About Us
LLC Stategice Plan (pdf)
Points of Pride
- Alumni Advisory Board: Created board and met during spring 2008.
- In the Diversity Advocacy 21st Annual Commitment to Diversity ceremony, the Spanish Club was recognized as the “Outstanding Registered Student Organization for 2008-2009."
- Elizabeth Benfield, Spanish Major, also received recognition for her work for diversity at ISU. The Club's advisor is Marinelly Castillo-Zuniga.
- Susann Mann was the recipient of the new Alma Latina Award for outstanding activity in Spanish Club for 2008-09.
- Dr. James van der Laan was selected as one of this the CAS Outstanding Researchers for the Humanities. Professor van der Laan was also invited to teach in Germany by Paderborn University.
- Krystal Montesdeoca, a Spanish major and Japanese minor, was recently awarded a $25,000 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to study and carry out community service abroad. She will be in Brazil from December of 2009 until the spring of 2010.
- Fulbright Scholars: Paola Portesio, from Argentina and Doreen Triebel, from Germany taught in our department during the 2008-2009 academic year through the Fulbright scholar program. These two teaching assistants taught 8 total classes and served as cultural ambassadors from their countries of origin.
- Alumni visits to campus to speak to students: Irma Bantista, Marivel Escatel, and Cuca Avila, Tom Boland, and Sherry Husa.
- Former MA student completes Phd at the University of Iowa: Dr. Jaime A. Orrego wrote his dissertation on Colombian novelist Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
- TT Searches: Five successful tenure-line (1 French and 4 Spanish) searches in the past two years.
- Website: The department’s website was overhauled and is much more effective as a tool for marketing, administration, and dissemination of information. It is constantly updated by webmaster Laura Edwards and individual faculty members.
- Graduate Student Awards: During the 2007-08 year, Lexy Johnson and Patrick O’Connor received Graduate Student Excellence Awards. Moises Gomez-Pastor received the Montserrat Vilarrubla Award for Excellence in Teaching. Each award carried a modest cash prize.
- Graduate Study Abroad Stipends: Graduate study abroad stipends were awarded to: Marisa Coleman, Elizabeth Gabry, Jessica Hoy, and Jessica Whitcomb.
- Undergraduate study abroad stipends were awarded to: Melissa Kaeb (Taxco) and Lena Kasper (Grenoble).
Brendan Reichert received the David J. Parent Scholarship Award for 2008-09.
Megan Goeller and Ryan Strassburger received a Summer 2009 Study Abroad Scholarship for the Taxco Program.
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Endowed Scholarships: Philip Baker was the recipient of the David J. Parent Scholarship for 2007-08; Laura Anderson and Katie Simpson were named as Allie Ward Billingsley scholars for 2007-08.
- Study Abroad: During fall 07, spring and summer 08, student participation in our various study abroad programs continued to be high. In Spanish, 50 students studied in Granada (27) and Taxco (23), 10 in Angers, 7 in Bonn, 4 in Paderborn, and 16 in Grenoble.
- The Department maintains a Grammar Help Center (initiated during Fall 2000), staffed by graduate student instructors. Each of the Department’s graduate assistants holds part of his/her designated office hours at the Center. Graduate assistants answer language-related questions for beginning and intermediate foreign language students on a drop-in-basis, serving 150+ students per year.
- Faculty Publications:
Dan Everett (Linguistics) published his book Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
Mary Trouille (French) published her book Wife-abuse in Eighteenth-century France
Bruce Burningham published his book Tilting Cervantes: Baroque Reflections on Postmodern Culture
James J. Pancrazio published his book Enriqueta Faber: Travestismo, documentos e historia