2018-2019 Faculty Awards and Recognitions

Dr. Gladys Ilarregui received a Fulbright Specialist Grant to research and teach at Center Peninsular de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales CEPHCIS-UNAM in Yucatan, Mexico. She completed the grant this summer, teaching a course on: " Women and their rights in Latin American Poetry: culture, politics and identity", with special emphasis in the literary works of Mayan women poets, their words and textiles. Dr. Ilarregui also visit archeological and colonial sites to enrich her seminar on Colonial Latin America at DLLC.

​Dr. Alexander Selimov received the 2018 Victoria Urbano Honorable Mention Award for his poetry from the "Association de Estudios de Genero y Sexualidades" on September 28, 2018.

​​c and the Bolivian Association of Writers. He is the first American poet and scholar to receive the honor. Also this fall, Selimov won a Victoria Urbano Honorable Mention award for his poetry from the International Association for Gender Studies at its 2018 conference at the University of Illinois.

Ms. Poindexter, Senior Instructor of French, received the University's highest honor for teaching in the spring of 2019. Below you will find her teaching philosophy and some of the keys to her success as an educator. We congratulate her on this honor!

Teaching is my true passion and it brings me great joy to share my native French language and culture with students. Every semester, I incorporate new activities involving technology to engage students. I also firmly believe that students learn better if I use the target language in class as much as possible. When teaching, I also keep in mind students' different learning styles in order to reach each person in the classroom.

Keeping in touch with modern French culture and seeing recent changes in French vocabulary is crucial in order to remain authentic. I enjoy discussing contemporary literature with my students. As a reader, I notice new trends in writing styles that I share with students who are travelling to Paris.

            As an educator, I feel that my continued learning is an important part of my responsibilities. I have taken many wonderful classes at the university, notably in our Department (many Spanish classes as well as two in Japanese) to see how a beginner learner feels while being exposed to a new language. Being in a class with a student's perspective taught me a great deal and I was inspired to change my activities to make sure everyone felt comfortable. I consider myself very fortunate to be part of a department that fosters such rich exchanges between colleagues.

I arrived in Paris at the age of two and lived there for thirty years. Taking students abroad is one of the most enriching components of my teaching because it gives students the opportunity to directly practice what they have learned in the classroom. This is also an opportunity for me to share a familiar place with students who may be going there for the first time.

In the past, I enjoyed directing the Paris Summer Program, which also included excursions to D-Day sites in Normandy and Chateaux in the Loire Valley.

I started the Martinique program in 1993 to introduce students to another part of my heritage and the program has been successful ever since. In Martinique, the focus of the program is to give students an opportunity to see the French Caribbean beyond its touristic aspects. Our UD students are involved in the local community through a small internship in a field of their interest. Students help out in local schools, veterinary clinics, medical labs, hotels, a gourmet chocolatier, and even have articles in the France-Antilles, the local newspaper.

Living with host families also gives students the unique experience of seeing how locals live and how quickly they can be incorporated into a family that is different from their own. Many students have kept in touch with their host families and photos of past students' weddings and children are often shared with current students.

Everyone in Martinique welcomes the opportunity to help our students improve their knowledge of the language and culture.

Outside of my own study abroad programs, I recently enjoyed creating and teaching a French for Fashion course, which prepares students to have a basic level of French and knowledge of the city before travelling to Paris through the Fashion Merchandising Program.

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, and practicing Aikido. I also enjoy running races with my children and recently started taking piano lessons again.

PRESS RELEASE

August 4, 2018

Donna Coulet Dugard, Flora Poindexter, and Anna Ogunnaike recently attended the 91st annual convention of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) held July 18-21, 2018, in Martinique in the French West Indies.  All three were active participants in this unique gathering of over 300 French teachers from around the U.S. and from several other countries.  Flora presented a session entitled "Immersion culturelle: Séjour linguistique en Martinique," and Anna presented a session, "Mise en scène créole." 

Martinique is a Collectivité territoriale of France, meaning in terms of laws, administration, currency it is just like being in metropolitan France.   At the same time, it shares much of the same history as other Caribbean islands.   A volcanic island, Martinique suffered a devastating eruption of its volcano, La Montagne Pelée, in 1902 which killed more than 30,000 people in the city of Saint-Pierre.  

Participants in the convention were able to learn about the history of Martinique through lectures and presentations as well as excursions to the sugar cane museum (Musée de la Canne), the birthplace of Joséphine de Beauharnais (Musée de la Pagerie), one of the oldest working brickworks in France in operation since 1783 (Village de la Poterie), the historical village recounting the native and slave history of Martinique (Savane des Esclaves), and the rum distillery and its Museum of Modern Art (Habitation Clément) in addition to many other sites that attendees visited on their own. 

The AATF, founded in 1927, is the largest national association of French teachers in the world with nearly 9500 members.  It is organized around 70 local chapters and governed by a national Executive Council of 18 members.  National Headquarters are located in Marion, Illinois.  The AATF publishes the French Review and the National Bulletin and holds an annual convention which alternates between sites in Francophone countries such as Canada, France, and also in the U.S.  Its award-winning Web site [www.frenchteachers.org] contains a multitude of information and materials of interest to French teachers at all levels.  The AATF also sponsors the National French Contest and National French Week (Nov. 1-7, 2018). 

The convention was filled with sessions, discussions, and animated conversations about techniques for teaching French, promoting the study of French, and many sessions devoted to our convention theme Creolity and Environment.  AATF members were treated to special events such as a dictée as well as a number of guest sessions by speakers from France and Canada.   Those who wished were able to participate in pre- and post-convention excursions to the northern part of the island and to Guadeloupe.

              The 2019 convention will be in Philadelphia where we will celebrate French in all its different facets.  We invite all French teachers to join us.  

Ms. Donna Coulet Dugard, Ms. Flora Poindexter, and Ms. Anna Ogunnaike attended the ninety-first annual convention of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) held July 18-21, 2018, in Martinique in the French West Indies.  Ms. Poindexter presented a session entitled "Immersion culturelle: Séjour linguistique en Martinique," and Ms. Ogunnaike presented a session, "Mise en scène créole." 

Dr. Renee Dong received a $5,000 CTAL (Center for Teaching and Learning) Instructional Improvement Grant for her project "Streamlining National Standards, Program Outcomes and Learner-Centered Assessments in World Language Teaching." 

Dr. Rachael Hutchinson organized a panel at the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies conference at Elizabethtown College in November, 2018. Dr. Huchinson's paper was entitled "Game for Translation? Language and Immersion in the JRPG"

Dr. Meredith Ray was a featured speaker at the "Women As Writers of Heroic Poetry in Renaissance Italy" symposium at the UCLA Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies in Los Angeles on April 5th, 2019. Her talk, "Statecraft and the Politics of Knowledge in Margherita Sarrocchi's Scanderbeide," discussed the influence of political theorists such as Machiavelli and Giovanni Botero on Sarrocchi, the first woman to publish an epic poem in Italy.

Dr. Alexander Selimov received the 2018 Victoria Urbano Poetry Prize Honorable Mention. In spring 2019, he gave a poetry concert at the prestigious International Mugham Center's theater in Bakú by invitation of the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan. He gave interviews and performed in a popular TV show "The Book Club." His poetry was translated and published in the Literary Journal in Bakú.