Tag: Faculty

The Department of Languages welcomed the following new faculty members at the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester.

Michael (Mikey) Barrett, Lecturer of American Sign Language

Mikey grew up in the southwest suburbs of Chicago and graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and he earned a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Studies from Gallaudet University. He has worked at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the Rochester School for the Deaf, the University of Rochester, the University of New Mexico, and the New Mexico School for the Deaf’s AmeriCorps program. Mikey’s extensive teaching experience is complimented by his research interests, including Deaf and Disability History, critical pedagogy, and ASL curriculum development. On a personal level, Mikey enjoys doing Bikram and Kundalini yoga, hiking and camping, and reading spiritual/thought-provoking novels.

Mirelly Buitrago-González, Lecturer of Spanish

Mirelly, a native of Puerto Rico, earned a B.A. in Social Studies, Sociology, and Anthropology and an M.A. in Social Sciences and Sociology from the University of Puerto Rico. She also received an M.S. in Spanish from Minnesota State University. She holds a Doctorate in Education with a Concentration in Teaching and Learning from Metropolitan University. Mirelly’s research interests include gender violence, the development of models of educational excellence, and the development of social commitment to education.

Daniel García, Lecturer of Spanish

Daniel grew up in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Teaching Spanish Language and Literature from the Universidad Internacional, where he also taught for seven years. He earned his Master’s degree in Spanish from the University of Missouri at Columbia, and he is currently working on an online dual Master’s degree in Education with a concentration in Teaching Spanish Language and Culture from James Madison University and the University of Salamanca. Daniel’s research interests are Mexican literature from the Boom and and Post-Boom periods. He likes to spend time with his wife and work out.

Nora Logue, Lecturer of Spanish

Nora, a native of Nicaragua, earned her B.A. from UACA – Colegium Latinum in Costa Rica and her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She has over 10 years of experience teaching Spanish (elementary, high school, and adult levels). Nora is C-Print certified to caption for hard of hearing students and continues to work for Student Accessibility Services captioning for Clemson students. She enjoys playing tennis, traveling, cooking, and crafting.

Arelis Moore de Peralta, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Health

The Department of Languages welcomed new assistant professor Arelis Moore de Peralta on July 1. She begins a joint tenure-track appointment with the Department of Youth, Family and Community Studies, where she has served as a research assistant professor with the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life since 2011. In her new interdisciplinary role, Arelis teaches three courses in Languages and one course in Youth, Family and Community Studies every year. The Languages courses, which include Spanish for Health Professionals, Technical Spanish for Health Management Professionals, and Health and Hispanic Community, enrich the department’s Language and International Health (L&IH) program. Read more about Arelis’s interdisciplinary appointment here.

Ling Rao, Lecturer of Chinese

Ling Rao earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Georgia, where she taught all levels of Chinese, Asian American Literature, and Western World Literature for six and a half years. Her research interests include late imperial literature and society, Chinese drama (such as the works of Tang Xianzu), Chinese philosophical and religious traditions (such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism), and Chinese women. Ling also has extensive experience translating and interpreting between Chinese and English. She enjoys photography, dancing (ballroom, tango, salsa, swing), reading, hiking, and traveling.

Shinichi Shoji, Lecturer of Japanese

Shinichi completed his Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of South Carolina, where he specialized in psycholinguistics and second language acquisition. He also holds an M.A. in History from Winthrop University, where he specialized in Japanese-American History. Shinichi’s research centers on the Japanese sentence and discourse processing of both Japanese native speakers and learners of Japanese as a second language. He is interested in using his research to gain a better understanding of Japanese linguistic aspects that learners have difficulty acquiring, such as differing word order, change of markers and Japanese particles, and vowel epenthesis in katakana loanwords.

Lyudmyla Tsykalova, Graduate Teaching Assistant of Italian

Lyudmyla completed Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in International Economics in her home country of Ukraine. She also earned two Master’s degrees in Palermo, Italy, one in International Cooperation for Development and one in Cultural Events, Heritage and Territory. Lyudmyla is currently working on her Ph.D. in International Family and Community Studies at Clemson.  Her research interests include Cultural Heritage, Migration, and Subjective Well-being. This semester she is co-teaching Pathways to Community Service in the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. In her spare time, Lyudmyla enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and crafting.

Olga Volkova, Lecturer of Russian

Olga, a native of Russia, earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University, her second Master’s degree from Clemson, and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University Bloomington. Prior to joining the faculty at Clemson, Olga taught at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. Her current research explores the Russian literary diaspora in China. Other interests include nineteenth-century Russian and British novels, Russian and British Romanticism, comparative Romanticism, translation studies, and the Russian Far East. At Clemson, Olga serves as the head of the Russian program, teaching all levels of the language as well as literature and culture courses.

The Department of Languages welcomed new assistant professor Arelis Moore de Peralta on July 1. She begins a joint tenure-track appointment with the Department of Youth, Family and Community Studies, where she has served as a research assistant professor with the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life since 2011. In her new interdisciplinary role, Moore de Peralta will teach three courses in Languages and one course in Youth, Family and Community Studies every year. The Languages courses, which include Spanish for Health Professionals, Technical Spanish for Health Management Professionals, and Health and Hispanic Community, will enrich the department’s Language and International Health (L&IH) program.

Moore de Peralta has a background in public health epidemiology and has worked on public health projects throughout Latin America. Her work with a Creative Inquiry team of Clemson students was recently featured in Clemson World magazine. The team traveled to Las Malvinas, a small community in the Dominican Republic, during spring break to conduct a community health assessment. Together with Dominican students from Iberoamerican University, the Clemson team members will use the data they collected to design a community health improvement plan for Las Malvinas. Moore de Peralta’s public health experience and ability to turn data into practice will be valuable additions to the L&IH program.

Click here to read the press release about Moore de Peralta’s joint appointment.

The Department of Languages served as a sponsor of the International Symposium on Comparative Intellectual History: Russia and China, a three-day event held in June at the Beijing Center of the University of Chicago in Beijing, China. Other sponsors included the Capital Normal University in Beijing and the University of Chicago. The conference featured plenary speakers from universities and other academic institutions across the United States and China. Jeff Love, Professor of German and Russian at Clemson, spoke at the opening and closing ceremonies and also gave a talk entitled “Alexandre Kojève and the Concept of Emptiness.” Michael Meng, Associate Professor of German History at Clemson, delivered a paper called “The Imperialism of Historie.” The University of Chicago Center in Beijing hosts regular conferences, lectures, seminars and other events on cultural topics.

Congratulations to Alton Brant, Joan Bridgwood, and Toshiko Kishimoto on their retirement! A party was held in their honor at the end of the Spring 2016 semester.

Dr. Alton Brant (Professor Emeritus, 1998-2016) developed the American Sign Language (ASL) program at Clemson University, the first and only public college/university in the State of South Carolina offering ASL for language credit. He introduced the Clemson community to Deaf Culture, and the faculty now train students in the discipline of interpreting. The Interpreter Education Program has directly impacted hundreds of deaf children (K-12) in the Southeast, training a new generation of interpreters.

Brant said, “I pinch myself orange and purple all the time. Coming to Clemson University was both a blessing and a dream come true. The former chair of the language department, Dr. Sandy King, and professor [emerita] of Spanish, Dr. Clementina Adams, had the vision to bring a visual language (ASL) to Clemson. I owe a debt of gratitude to them. They realized that millions of individuals throughout the world communicate through a visual signed language. Clemson is indeed a very special place and its students some of the best in the country.”

Joan Bridgwood (Senior Lecturer, 1986-2016) led the Russian program at Clemson for thirty years, took students to the St. Petersburg summer program, and taught Russian during the transition from the Cold War and the Soviet Union to glasnost and modern Russia.

“The first year I taught Russian (1986),” Bridgwood said, “the father of one of my 101 students would not allow her to bring her Russian textbook into his house, and when I traveled to Russia, conversations with Russians were stilted and in politically correct ‘peace between our countries’ language. During the 1990s, Clemson students studied Russian to take part in church missions, to speak the language of Russian friends, and to be challenged by a rich language. Many department heads later, and Russian studies circles back. Russian speakers and specialists are in short supply and I’m very grateful that Clemson has had the foresight to maintain Russian studies.”

Toshiko Kishimoto (Associate Professor, 1988-2016) started the Japanese program at Clemson and developed its minor, Modern Languages BA, and Language & International Trade BA. She has been the link between the university and the Japanese business community in Upstate South Carolina and a champion of Japanese culture in Clemson. Kishimoto received the Excellence Award in Teaching by Clemson University Student Government in 2008. She was also recognized by the Consolate General of Japan in Atlanta for her contribution to US-Japan relations, especially for her efforts as founder and principal of the Japanese Saturday School in Greenville, SC.

The Department of Languages is grateful for these faculty members’ many years of dedicated service.

The Department of Languages has established a fund to honor Leslie Williams, associate professor of Japanese, who passed away on July 10, 2014. The Dr. Leslie Williams Memorial Fund will be used for department events, especially Japanese cultural programs and Language and International Trade activities. The fund will be announced at the Language and International Trade Conference on March 9, 2016.

Williams joined the department in 1999. His academic research focused on Japanese pedagogy, Shintô rituals, pre-Meiji Japanese history, and Taoist cosmology and health maximization practices. He served as Director of the Language and International Trade (L&IT) Program from 2012 to 2014 and was the Assistant Chair of the Department of Languages from 2013 to 2014.

Williams had a passion for both teaching and his students. Twice he was named an Outstanding Clemson Professor by the university’s student government, and he also led a student trip to Kyoto, Japan, every other year for ten years.  Outside of class, Leslie played an active role in student life, leading the L&IT Society during the 2013-2014 academic year.

Donations to the fund may be made by check, payable to the Dr. Leslie Williams Memorial Fund, and mailed to Department of Languages, Clemson University, 717 Strode Tower, Clemson, SC 29634.

Stephen Fitzmaurice, assistant professor of American Sign Language, was awarded the National Association of the Deaf Golden Hands Award for his work with the South Carolina Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. The Golden Hand Award is bestowed by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and recognizes exemplary, volunteer contributions. It is awarded to an ally who has dedicated sustained major volunteer contributions to the Deaf Community.  Established in 1880, the NAD is one of America’s oldest non-profit organizations and serves as the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by and for Deaf individuals.  The NAD’s mission is to preserve, protect and promote the civil, human and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. This award was bestowed by an NAD Board member at the South Carolina Association of the Deaf biennial conference in early August. Fitzmaurice also provided a weeklong in-service training for practicing Educational Interpreters for the South Carolina Department of Education in July and discussed his research work at the Summer Interpreting and Translation Research Institute at Gallaudet University.

Graciela Tissera, associate professor of Spanish and director of the Language and International Health program, received the Frank A. Burtner Award for Excellence in Advising at the Clemson University Faculty Meeting in May, 2015. This award is presented to “the advisors of students or student organizations who excel in developing students in the areas of leadership, devotion to duty and service.” This award is funded in honor of Burtner who served Clemson University for many years as a professor and advisor to student organizations. One nominator noted that she “selflessly serves her students by providing opportunities for us to grow as leaders and by enhancing what we learn in class by facilitating out-of-class opportunities.” Tissera also presented two research papers on film and literature at national conferences: “We Greeks are the Chosen: The Golden Era of Courage and Glory in Alexander the Great by Robert Rossen” (Film & History Conference) and “Filmic Portrayals of the Subconscious Mind and the Game of Death” (Southeast Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures). She also chaired a session on film: “The Metaphor of Death in Film through Graphic Images and Surreal Transgressions.”

Raquel Anido, assistant professor of Spanish, received the John B. & Thelma A. Gentry Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities. This is Clemson’s highest honor for teaching in the humanities. Students and colleagues describe Anido as a passionate, energetic, enthusiastic and innovative teacher who pushes students to excel in a collaborative learning environment. One student noted that her “class feels like a conversation” where students learn from each other through engaging class discussion. Anido teaches courses in the literature, culture and cinema of Spain.

Other faculty news

Yanming An, professor of Chinese and Philosophy, published “Two Patterns of Cyclical View of History” in Philosophy Research, the top journal of philosophy in China, in August 2015.

Tiffany Creegan Miller, assistant professor of Spanish, received a grant from the Clemson University Humanities Advancement Board to research Kaqchikel Maya children’s songs and poetry in Guatemala in July 2015. This project is a continuation of fieldwork funded by the Tinker Foundation. Currently, she is collaborating with a Kaqchikel language instructor to produce educational recordings for her classes in Guatemala.

Salvador Oropesa, chair and profesor of Spanish, published “La épica de la derrota de la posguerra española en la novela catalana: Pa negre (2003) de Emili Teixidor y Les veus del Pamano (2004) de Jaume Cabré” in Transitions: Journal of Franco-Iberian Studies 10 (2015).

Melva Persico, lecturer of Spanish, published a book of poetry, Ink on Paper – Poems (Charleston: Melva Archer-Persico, 2014), and the article “Afro-Uruguayan Culture and Legitimation: Candombe and Poetry,” ed., Jerome C. Branche, Black Writing, Culture and the State in Latin America. (Nashville, Vanderbilt UP, 2015).

Johannes Schmidt, associate professor of German, published two articles in German on Johann Gottfried Herder; one explores Hölderlin’s reception of Herder, and the other investigates the rhetorical dimension of Herder’s religious writings. He is also co-editing a volume on “Herder and Religion” and presented a paper at last year’s meeting of the International Herder Society at Purdue University.  Schmidt will serve on the Fulbright West European Literature (Germanics [German Studies]) Discipline Peer Review Committee for 2015-2016.

Daniel J. Smith, associate professor of Spanish, presented his research on the difference between noun and verb phrases in Spanish-English bilingualism at the 6th Symposium on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education in Latin America in August 2015.  He is revising a book-length manuscript on Spanish-English bilingualism.

Eric Touya, associate professor of French, published two articles entitled “On Postcolonialism, Feminism, and History: Hélé Béji, Baudrillard, and the Arab Spring” in Dalhousie French Studies and “Claudel, l’Amérique, et la guerre 1914-1918” in Bulletin de la Société Paul Claudel. Paris: Classiques Garnier.