MCL News

More than 50 Western Washington University students and graduates received Outstanding Graduate honors for the 2018-19 academic year. 

Faculty members from dozens of academic departments and programs select one graduate to honor as the Outstanding Graduate of the year. Selection is a high honor based on grades, research and writing, service to the campus and community, and promise for the future.

Noémi Ban, a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp who became an outspoken advocate and educator on the horrors of the Holocaust and the enduring power of love and tolerance, died on Friday, June 7 at the age of 96.

Ban had been a frequent speaker at Western since the mid-1990s, offering the university’s students, faculty and staff a message not only of remembrance, but of hope and healing.

“Life is precious. Life is wonderful. I love life and I refuse to give in to hate,” she would tell rapt audiences at her quarterly presentations on campus.

Joan Hoffman, MCL (Spanish), has published an article:  “On Tragedy and Triumph: Further Comparisons of Yerma and Burning Bright.” Hispanic Journal, vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2019, pp. 101-12.

Arizona State University’s Amy LaCross will give a presentation at 4 p.m. on Wednesday April 24 in Miller Hall 152 on Western Washington University’s campus on speech segmentation errors found in Spanish and Mandarin speakers, and how they can give insight into language-specific perceptual cues.

The talk is free and open to the public.

All WWU faculty are invited to attend the 2019 Faculty Awards & Recognition Ceremony from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, in the Wilson Library Reading Room, hosted by Provost Brent Carbajal and Faculty Senate President McNeel Jantzen.

Western Washington University’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages will host the Tournées French Film Festival every Monday and Wednesday from April 15 to May 1 in Viking Union 552, on Western’s campus.

Free and open to the public, this year’s festival has the theme of “Intersections: Race, Gender and Sexuality.” All films will include a brief pre and post-screening discussion led by Western faculty. With the exception of “I Am Not Your Negro,” all films will be in French with English subtitles.

In honor of International Women's Day, Western Washington University’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity will host Anne Cubilié for “Impossibility of Witness: Justice, Gender, and Operational Practice” at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 7 in Miller Hall 152.

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.