Language Department Chair SearchFor the past year and a half, the Department of Languages has been graciously headed by an interim chair, Professor Jose Caban (also the Chair of Architecture). This year the Department of Languages was able to conduct a national/ international search for the Chair position. The search process started in October 2001 as professors representing a wide range of different languages began to apply for the position, which involves heading a faculty comprising 42 members and representing nine languages, including American Sign Language. The Search Committee evaluating the applications was composed of the following members: Ms. Suzanne Atkinson (Student Services Program Coordinator, Language Dept.), Professor Alton Brant (American Sign Language), Professor John Bednar (French), Nathan Cowan (student representative, Japanese), Professor Paula Heusinkveld (Spanish), Professor Martin Jacobi (Chair of English Dept., outside representative), and Professor Margit M. Sinka (German; Chair of the Search Committee).
All Search Committee members evaluated each application and met in December to draw up a list of candidates to be interviewed at the annual convention of the Modern Language Association, held in New Orleans from Dec. 27th through Dec. 30th. The candidates in the top tiers unable to attend the convention were interviewed by telephone in early January. All interviews, whether at the convention or by phone, lasted close to an hour. Professors Heusinkveld and Sinka conducted the interviews. All candidates were asked to answer the same questions and to address the same topics. These were drawn up by the Search Committee from lists submitted by faculty members from the different language sections.
On the basis of the interviews, three candidates were invited for campus visits (Jan.--Feb.). Each spent at least two full days on campus. Their busy schedules included the following: ca. 6 meals, each with different small groups of faculty members, a campus tour conducted by students, meetings with department heads in the AAH College, with the Associate Deans, and with the Dean of the AAH College. A major event for each candidate was the Friday afternoon meeting with the entire Department of Languages. At that time, candidates presented their visions for the future of the department to the entire faculty and responded to questions from the faculty. These sessions were followed by a social hour with refreshments.
The Search Committee met at the conclusion of all campus interviews in order to compose a report to the Dean of the AAH College of its own impressions and to summarize the written comments that all faculty members had been urged to provide (these comments were also sent to AAH College Dean Jan Schach). Professor Nakuma from the University of Tennessee received the offer of the position. On April 4, 2002, the Department of Languages was informed of the welcome news that all negotiations were concluded and that Professor Constancio K. Nakuma would indeed become the new Chair of the Department of Languages. His tenure starts in July 2002.
Foreign Film SeriesIn the Fall, Bernadette Ginestet-Levine launched the first Foreign Movie Series at Clemson University. In the Spring Semester 2002 the Language Department had 12 foreign movies, including Farinelli (Italian), Un conte d' hiver (French), Amarcord (Italian), To Live (Chinese), Black rain (Japanese), Beyond silence (German), All about my mother (Spanish), Derzu Uzala (Russian/Japanese), Tin Drum (German), Before night falls (Cuban), and Bye Bye (French). The department will continue to show movies in the coming semester. The CU Foreign Movie Series takes place in the Lee Hall Auditorium (111) on Wednesdays at 7 PM and best of all: admission is free!
For more information contact:
Bernadette M. Ginestet-Levine
Department of Languages
505 Strode Tower
Clemson, SC 29634
(864) 656.3540
Contact Prof. Alton Brant for more information:
309 Strode Tower
(864) 656-3048
alton@clemson.edu
Dr. Yanming An has received a message from the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. It states, "It has been tentatively decided that Clemson University will be the beneficiary of Chinese government's 2002 book gifts...... The Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi (left) announced the gift during his visit (to Clemson campus). The actual book gifts may come up to 6 months later, and a book presentation ceremony is expected to be arranged upon the arrival of the books at Clemson." Only one university each year is selected, and this is an honor for Clemson University and its Chinese program.
Eric Arndt, a senior student majoring in history and philosophy, has been awarded a prize of first place in the best paper competition in the Southeast Conference of American Asian Studies Association in January 2002. He was awarded $ 100 in cash, and the paper will be published in the annual Southeast Review of Asian Studies. This paper was originally written for Phil/ Chin 312 "Philosophy in Ancient China" which Yanming taught in fall 2000, and thoroughly revised under Yanming's guidance last semester.
Also, Yanming will lead a faculty group, consisting of 10 people from several Departments of Clemson and Furman University, to China (Beijing and Shanghai) from May 16 to May 30.
In May 2001, Bernadette M. Ginestet-Levine chaired a session and presented a paper at the Congrès International des Etudes Francophones (International Conference for Francophone Studies), held in Portland, Maine. A revised version of this paper has just been published in the December issue of La Revue Française. The title of the article: "Femmes au désert, métaphores et métamorphoses".
Besides organizing the Clemson University Foreign Film series (elsewhere in this newsletter), she joined the university Poetry Project this Spring, and had her FR 411 students participate in the project, contributing French poems. Her own poems have been accepted for publication.
Chad Carson (Biology major, German minor) was a national finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship (Chad is only the second person in Clemson’s history to have made it to the national level!). He is known as "46," the number on his Clemson Tiger Football jersey.
Stephanie Gallagher (with Kevin Parker at CAAH Honors & Awards Day; double major: German and history) has passed the first of the two-stage screening process for a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship for Germany. In February 2002, the U.S. Fulbright Committee forwarded her application to the German Fulbright Committee. The final notification from Germany will probably come in April (she received an positive answer before this newsletter was published). The Fulbright Teaching Assistantship covers travel and all expenses for one year in Germany. In turn, Stephanie would assist a German teacher of English at a German secondary school. Alexia Andrews (French major/German minor) received a Rotary Grant for one year of French and German study in Switzerland for the academic year 2002/03. In the summer of 2001, Alexia spent one month in the state of Brandenburg (close to Berlin), participating in the "Projekt Weltoffenheit." Teams of four native speakers of English (one from the U.S., one from Great Britain, and two from other English speaking areas) work with youth in the eastern state of Brandenburg. Through social and cultural activities, they promote democratic principles. Henry White (German L&IT major) will be participating in the same program in the summer of 2002.
Singing Christmas songs at the German Club, December 2001 Christmas party in the International House: German Christmas Party singers from German 201: Steven Jackson (Dr. Sinka’s "Freshman of the Year"!) and Melissa Curry.
German Professor Emeritus Ed Arnold and May 2001 German L&IT graduate Melanie Thompson (who now works at BMW) participating with gusto in the singing at the 2001 German Club X-Mas party.
ISEP (International Student Exchange Program) - Clemson is a member of this consortium headquartered at Georgetown University. Currently two students from the German Section are spending one year on ISEP in Germany. According to all accounts, Lawton Davies (German major) is having the time of his life (!) at the University of Marburg, and Trevor Pittman (German L&IT major) is avidly supplying the worldwide web with marvelous photos of his stay at the University of Trier (Germany’s oldest city). Trevor is following in the footsteps of his brother Tanner Pittman (German L&IT graduate, May 2001), who had also studied in Trier. (Tanner is now living in Athens, Georgia, happily married to a Hungarian/Romanian student he met in Trier.) Rebecca Petrush (French major/ German minor) is completing an ISEP semester in Trier and will move on to another ISEP semester in Belgium. The ISEP-program will be depleting numbers in the German Section during the upcoming academic year. The following students from the German sction are planning on spending the 2002/03 academic year under ISEP in Germany: Elizabeth Barrier (playing the harp at Honors and Awards Day; German L&IT), Katherine Brown (German L&IT), Nicole Coester (double major: Sociology and German), David Holmes (German L&IT), Matt Nicoletta (German L&IT), Lisa Ruppert (Microbiology major, German minor), and Amanda Wertz (Speech and Communication).
ACTFL: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Including all levels of foreign language instruction from the elementary school level through graduate school, the ACTFL is the largest professional foreign language organization in the U.S. Among the major awards it grants each year is the Edwin Cudecki Award, given to someone outside of the foreign language profession who has contributed in significant ways to the promotion of foreign languages. Due to the nomination of Clemson German Professors Ed Arnold (Professor Emeritus), Judith Melton (currently Interim Associate Dean of the AAH College), and Margit Sinka, Professor Melsheimer (Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Science) received this prestigious award in November 2001 at the annual AATG Conference, for his promotion of international study for engineering students. Professors Schmidt and Sinka from the German Section attended the ceremony.
View program anouncment here.
Toshiko Kishimoto with Samuel Mullen (JAAWSC Award for Excellence in Japanese) at Honors and Awards Day.
Tanya Murray is a graduating senior, who is majoring in L&IT Japanese.
Upon successfully completing an internship in Japan, she was employed by an international industry, a joint venture of German and Japanese companies, in Anderson as a part time employee. After graduating from Clemson, she will be a full-time QC facilitator for the company.
Here is her letter to to Toshiko Kishimoto (February 2002):
"Based on my upcoming Bachelor of Arts in Language and International Trade, Japanese Track, this January I was hired as CIP Facilitator at AFCO (Automotive Fuel Pump Corp.) in Anderson, SC. AFCO is a joint venture between Japan's Denso and Germany's Bosch Corporations, and, as the name suggests, they manufacture fuel pumps for a third of the cars in the North American region. Their customers include BMW, Toyota, and Ford, to name a few. The CIP (Continuous Improvement Process) Facilitator position involves facilitating work teams throughout the plant. The CIP program gives AFCO's associates opportunities to discover ways to improve the company in the areas of quality, productivity, safety, and cost in order to meet with company goals. Other incentives, besides achievement and recognition, include the opportunity to travel to competitions around North America and Because I did not have training in CIP Facilitation before getting hired, it would have been difficult to acquire this position without my language skills or the valuable networking connections I gained through studying Japanese at Clemson. My manager is Japanese, as are other managers and executives in the plant, so I have many opportunities to use my language skills. I am currently working part time until I finish my degree in May 2002. After graduation, AFCO will decide about my full time employment status."
RUSSIAN PROGRAM IN ST PETERSBURG AND MOSCOW
THE MONTH OF JUNE WAS STILL WHITE NIGHTS IN ST PETERSBURG WHEN SEVERAL CLEMSON STUDENTS TOOK ADVANTAGE OF A GRANT TO STUDY RUSSIAN LANGUAGE THERE.
Rachel Bedenbaugh had already taken 2 years of Russian before leaving. She lived with a Russian family: "I not only caught onto the language quickly, but immediately fell in love with the people and the culture. I received the Language Department's scholarship last semester to study abroad in St. Petersburg, and those five weeks were some of the best times of my life. Through the Russian Department I have not only been exposed to a new culture and a beautiful language, but also to great friends, chances to travel abroad, and important leadership skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life."
Mark Webb, a Biological Science major, knew no Russian and took 5 weeks of intensive language classes in the mornings with outings and visits to other towns in the afternoons and weekends: "A year has passed. The first trip to Russia has become a part of my autobiography. Hermitage’s collection is not just dim pictures from NPR’s series or illustrations from my art books anymore, but vivid images in my head. Raskolnikov’s room now means so much more than just a few epithets in the book. Russian people, the beautiful Russian countryside, instead of being abstract notions, now hold a firm spot in my memory." Mark plans to return this summer.
Morelia 2001: Summer Abroad Program with Paula Heusinkveld.
Sandy King, who has a joint appointment with the Art Department, published a number of articles on Photography. "Carbo Printing" and "Pigment Printmaking with the Carbon Process" were published in Photovision, "Ultraviolet Light Sources for Printing with the Alternative Processes" in the on-line magazine The Unblinking Eye, at <http://www.unblinkingeye.com>.
Carmen Chavez repeated her Summer Abroad Program in Spain. She also taught Spanish 316 (Business Spanish) in the summer.
