faculty position in Western’s Department of Environmental Studies.

Western Washington University senior Zoe Buchli of Issaquah has been awarded a prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad for the fall 2018 academic quarter.

The Gilman Scholarship is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and provides American students the opportunity to study in diverse cultures and languages around the world to further develop skills that are crucial to their future careers.

Sandra Alfers, professor of German in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and director of the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity has been named a recipient of the 2018 Rep. Timm Ormbsy Award for Faculty Citizenship.

Cornelius Partsch, Professor of German in the Department of Modern & Classical Languages, published the 7th edition of Treffpunkt Deutsch, an elementary-level German textbook (Pearson, 2019; co-authors Margaret Gonglewski and Beverly Moser).

The text is available here:

Western Washington University graduates and students have received five Fulbright Scholarships for the 2018-19 academic year, making Western one of the top producers of the prestigious award.

“I’ve always believed Western students can compete with the best around the country,” said Tom Moore, director of Western’s Fellowships Office. “Fulbright application readers know what they’re looking for in students.”

Registration is now open for Western's Employee Language Program workshops, with sessions starting the week of April 9th.

Open to all Western employees, these workshops support faculty and staff through professional development, and encourage multicultural outreach and awareness. Language learners of all levels are welcome.

The French section of Western Washington University’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages, in conjunction with the Department of History, the English Department, and the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, will host the Tournées French Film Festival in April.

Hugo García, Associate Professor of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, will give a talk titled “Santería Decoded: An Approach to Understanding the Formation of an Afro Cuban Religion” from 7-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31 in the Bellingham City Council Chambers, 210 Lottie St.

The free, public talk is an installment of the WWU College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean’s Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the City of Bellingham.

The Department of Modern and Classical Languages will host historian André-Carl Vachon for a pair of lectures on the WWU campus May 23 and 24 dealing with the ethnic cleansing of Acadians - those of French descent who settled in what are now Eastern Canada's Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), as well as part of Quebec - by the British in the 1700s.

Sandra Alfers, professor of German and director of the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity at Western Washington University, will discuss her research on the poetry of the Holocaust from 4-5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17 in Western Libraries Special Collections on the 6th floor of Wilson Library. 

The presentation is free and open to the public.

The next Masters of Asian Cinema film is the 2016 feature Creepy.  It will screen on Tuesday, March 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Pickford Film Center, 1318 Bay St. in downtown Bellingham.  

Before his 2008 film "Tokyo Sonata" introduced new audiences to his work, Kurosawa Kiyoshi was known as a horror director. His films were not ordinary horror films as they focused more on the complex psychological states of his characters than on delivering visceral thrills. Kurosawa’s current film is something of a return to his roots.

Nelly Trocmé Hewett will speak about the French Plateau Vivarais-Lignon and the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a place of safety and shelter for Jewish refugees during WWII, from 3-4:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23 in Academic West 204 on the Western Washington University campus.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Joan M. Hoffman, a Spanish professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department at Western Washington University, has had her article "The Death of the Angel: A Mother's 'Failure' in Los Pazos de Ulloa and a Daughter's 'Success' in La madre naturaleza" published in "Hispanic Journal," Vol. 37, No. 1.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Western professor Ed Vajda was a grad student in Russia at the time, and he was hired by CBS News as an interpreter and news analyst to help cover the story. A few years ago, he shared this account of his experiences.

What is America’s largest national ethnic group? If you said, English, Italian, or Mexican, you’re wrong. Today, some 46 million Americans can claim German ancestry. The difference is, very few of them do. Indeed, aside from Oktoberfest, German culture has largely disappeared from the American landscape. What happened?