Events

Informal opportunities to practice your language skills (Note: tables do not meet over breaks).
 

Arabic

The Arabic Conversation Table | تحدث باللغة العربية.  come practice Arabic with native speakers, ask questions about the Arabic language and learn how to speak Arabic better!   If interested in a table, contact: [email protected].
 

French

La Pause Café. informal conversation in French for the campus community. Get to know others on campus who share your interest in French.  All levels welcome!  We'll be meeting:

• Wednesdays 9/10/25, 10/8/25, and 11/5/25 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in HU290
• Thursdays 9/25/25, 10/23/25, and 11/20/25 from 4 to 5 p.m. in HU290

Contact: [email protected]  
 

Italian

Italian Table. Come join us to share your interest in Italian language and culture outside the classroom.  Meets in HU131 every Friday 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. this semester, starting 9/5/25, except for fall break week 10/17 and Thanksgiving break 11/28. All levels welcome! Contact: [email protected]
 

Portuguese

Cafezinho.   If interested in a table, contact: [email protected].
 

Spanish

Mesa de Español. Come practice your Spanish language skills with others!  Join us for fun, relaxing conversations in Spanish.  All levels are welcome!  Fall 2025 we'll meet Thursdays:
     September 4 & 18
     October 2, 16  & 30
     November 13 
from 4 to 5 p.m. in HU290.  Contact: [email protected]

Please note:  clubs do not meet over breaks.
 

Le Cercle français

Join the French Club!  Music, food, language, people, movies, outings, travel and more.  Open to all—French learners, francophone native speakers, and anyone interested in French language and culture!  
   9/11/25 General Interest Meeting - Come learn about the club!  7 to 9 p.m. in HU354  
   10/7/25 Join us for Game Night! 730 p.m. in SS255
   11/6/25 Join the French Program for French BINGO Night 6 to 7:30 p.m. in HU354
   11/13/25 Take a break and enjoy Movie Night with your Francophone friends 6 to 8 p.m. in HU354

Questions?  Contact club faculty advisor: [email protected] 
 

Italian Club

Come enjoy all things Italian!  All students are welcome!  
   10/15/25 Italian Movie Night 6 to 8 p.m. in HU354  
   12/3/25 Trivia Night 6 to 7 p.m. in HU354

Questions?  Contact club faculty advisor: [email protected]
 

Russian Board Games Club

All levels are invited to practice the Russian language while playing games in HU131 5-6pm on the following Wednesdays: 9/17/25, 10/1/25, 10/15/25. 10/29/25 and 11/12/25.

Questions?  Contact club faculty advisor:  [email protected] 
 

Spanish Club

Open to undergraduate and graduate students, the club provides opportunities to practice Spanish and partake in cultural activities from all over the Spanish-speaking world. All are welcome!  
  Mon 9/8/25 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in HU 354 - first general interest meeting
  Wed 9/10/25 Game Night in HU354 at 6 p.m.
  Mon 9/15/25 Paint your Flag in HU290 at 6 p.m.
  Mon 9/22/25 Spanish Workshop 
  Mon 10/6/25 Fiesta de Color Celebration in HU354 6:30 to 9 p.m.
  Thur 10/23/25 Destress Event in HU354 6 to 7 p.m.
  Thur-Fri 10/30-31/25 Spanish Club Ofrenda in HU lobby
  Mon 11/10/25 6 p.m.
  Mon 11/17/25 6 p.m. Friendsgiving tote bag-making event in HU354 
  Mon 12/1/25 6 p.m.

Questions?  Contact club president:  [email protected] (club faculty advisor: [email protected])
 

Tango Club

Meeting:  Wed 9/17/25 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. HU132
  Mon 9/22/25 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. HU115
  Upcoming Mondays 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in HU132 

Questions?  [email protected].  Contact club vice president:  [email protected] (club faculty advisor: [email protected])

See LLC seminars separately below.

Save the date & join us at: 
 

Mother Languages Day is heading our way early in spring for its 3rd year, a not-to-be-missed languages and cultures day full of student and faculty entertainment at a time of year when fun & activity are greatly appreciated.  Stay tuned!  More info coming soon....

The Department of English and the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures will be presenting the 8th Living in Languages Colloquium April 1-2, 2026 (in Zoom), 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, transpositions of visual and textual, and translation in our digital era of  the screen as public space. Keynote speaker Nieves García Prados (Senior Lecturer at the University of Virginia and translator) will speak to translation as a creative and interpretive act, with the translator navigating the straits between constraint and imaginative freedom in “Between Captivity and Creation: The Translator in Thrall.”  If interested in presenting email  ([email protected] and [email protected]) so stating by December1; provide a brief (200 word) description of content by December 31; and a 500 word abstract by January 31.  Visit our Living in Languages Journal—online, open access, peer-reviewed.  

The CHATS Postbolonial Lab invites everyone to listen to its Sounds of the French Disapora Radio Talkshow 12/5/25 3-4pm at 90.9 FM WCDB or join online at http://wcdbfm.com/.

The CHATS Postcolonial Lab is back with a new semester of great activities thanks to Caroline Herbelin, Veronique Martin and Dora Ramirez!  The lab uses a postcolonial lens to invite UAlbany students to think critically and historically about the experience of colonization and decolonization. The Lab explores colonization and decolonization at the local and global levels, inviting students to rethink this important topic with fresh eyes.  Activities include:

Latinos in the USA:  Demographics, Health, and the Pursuit of Equity, talk by Elizabeth Vásquez, 10/9/25 6pm HU354

Ethnographic Contributions of Anne Macvicar Grant, talk by Robert Coatsworth, 10/23/25 9am Catskill 370

Student Business Tour/Discussion:  Seasoning House 10/24/25 630pm

Student Museum Tour:  For Liberation and Life 11/15/25 11am Albany Institute of History and Art

Film Screening:  Vietnamerica  11/18/25 5pm Catskill 130

Student Museum Tour:  Noel W. Anderson's Black Excellence 11/19/25 10:10am

French Program students will present the films and lead a short Q&A afterward (both are also part of the English Dept film series).  Open to the public!

• Film:  Io Capitano (2023), Wednesday, 11/12/25 7:30 p.m. in LC6-by acclaimed Italian director Matteo Garrone it follows the perilous journey of two Senegalese teenagers as they attempt to migrate from Dakar to Europe. https://youtu.be/Z6fLvLN2EqM?si=fbtpnsWqq_Sc52i_
• Film:  Souleymane’s Story (2024), Wednesday, 11/19/25 7:30 p.m. in LC6-a thriller exploring the experience of a young man from Guinea navigating life as a migrant in France.  https://youtu.be/VkFbTK4oP1g?si=4KbUirBxWT8MJ8BJ

And, the Lab will also host a student visit to a Naturalization Ceremony 11/21/25 and a round table on Naturalization as Experience 11/24/25 3pm in HU354 with 4 guest speakers ([email protected]).

Join us for the French Program's BINGO Night Thursday 11/6/25 6-7:30pm in HU354.  

Faculty will be at Munch with the Majors Tuesday 9/30/25 6:30-8:30pm in the Campus Center visiting with students and sharing about our programs.  Stop by!

Faculty will be at the U's Fall Preview Days in the LC's 9/28/25 and 11/1/25 to visit with prospective students and their families and to talk about LLC.  

LLC is co-sponsoring The Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and the NYS Writers Institute, Office of Inclusive Excellence, and UAlbany Black Indigenous Latinx and People of Color (BILPOC) Faculty Advancement Initiative to bring renowned McArthur Grant recipient and scholar-activist Loretta Ross to UAlbany.  Loretta Ross is promoting her new book Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Council in a public dialogue on "Calling In: Alternatives to Calling-Out Culture," Monday, September 22, 3pm, in the Campus Center West Multi-Purpose Room (https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/lorettaross).

MORE COMING SOON!

SPRING 2025:

The CHATS Postcolonial Lab project hosted multiple events spring 2025, enhancing students' academic experiences with a variety of extracurricular activities.  Schedule here:  PAGE 1, PAGE 2.

French Language Certification Exam 5/12/25. UAlbany is a Paris Chamber of Commerce (the certification entity) testing site.  Contact: Veronique Martin, DFAP2 exam coordinator ([email protected]).

The French Program invited French minors with graduation dates of 12/2024 or 5/2025 to join the students of AFRE 399 for a celebratory Repas Raclette Thursday 5/1/25 1:30-2:50pm in HU 354. 

BILPOC conference 4/24/25.  The BILPOC Faculty Advancement Initiative will host its second annual “Lifting, Climbing, and Thriving Conference” on Thursday 4/24/25 8:30am-4:30pm in the Campus Center Multipurpose Room. This year’s theme is “Making the Invisible Visible.” The day will include a series of speakers and panel discussions covering topics such as how to harness research and community engagement to create change and overcoming challenges of invisible labor. Students in the Graduate Pathway and Presidential Health Disparity Fellowship programs will present their research. Register for BILPOC conference.  Contact:  Carmen Serrano ([email protected]).

Showcase Day 4/30/25 - campus-wide, take some time to visit LLC students' presentations. Visit UAlbany Showcase. 

Film Screening of Frantz Fanon 4/4/25 5pm in Lecture Center Room 05 (see FLYER) followed by Q&A with the director Abendour Zahzah (who will be joining via Zoom).  Presented by LLC's French Program in collaboration with the NYS Writers Institute and the CHATS Postcolonial Lab.  Free and open to the public.

Living in Languages Colloquium 4/2/25-4/3/25 - exploring translation studies, our 7th annual conference in collaboration with the English Dept. Keynote speaker:  Kazim Ali, our own alum, professor at UC San Diego, a prominent writer of poetry, fiction, memoir, a literary critic, and publisher.   He will speak on “Making America Monstrous Again: Queerness, Community, and the Problems of Translation in Frankenstein” both on Zoom and in person, Wednesday April 2, 12 to 1 p.m. in LC06. Register for the Colloquium. (see FLYER and PROGRAM)   And visit our Living in Languages Journal online, open access, peer-reviewed.

Spanish Day 3/28/25 - an immersion event for UAlbany in the High School Spanish students.  All are welcome to join us for the dance workshop 10:30 a.m. in the Campus Center Multipurpose Room.

UHS Italian and Latin Teacher Workshops 3/28/25 - for UAlbany in the High School Italian and Latin teachers
Professors Veronique Martin and Dora Ramirez worked with the CHATS Postcolonial Lab project to provide French and Spanish students a cultural and language immersion experience, first-hand, at the AJW Caribbean Restaurant 2/13/25.  Students explored both Haitian and Dominican food, history, and cultural identity related to colonialization of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Francophone Day 3/26/25 - an immersion event for UAlbany in the High School French students.  All are welcome to join us for the Quebecois dance workshop 10:30am in the Campus Center Multipurpose Room.

LLC enjoyed a great Mother Language Day 2/20/25 3 to 7 p.m. celebrating the languages.  The day opened with overwhelming participation in the French Program's crepes and galettes presentation (thanks to the French Club for all their work planning and coordinating!), followed by a rigorous Stump the Professor competition (thanks to our victims, uh, panelists:  Elizbeth Lansing, Patrick Lawrence and Sarah Rubio!), a stupendous All the Facts international trivia challenge (thanks to Patrick Lawrence who researched the topics and mc'd!), and ended with wonderful performances at the open mic night (thanks to all who participated!).

LLC had a full house at the AI & Teaching Languages Workshop 1/31/25 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Our own Christine Rant, who consults internationally about AI in the language classroom, provided excellent ideas, examples, consultation and worked hands-on with those present.   Faculty and instructors from UAlbany as well as high school language teachers from UAlbany in the High School participated.

FALL 2024:

UAlbany in the High School Language Teacher Workshops 10/25/24, French and Spanish teachers from NYS high schools participating in the UHS program enjoyed workshops in a day of immersion, using their language skills, sharing teaching strategies and enhancing their language classroom repertoire. 

Join Professor Serhii Tereshchenko, of the Russian Program, for:
   Music from Central Europe 9/30/24 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in HU354
   Music from Central Asia 10/2/24 1:30 to 3 p.m. in HU354
   Dance Rhythms of Ukraine 10/22/24 6 to 8p.m. in HU131

World Mental Health Day, 10/10/24, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in ETEC 149A/151A. UAlbany’s Black, Indigenous, Latinx and People of Color Faculty Advancement Initiative and The Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities, in collaboration with Partners in Community Development BIPOC PEEEEEEK, will host “Amplifying Mental Health Wellness through the Lens of Equity: Technology and Human Rights,” a symposium focusing on mental health in communities of color. Free symposium registration for UAlbany faculty and students (code: UAlbany).

Join us as we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15, 2024): 
Thursday, October 3, 2024, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the SUNY system Administration Courtrooms, H. Carl McCall SUNY Building, 353 Broadway, Albany, NY, Author Jaquira Diaz will be reading and discussing sections of her book (sponsored/supported by SUNY and The Hispanic Leadership Institute).  RSVP by Tuesday, October 1, 2024. Register for the Diaz reading.  Drive or take the charter bus with us, leaving Collins Circle at 3:30 p.m.
     and
Tuesday, October 8, 2024 two Latina writers will be visiting, Angie Cruz (Assoc Prof & Writing Program Director at U Pittsburg, How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water (2022)) and Lilliam Rivera (award-winning writer and author of young adult and middle grade novels, Barely Floating (2023)).  Join us in the UAlbany Campus Center Multi-Purpose Room 4:30-6:30 p.m., with book signing afterwards (sponsored by: LLC, BILPOC, The Writers Institute, The Humanities Labs, The University Library, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities (CEMHD). 

Come hear Carole Reynaud-Paligot, Professor/Historian, University of Bourgogne and Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, a specialist on race and racism in France, on Monday 10/7/24 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in HU354 for this visit with Un café avec and for informal conversation in French.   

Carole Reynaud-Paligot, Professor/Historian, University of Bourgogne and Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, a specialist on race and racism in France, will also speak on "How Does One Become Racist?" in English on Monday 10/7/24 4 to 5 p.m. in HU354.

Ecopoetics, Poetry that Explores our Relationship with Nature conversation with authors Urayoan Noel and Sarah Giragosian 10/1/24 4:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Multipurpose Room.  Free and open to the public.  Sponsored by the NYS Writer's Institute, cosponsored by LLC.

SPRING 2024:

The public is invited to attend a free screening of Garri Bardin’s modern Russian clay-animation classic The Ugly Duckling (2010) on Monday, April 29, 1 to 4 p.m., in the Standish Room of the Science Library. The film, a moving political allegory based on Hans Christian Andersen, with music by Tchaikovsky, is in Russian with English subtitles, and will be introduced with a lecture by Russian critic, poet, and political commentator Dmitry Bykov, followed by questions and answers with the director, Bardin, via Zoom. Sponsored by the Departments of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC) and English, the Center for Humanities, Arts and Technoscience, the Writing and Critical Inquiry program, and other UAlbany units.   Contact: Timothy Sergay ([email protected])

Black, Indigenous, Latinx, People of Color (BILPOC) Conference: Lifting, Climbing, and Thriving Conference, theme: Sustaining Scholarship and Scholars. All are welcome to attend this free conference April 26, 2024 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Boardroom. Conference schedule at https://www.albany.edu/llc/department-news. 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). Contact:  Carmen Serrano ([email protected]).

Join us at our LLC Seminars.

Visit LLC Clubs and Language Tables (above) as they start a new semester of activities.

Spanish Day (3/8/24) and Francophone Day (3/27/24) return again this spring engaging UAlbany in the High School (UHS) students in a world of language and cultural immersion experiences.  

Students, come celebrate Mother Language Day with LLC Thursday 2/22/24 in HU354!  Enjoy an afternoon and evening of fun cultural and language exchange--take mini language classes, learn about international desserts, stump the professor with international slang, join trivia and essay/poetry contests. Flier with Mother Language Day details.

Participate in our 6th annual Living in Languages Conference 2/20-21/24 (in Zoom)!  FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!  Focused on issues of “translation” in a literal but also an expanded sense, from questions of reading and ideology to translation understood as exile, displacement geographical and linguistic, and translation in our era of Twitter/X consciousness, warring media bubbles, and the screen as public space.  This year's keynote speaker is Corine Tachtiris, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, UMass Amherst, a translator and scholar who has written on Haitian immigrant literature, Francophone Caribbean women writers, Czech literature, and activist translation. Her talk "Intent vs. Impact:  Translating Race and Racism" will be 2/20 at noon. Register for the Living in Languages Conference. (Zoom link will be sent to those registered closer to the event date)

Browse our open access, peer-refereed Living in Languages Journal online, crafted by grad students and recent graduates to provide colloquium participants a space to publish their work. 

Phi Beta Kappa guest speaker Shawkat Toorawa, Yale Professor or Arabic Literature and Comparative Literature, joins us Thursday 2/8/22 with talks in our Arabic Culture Class and a Public Lecture on "Writerly Culture in 9th C Baghdad."  Public lecture meets in Lecture Center 04, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.  

SUNY's Hispanic Learning Institute's Voces Transcending: Latino Literary Expression
Now will be 10/12/23 3 p.m.  Contact: [email protected]. 

French is offering a new series of informal conversation opportunities, Un cafe avec... starting 9/18/23 1:15 p.m. in HU290 with a French radio journalist (contact: [email protected]).  Stay tuned for more!  

All are invited to the UAlbany Art Museum exhibit Libros/Arte: Handmade Books from Latin American and & Caribbean August 7-December 4, 2023 (Artists' Reception 8/25/23 5-7 p.m.), a lovingly curated collaboration across LLC, LACS and the UAlbany Library of 80+ handmade books by small presses pushing the boundaries of traditional printing techniques while addressing a range of political, social and cultural subjects.  Special thanks to Professors Ilka Kressner and Alejandra Bronfman, Jesús Alonso-Regalado, UAlbany Subject Librarian, and the UAlbany library and museum staff for all their work!  Free admission.  For more information/museum hours visit  the University Art Museum. 

Join LLC this fall for 5 webinars with bookmakers in Latin America, Fridays 4-5 p.m. Eastern time on 9/29/23, 10/13/23, 10/20/23, 10/27/23, 11/10/23 (most in Spanish, the last in English).  More details to come!

LLC faculty and students will be publishing a cartonera book in the context of the exhibit above.  More soon!

LLC faculty are working on an online database of pedagogical materials for the Spanish classroom related to the Libros/Arte exhibit above.  Stay tuned for more information!

The UAlbany in the High School (UHS) LLC Language Workshop will be 11/3/23. 

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. This is a collaborative LLC and English Dept event.  Visit our Living in Languages Journal online, open access, peer-reviewed.

The LLC-UHS annual Spanish Day will be 3/24/23 in the Campus Center.  High school students in schools across NY State participating in the UAlbany in the High Schools program gather on campus for a full day of immersion events, including a treasure hunt, tango, and opportunities to engage in conversation with and learn from a variety of international native Spanish speakers.  

The LLC-UHS annual Francophone Day will be 3/29/23 in the Campus Center. High school students across NY State who participate in the UAlbany in the High Schools program gather on campus for a full day of immersion events, including a treasure hunt, Quebecois music and dancing, and opportunities to engage in conversation with and learn from a variety of international native French speakers.  

LLC's Awards Ceremony and Honor Society inductions will be 5/3/23 5 p.m. in the Campus Center Assembly Hall.  More information to follow!   

LLC is a testing site for the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry's internationally recognized DFP A2 (Diplôme de français professionnel-niveau A2) exam certifying competence in Business French.  The exam is offered annually in the Humanities Building here at UAlbany each May.  More information to come!  Contact:  Professor Véronique Martin ([email protected]).