World Languages at Boise State Newsletter
November 2023
What’s a Comfort Food in Your Language’s Culture?
For this month’s newsletter, we asked World Language faculty to share a comfort food from their language’s culture. Watch the video to learn more!
French Lecturer Brittney Gehrig Receives 2023 GEM Award
Brittney Gehrig, a Lecturer of French in the Department of World Languages, was recently awarded a GEM Innovative Educator Award by the Idaho State Board of Education. The award was presented at a GEM Conference ceremony Oct. 13. All seven of Idaho’s higher education institutions nominated general education instructors for the awards. Gehrig was Boise State’s 2023 nominee in the Humanistic and Artistic Ways of Knowing category and the university’s only state-wide winner. She was recognized as exemplary among a group of talented arts and humanities instructors from across the state.
Fatima Cornwall Receives American Translator Association Award
Fatima Cornwall received the American Translator Association’s 2023 School Outreach Contest award for her efforts in giving Idaho high school students a peek inside the court interpreter profession. The award ceremony took place in Miami, Florida, last October during ATA’s 64th annual conference. Cornwall also presented a microtalk titled “Open Educational Resources for Interpreter Training.” Cornwall is both a state and federally certified court interpreter, as well as a certified medical interpreter through the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI).
Basque Studies Organizes and Hosts the 2nd International Conference on Cultural Studies: Translation: Wor(l)ds in Other Wor(l)ds
Faculty from the Basque Studies program, Nere Lete and Ziortza Gandarias Beldarrain in collaboration with the Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno organized and hosted the 2nd International Conference on Cultural Studies at Boise State University from September 14th to 16th. The aim of the conference was to create a dialogue between translation studies and other areas of cultural studies. National and international scholars from different fields of translational research meet at Boise State to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and new paradigms that the field offers.
Events
Spanish Club takes place every Wednesday at 12:00pm in the WLRC Computer Lab.
Visit the World Languages table in the Student Union Atrium during International Education Week, November 13-15th.
Opportunities
French Advising Newsletter
French students, be sure to check out this semester’s advising newsletter!
French 304: Introduction to French and Francophone Literature
Past Presence in Germany Today- 1 Credit Workshop
Updates
World Language Faculty Present at IATLC
The Idaho Association of Teachers of Language and Culture meet for their annual conference October 20-21 at Boise State University.
Brittney Gehrig, Dr. Mariah Devereux Herbeck, Sharon Westbrook, and Madelynn Ruhter, "Cultural Reflections Workshop: Cultural Competency and Student Retention" (OER Focus)
Dr. Manuel Gómez Navarro, "Project Presentation: "La noche boca arriba": An Immersive Literary Experience" (Spanish Focus)
Dr. Beret Norman, "Buntes Deutschland: Fokus auf Schwarze Deutsche / Colorful Germany: Focus on Black Germans" (German Focus)
Karen Wadley, "World Building as History and Culture in Original Compositions" (Latin Focus)
Dr. Carolina Viera and Carlos Linares, Ph.D Candidate, "Proyecto Ciencia: Learning Languages through Science Communication" (Spanish Focus)
Dr. Sharon Wei, "Tips for Teaching Mandarin Chinese with Reduced Stress" (Mandarin Focus)
Adrian Kane
On October 4th, students from Adrian Kane's Spanish 498 class on The Environment in Latin American Literature and Culture conducted a cultural exchange via Zoom with Bolivian students from the Private Technological University of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (UTEPSA). Students discussed environmental issues facing the U.S. and Bolivia as well as other general cultural topics such as family, food, and education.
Manuel Gómez-Navarro
The Spanish course SPAN377 Latin American Cultures, led by the Adjunct Instructor of Spanish Manuel Gómez-Navarro, joined forces with Boise State University’s Center for Global Engagement in the 100k Strong cultural exchange initiative. Within this endeavor, the students in SPAN377, including Kya, Nicole, Yisel, Preston, Nathan, Shelby, Anna, Liam, and Keslee, were afforded the unique opportunity to partake in a presentation on Peru and engage in a cultural exchange experience with students and faculty from the Andean region.
Amber Hoye and Kelly Arispe
On October 16-18, 2023, Kelly Arispe and Amber Hoye, Pathways Project Co-Directors presented "Partnering with Teacher Coaches and Undergraduate OER Editors to Grow preK-16 Open Educational practices.”
Hoye also presented a session with University of Wyoming librarian, Shannon M. Smith, titled "Putting it All Together: A Digestible and Actionable Framework for Incorporating Third Party Content." Additionally, on Wednesday Hoye participated as a panel participant in the session "Lessons from the Field: Transforming Education with the Code of Best Practice in Fair Use for OER."
Jason Herbeck
Jason Herbeck co-wrote and served as Academic Advisor for the entry on Albert Camus' novel, La Chute (The Fall), published recently in the Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism series by Gale, a Cengage Company, in association with Layman Poupard Publishing. Published shortly before French-Algerian writer Albert Camus (1913-1960) was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature, The Fall is among the last pieces of fiction he completed.
Herbeck also recently presented a paper titled, "Masques et marasa comme métaphores: L’équivoque de la gémellité dans Les Jumelles de la rue Nicolas d’Évelyne Trouillot" ("Masks and Marasa as Metaphors: The Ambivalence of Twinness in The Twins of Nicolas Street by Évelyne Trouillot"), at the 35th annual Haitian Studies Association conference on the topic of "Ayiti Se Tè Glise: Im/Migration, Movement & In-Betweenness," held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Nere Lete
Nere Lete discussed the importance of Basque Women leaders focusing on their stronger social commitment and participatory leadership at a Basque Educational Organization (BEO) event. This year’s theme was Euskal Andreen Egintza Amerikan, The Impact of Basque Women in America. Professor Lete was invited to participate in the panel discussion: Today’s Basque Women Leaders and Their Impact on Basque Communities.
Becca Sibrian
Becca Sibrian is currently working with the REBUS Community as a facilitator for a Textbook Success Program cohort. She is mentoring three teams from across the US who are in the process of creating OER texts in their respective fields - Change in Context: Applied Calculus, Deep Sea Biology, and Elements of Art and Principles of Design for Classroom Teachers.
Karen Wadley
Karen Wadley was invited to share reflections on her life as a fur-trapper reenactor on August 31, as part of Boise State University's MashUp: Little Lectures for an Odd World! series, hosted by the College of Innovation and Design and the College of Arts and Sciences.