SEE ALSO Ongoing Events in the Department

Sarah Blackwell, associate professor of Spanish, has been named the 2009 Professor of the Year by the Georgia chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. Blackwell was recognized for her active participation in programs that promote foreign language studies in Georgia's educational institutions. She received the award at the chapter's annual meeting in March. Blackwell's primary areas of scholarly research include Spanish pragmatics, discourse analysis and applied linguistics.

Mitch McCoy and Kenneth Widgren have been selected to participate in the Graduate School's Emerging Leaders Program. The Emerging Leaders Program is an invited leadership workshop sponsored by the Graduate School. Held during Fall Break, the program assists participants with not only understanding professional goals and leadership styles, but also with gaining personal insights. Congratulations! Click here to go to the Emerging Leaders web page.

We are pleased to announce the premiere screening of a new documentary film “Cemetery Stories: A Rebel Missionary in South Africa,” directed by Cherif Keita and edited by Dominic Fucci.
A native of Mali, Keita is a professor of French and chair of French and Francophone studies at Carleton. He obtained his Ph.D. in French at the University of Georgia, Department of Romance Languages. He is the author of several books and articles on both social and literary issues in contemporary Africa. His documentary film “Oberlin-Inanda: The Life and Times of John L. Dube,” about the life of the first President of the African National Congress of South Africa and his education in the U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century, received high honors at the 2005 FESPACO (Festival panafricain du cinema et de la television de Ouagadougou), the largest African film festival. Read more at Northfield.org and Carleton College News.

We are delighted to announce the following awards recently bestowed upon our graduate students:
Liana Babayan and Mitch McCoy are the recipients of the Dean's Award in the Humanities.
David Hair, Liz Meehl, Lee Jackson, Ashley McLeod, Nannette Mosley, Rubia Yatsugafu, and Jennifer Baker are all recipients of the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. Congratulations to all!

Sarah Quesada, graduate student in Romance Languages, presented the paper “Césaire and Kourouma: Exposing Oral Tradition in Francophone Post-independent African and Caribbean Literature” in the conference, "Neo-Imperialism" in Post-Independence Africa: Definitions, Case Studies and Human Impacts" held at Yale University, March 26-28. Get the abstract.

Spanish Major David Paulk is featured as an Amazing Student on UGA's Student Life page. Read the article.

Since Meredith Emerson's death, efforts have been made to increase hiker awareness. North Georgia and Athens area parks and recreation centers have followed the trend. Read the Red and Black article.

Faida Mitifu, the Democratic Republic of Congo's U.S. ambassador, gave the keynote address Nov. 8 to more than 150 Georgia school teachers participating in a training program to encourage broader teaching about the continent in secondary schools. Ms. Mitifu taught French literature, language and culture at the University of Georgia (1994-97) and also at Columbus State University (1997-98). She holds a doctorate degree in French from the University of Georgia. Read the article.

Columns, the facutly/staff weekly newpaper, has printed an article featuring Susan Quinlan and Rober Moser entitled ‘Creating young Latin Americanists’ Portuguese program adds new major in Ibero-American Comparative Studies. Read the article.

Dr. Catherine Jones, Associate Professor of French and Provençal, was honored at the UGA-Tennessee football game on October 11, 2008. She was recognized as the recipient of the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Award, one of UGA's highest distinctions for teaching. Congratulations to Dr. Jones for this well-deserved recognition. See the photo.

Announcing New Portuguese Courses. Portuguese has become a major international language, and an important vehicle of communication for world wide business, and many fields of the Arts, Sciences and Humanities. Portuguese is now the 6th most widely spoken language in the world. Check the full range of courses and degrees with Portuguese offered at UGA, from introductory level to minor and major degrees. Read our flyer.

Announcing: Ibero-American Comparative Studies to begin Fall 2008. The Department of Romance Languages has established a new comparative area of emphasis combining the study of the language, literature and culture of Ibero-America. This specialization, within the Romance Languages major, will enable students to develop a high level of proficiency in both Spanish and Portuguese, as well as make explicit connections between Spanish America and Brazil (and/or Spain and Portugal), with regards to their literary, linguistic, and cultural traditions. Learn more about the program.

ONGOING EVENTS

French Table
This weekly discussion group meets Thursdays, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at The Globe, Downtown Athens. Contact Vilay Lyxychouky at vilayly@uga.edu for more information.

Italian Table
This weekly discussion group meets Mondays, 5:00 p.m. at The Globe, Downtown Athens. Contact Concettina Pizzuti at pizzuti@uga.edu.

Portuguese Table
This weekly discussion group meets Tuesdays, 5:00-6:00 p.m. at The Globe, Downtown Athens. Contact Amelia Hutchinson at ahutchin@uga.edu.

Spanish Table
This weekly discussion group meets Thursdays, 4:30-5:30 p.m. at The Globe, Downtown Athens. Contact David Latimer at dgl@uga.edu.