Greetings from the Chair - College of Liberal Arts & Science - Wayne ...

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www.clas.wayne.edu/languages
Faculty Receive FLTC Mini-Grants
Congratulations to Laura Kline, Randy
Schantz, Silvia Giorgini, Alina Klin, and
Jie Billinger who have been awarded
Foreign Language Technology Center
(FLTC) mini-grants.
Laura Kline will be creating vocabulary
and grammar exercises, quizzes, chapter
tests, and final exams on Blackboard
Silvia Giorgini
for her third and fourth year Russian
students. She will also have audio
recordings and video material as part of her content.
Randy Schantz will be creating a repository of German-language
cultural artifacts for the basic German language courses. Artifacts
will include images, texts, online resources and sound recordings,
Ronnick Speaks at Howard University
Professor Michele Valerie Ronnick
(Classics) recently delivered the 9th
Annual Frank M. Snowden Jr. Lecture
titled “Celebrating Black Classicism at
Howard University: The Early Years.”
In October, Professor Roslyn Abt Schindler presented a paper
at the Association for Integrative Studies Conference titled:
“The Resurgence of Jewish Life in Post Holocaust Poland:
Issues of Ethics and Sustainability.” Offered as a researched
photographic presentation, it focused on the remnants of
former Jewish life, and death, in the cities and the “Shetls” in
Poland. Earlier in May 2009, Schindler had the privilege of
attending an international conference on the Holocaust, hosted
by The Jagiellonian University in Krakow. While there, she
took the opportunity to explore her connections to Poland, the
land where her parents were born: “My mother and several
Sponsored by Howard University’s
Department of Classics and the College
of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Ronnick
appeared in the Browsing Room of the
Founders Library in Washington, D.C.
Fall 2011
and will be available on Blackboard.
Silvia Giorgini will be introducing online testing components in
the basic Italian courses. She will be moving quizzes and exams
from a paper-based format to the Blackboard environment.
Alina Klin will be creating online content modules on medical
Polish in Blackboard and will be integrating these modules into
her current intermediate and advanced Polish courses.
Jie Billinger will be creating “mini voice threads,” audio and
video vignettes that will be used in the Chinese 1010 courses.
Grant recipients will be developing their technology-based
instructional material over the summer and will implement their
projects into their courses beginning in Fall 2011. They will also
be showcasing their projects at FLTC Brown Bag presentations in
the Winter 2012 semester. n
Frank M. Snowden Jr. was Professor
Emeritus of Classics at Howard
University, and one of the foremost
authorities on the black experience in
classical antiquity. n
Schindler Addresses Association for Integrative Studies Conference
Cornetta Lane Wins McNair Scholars Award
Cornetta Lane (Near Eastern Studies)
recently participated in the McNair
Scholars Undergraduate Research
Conference at North Carolina A&T
University. Her presentation titled:
“Controversy at Ground Zero: Freedom
of Religion versus Preservation of
Honor,” focused on how people employ
particular American values. Focusing on
the debates surrounding the development
of the Islamic Center in New York City,
also known as Park 51, Lane explored
what influences people to use values
such as “freedom” and “honor” in their
arguments for and against the center.
Lane’s research presentation won
family members were in a Nazi forced labor camp, (and)
numerous relatives died in ghettos and concentration camps.
It was, for me, all about enduring connections and, very
concretely, about sustainability and ethics.”
It was in search of those distant and meaningful
“connections” that Schindler began to frame her inquiry. What
remnants of the former life remained in the cities? Was there
a resurgence of Jewish life in Poland? If so, where, and what
characterized it? How was the intersection of sustainability and
ethics at work in such a context? Perhaps, the answers are to
be found in the title of her work. n
the “Outstanding Undergraduate Oral
Presentation” award at the conference.
About 100 students presented, but only
two won this award. According to Lane,
she owes this success to the Near Eastern
Studies faculty and her mentor, Dr.
Vanessa DeGifis. n
World Talk
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