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...
Students celebrate the dead during Dia de los Muertos
October 31, 2014 While some UCF students prepare for Halloween festivities, UCF Spanish professors conjured up their own version of a traditional Mexican celebration usually honored after the spooky holiday. The Dìa de los Muertos festival returned to Colbourn Hall for its second year Wednesday, Oct. 29, and was sponsored by the UCF...
Kourova Awarded Grant by U.S. Department of State
October 06, 2014 Alla Kourova recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of State. The award, worth nearly $100,000, is part of the US-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program. Kourova’s project is called “Getting Closer: A Cross-Cultural U.S.-Russian Project Focusing on Teaching Foreign Languages to U.S. Students and Blind/Visually Impaired Students in Russia.” The...
Folse Delivers Plenary Talk in Guatemala
August 25, 2014 On August 1, 2014, Keith Folse delivered the Opening Plenary at the 9th Annual Summer Teachers’ Conference in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. He also led a workshop on teaching English as a foreign language. Folse’s trip was sponsored by the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano with support from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala.
Kourova Lectures at Prestigious Institutions in Russia and U.S.
August 19, 2014 Alla Kourova was invited to speak at a number of prestigious institutions in Russia and the U.S. this summer. She conducted a workshop at Moscow State University based on her current monograph. She also led a seminar at Russia’s largest publishing house and was keynote speaker during a roundtable discussion...
"Traces of History" Receives $1.1mil from Research Council of Norway
April 21, 2014 “Traces of History”, a project involving Francisco J. Fernández-Rubiera, received a $1.1 million grant from the Research Council of Norway. The project, led by Christine Meklenborg Salvesen of the University of Oslo, will investigate why certain traits in a language remain unchanged for centuries while others disappear. The researchers will...
Kourova Wins Multiple Faculty Awards
April 16, 2014 Alla Kourova is the winner of multiple faculty awards this spring. Most recently, she was honored for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at both the college and university level. Kourova received the 2014 University Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Previously, she was one of four college-level winners from the Arts &...