Author: Adrienne Fama

The Department of Languages welcomed the following new faculty members at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester.

Jody H. Cripps, Assistant Professor of American Sign Language

Jody holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona. His research interests include but are not limited to: language acquisition and literacy, signed music, and signed language pathology. Jody is also a co-founder of two non-profit organizations and is the Editor-in-Chief for Society of American Sign Language Journal. Prior to joining the department, Jody worked at Towson University, where he expanded the Deaf Studies program within and outside of the classroom setting. At Clemson, he currently teaches elementary ASL and will teach Linguistics of American Sign Language (ASL 4010) next semester. Outside of academia, he is a surfer bum at heart and spends his spare time enjoying recreational sports, often with his wife and their two deaf dogs.

Liliana Hernández, Lecturer of Spanish

Lili, a native of Medellín, Colombia, holds an MFA from the Universidad de Antioquia. She worked as the director of the Plecto Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, a contemporary art gallery in Medellín, and has curated many art shows and festivals. Lili previously taught at Clemson from 2004 to 2010, during which time she coordinated a Latin American art show and film festival on campus. Currently she teaches intermediate Spanish courses and serves as a departmental advisor.

Andrea Naranjo, Lecturer of Spanish

Andrea was born and raised in Cali, Colombia. She earned a Law Degree from the Universidad San Buenaventura and worked as a lawyer in the private sector in Cali, acquiring experience in contracts, labor law and commercial law. She later earned a Master’s Degree in Spanish from Middlebury College. Prior to coming to Clemson, she taught for several years at James Madison University. Andrea is a poet and her work has been published and awarded in Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Argentina and the United States. Recently she published her second book of poetry in Mexico City and she earned the Hayek International Production Award for her contribution to Mexican letters and literature. Among her interests are business and society in Latin America and creative writing. Currently she teaches Intermediate Spanish, Spanish for Business Composition, and Spanish for International Trade and serves as a departmental advisor.

Mercedes Tejera, Lecturer of Spanish

Mercedes is a Ph.D. candidate in Ibero-American Literature at the University of Florida. She holds a B.A. in Spanish Literature with a second major in Latin American and Latino Studies and an M.A. in Spanish and Latin American Literatures, both from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Her research interests are 20th- and 21st-century science fiction novels from Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Spain (focusing on gender, politics, and mass media culture). Mercedes teaches intermediate Spanish.

Johannes Schmidt and Eric Touya were among seven newly promoted professors to be recognized by President James P. Clements and Provost Robert H. Jones at a reception on September 4 at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts. Richard E. Goodstein, dean of the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, also hosted a dinner in their honor last month.

Johannes Schmidt received a promotion to full professor in the Department of Languages. Schmidt’s research interests range from 18th- and 19th-century German literature and philosophy to German drama and music.

He has taught a variety of courses including German drama, 18th- and 19th-century German literature, the culture and literature of exile, humanities seminars on drama, World War II, the Shoah, and German language and culture courses at all levels.

With Rainer Godel, Schmidt is the co-editor of the International Herder Yearbook, a bi-annual, peer-reviewed professional journal of the International Herder Society.

Schmidt earned his bachelor’s degree in Germanistics, Linguistics and Economics at the University of Konstanz in Germany, his master’s degree in Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and his Ph.D. in German Literature at the University of Hamburg in Germany.

In 2006, Schmidt was elected treasurer-secretary (North America) of the International Herder Society. He also served as the president of the South Carolina Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German from 2003-06.

Eric Touya received a promotion to full professor in the Department of Languages. His research and teaching interests include 19th– to 21st-century French and Francophone literature and culture, and interdisciplinary approaches to literature, art, media, theory, culture, economics, ethics and society.

Touya also is the academic advisor for the French and International Trade program and the study abroad program in Paris and Normandy.

“I am happy to hear the news and to serve as teacher, mentor and scholar for this great university,” Touya said. “I am grateful to all the students and colleagues and to my wife and daughter for their support.”

Touya is a recipient of the prestigious Chevalier des Palmes Academiques, awarded by the French government.

Touya received his diplôme d’etudes approfondies in comparative literature at the Universite de Paris IV, Sorbonne, and his Ph.D. in Romance languages and literatures at the University of Chicago.

He is the author of “Musique et poétique à l’âge du symbolism” (L’Harmattan, 2005), “French-American Relations: Remembering D-Day after September 11” (University Press of America, 2008), “Francophone Women Writers: Feminisms, Postcolonialisms, Cross-Cultures” (Lexington Books Publishing, 2011) and “The Case for the Humanities: Pedagogy, Polity, Interdisciplinarity” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).

2014 graduate Amanda Pridmore, a political science major and student of German, received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant in 2017. She has spent her Fulbright year in Germany researching the funding and financing of Holocaust memorials. Amanda gave two conference talks and one short presentation at the Fulbright Berlin Seminar. She is also planning a major publication with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she worked prior to heading to Germany.

Listen to Amanda and Sylvia Cunningham, a Fulbright grantee from the University of Connecticut, share how talking to German people has fueled their careers in journalism and taught them about being American citizens abroad. Amanda speaks first.

Congratulations to Sarah Waldvogel, one of six recipients of the $15,000 Marcus L. Urann Fellowship awarded by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Sarah is a 2018 graduate in Genetics and Biochemistry with a minor in German. While at Clemson, she served as president of the German Club and traveled to Germany to study the history of the European Union. Sarah is currently pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Read more about her award here.

From the Summer 2018 issue of Clemson World:

While the Japan Alumni group is not yet an official Clemson Club, some of the more than 50 Clemson alumni and friends in Japan have been getting together for events a few times a year. They are exploring ways to support the University including providing support and guidance to students studying abroad in Japan or alumni moving to Japan for work, as well as finding internship opportunities for students. They are hoping to be the first international chartered alumni club. They gathered in November when Yuki Kihara Horose, study-abroad coordinator for Clemson Abroad, and Carolyn Crist, a student adviser with the College of Architecture, Art and Humanities Global Engagement, were visiting partner institutions in Japan. The group joined emeritus professors Yuji Kishimoto and Toshiko Kishimoto in Tokyo, their hometown, where they received the Japanese national medal of distinction in 2017.

Two Japanese majors in the Department of Languages were recipients of a scholarship awarded by Chukyo University in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Katrina Killinger (double major, Japanese and English) and Alan Wright (Japanese major, computer science minor) are finishing their year-long study abroad program at the university and received the award for being the exchange students with the highest GPAs.

At the award ceremony, Katrina gave a thank-you speech in Japanese. More information about the ceremony is available in Japanese here.

Jae Takeuchi, assistant professor of Japanese, said, “I have taught both of these students in different classes and they are very much deserving of this award!”

BMW has continued its longstanding support of Clemson’s German language programs with a new $50,000 gift. The manufacturer has supported the German program at Clemson annually since 2003. BMW’s investment has supported such initiatives as the BMW Lecturer of German, held by Lee Ferrell; the annual German Summit, held each spring; the Clemson Language Intensive Program; and the International Forum for German and Spanish in the Professions.

Read the complete press release here.

Congratulations to Irene Cheng, a graduating senior in Modern Languages-Chinese and Clemson’s first-ever winner of a Boren Fellowship for Graduate Students. Boren Fellowships, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. graduate students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests. In exchange for funding, Boren Fellows commit to working in the federal government for at least one year after graduation.

Irene told us about her plans:

“I will be studying Mandarin Chinese (with emphasis on medical terminology), volunteering at a local hospital, and researching transcultural health practices at Southwest Minzu University in Chengdu, China for the 2018-2019 academic year. I am so excited for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to combine both of my majors (Bioengineering and Mandarin) and have been blessed with the support and guidance I’ve received throughout my last four years at Clemson. I am so thankful for all of my Chinese professors who have taught me so much and given me so many experiences both in Clemson and in China. I fell in love with Mandarin my freshman year in Chinese 101 and haven’t looked back. I’ve learned that my Clemson family is found all over the world. I plan on completing graduate school upon my return and look for opportunities in translational research.”

This article originally appeared in The Tiger.

Kevin J. Burke III, Marisol Miranda and Lauren Cvitkovic

As Clemson students, our primary goal is to walk across that stage at graduation knowing that we have made a positive impact on this university, and world, in some capacity. It is an instilled sense of camaraderie and pride that drives this objective into implementation. We live on this third rock from the sun knowing that life, at the present, is finite; it is, therefore, our responsibility to leave this world better for not only our own posterity but for all the children of this world who will come to inherit it. Whether this means aiding developing nations to refine their current infrastructure or establishing economic or healthcare reforms in order to promote growth and safety, every project has the potential to help make the global community better as a whole.

At Clemson, students have the opportunity to serve on research teams through the Creative Inquiry (CI) program. This program is utilized to promote not only research skills among students, but also allowing certain groups get the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. One such CI is “Building Healthier Communities in Las Malvinas”. In this project, a group of Clemson students acts as liaisons for the university in the country of the Dominican Republic, specifically in the Las Malvinas community.

The objective of this project is to promote healthier living in the community, recording observational measures to ensure that the community is living under health standards based on “CDC evidence-based protocols.” Students can either serve solely on the research team or have the added opportunity of traveling to the Dominican Republic to aid in the on-the-ground operations behind the project. The students that have represented this project come from a variety of different majors and paths in life, all in the name of trying to bolster the Las Malvinas community in this developing nation.

Ask yourself these questions: Do you want to make a difference in the lives of others? Do you wish to leave a worldly impact while earning three credits towards your degree? Do you want to study abroad while at Clemson? If you answered yes to at least to one of these questions, this is the opportunity for you to accomplish all three. If you are interested in this project, there is both the CI with” Building Healthier Communities in Las Malvinas” in addition to an extracurricular club that has been formed in order to fundraise to further our service efforts. For more information relating to this project opportunity, please contact Dr. Arelis Moore de Peralta at ared@clemson.edu.

Congratulations to Arelis Moore de Peralta, assistant professor of Spanish and Health and the winner of the 2018 Phil and Mary Bradley Award for Mentoring in Creative Inquiry. This award is given to a faculty member in recognition of their outstanding work with undergraduate students. Students participating in Creative Inquiry projects are the nominators for this award.

One of Moore de Peralta’s nominators wrote: “She has taught our CI that anything is possible with the support of each other, and through her support to us, has encouraged and helped her students to present research all across the nation… Dr. Moore has made a significant impact on my personal life. She has taught me how to go into third world countries, and to use community health tools to create a healthier, sustainable, and long-lasting community. She taught me the value of partnership, and that only by creating strong partnerships can a community become long-lasting and flourish. She truly cares about each of her students in a unique and loving way. She provides leadership opportunities for every single one of her students, by making each student in charge of a smaller project, fostering communication and organizational skills in each person. She encourages outreach and the building of partnerships with different organizations on campus, and promotes countless public speaking opportunities by allowing each student to present at conferences locally and nationally. She takes no
credit for her work, but allows each student to shine in their own way.”

Moore de Peralta will be honored at a ceremony on May 8 and receive a monetary award. Read more about her Creative Inquiry project here.