Department News

LLC News

All are welcome to attend the BILPOC Lifting, Climbing, and Thriving Conference April 26, 2024, 8:30am-4:30pm in the Campus Center Boardroom, theme: Sustaining Scholarship and Scholars.  Contact:  Carmen Serrano (cserrano4@albany/edu).

 
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

8:30 a.m. - Registration and Welcome

• Light Breakfast Included

9:00 to 9:15 a.m. - Opening Remarks

• Carmen A. Serrano & Samuel Caldwell

9:15 to 10:30 a.m. - Race and Social Justice

     Victorio Reyes Asili, “I Talk Sense Condensed - A Talk about Form in Hip Hop”

     Kyra Gaunt, “The Magic of Black Girls’ Play”

     Tammy Ellis Robinson, “Explorations in Education/Networks and Pathways: Intergenerational 
     Mentoring Project”

     Jonathan Dirlam, “Are Content Warnings Necessary? Why creating a safe and inclusive 
     environment is important when discussing sensitive topics”

• Moderator: Glyne Griffith

10:30 to 10:45 a.m. - Break

10:45 a.m. to Noon - CAS Voices

     Dean Jeanette Altarriba, “Research with Bilingual, Clinical Populations: Opportunities for Theory, 
     Data, and Practice Development”

     Mitch Aso, Medical Doctors, “Vietnamese Bodies, and Global Nature: The Politics of Environmental 
     Health during the Cold War, 1952-1991”

     Verónica Pérez, “The Cerro Jazmín Archaeological Project: 16 years of investigating the 
     environmental and human impact of urbanism in the Mixtec Highlands”

     Lotfi Sayahi, “Promoting linguistic diversity research on the ground: The story of the African 
     Linguistics School (ALS)”

• Moderator: Rosie Hurtado, SUNY Oswego

Noon to 1:15 p.m. - Lunch

Keynote Speaker: Ricardo Nazario-Colon, Senior Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/Chief Diversity Office

• Introduced by: Elizabeth Vásquez

1:15 to 2:15 p.m. - World Café & Dessert

      Exploring Ideas and Building Connections through World Café

• Moderator: Luis Felipe Luna

2:15 to 3:15 p.m. - Introducing the Graduate Pathways for Scholars

     Michelle Urman, “The Interplay of Fertility and Aging: Are Stem Cells the Answer?”

     Jesus Frias, ”Developing a new class of drugs as a potential treatment for Myotonic Dystrophy 
     type 1.”

      Emmanuel Adade, Dissecting host-microbiome interactions

• Moderator: Marlene Belfort

3:15 to 4:15 p.m. - Identities, Inequities and Representation

     Klaus E. Cavalhieri, “Internalized Capitalism: Self-worth and need for productivity”

     Tassiana Moura de Oliveira, “Corpo, terra e mar: Beatriz Nascimento’s concepts of quilombo and 
     quilombismo”

     Carmen Serrano, “The Yaquis’ Re-emergence Chicano Literature and Culture”

• Moderator: Giza Lopes

4:15 to 4:30 p.m. - Closing Remarks DeeDee Bennett Gayle, University at Albany

• Introduced by: Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan

Events co-sponsored by: 
College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), CEMHD (Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities), Center for Technology in Government (CTG), The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC), The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), School of Public Health (SPH), and United University Professions (UUP), Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS).

All are invited to a free public screening of Garri Bardin’s modern Russian animation classic The Ugly Duckling (Stayer Studios, Russia, 2010) Monday, April 29, 2024 in the Science Library Standish Room 1:10-3:40PM. The film is a delightful clay-animation and musical interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, which Bardin has reworked into a political allegory about conformism, ostracism, and personal courage, with echoes of Orwell’s Animal Farm. Film music is adapted from ballets of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with song lyrics by the Russian satirical singer-songwriter Yuliy Kim. The film is in Russian with complete English subtitles. The screening will be introduced with a far-ranging lecture by the prominent Russian literary and film critic, poet, novelist, and political commentator Dmitry Bykov, and followed by questions and answers with the director himself, Garri Bardin, via Zoom. Cosponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, the English Department, the Center for Humanities, Arts and Technoscience (CHATS), and other UAlbany units.  Questions:  [email protected].  Flier.

Congratulations to Nyssa Knarvick (SPN graduate, now back working at UAlbany’s Center for Advancing Teaching, Learning and On-line Education, CATLOE) for winning this year's Terra Award for Staff and to Oliva Dirla (FRE minor) for winning this year's Terra Award for Students!  For details visit: UAlbany Announces Annual Terra Awards for Commitment to Sustainability | University at Albany.

Congratulations to Arely González Hernández, one of the recipients of this year’s ‘Situation Prize - Community, Cause and Advocacy’ which supports undergraduate research, community service and other projects that meet a critical community need. Arely received the prize for her work as part of the Podcast Team led by Prof. Carmen Serrano.

Congratulations to Haley Bowman (SPN and Psych double major) who won the 2023-2024 Presidential Award for Undergraduate Research at the University at Albany for her project, “Relationship between working memory and second language grammar” with research mentor Professor Sara Zahler.

Thanks to Maria Keyes for her 35 years of dedicated service to the University at Albany, LLC, the Italian Program, colleagues,  and all our students!  UAlbany celebrated long-term employees (25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 50+ years) in a special event 3/12/24.

Congratulations to Dora Ramirez who is a distinguished nominee for this year's Faculty and Student Engagement Spark Award! Congratulations also to Charlie Giglio and Ben Mielenz who were also nominated. It's a great recognition of all you do for our students and our U! Thank you!

Carmen Serrano presented "UAlbany Student Stories" at the UAlbany Emeritus Center March 25, 2024.

Plan on joining us for our fifth Living in Languages Colloquium February 20-21, 2024 international and in Zoom!  It will be focused on issues of “translation” broadly understood, in a literal but also expanded sense that can address not only questions of reading and ideology, nor only core theorists whose focus on this topic remains vital, but also translation understood as exile, displacement geographical and linguistic, and translation in our era of twitter consciousness, warring media bubbles, and the screen as public space. Issues 1 and 2 of our Living in Languages Journal—online, open access, peer-refereed—generated by our graduate students and recent graduates with the aim of making available to colloquium participants past and future a space to publish their work are available at https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/liljournal/ . 

LLC's Spanish Club created a Dia de los Muertos ofrenda at the Humanities building 1st floor display cases to share these traditions with the campus community.  Read more here:  https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2023-ualbany-students-celebrate-lost-loved-ones-day-dead-altars.

Congratulations to our newest PhD in Spanish, Dr. Sarah Rubio, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation ¨La adquisición de variación sociolingüística en el aula: el caso del pretérito perfecto compuesto y pretérito perfecto simple a través del enfoque cognitivo¨ 10/16/23!

The "Libros/Arte: Handmade Books from Latin America & the Caribbean" exhibit at the UAlbany Art Museum and runs through 12/4/23. Over 80 handmade books on view by small presses push the boundaries of traditional printing techniques while addressing a range of political, social, and cultural subjects. Exhibition organized in partnership with UAlbany’s M.E. Grenander Special Collections and Archives, Dept of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; and Dept of Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies. See https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=978768736838778&id=100041169836005&mibextid=Nif5oz or https://www.albany.edu/.../UAM_Libros%20Arte_Press... for more info. Many thanks to our own Ilka Kressner (SPN) and our subject librarian Jesús Alonso-Regalado who were instrumental in making this exhibit!

Join us in Zoom September 29, 2023 for our first webinar associated with our UAlbany Museum's cartonera exhibit. Register at: https://albany.libcal.com/event/11272188 -- discussion in Spanish.

Carmen Serrano's BILPOC initiative continues to grow and thrive in its second year. Read more here: www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2023-ualbanys-bilpoc-faculty-advancement-initiative-embarks-its-second-year.

Congratulations to LLC's newly promoted Lecturer IIs, Leonardo Correa (SPN) and Véronique Martin (FRE), and to our new Full-time Lecturer and French Program Director, Caroline Herbelin (FRE)!

Lotfi Sayahi (SPN) co-taught a course with John Victor Singler at the Linguistic Society of America’s 2023 Summer Institute hosted by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Congratulations to Mary Beth Winn (FRE emerita), new UAlbany Emeritus Center 2023 William L. Reese Fellow. The program honors UAlbany emeriti for sustained, consequential, and exemplary post-retirement professionally-related contributions and achievements in scholarship/creative productions, teaching, or service, in or outside the U. Since retirement in 2013 she has enthusiastically continued her scholarly research focusing on French late medieval and renaissance literatur, recently completing a critical edition of a 600-page text: Robert Gobin, Les Loups ravissans (Paris: Vérard, ca. 1506), which is under review by the Toronto Studies in Romance Philology, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto. Other recent work ncludes two books (Roman de Tristan in two volumes, and the co-edited Opera Omnia of the Renaissance composer Jean Mouton), twelve chapters in books, four journal articles, and one review article. She continues to present in international conferences and is currently working on two other projects: a collaboration with a musicologist on the critical edition of a renowned 15th-century manuscript, the Laborde chansonnier, and a database of the editions of the French Renaissance publisher Anthoine Vérard (1485-1512).

Congratulations to Professor Carmen Serrano (SPN) who is this year's Cynthia A. Fox awardee for excellence in service!

Congratulations to all 2023 graduates, scholarship awardees, and honor society inductees!

Congratulations to Leann Nicholas (SPN) who was named 2023 SUNY Scholar-Athlete of the Year!

Congratulations to Nyssa Knarvik (SPN) for winning the 2023 Showcase Day's "Best Graduate Student Posters, Presentations & Performances" in the humanities for her poster titled, “Development of spoken lexical complexity in Spanish learners!”

Congratulations to Prof Patrick Lawrence (SPN) and his Spanish students (Ariana Ball, Yoaliz Bonilla, Tyra Echevarria, and Aaliyah Hussain) for winning the Showcase Day Showcase People’s Choice Award for their presentation “La salud mental (Mental Health)!”

Join our students on their most recent podcast interviewing Latin student Colin Mance at https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/Wk4Lztb8Zyb  

Congratulations to Carmen Serrano for all her efforts coordinating the BILPOC Mental Health in Communities of Color Symposium 3/31/23. It was a great success with over 200 attending! https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/capital-region/news/2023/04/02/addressing-mental-health-disparities-in-ny-s-communities-of-color

LLC's annual Spanish Day 3/24/23 and Francophone Day 3/29/23 held in conjunction with UAlbany in the High School offers high school students in UHS programs around NY State the opportunity to participate in day-long Spanish and French immersion activities on the UAlbany campus at no cost. Students enjoy interacting with and learning from UAlbany languages faculty and students and native speakers from a variety of Hispanophone and Francophone cultures.   

All are invited to the 5th annual Living in Languages Colloquium March 22-23, 2023 focused on issues of “translation” broadly understood, in a literal but also expanded sense that can address not only questions of reading and ideology, nor only core theorists whose focus on this topic remains vital, but also translation understood as exile, displacement geographical and linguistic, computer-assisted translation, translation and violence, and the teaching of translation.  Keynote: 3/22 12–1pm in HU354: “Living Translation: Considerations for Teaching, Research, Creative Activity, and Service.” Regina Galasso, Associate Prof. Spanish & Portuguese Studies and Director of Translation Center, UMass Amherst.  Special Session: 3/23 12:45–1:30pm in HU290: “The Architecture of Language” Benjamin Miller, ENG BA alum now teaching at Emory University, speaking on language and computational methods.

Visit our Living in Languages Journal-online, open access, peer-reviewed (https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/liljournal/).

Congratulations to Charlie Giglio for being nominated for the Torch Faculty/Student Engagement Award (recognizing faculty who’ve had an above and beyond positive, significant, transformational impact on graduating seniors’ academic and personal success)!  Students said: He’s a perfect example of what every professor should be—kind, understanding, there for [the students], extremely dedicated to teaching and challenging everyone to do their best. I feel genuinely blessed to have had him as a professor. The epitome of that professor you always remember and think very highly of. Takes students to lunch, bends over backward when he sees a student struggling, empowers and guides his students like no other. Lessons in the classroom are extremely valuable life lessons. I am so glad I met Mr. G--my life has been changed for the better in so many ways.

March 18, 2023 Professor Carmen Serrano will be a keynote speaker at the 2023 LELACS Conference: Travel and Language - Narrating the Immigrant Experience at the University of Rochester. The talk title is: Narrating their Immigrant Journey: UAlbany Student Stories, A Podcast Series. Narrating the Immigrant Experience Podcasts, as a mode of storytelling, are exploding in popularity whereby listeners enjoy an intimate connection with the storyteller. Each episode chronicles student lives and underscores the many societal and institutional barriers they endure and overcome. Through their heartfelt and engaging stories, grounded in the humanities, university students implicitly teach listeners about the power of empathy and its role in strengthening democratic practices in the United States.
https://events.rochester.edu/event/narrating_their_immigrant_journey_ualbany_student_stories_a_podcast_series

Hernan Diaz, former LLC SPN faculty, presented with the NYS Writer's Institiute on campus March 9, 2023 discussing his new novel, Trust (2022), "a mind-blowing and multi-layered narrative, the book is composed of four manuscripts, each telling a different version of the life of a Wall Street tycoon and his wife, building to Black Thursday and the Great Depression. One of the most talked-about novels of the year, Trust was named one of the “Top Ten Books of 2022” in both the New York Times and the Washington Post, and long-listed for the Booker Prize. Born in Argentina and raised in Sweden, his first novel, In the Distance (2017), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize."  (per www.nyswritersinstitute.org/)

Congratulations to Leanne Nichols (Spanish major) who just won the America East Indoor Championships in women's triple jump!  ¡Felicidades campeona!  2/21/23.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Portuguese, Stephen Bocskay presented “Octavio Paz and Translation” at LLC’s first Spring 2023 Seminar, 2/24/23 12:30-1:30pm in HU290. 

Congratulations to Patrick Lawrence (SPN Visiting Assistant Professor) for being recognized for teaching excellence by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP)!

Congratulations to Nerisha Padilla Cruz for being selected as the recipient of the 2023 Maurice J. Westmoreland Award for Excellence in Research by a Spanish graduate student!

French is again offering FRE270-Business French spring 2023, helpful for anyone interested in working internationally!  The course is also good preparation for the internationally recognized Paris Chamber of Commerce Business French certification exam offered every summer at UAlbany (UAlbany is a certified testing site).  If questions or to sign up to take the exam, contact French Professor, Veronique Martin ([email protected]).

Listen to our student podcast series:  Meet UAlbany students where they are, what has shaped them to date, inspired them, how they've handled struggles and grown through them. Spanish students working with Professor Carmen Serrano capture oral histories of UAlbany students who often find themselves on the periphery of higher education and/or society, students for whom English is not their primary language, immigrants, minoritized communities, non-traditional college students, Dreamers, undocumented students, LGBTQ community members and allies, students with disabilities and military veterans. Hear what they have to say in their own words.  https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/XLdMvHcbvub

LLC Spanish lecturers and University in the High School liaisons Leonardo Correa and Dora Ramirez organized this year's Annual UHS Spanish Teacher Workshop 11/4/22 in the Campus Center, attended by 40 Spanish teachers (in-person and virtually) from NYS high schools participating in the UHS Program. LLC faculty Patrick Lawrence, Leonardo Correa, and Dora Ramirez presented on to teaching Spanish as a foreign language and Billie Franchini from ITLAL spoke on teaching strategies to minimize cheating. The day ended with a resource sharing session of teachers discussing pedagogical matters with their colleagues. The event was also sponsored and supported by Jeanette Altarriba, CAS Dean and Debernee Privott, CAS Assistant Dean for Public Engagement.

Congratulations to Nicholas Figueroa (SPN PhD) for receiving a $25K grant to further his community work in his Latinos Urban Book Club which focuses on LatinX authors! Read more: https://bronx.news12.com/bronx-man-receives-25-000-award-from-bad-bunny-for-community-service.

Professor Ilka Kressner is hosting a talk with her COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) collaborator José Luis Jiménez from Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas on "Neoselva:  Ecological Activism and Ancestral Knowledges in Venezuela" Wednesday 10/12/22 11:40am in Zoom (contact [email protected] for the link).  Professor Jiménez researches and teaches in online collaborative learning, journalism, human rights and human ecology.  He has been a nature photographer, filmmaker and environmental activist for 30 years.  His talk will give an overview on the history of spaces of environmental conservation efforts in Venezuela form the late 1980s to today.

LLC seeks a FULL-TIME LECTURER OF FRENCH: 2-3 course load and directing the French program (including: curriculum development, supervision of adjuncts, course scheduling, advisement and recruitment of French students, minors and interdisciplinary majors, coordination and oversight of extracurricular activities, and the French honor society, contribution to activities in the department). Requirements: a PhD in French/Francophone Studies or related discipline from a college or university accredited by the US Department of Education or an internationally recognized accrediting organization completed by June 1, 2023, native or near-native French and English, training in foreign language pedagogy. Preferred: experience supervising teaching staff in foreign languages. Application must include CV, cover letter stating candidate’s required minimum qualifications and preferred qualifications, 15-page writing sample, teaching philosophy statement, statement of candidate’s contributions to diversity, 3 letters of recommendation (one addressing the candidate’s teaching experience). THE UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY IS AN EO/AA/IRCA/ADA EMPLOYER. Review of applications begins 10/17/22. For complete posting and to apply: http://albany.interviewexchange.com/candapply.jsp?JOBID=152121 .

Read about Prof Ilka Kressner's ecology focus in her ASPN 443/ASPN 516 Ecology and the Arts in Latin America course this fall in the most recent issue of UAlbany's Sustainability Bulletin (page 3) at Fall 2022 - OneDrive (sharepoint.com).

Baratynsky Day – March 5, 2022 – Celebrating Russian Poetry
LLC’s Professor Timothy Sergay, St. Rocco’s Readings for the Dispossessed, and the Ugly Duckling Presse co-hosted the 3rd Annual Baratynsky Day on March 5, 2022. Russian and Russian-American poets, scholars, translators, and poetry enthusiasts enjoyed readings of Russian poems from all periods. For more information email Alexis Bhagat of St. Rocco’s at [email protected] or Professor Sergay at [email protected]. Watch a recording of the event (Passcode: p1QHyhH* -- Prof Sergay reads at 3:18-3:25); last year’s recording: (Prof Sergay reads at 1:30-1:41). 

Jean-François Brière's New Book
The fourth edition of Les Français (Les Français (Fourth Edition) - New in Modern Languages - New & Forthcoming (hackettpublishing.com)), edited by Julie Fette, Assoc Prof of French at Rice University, and our own Jean-François Brière, Prof Emeritus of French, was recently published. Fette and Brière were interviewed by France-Amérique about the book.

New Arabic course
ARA250-Arabic Culture, taught in English, is being debuted spring 2022!  The course introduces students to different cultures of the Arabic-speaking world across the Middle East and North Africa. 

2021 News

Congratulations to Robert Maisel
(SPN BA) on his new book “Transform Through Travel: Connecting Across Cultures” which has become a #1 International Best-Seller!

Congratulations to Professor Emeritus Henryk Baran
(RUS) just published, "Roman Jakobson and American Slavic Studies: The First Postwar Decade!"

Congratulations to Professor Cynthia Fox
who just received the UAlbany Emeritus Center's "Three Voices" Grant for her project “Franco-American French in New York State Digital Archive.“

Obituary
It is with sadness that LLC shares the loss of UAlbany scholar, Hans Pohlsander 6/26/21. A professor of Classics at UAlbany starting in 1962 and chair of the Classics Department, he retired in 1995. His most recent work was in German-American studies and German history.

Obituary
LLC is saddened to share the loss of UAlbany Professor Emeritus of German, John Spalek, who passed away 6/5/21. He chaired the German Department and pursued his passion here many years working on the German emigre project at the university library, where he documented German emigration to the US rom 1933-1945. He is remembered as a good man and a significant scholar.

Russian Professor Timothy Sergay
was interviewed by the TASS News Agency. Expert: Geneva Summit Means a Chance to Renew Behind-the-Scenes But Effective Diplomacy. UAlbany Associate Professor Timothy Sergay Hopes the Summit Will Restart What He Would Call "Deep Diplomacy." TASS News Agency, 26 May 2021.

Congratulations
to Denise Osborne, Lecturer of Portuguese and Janna Harton, LLC’s Department Manager on being the inaugural recipients of the Cynthia A. Fox Award for Excellence in Service to LLC 2021.  Thank you Denise and Janna for your exemplary work and tireless efforts to promote our languages and support faculty, staff, and students.

Congratulations to Arabic instructor, Rana Alsaedi
who just published a co-authored article in the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. 
A Pragmatics-based Appeal to Saving Face so as to Save Lives: On Intercultural Pragmatic Awareness (or rather: Lack thereof) in a Handbook for US Soldiers Deployed for Iraq (2021) Journal of Intercultural Communication Research.

Congratulations
to our newest Spanish PhD, Dr. Jaime Mundo, who successfully defended his dissertation 5/14/21.

Congratulations these LLC faculty for their recent research awards:   
-    Ilka Kressner for “Ecocriticism in Colombian Literature Today: The Writings of William Ospina” 
-    Carmen Serrano for “Student Stories: Season 2”
-    Sara Zahler for “Testing the phonological/executive hypothesis: The relationship between working memory and grammatical gender in second language Spanish” 

Congratulations to Michaela Kirwan
recipient of the Center of Undergrad Research and Creative Engagement Summer Stipend Program award for research this summer! Undergrads and their faculty mentors (Professor Lotfi Sayahi in this case) submitted collaborative applications. Per CURCE “Competition was stiff,” but hers was an “outstanding example of the high quality of research conducted by undergraduate students at UAlbany.”

Congratulations to Samantha Pappalau
who has been selected to be a North American Language and Cultural Assistant in Spain, sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training of Spain (NALCAP)! She will be working as an English teacher in a K-12 school in Spain.

Congratulations to Sana Effendi
Spanish/Biology double major, who is one of only three UAlbany winners of the 2021 Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence!

Marina Bonilla and Elsa Cembrero
(PhD students in Spanish Linguistics) are participating in the 10th Annual Hispanic & Lusophone Linguistics Conference March 2021 organized by Arizona State University.
Variación de /s/ final en la Provincia de Málaga: un cambio en curso - Marina Bonilla Conejo
Las perífrasis "haber de + infinitivo" y "tener que + infinitivo" en la prensa de la región bilingüe de Ibiza - Elsa Cembrero Bonet

Professor Timothy Sergay
and 50+ Russian and Russian-American poets, scholars, translators, and Russian poetry enthusiasts celebrated Baratynsky Day 3/6/21, an international and multilingual celebration of Russian poetry.   Professor Sergay performed and read his translation of World War II poem, “I Was Killed Close to Rzhev” by Aleksandr Tvardovsky (Professor Sergay is at 1:30-1:41), which will be published in a bilingual anthology in early 2021 in Moscow.

French-Canadian French Podcast
Dr. Cynthia Fox sits down with Jesse with this for a really interesting episode, for multiple reasons. We’ve talked about the differences between Quebec French and France French but this week we’re studying French-Canadian French and how it can be different within the same state. Also she’ll touch on the Franco-American story of New York.

Congratulations Mirna Álvarez and Fiordaliza Ippolito! 
SUNY Buffalo Romance Studies Journal has published articles by two of our Hispanic literatures and cultures PhD students in the Special Edition "Belonging in Worlds: Occupying Spaces and Forming Relationships".

Mirna L. Álvarez: Discurso tergiversado en los tribunales del caso de Ricardo Aldape Guerra

Fiordaliza Ippolito: Los medios de comunicación mediados por las masas: ¿Evolución o revolución?

Congratulations to Ricardo Estremera
(ABD, Spanish Linguistics) who will be starting his new full-time position in January in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures at Penn State Behrend. Ricardo is currently finishing up his dissertation titled "A Sociolinguistic Study of Dominican Spanish Spoken in Urban Puerto Rico: Dialect Convergence of Second Generation Dominicans". Ricardo is also an accomplished athlete who is training hard with an eye on the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers to represent Puerto Rico!