This Summer: STARTALK Russian Language Intensive Program

March 07, 2016  STARTALK, a Russian language intensive program, is being held again on July 11-29. The event is hosted by the Russian Language Program from the Modern Languages and Literatures department at UCF. This three-week summer program is offered to students with no or a little knowledge of the Russian language. Students...

Kourova Receives 2015 AATSEEL Award for Excellence in Teaching

January 15, 2016  Alla Kourova has received the 2015 American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages Award for Excellence in Teaching (Post-Secondary). Kourova was recognized for her dedication in rebuilding the Russian Language Program at UCF, her tireless motivation in publishing, conducting study abroad programs to Russia, mentoring independent study...

UCF Russian Club

December 23, 2015  At the end of the international week Russian club at UCF, ( Alla Kourova is an adviser) held their fourth annual event. A performance of the “Nutcracker” – courtesy of the Russian Ballet of Orlando. This performance brought awareness to the Russian language, culture classes and Russian club at UCF....

Theatre UCF partners with Department of Modern Languages for "The Life is a Dream Project" in Spanish

November 25, 2015  ORLANDO, Fla. November 25, 2015 — Students from UCF’s programs in theatre, music, and modern languages joined forces for “The Life is a Dream Project,” a theatrical production performed in Spanish and presented on the UCF campus to the public for free. “The Life is a Dream Project” aims to...

Hickey Wins Professional Achievement Award

November 05, 2015  Juliann Hickey won the UCF College of Arts & Humanities Professional Achievement Award at the Black & Gold Gala on Oct. 22. Hickey graduated magna cum laude in 1995 with a double major in journalism and Spanish. Juliann received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida in 2000, and...

Mazzucchelli Publishes New Book on Sicilian American Literature

September 01, 2015  Chiara Mazzucchelli new book, The Heart and the Island: A Critical Study of Sicilian American Literature, was published by SUNY Press earlier this month. The Heart and the Island is the first full-length study of Sicilian American literature, and it opens a space for new interdisciplinary discussions on what it...

Russian Intensive Language Program Graduates First Class this Summer

August 06, 2015  The first UCF Russian intensive summer language program, STARTALK, launched from July 6-24. Over one hundred students applied to participate in the free program, however due to the grant’s budget, only eighty were admitted to attend – a number that remained well over the original grant budget plan. The program...

Faculty and Students Participate with Peer-to-Peer Program in Russia

July 02, 2015  This summer, ten UCF students and six faculty members participated in a trip to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, as part of the U.S.-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program, a U.S. Department of State grant. Five students were sponsored by the Russian Club at UCF to participate in the summer program and...

Fernández-Rubiera Presents in Iceland

June 25, 2015  On May 29-31, Francisco Fernández-Rubiera and Christine Meklenborg Salvesen presented at the 17th Diachrony in Generative Syntax (DiGS17) conference in Reykjavík, Iceland. The paper presented, “V2 and Enclisis: A Uniform Analysis for Germanic and (Some) Romance Varieties,” examines the connection between V2 in Germanic languages and clitic position alternations in...

UCF and Russian Students Publish Collaborative Booklet

May 18, 2015  Students at UCF and its Russian partner in the Connecting Classrooms project published a booklet this year called Language and Culture through Russian and American Eyes. The booklet showcases personal visions of heroes from UCF students in the Intermediate Russian class and Russian students from Lyceum #7 and School #1...

López Cruz Named Pegasus Professor

May 04, 2015  At the 2015 Founder’s Day Honors Convocation, Humberto López Cruz received the Pegasus Professor Award. López Cruz received the award for the College of Arts and Humanities and was one of five professors who received the honor overall. The Pegasus Professor Award recognizes faculty members who have made a significant...

Pidberejna Receives 2015 Foreign Language Award

April 27, 2015  On April 8, Irina Pidberejna received the 2015 Florida Foreign Language Award as University Scholar of the Year for her Russian/TESOL language studies. The award was a part of Russian Culture Night at the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning and was presented by Dean José Fernández, Chair of Modern...

Spanish M.A. Students and Visiting Instructor Present at GRAPHSY

April 16, 2015  UCF was represented at the 8th Annual Graduate Portuguese and Hispanic Symposium (GRAPHSY) at Georgetown University in Washington, DC April 10-11. Two graduate students in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures Spanish M.A. program and one visiting instructor presented their research at the conference. Matthew Burner presented linguistic research...

Fernández-Rubiera Presents at University of Oslo Conference

April 01, 2015  On March 9-10, Francisco Fernández-Rubiera and Christine Meklenborg Salvesen presented at the Traces of History conference/workshop at the University of Oslo. The paper presented, “V2 and Enclisis: A Uniform Analysis for Germanic and (Some) Romance Varieties,” provides a syntactic account to explain the connection between V2, a specific restriction on...

Folse Prestented at Illinois Bilingual Education Convention in Chicago

March 05, 2015  Keith Folse was invited to deliver a plenary address on March 1st at the 41st annual Illinois Teachers of English as a Second Language (TESOL) — Bilingual Education convention in Chicago. His talk "Why Being a Native Speaker Does Not Make You an ESL Teacher" addressed the skills and knowledge...

López honored as Keynote Speaker in Panama

February 09, 2015  This past month, UCF’s Humberto López Cruz was honored as a keynote speaker at a conference on literature in Panama speaking on the novel El Lunar Eterno by Javier Riba Peñalba. His passion for the literature of the country was noticed and celebrated on his arrival in the country. He...

Spanish Graduate Association Annual Colloquium Call For Papers

January 27, 2015  The Spanish Graduate Association (SaGA) is accepting proposals for the 2015 Colloquium: Decimoquinto Coloquio Anual de Literatura, Lingüística y Cultura Hispanoamericana y Peninsular. Date: March 5-6, 2015 Location: University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL Invited Speakers: Dra. Martha García (University of Central Florida) and Dr. Louis Imperiale (University of Missouri...

Promoting Cultural Literacy on Campus and at Conference

January 23, 2015  On January 8-11, Dr. Alla Kourova and her Research and Mentoring Student Irina Pidberejna presented at the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Languages international conference. Irina Pidberejna, an undergraduate student, won first place in the AATSEL Photo Contest. Her photograph was taken during a Study Abroad...

Giordano Conducts Seminar at University of Calabria

December 18, 2014  Paul Giordano conducted a seminar on “Italian Immigrant Writing in the United States” at the University of Calabria, Italy, in October 2014. This seminar was part of a graduate literature course that focused on the writings of Italian emigrants living outside of Italy. Giordano’s contribution to the seminar dealt with...

Mónica Cruz Wins Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards

November 03, 2014  Mónica Cruz, a student in the Department of Modern Languages, wins the "Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards". Among winners, she is the only one from the state of Florida. Mónica’s poem “Raíces” was published in The Early Years, West Chester, PA: Story Line Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-9785997-5-1. A significant fact...