Department News

LLC News

Listen to the latest UAlbany Student Stories podcasts (now in our 7th season!) on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.  Meet UAlbany students where they are, learn what's 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, military veterans and more. Hear what they have to say in their own words.  

Charles Giglio, Latin Lecturer and UAlbany in the High Schools Latin liaison, attended the Classical Association of the Empire State's (CAES) 61st Annual Institute at Binghamton University 10/25/24, hosted by Binghamton's Department of Middle Eastern and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. This year’s focus was on practical classroom techniques for incorporating conversational Latin into the curriculum, wrapping up with a session on females in Hellenic performance culture. Giglio, a past CAES president, enjoyed engaging with the 50 Latin teachers from across New York State who participated.

Professor Carmen Serrano's BILPOC initiative continues to address concerns and build community.  On World Mental Health Day, 10/17/24, BILPOC and other partners brought together leaders on the topic of mental health in communities of color.  Read more here:  UAlbany Symposium on Mental Health in Communities of Color.

Congratulations to Professor Carmen Serrano who is a recipient of the inaugural College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Excellence Through Diversity Award. This award "recognizes faculty who are leaders in promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging in our College through their academic research, teaching and mentoring, service, and/or community and other forms of engagement."  Thank you Professor Serrano for all you do!

Visit our Living in Languages Journal, a shared LLC and English Dept project—online, open access, peer-refereed—generated by our graduate students and recent graduates showcasing conference participants' work.  

Welcome to our new faculty (all know at least 3 languages--ask to learn who knows what!):  
Serhii Tereshchenko (PhD, Columbia U), who will be teaching Russian and has taught contemporary Ukrainian literature (Creative writing) at Rutgers University and the Russian and Ukrainian languages at Columbia, Montclair State University, University of Illinois, the University of North Georgia, Middlebury College, and the University of Pittsburg.  He also has experience in adopting language games to learning.    
Robert Willard (MSc, Delft Institute, Delft, The Netherlands & MA, Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, Saint Petersburg, Russia) who will be teaching French and Spanish.
Christine Rant (MS, UAlbany) who will be teaching French and comes with 30 years of teaching experience.

Welcome back to all our returning linguaphile faculty and students!  How many languages are you learning?  How many do your faculty know?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Fall 2024 classes start 8/26/24.  Not in a degree program?  No problem!  Students not enrolled in a degree program who wish to study languages may enroll "non-degree" through the Office of General Studies and take individual courses (high school seniors who excel in their coursework may also enroll there).  Graduate students who wish to take courses “non-degree” may enroll through the Graduate Admissions Office.

UAlbany Faculty, Students Build Online Repository for Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian Studies, an award-winning international, inter-departmental collaborative project to create a repository of free online resources for Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian studies.  The website (LACLI) currently features 2000 resources, see for yourself! 

Very best wishes to Sara Zahler, Assistant Professor of Spanish, who is moving to a new position at NC State University.

Congratulations and very best wishes to Associate Professor of Russian, Timothy Sergay, who is retiring at the end of this summer.   Like all true academics, he plans to continue to contribute to his love of Russian Studies in his retirement, in particular, pursuing his passion for translation.  We look forward to his opening more doors into Russian culture and experience!

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 1:10-3:40 p.m. 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].  The Ugly Duckling Flier.

Congratulations to our newest PhD in Spanish, Dr. Nerisha de Nil Padilla Cruz who successfully defended her PhD dissertation "El rol de la mujer dentro de la subcultura narco en novelas, películas y series de Colombia, México y Puerto Rico" on 4/25/24!

All are welcome to attend the BILPOC Lifting, Climbing, and Thriving Conference April 26, 2024, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Boardroom, theme: Sustaining Scholarship and Scholars.  Contact:  Carmen Serrano ([email protected]). Co-sponsored by: College of Arts and Sciences, 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).

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 the Living in Languages Colloquium archive. 

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.

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. Learn more about Libros/Arte. 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 for the exhibit. Discussion in Spanish.

Carmen Serrano's BILPOC initiative continues to grow and thrive in 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.

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!

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 12–1 p.m. 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 12:45–1:30 p.m. 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

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.

Hernan Diaz, former LLC SPN faculty, presented with the NYS Writer's Institute 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."

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 12:30-1:30 p.m. 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.