They were also witnesses to major political events, such as President Richard Nixon stepping down after the Watergate scandal and President Gerald Ford taking office (and being memorably lampooned the next year on new television program “Saturday Night Live”). At ���ϲ�����, a less known yet still consequential development occurred.

That year, the department that became  was born.

On July 1, five College of Arts and Sciences departments came together to become “one new department under the chairmanship of Louis W. Roberts,” according to a press release from the time. The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures unified the former individual departments of classics, German, linguistics, Romance languages and Slavic languages and literatures to create, as then-Dean Kenneth Goodrich noted, “a needed synthesis of the traditional and the progressive in the field of foreign language and literature education.”

Excerpt from the 1974 news release creating LLL’s forerunner (Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center)

The department’s name was changed under Dean Robert Jensen to “Languages, Literatures and Linguistics” in 1995 to recognize the breadth of world languages and cultures being taught and the strength of the linguistics program.

As part of celebrating its 50 years as a multilingual, multicultural department, the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (LLL) is hosting a film series this semester, including a discussion evening on Oct. 30. “Film is a critical medium through which students can develop cultural and linguistic competencies,” says , professor of Spanish and LLL chair.

The films span genres, cultures and times, reflecting the department’s commitment to global perspectives and the exploration of language through art.

The film series includes the following screenings:

October

• “” (Italy, 1994)—Oct. 9, 5:30 p.m., Kittredge Auditorium
• “” (France, 2023)—Oct. 10, 7 p.m., Kittredge Auditorium
• “” (France, 2011)—Oct. 17, 7 p.m., Kittredge Auditorium
• “” (Lebanon, 2018)—Oct. 18, 2 p.m., 341 Eggers
• “” (Italy, 1975)—Oct. 23, 5:30 p.m., Kittredge Auditorium
• “” (France, 2012)—Oct. 24, 7 p.m., Kittredge Auditorium
• “” (Taiwan, 2010)—Oct. 28, 7 p.m., 113 Eggers
• —Oct. 30, 5:30-10 p.m., Kittredge Auditorium:
  • “There’s Still Tomorrow” (Italy, 2023)
  • “Perfect Days” (Germany, Japan, 2023)

November

• “” (Germany, 2012)—Nov. 4, 6:45 p.m., Kittridge Auditorium
• “” (Italy, 2023)—Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m., Kittredge Auditorium
• “” (Soviet Union, Japan, 1977)—Nov. 21, 11 a.m., 107 Huntington Hall
• “Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission” (Korea, 2019)—TBD

For more information about the film series, contact Gail Bulman.

Other events celebrating LLL’s 50th anniversary in 2024 included the annual Wor(l)ds of Love Valentine’s Day poetry festival in February, Women across the World events in March, theater and musical performances, an LLL majors and minors’ celebration and the department’s annual Culture(s) on the Quad in April.

Spring 2025 event dates will be announced at a later time.

Professor Corrine Occhino, director of the American Sign Language program, signs “hello!”

Wonderful New Worlds

ASL is housed within the School of Education (SOE) thanks to the school’s long, pioneering history in disability studies and inclusive education.

The school began by offering classes in Signed English (a visual representation of English words, grammar and syntax). Later ASL (which has its own grammar and syntax, independent from English) was added as a special topic elective. In 2013, courses were regularized, and the to the list of course offerings in the School of Education for the first time.

First studying ASL as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, says, “like many of our students, I was curious about ASL and interested in learning more about the language and culture. Taking ASL classes really can open the door to wonderful new worlds!”

Occhino came to ���ϲ����� in Fall 2021 from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she was a research assistant professor in the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. In keeping with another SOE tradition, she now has a dual appointment in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) (LLL).

Occhino says it’s important that ASL classes at ���ϲ����� are taught by Deaf ASL teachers. “The Deaf community should be the keepers of their own language,” she says. “They have the cultural and linguistic knowledge to best teach the language and culture to future signers.”

Becoming Allies

ASL classes are taught by a roster of three Deaf instructors: Kimberly Amidon, Tamla Htoo and Michael Mazzaroppi (with another instructor being added in fall). “Each of these instructors has several years of teaching experience,” says Occhino. “It is good for Deaf ASL teachers to have the opportunity to teach ASL, and it shows that the University supports cultural values among the Deaf community.”

Mazzaroppi says he is excited for the expansion of ASL at the University. “They have been discussing this for years now,” he says. “SU is big on being inclusive and diverse, so it would make sense that they would offer more ASL classes. I believe ASL’s popularity has to do with the exposure in mainstream Hollywood, and I know it is growing popular among the disability community as the language for the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

“Taking ASL classes really can open the door to wonderful new worlds!”

—Professor Corrine Occhino

“When I was first hired, students found ASL fascinating because of facial expressions, body language and immersion of Deaf culture,” says Amidon. “Students learned more from a native Deaf teacher, and when they found out that I am providing level 3 instruction, that has made them even more excited to go further with their ASL studies. I enjoy giving back to the students and sharing my passion for the Deaf community, to teach them how to become allies.”

Amidon says she hopes to see more courses related to Deaf studies added, addressing history, culture and language: “Deaf studies includes Deafhood, a deeper look at history and culture, as well as linguistics.”

The ASL program holds regular game nights in Huntington Hall so students can practice their language and meet members of the ���ϲ����� Deaf community.

Up to Par

Along with directing the ASL program and teaching the 300-level course Diversity of Signed Languages and Deaf Cultures, Occhino is an active researcher. She collaborates with the local Deaf-run non-profit Deaf New Americans (DNA) on a funded by an A&S Engaged Communities Grant. The grant supports a storytelling initiative for members of ���ϲ�����’s Deaf refugee population to share their experiences with the broader Deaf and hearing community, both in ���ϲ����� and beyond.

Another project—Documenting Individual Variation in ASL (DIVA)—is a continued partnership with researchers at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. It charts the language’s minoritized and marginalized varieties.

To elevate ASL to a core language requirement offering, Occhino teamed up with Htoo. “We began to bridge the gap between LLL and the School of Education, to make sure that the ASL curriculum was up to par with other core requirement languages housed in LLL.”

The pair reviewed and re-designed the ASL curriculum to meet national benchmarks, designed new syllabi, and ran the curricular changes through the SOE and A&S curriculum committees. The re-designed program was launched in fall 2022. Currently, Occhino and her team are working to develop new courses to add to the ASL and Deaf studies curriculum.

A Fun Class

What can students expect in an ASL class?

First—there’s no talking. “Our classes are fully immersive—’voices off, hands up’ as we say! ASL is a visual language that uses three-dimensional space, so it’s different from learning a new language in a spoken modality. “Students also learn about the richness of Deaf culture and the Deaf community,” says Occhino. “It’s a fun class—very interactive, and you learn to move your body to make language.”

“I enjoy giving back to the students and sharing my passion for the Deaf community, to teach them how to become allies.”

—Professor Kim Amidon

Students in Tamla Htoo’s ASL 102 class practice new words by playing ASL bingo.

To facilitate learning, students play games, put on skits and practice using ASL in small groups. There’s regular conversation tables and game nights that meet in Huntington Hall throughout the semester. “These extracurricular activities also are a chance for students to meet members of the local Deaf community, and a chance for the Deaf community to see what a great job ASL at ���ϲ����� is doing.”

“We as a Deaf community are so excited to see SU promoting our culture and language for students to learn,” says Amidon. “We are thrilled to share our perspectives and teach the students a beautiful language that will promote accessibility. A student might encounter a Deaf person in their career—by knowing ASL, they can communicate and remove barriers and frustration.”

Adds Mazzaroppi, “The ���ϲ����� Deaf community looks forward to being more involved with the University’s signing community.”

To learn more about American Sign Language classes, contact Professor Corrine Occhino at cmocchin@syr.edu.

Continuing its trajectory of robust faculty hiring in , the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) announces the following new professors in the humanities and the sciences, whose appointments began in January 2023.

“We are pleased and proud that these new professors are joining our A&S community of top-tier faculty and high-achieving students,” says Interim Dean Lois Agnew. “With their unparalleled subject matter expertise and dedication to teaching, they will be instrumental in helping students gain the flexibility and knowledge needed for success, wherever the future takes them.”

Read more about their research and teaching interests in the profiles below.

Mohammed’s research focuses on the hydrology and hydrogeology of environments undergoing rapid changes due to climate change and increased development. He is interested in the movement of water, energy and chemicals through landscapes, and their interacting effects on hydrologic processes such as permafrost thaw, groundwater recharge, seawater intrusion and contaminant transport.

Mohammed (left) and Russell

His research aims to improve understanding of, and ability to predict, hydrological processes in a changing climate and develop management strategies to enhance the resiliency of water and ecosystem resources.

, assistant professor

Russell specializes in seismology. His research uses measurements of ground vibrations from seismic waves to create images of Earth’s interior and illuminate its structure, composition and dynamics. This involves collecting new datasets from unexplored reaches of the globe as well as developing leading-edge computational and analytical tools. He teaches courses in Earth science, earthquake seismology and geophysical imaging and is a member of ���ϲ�����’s Energy and Environment Research Cluster.

“Central to my teaching philosophy is a lowering of the divide between teaching and research in order to bring the excitement of research and scientific discovery into the classroom. Development of data-driven lectures are a key component of this effort. By infusing openly available datasets directly into lectures via interactive elements, students can explore complex phenomena and ideas in an approachable way.”

Pettolina

Forensics

, assistant professor

Singerman is a linguist specializing in the Indigenous languages of the Amazon Basin. Since 2013, he has conducted field research into Tuparí, a Brazilian language spoken by approximately 350-400 people. His research seeks to contextualize Tuparí grammar in the broader landscape of linguistic typology and to investigate areas of Tuparí grammar of interest to linguistic theory. His research synthesizes various strands of linguistic inquiry, including historical linguistics.

Singerman (left) and Surovi

“My goal as a teacher of linguistics is to present material in a way that builds upon my students’ innate knowledge as speakers/signers of natural languages, while also challenging them to recognize the value—cultural, historical, intellectual—of minoritized languages, including Indigenous languages. I provide my students with plenty of opportunities to work directly with data; by doing so, I aim to show them the major empirical phenomena that have motivated the development of linguistic theory.”

, assistant teaching professor and Italian language program coordinator

Surovi specializes in Italian Renaissance literature and culture and has taught both undergraduate and adult learners. She also has extensive experience with college in prison initiatives. Surovi is an active member of several professional associations in Italian and Renaissance studies and has also published a number of book reviews in journals such as Italica, Forum Italicum and Quaderni d’italianistica.

“My teaching promotes a communicative, multiliteracy approach in the classroom and encourages a welcoming and positive environment that motivates students to move beyond their comfort zone to discover new perspectives through the study of Italian language, literature and culture.”

, assistant professor

Mansell’s research background is in optics, lasers and instrumentation for interferometric ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. Her Ph.D. research was on squeezed states of light for gravitational-wave detectors and her postdoctoral work was on commissioning the advanced LIGO (laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory) detectors. She will be building an inclusive research group at ���ϲ����� and setting up a new lab space focused on testing technologies for future gravitational-wave detectors.

Mansell (left) and Nitz

“I hope to share my knowledge and excitement around experimental physics with students. I plan to maintain close ties to the LIGO observatories and hope to send students to the sites to work on gravitational-wave detector hardware. Some of the technical skills integral to gravitational-wave detection include classical and quantum optics, electronics, controls and mechanical design. I also strongly believe in the importance of diverse collaboration.”

, associate professor

Nitz’s research focuses on understanding the Universe with gravitational-wave astronomy and the astrophysics of compact objects. He has contributed to the detection of the first observed binary black hole merger (GW150914) and neutron star merger (GW170817). His interests include the study of neutron stars, black holes and dark matter in addition to high-performance data analysis techniques and the development of next-generation gravitational-wave observatories.

“My hope is to share the excitement of scientific discovery and the wonder present in the Universe around us. Students should see how cutting-edge science is conducted while getting opportunities inside and outside the classroom to explore and work with publicly available astronomy datasets. My goal is for students to cultivate their curiosity in addition to their critical thinking capabilities.”

Jaklin Kornfilt (right) accepting an honorary doctorate at the University of Cyprus. She is pictured with Antonis Balasopulos, dean of the School of Humanities (left), and Tasos Christofides (middle), rector and professor at the University of Cyprus.

Jaklin Kornfilt, professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (LLL), was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cyprus for her contributions to theoretical and Turkish linguistics. The honorary doctorate is the highest honor conferred by the university located in Nicosia, the capital of the Republic of Cyprus.

Kornfilt joins a short list of Cyprus honorary degree recipients, including world-renowned linguist, activist and author , who was awarded the doctorate in 2006, and leading feminist writer and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva, who received the honor in 2007.

Kornfilt has taught linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences since 1983. Her research is on syntactic theory, with a focus on Turkish and Turkic languages (a group of related languages spoken in different parts of Eastern Europe and Central and North Asia). Known in the field of theoretical linguistics as a pioneer of Turkish linguistics, her research involves (but is not limited to) studying the core structural properties of Turkish and the other Turkic languages.

A native speaker of Turkish and German, Kornfilt grew up in Istanbul. While studying theoretical linguistics in college, she was surprised by the lack of theoretical work that existed about the Turkish language. This knowledge gap motivated her to devote most of her academic pursuits to Turkish linguistics and she has since contributed an academic grammar of Turkish as well as close to 100 papers, mostly on Turkish and Turkic linguistics, advancing scholars’ understanding of that subject.

Kornfilt defines theoretical linguistics as a scientific approach to the study of language where researchers observe, describe and explain linguistic data. Similar to the natural sciences, which seek to understand phenomena of nature, theoretical linguistics addresses phenomena of language and the uniquely human capacity to understand and form linguistic utterances.

“Theoretical linguistics teaches us what is common across languages and thus has to be innate as a capacity of the human brain, as well as what is different across languages,” Kornfilt says.

Her research focuses on the syntax (structure of sentences) and the morphology (structure of words) in Turkish and other Turkic languages and the relationships between those two components. While the English language separates many morphemes (meaning-bearing items) into free words on their own in a sentence, morphemes in Turkish are often part of a larger word. For example, the Turkish translation of “I will be able to sleep,” is �ܲ�ܲⲹ�������𳦱�ğ����, a single word. Within that word, uyu corresponds to “sleep,” –yabil corresponds to “able,” –�𳦱�ğ corresponds to “will be,” and –im corresponds to “I.”

This property of Turkish and of other Turkic languages poses a challenge to syntactic theory as well as morphology theory: Are such complex words built in the syntactic or the morphological component of the grammar, or via a collaboration of those components?

Kornfilt is currently working on a book on Turkish syntax and recently coauthored two peer-reviewed articles on Turkish syntax. One is a journal article on heritage speakers of Turkish in Germany and the United States, and the other is an article on so-called partitive constructions in Turkish (words or phrases that indicate the quantity of something, like “two slices of the cake or two of the books”). The latter will be part of an anthology on similar constructions in a large number of languages. Kornfilt also co-authored a peer-reviewed article to appear in an edition of the journal Cognition on the acquisition of German by children.

Kornfilt, who accepted the honorary doctorate at a ceremony at the University of Cypress in November 2021, was introduced by renowned linguist Phoevos Panagiotidis, a Greek syntactician on the faculty of the English Department at the university. In his introductory speech, he praised Kornfilt for her innovative work in Turkish linguistics.

“I am proud to be a colleague of Professor Kornfilt,” Panagiotidis said in his speech. He continued, “Professor Kornfilt [has] contributed more than most scholars to our understanding of the Turkish language.”

M. Emma Ticio Quesada, associate professor and chair of LLL, says “This is a great honor for our colleague, our department and the humanities at the College of Arts and Sciences.”

College of Arts and Sciences Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Gerry Greenberg echoes that sentiment, saying “It’s not surprising to hear Jaklin has received such a prestigious award in the humanities for her work on Turkish linguistics, especially one that was previously awarded to Noam Chomsky. For everything she has done for the study of linguistics, and especially the study of Turkish and Turkic languages, she is in a class by herself.”

Buon Appetito! students sampling carbonara with their families.

When ���ϲ����� students finish up the fall semester and travel home for Winterlude, they may be left missing the sense of community and intellectual nourishment they get from classes and their friends. To provide students with a unique learning experience during winter break, the Italian program in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics created a new one-credit course in January called “Buon Appetito!,” which is an historical and hands-on introduction to food cultures in the various regions of Italy.

“One of our motivations for creating the course was to bring an experiential component to learning about Italian culture; we realized that a silver lining of online teaching was that we could connect students with a variety of people currently living and working in Italy,” says Anne Leone, assistant professor of Italian studies, and Italian language coordinator.

Offered online to all ���ϲ����� students, the class included cooking demonstrations and presentations by renowned chefs and food historians in Italy. Italian instructor Consuelo Endrigo-Williams, who has taught related courses on regions of Italy and their food histories, designed the syllabus and led the course.

Other guests included Susy Patrito Silva, the director of Casa Artusi, a culinary and culture center located in the town of Forlimpopoli, in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. Silva discussed the legacy of the famous Italian food-writer Pellegrino Artusi on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Samantha T. Jezak, representative of the SU chapter of the Slow Food Movement, talked about the group’s mission of promoting food that is good for consumers, good for those who grow it and good for the planet.

The virtual reveal of each students’ “scaccia.”

Italian instructor Antonina Distefano led a cooking demonstration where she prepared the Sicilian delicacy, ‘scaccia,’ which is a stuffed flat bread, and Italian instructor Maria Rita Barbarino gave a presentation on viniculture in the volcanic soils of Etna in Sicily, as part of a lesson on the history of Italian wine.

For their final group projects, students developed on particular regions of Italy and their food traditions, which also included recipes and video demonstrations of them preparing local specialties. The students voted for the best project, and the winners received prizes of Italian delicacies.

LLL plans to regularly offer Buon Appetito! in the future and will look to involve a community element where they explore Italian American food traditions in the greater ���ϲ����� area. They also plan to connect with more chefs and cooks throughout Italy–both virtually and in-person.

Matthieu Herman van der Meer

Few things in life excite Matthieu Herman van der Meer more than digging into a 1,000-year-old handwritten anonymous text.

“I have always had a fascination for medieval manuscripts,” says van der Meer, assistant teaching professor of classics in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (LLL). “To find out what these books say and to touch them is a unique thrill.”

He had the rare opportunity to study one such text in his recent analysis of “Glosae in Regula,” a newly discovered commentary from around the year 800.

“Glosae in Regula” was written by a monk in northern France, in what was then the Carolingian Empire. At the end of the eighth century, emperor Charlemagne established the Rule of St. Benedict as the one and only standard guideline and uniform way of life in monasteries. According to Van der Meer, Charlemagne abandoned older monastic rules in an effort to establish a unified, strong and morally righteous realm.

“Glosae in Regula,” last copied by hand in the mid-9th century, is a commentary by an unknown monk to the Rule of St. Benedict, providing excerpts of ancient texts with explanations and interpretations. It also consists of key terms and concepts of daily life for new monks learning the language of the Rule as well as a monastic understanding of the text.

A folio from “Glosae in Regula”

Van der Meer was able to locate two versions of “Glosae in Regula” online and even made a trip to France to view the two manuscripts. Using digital copies, he began the task of transcribing, analyzing and comparing them to other edited and digitally accessible medieval manuscripts of that time in an effort to determine authorship. His research falls within the field of digital humanities, where computational tools are used to analyze artifacts relevant to humanities disciplines such as history, art, philosophy and literature.

In the process of identifying all possible sources of this text, Van der Meer soon noticed that the style, wording and arrangement of the material of “Glosae in Regula” closely mirrored another similar text by a known author.

“I had the strong suspicion both these texts were written by Smaragdus of St. Mihiel,” he says. “For a while, I entertained the idea that the Glosae were a sort of first draft of Smarargdus’ ‘Commentary to the Rule.’” Through detailed analysis of the texts, Van der Meer concluded that the Glosae was a source for Smaragdus, but not written by him. The writer of “Glosae in Regula” will likely forever remain unknown.

Van der Meer’s edition of the Glosae provides scholars an enhanced understanding of how information was conveyed through texts in ninth-century Europe. “Not often before have we been able to study so closely how monks selected, interpreted and rephrased early Christian literature,” says Van der Meer. But thanks to the work of one unknown ninth-century monk and in-depth research by Van der Meer, a once forgotten commentary on 1,000-year-old faith traditions from the Carolingian Empire will live on in perpetuity.

His analysis won him the 2020 LLL Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award, given each year to a candidate who submits a single piece of published research that represents their best published work in the last five years. Past years recipients were former Associate Professor Alejandro García Reidy, Associate Professor Myrna García-Calderon, B.G. Rudolph Professor of Judaic Studies and William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities Ken Frieden, Professor Erika Haber and Associate Professor and Chair of LLL M. Emma Ticio Quesada.

An interdisciplinary team including members from the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (LLL) in the College of Arts and Sciences has been awarded a grant for their research, “Japan in a Global Curriculum.” The grant will allow the team to conduct field research in Japan for three weeks this May and June on language and science education design methodologies, Japanese Noh and Kabuki theater, architecture, autonomous systems, immigration policy studies and creative study abroad opportunities. They will also examine how Japan is preparing its linguistic, migratory, architectural, educational and artistic infrastructure to host the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, which begin July 24.

An interdisciplinary team has been awarded a grant for their research, “Japan in a Global Curriculum.” Photo by Eric Eastman.

The group includes LLL Associate Professors Amanda Brown and Gail Bulman; Japanese Language Coordinator Tomoko Walter; Yutaka Sho (PI), associate professor of architecture; Sharon Dotger, associate professor in the School of Education; and Jamie Winders, professor of geography in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Each team member will conduct research in their respective field and will collectively attend lectures and conduct interviews across disciplines with 10 Japanese scholars.

Specific to the College of Arts and Sciences, Brown’s research will focus on multilingual infrastructures and public service initiatives in Japan, particularly during large societal events such as the Tokyo Olympics, as well as language teaching methodologies. Bulman will investigate the history, themes and techniques of Japanese theater to explore their influence on theater in Chile and Peru, countries that have strong historical, political, social and artistic ties to Japan. As one of the two Japan experts on the research team, Walter will connect Japanese and U.S. scholars, create new content for Japanese language and culture classes on campus, and build productive study abroad ties with Japanese institutions.

Winders will research migration and autonomous systems, both topics particularly relevant to Japan and the rest of the world. Dotger will examine advanced educational training systems in math and science and compare them to U.S. practices. Sho will solidify study abroad opportunities for ���ϲ����� Architecture students in Japan and continue her research on “Festival Spaces in Post-Atrocity Reconstruction,” using Japan as a case study.

The research is funded by a grant from the , which promotes collaboration between the people of Japan, the United States and beyond in order to address issues of global concern.

During the conference, 11 faculty members working in the fields of ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies will present about the practice of close reading texts within their respective fields of research. The keynote speaker is Prof. Phillip Usher from New York University. Faculty, staff and both graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to attend. For the full program, visit the .

“Hope Glidden was a beloved member of the French section of LLL and an accomplished scholar of French literature, especially of Rabelais and Montaigne,” says Albrecht Diem, associate professor of history and one of the organizers of the conference. “This conference is a tribute to her work and her teaching. She was part of the Medieval/Renaissance program and many of the presenters were not only her colleagues but also close friends of her. We also show with this conference that the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Period is, more than it is commonly known, a particularly strong field at our university.”

The conference will take place at the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, 114 Bird Library, from 9 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. It is sponsored by the Medieval-Renaissance program, the Humanities Center, Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics and Bird Library.

Requests for accommodations may be made to Diem at adiem@maxwell.syr.edu or 315-443-0785 until April 19.

1) Robert Menasse: “Die Hauptstadt” (Suhrkamp Berlin, 2017). Winner of the Preis des deutschen Buchhandels 2017. The novel follows seven European citizens in Brussels whose decisions influence each other even when they do not encounter each other directly.

2) Joachim Radkau: “Geschichte der Zukunft. Prognosen, Visionen, Irrungen in Deutschland von 1945 bis heute” (Hanser Berlin 2017.) The author connects the German recent past with its immediate future.

Please contact Mona Eikel-Pohen if you would like to join the readers in informal meetings, online, or via Skype throughout the year 2018, or to add to the blog.

Contact: Mona Eikel-Pohen
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics
607.379.0392
meikelpo@syr.edu

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Tej Bhatia

Titled “Local and Global Contexts of World Englishes,” the conference will present nearly 150 lectures on language, cognition and pedagogy. The event is open to the public, with emphasis on teachers, researchers, scholars and students.

Organizers are dedicating the conference to the memory of , professor of linguistics, Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Center for Advanced Study Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kachru helped found the IAWE in 1992, and coined the term “World Englishes” to refer to emerging localized or indigenized varieties of English. He is the subject of a memorial event on Friday, June 30, from 9:45-10:30 a.m., and a symposium the following day, from 1-5:15 p.m. Both events take place in Grant Auditorium.

For more information about the conference, including registration, contact Tej Bhatia, professor of linguistics and Hindi in the College of Arts and Sciences, at 315.443.5374 or tkbhatia@syr.edu, or visit .

“���ϲ����� is honored to host this prestigious conference, whose focus is on English, in particular, and on human communication, in general,” says Bhatia, chair of the event’s local organizing committee as well as the IAWE’s vice president and president-elect. “We will examine World Englishes in various contexts and connections, including notions of identity and emotion, other languages and the ‘spaces’ between languages. By viewing these linkages from diverse cultural and sociolinguistic perspectives, we can better appreciate the panoply of approaches to World Englishes.”

Bhatia, who helped organize the last IAWE conference at ���ϲ����� in 2004, says this one will be broader and more interdisciplinary in scope. Sub-themes will include information studies, computer and electrical engineering, linguistics, cognitive science, international business, composition and rhetoric, global affairs, policy studies and communications.

Braj Kachru

Margaret Himley, associate provost of international education and engagement, views the conference as an opportunity for the University to expand its global footprint. “We are excited about all the distinguished scholars coming to campus to address the many aspects of ‘Englishes,’ as they are innovated across the globe, as a medium of communication and commerce,” says Himley, also a professor of writing and rhetoric in A&S. “This is a big part of the future of our students, as global professionals.”

This year’s lineup features luminaries in the modern field of linguistics. The three plenary speakers—Salikoko Mufwene, Shikaripur Sridhar and Patricia Friedrich—are bona fide stars in their respective disciplines. Mufwene is a biolinguist at the University of Chicago, studying language evolution and grammaticization as they pertain to the development of “Atlantic creoles.” Sridhar, a linguistic scientist at Stony Brook University, works at the intersection of bilingualism, sociolinguistics, second-language acquisition and World Englishes (particularly the structure and functions of Indian English and other nonnative varieties of English). Friedrich is a sociolinguist at Arizona State University, specializing in critical applied linguistics, critical theory, cross-cultural communication and the social construction of mental illness.

The conference’s two Distinguished Guest Speakers are Illinois professors. One of them is Chin-Woo Kim, a professor emeritus and an internationally renowned phonetician, with a rich background in Korean language and linguistics.

Margaret Himley

The other is Lav Varshney, a ���ϲ�����-born engineer who analyzes informational systems in humans and machines, and, earlier this month, was a presenter at the tenth annual World Science Festival in New York City. He holds multiple appointments at Illinois, including ones in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Neuroscience Program. Varshney will deliver the conference banquet speech on Saturday, July 1, from 7-9:30 p.m. in the Comstock Ballroom of the Sheraton ���ϲ����� Hotel & Conference Center (801 University Ave., ���ϲ�����).

The five Focus Lecturers are accomplished teacher-scholars. Ng Bee Chin is a researcher at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where she works on child language acquisition and semantics. Mary Jane Curry is an education professor at the University of Rochester, specializing in academic writing and publishing, second-language learning and writing, and ethnography. Peter de Costa is a linguist at Michigan State University, studying the role of identity and ideology in second language acquisition. Sisters Anita and Anjali Pandey, Maryland-based linguists at Morgan State University and Salisbury University, respectively, are both leaders in early childhood education, second language and literacy enhancement, and intercultural communication.

“The plenaries, focus lecturers and other speakers admirably realize the aims of the IAWE,” says Bhatia, whose expertise spans bilingualism, multiculturalism, advertising discourse, socio- and pyscho-linguistics and the structure and typology of English and South Asian languages. “All these presentations, combined with those from our breakout sessions, will illuminate our understanding of English, both as an international and intranational language.”

Left to right: Salikoko Mufwene, Shikaripur Sridhar and Patricia Friedrich

Bhatia thinks ���ϲ����� is uniquely poised to host such a “globally focused event,” because of its ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion. Studies show that international enrollment at ���ϲ����� has risen more than 140 percent in the past decade, with international students comprising almost one-fifth of the student body.

“���ϲ����� has a diverse and vibrant community of students and faculty, but, like other institutions, we are not exempt from the challenges and issues facing World Englishes,” Bhatia says. “[The IAWE] is concerned with appropriateness, intelligibility, comprehensibility and interpretability.”

Maureen Edmonds, language coordinator of ���ϲ�����’s English Language Institute, notes that, despite changing enrollment data, nonnative English speakers substantially outnumber native English speakers worldwide.

“After they graduate and return home, international students are more likely to use the English they have learned to communicate with fellow nonnative speakers,” she says. “Our conference explores various teaching models, standards and materials that they need to be successful.”

While the concept of World Englishes originated in the early 1960s, it was not until 1978 that professionals began addressing the formal and functional implications of English at two independently organized international conferences.

From both conferences and subsequent others evolved the IAWE, of which Kachru served as president from 1997-99. He died last year at the age of 84.

Lav Varshney

“[Kachru] recognized the many cultural, linguistic and ideological differences among speakers of English,” Bhatia says. “One of his greatest contributions was the ‘Three-Circle Model,’ which categorized English speakers based on their identity.

Scholars generally attribute English’s popularity to British colonialism, the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the U.S. and European education systems. Westernization and modernization, particularly since the 1900s, have all but solidified English’s place on the global stage.

Bhatia is part of a growing number of researchers intent on understanding how English’s various properties, such as phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax, have an affect on business, government and academia.

“The spirit of Braj Kachru permeates everything we do in the IAWE,” Bhatia adds. “We seek to challenge the orthodoxies of the English establishment on both sides of the Atlantic. The result is a pluralistic, socially realistic view of the English-using world.”

“Local and Global Contexts of World Englishes” is co-sponsored by the Office of Chancellor; the Office of the Vice Chancellor and Provost; A&S; the Office of Research and the Graduate School; the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; the Newhouse Center for Global Engagement; the IAWE; the Olivia and Walter Kiebach Center for International Business Studies (Whitman School of Management); the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs); the Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering; the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (A&S); the Central New York Humanities Corridor; the ���ϲ����� Humanities Center (A&S); the Asian/Asian American Studies program (A&S); the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition (A&S); the Latino/Latin American Studies program (A&S); the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies (College of Visual and Performing Arts); the Office of Multicultural Affairs; the Department of Psychology (A&S); ���ϲ����� Abroad; the Associate Provost for International Education and Engagement; the South Asia Center (Maxwell School); and the Linguistic Studies Program in LLL (A&S).