Monmouth College - Department of Modern Foreign Languages

International Luncheon Program
The MFL Department organizes the International Luncheon Program every semester. The presentations take place in the Highlander Room, and international food is served. The programs, which include a speaker’s presentation and discussion, begin at noon and last about an hour.

Tu Voz – Tu Comunidad
"Tu Voz-Tu Comunidad" is a free Spanish-language "health and well-being" newsletter distributed to the Spanish-speaking communities of Warren and Knox Counties. The newsletter is published three times a year by an ethnically diverse group of Spanish- and English-speaking Monmouth College professors, student interns, and community volunteers from Monmouth and Galesburg. The printing is funded by a mix of University of Illinois small grant funds and revenues from advertisements.

Faculty News:

Professor Susan Holm writes and tells of her rewarding experiences in Turkey. Susan Holm, the Dorothy Donald Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Monmouth College, wrote one of the 32 chapters of "Tales from the Expat Harem," an anthology that was published in the U.S. by Seal Press in 2006. For more information read "Expat Harem."

Heather Brady recently authored a scholarly article entitled "Recovering Claire de Duras's Creole Inheritance: Race and Gender in the Exile Correspondence of her Saint-Domingue Family" that was published in L'Esprit créateur, an academic journal dedicated to the study of French literature. For more information read "Lost letters help MC professor write paper on French author." Brady has also won a Summer Scholarship from the American Association of Teachers of French and the Quebec Foreign Ministry to study at a French Teaching Workshop at the Université Laval in Quebec in June and July 2008.

James Bukari will be teaching a French course in the MC College for Kids this program, as well as reading at the AP French Exam in Louisville, Kentucky in June.

Past events:

Véronique Tadjo, "The Power of African Images: From Written to Painted Narratives." Tadjo is a visual artist and author of Blind Kingdom (2008) and The Shadow of Imana (2002). Thursday, April 24 at 4 pm, Tartan Room, Monmouth College.

Foreign Language Week 2008

"On the Frontline: Working in Foreign Languages," Thursday, April 3. Students and alumni working in the field speak about the second language in their lives. Participants include: Tammy Peterson (Bilingual Teacher, Beardstown Schools; Christine Del Re (International Office, WIU), Ana and Todd Franks (Monmouth-Roseville High School), Leanna Wilson (Graduate Student in the Global Master's Program in International Relations at Webster University) who spoke from Geneva, Switzerland through Skype.

Kim Potowski, a member of the University of Illinois-Chicago’s department of Spanish and Portuguese, gave a presentation entitled "I Was Raised Talking Like My Mom: The Influence of Mothers on the Spanish of MexiRicans," Potowski’s study found that almost 75 percent of the participants were rated as having dialect traits similar to those of their mother’s ethnolinguistic group, underscoring the role of mothers in language transmission and the development of minority language identity.

Max Morel, Doctors without Borders, "Doctors without Borders and Africa"
Max Morel spoke about his time in the Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he worked as a logistics volunteer for Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans frontières). He set up health care programs for displaced people coping with the legacy of war.

Leisa Kauffmann: Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage and the Road to Aztlán
Professor Leisa Kauffmann, Assistant Professor of Modern Foreign Languages, traveled in Mexico and the Southwest with a group of scholars, visiting architectural ruins of ancient cities as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute entitled “Mesoamerica and the Southwest: A New History for an Ancient Land.” The Institute’s site visits were accompanied by lectures from prominent scholars as well as readings. Leisa will share her experiences on the road, and something of the cultures that she learned about.

Rosanna Warren: A Hidden Life in French
The poet, writer and educator Rosanna Warren was one of our keynote speakers for Foreign Languages Week. Rosanna Warren teaches at Boston University as the Emma MacLachlan Metcalf Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English and Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures. Her research interests include poetry, translation, literary biography and the visual arts.

Marjorie Agosín: Stitching a Life: Hope in a Time of Sorrow
Following the notorious 1973 military coupe in Chile, thousands of supporters of deposed president Salvador Allende mysteriously disappeared. Marjorie Agosín, now a professor at Wellesley College, was a student involved in the effort to bring the quilts, or arpilleras, to the United States. She told the moving story of the wives, sisters and mothers of the victims, known as the arpilleristas, who sewed stories of their loved one’s disappearances into quilts and smuggled them out of the country to alert the world to the reality of the situation.

Heather Brady: Lessons About Kenya

Kenya may be best known to the western world for its wildlife safaris and coffee plantations. Professor Heather Brady went to Kenya with a different task in mind: to complete an anthology of short fiction. She will speak about hearing traditional storytelling, living in a missionary convent and the lessons she learned about rural poverty, environmental devastation and the controversial role of writers in transforming their experiences of survival into beautiful art. For more information, read "Brady speaks about Kenya at International Luncheon."

Home > Top

Tutoring Schedule - Scholarships, Prizes & Grants - Organizations & Clubs - Languages - Contact Us