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 development course at the Goethe Institut in Berlin, Germany, to become a certified teacher trainer. Additionally, she presented preliminary dissertation results at the Agi-lang conference at the University Grenoble Alpes in France. The presentation was titled “Fostering Learner Engagement in L2 Pronunciation Learning through Interactive Video Assignments”.
Alexis Wilt attended an intensive language course at the Goethe Institut in Berlin, Germany.
Natacha Mally spent two months as a visiting researcher in Dr. Lorna Quandt’s Action & Brain Lab at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. There Natacha assisted with the SAIL (Signing Avatars and Immersive Learning) project, co-designing and conducting a user experience study for ASL Champ!, an American Sign Language learning platform in an immersive Virtual Reality environment. Her stay was funded by the National Science Foundation via the NSF Research Traineeship program LinDiv.
Wilson Xu attended an intensive language course at the Goethe Institut in Goettingen, Germany. He also visited the town of Dinkelsbühl in Bavaria, where he conducted research in the town archives to procure relevant historical materials relating to the development of Kinderzeche, a traditional children’s festival that “reenacts” the surrender of Dinkelsbühl to the Swedish during the Thirty Years War. During his time there, Wilson got in touch with the main organizers of the event and hopes to make a documentary about “creating peace” that highlights this festival.
Emmeline Wilson and Deborah Adeyeye traveled to Holmes County, Tuscarawas County, and Coshocton County, Ohio to conduct fieldwork with the local Pennsylvania-Dutch-speaking population.
Suchitra Harnahalli visited and documented important monuments, archives, and museums in Warsaw and Berlin. Her documentation of visual, oral, and written archives from the Warsaw Ghetto will contribute to her research on the function of performance in ghettos and concentration camps. This opportunity was funded by her reception of the Phi Sigma Delta Educational Foundation, Sigma Chapter – Walter and Annette Kleeblatt Scholarship Fund. During her time in Berlin, Germany, she also completed an intensive language course at the Goethe Institut.
Liana Petrosian attended an intensive language course at the Goethe Institut in Berlin, Germany that included an extensive culture program.
