Category: News

As part of the Departmental Speaker Series, Carolin Jolitz (Penn State, GGSA member) and Pegah Nahavandipoor (Deutsches Sprachinstitut Teheran, Iran) led a workshop on October 11th on innovative digital tools and methods for effective speech and pronunciation training. The interactive session gave attendees the opportunity to explore different digital tools, demonstrating how these can be…

Carolin Jolitz presented to students in the Penn State College of Engineering’s First-Year Engagement Seminar, which includes a travel component to Hannover, Germany. Her session was designed to prepare students for intercultural learning activities at Leibniz Universität Hannover and engagements with industry partners. During the presentation, she introduced students to key aspects of German culture…

Due to hurricane Helene moving through the southern states, the 15th Workshop on Immigrant Languages in the Americas (WILA 15) went online last-minute instead of being held at the University of Georgia. Attendees made the best of the virtual format, delivering interesting and thought-provoking work. Two GGSA members participated and presented. Rose Fisher‘s presentation was…

The GGSA would like to extend a warm welcome to its newest GGSA members. Mackenzie Gentz is a first-year PhD student who is primarily interested in non-pathological L2 language attrition. Specifically, she has three throughlines in her primary research, which she investigates from a phonetic-phonological lense: 1. Characterization and typology of language attrition; 2. Diagnosis and…

The GGSA congratulates Jack DiMidio for passing his comprehensive exam in German Literature and Culture. Awesome job, Jack!

GGSA members were very active this summer, having secured funding to attend language courses, conferences, and conduct research projects. Rose Fisher attended the Small Languages, Big Ideas conference in Uppsala, Sweden in mid-June. In July she completed a two-week teacher training course at the Goethe Institut in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. Carolin Jolitz attended a professional…

Natacha Mally has received the Max Kade Fellowship for the 2024-25 academic year. This award allows its recipient to work on their dissertation without the need to also teach or otherwise work to maintain their assistantship. The Max Kade Research Institute described the fellowship as follows:  The Max Kade Fellowship provides a year of funding…

This coming academic year, GGSA members Wilson Xu and Suchitra Harnahalli will serve as the two Mentoring for the Future graduate assistants. Mentoring for the Future (MFF) is a graduate student-led program housed within the School of Global Languages, Literatures, and Cultures that aims to increase diversity in academia through mentoring relationships and a workshop.…

On May 16th and 17th, Alexis Wilt and Emmeline Wilson, in their capacity as 2023-24 graduate assistants and lead organizers of the Mentoring for the Future (MFF) program, organized and put on a two-day online workshop for the 2024 cohort of MFF participants. The goal of the MFF program is “to bring diversity to academia by introducing…

The GGSA wishes to congratulate Jordan Hansen on passing his qualifying exam in German Linguistics & Applied Linguistics. Jordan has also been accepted as a 2024-2025 fellow in the LINDIV program (read more here). Way to go, Jordan!

Megan Wadas (who has been abroad in Feldkirch, Austria during the 23-24 academic year for the US Teaching Assistantship Program administered by Fulbright Austria) participated with her brass band, Harmoniemusik Tisis-Tosters, in a Catholic Mass in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Vorarlberger Blasmusikverband. To add extra festivity to the occasion, the mass was…

Congratulations to Natacha Mally who has passed her comprehensive exam in German Linguistics & Applied Linguistics. Great job, Natacha!