Carnegie Mellon University

Spring 2022 Events

Wednesday, February 9 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm ET | Modern Language Resource Center (343 Posner Hall)

Join us at the Modern Languages Resource Center (MLRC) in Posner Hall for our Wednesday Nights at the Movies program!

On February 9, we will be screening the German film Futur 3 (No Hard Feelings). 

Parvis, the son of exiled Iranians, was caught shoplifting. He is sentenced to community service at a refugee shelter where he meets the siblings Banafshe and Amon, who have fled Iran. As a romantic attraction between Parvis and Amon grows, the fragile relationship between the three is put to the test. In German, Persian and Arabic with English subtitles.

Wednesday, February 16 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm ET | Modern Language Resource Center (343 Posner Hall)

Join us at the Modern Languages Resource Center (MLRC) in Posner Hall for our Wednesday Nights at the Movies program!

On February 16, we will be screening three episodes from the Japanese series Kinou nani tabeta (What Did You Eat Yesterday?)

Kakei Shiro is a 45 year old lawyer who works at a small law firm. He is a good cook and a meticulous and thrifty person who keeps the monthly food budget to 25,000 yen. Shiro’s daily routine is to leave work on time and head to a discount supermarket nearby. His partner Yabuki Kenji is the affable hairdresser in his 40s. The two of them share a two-bedroom apartment and the finer points of two men living together comes up at the dining table every day. Although the two of them have been in a relationship for three years and Shiro's parents know he is gay, Shiro never shares the fact that he is gay or Kenji is his partner to anyone. In Japanese with English subtitles

Wednesday, February 23 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm ET | Modern Language Resource Center (343 Posner Hall)

Join us at the Modern Languages Resource Center (MLRC) in Posner Hall for our Wednesday Nights at the Movies program!

On February 23, we will be screening the Russian film Мимино (Mimino).

Local Georgian pilot Mimino dreams of flying airplanes for major international airlines. To realize his aspirations, he goes to Moscow where he encounters a fellow comrade from the Caucasus, the Armenian Rubik. Many misadventures ensue. In Russian and Georgian with English subtitles.

Monday, February 28 | 5:00pm - 6:00pm ET | Zoom

Join us for a panel discussion of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Moderated by Dr. Andreea Deciu Ritivoi, William S. Dietrich Professor of English and Head of the English Department, the panel will feature:

  • CDR Kim Manuel, US Navy Federal Executive Fellow, Institute for Politics and Strategy
  • Dr. David Parker, Assistant Teaching Professor of Russian Studies, Department of Modern Languages
  • Dr. Wendy Goldman, Paul Mellon Distinguished Professor of History, Department of History
  • Dr. Emanuela Grama, Assistant Professor and Director of Global Studies, Department of History
This event is hosted by the Institute for Politics and Strategy and co-sponsored by Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Department of Modern Languages, the Department of History, and the Department of English.

Register here

Wednesday, March 2 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm ET | Modern Language Resource Center (343 Posner Hall)

Join us at the Modern Languages Resource Center (MLRC) in Posner Hall for our Wednesday Nights at the Movies program!

On March 2, we will be screening the Italian film La vita davanti a sé (The Life Ahead).

In seaside Italy, a Holocaust survivor with a daycare business takes in a 12-year-old street kid who recently robbed her. In Italian with English subtitles.

Wednesday, March 16 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm ET | Modern Language Resource Center (343 Posner Hall)

Join us at the Modern Languages Resource Center (MLRC) in Posner Hall for our Wednesday Nights at the Movies program!

On March 16, we will be screening the Brazilian film M8 - Quando a Morte Socorre a Vida (When Death Rescues Life).

Maurício joined the Federal University of Medicine. In his first anatomy class he meets M8. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

Friday, March 18 | 12:00pm ET | Hybrid Event

Join the Department of Modern Languages, the Department of History, and the University of Pittsburgh Jewish Studies Program for a discussion featuring Hélène Jawhara Piñer, author of Sephardi Cooking the History.

Learn more

Friday, March 18 | 4:30pm ET | Virtual Livestream

In honor of Barbara Freed and the Barbara F. Freed Endowed Chair and Faculty research Fellowship in Second Language Acquisition, we are proud to host “Study Abroad & Applied Linguistics,” a panel and discussion on current issues in the field.

  • Keynote Address: Celeste Kinginger (Penn State University)
  • Panelists: Dan Dewey (Brigham Young University), Uju Ana (CMU), Khaled Al Masaeed (CMU)

Stay tuned for more information!

The Department of Modern Languages is proud to participate at the American Association For Applied Linguistics (AAAL) 2022 Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! Faculty members Uju Anya and Keiko Koda are keynote speakers this year.

Join us at AAAL

Wednesday, March 23 | 8:00am - 9:30am ET | Posner Hall, Grand Room (3rd Floor)

The U.S.-Japan relationship remains a cornerstone of peace and security in the Asia Pacific region. Join us for a discussion on American and Japanese perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the relationship moving forward. This event is hosted by the CMU Modern Languages department.

Join the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh for a briefing and moderated panel discussion on the evolving Japan-US alliance and its impact on security and geostrategy in Asia.

Registration is required.

Saturday, March 26 | 6:00pm - 7:00pm ET | Virtual Zoom Event

Join us virtually to celebrate G. Richard Tucker and “Crossing Boundaries in Researching, Understanding, and Improving Language Education: Essays in Honor of G. Richard Tucker,” a forthcoming volume of SLAresearch organized by Modern Languages Ph.D. alums in his honor.

Please contact us to receive the details of the Zoom event.

Tuesday, April 12 | 3:05pm - 4:40pm ET | Posner Hall, Grand Room (3rd Floor)

andrew-lynch-800x800.pngGuest speaker Dr. Andrew Lynch will give a talk entitled "Interpreting complexity and contradiction in the study of language attitudes: Spanish in the United States." This event is in-person only. 

Abstract:

Heritage language researchers and sociolinguists understand a great deal about the ways in which U.S. Latinxs shift from Spanish/English bilingualism to English monolingualism over time. Emphasis on the structural effects of language shift, however, has obscured the societal causes of this process in bilingual settings. Understanding this phenomenon requires that we explore how varieties of Spanish are perceived vis-à-vis varieties of English. In this talk, I report on the findings of various language attitudinal and perceptual studies conducted in Miami over the past decade. With a majority Latinx population and vital ties to the Caribbean and Latin America, Miami is arguably the most dynamic bilingual city of the Americas. As superdiverse Spanish-speaking migratory flows crisscross hegemonic English language use across all socioeconomic strata of the city, the perception of Spanish ‘on the ground’ is conditioned by its ideological discursive construction ‘in the marketplace’. In this regard, Miami offers an intimate glimpse into the complex vertical scalar orders of language contact situations in postmodernity (Blommaert 2010), and into the rescaling of Spanish in the global era. I suggest that differential degrees of orientation toward the ‘language as commodity’ ideology of economic neoliberalism and the exigency of English in the broader scheme of things result in an apparent paradox for Spanish in the U.S., i.e. Spanish is positively valued in principle yet disfavored in practice. I highlight distinctions according to socioeconomic class and explicit versus implicit measures.

Thursday, April 21 | 1:20pm - 2:50pm ET | Posner Hall, Grand Room (3rd Floor)

This event is open to the public.

Kenju Murakami, Director of the Japan Information Center of the Consulate General of Japan in New York, will give a guest lecture co-sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and the Consulate General of Japan in New York.

With Japan’s life expectancy one of the highest in the world, Japan faces unprecedented demographic challenges, from which the rest of the world can learn lessons. Among the solutions to the aging society, this lecture looks into the issue of women’s labor force participation and foreign workers. The lecture also touches upon the latest of Japan’s COVID response, Japan-US relations, and people-to-people exchange of the two nations.

Thursday, April 28 | 6:30pm - 9:00pm ET | Room A14 Margaret Morrison Hall

This event is hosted by the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania. Registration is required.

The notion of multiculturalism (tabunka shugi or tabunka kyosei) emerged in the social and political discourses during the 1990s while the “myth of Japan’s homogeneity” was widely challenged by various scholars, thinkers, and business leaders in Japan and abroad since the 1980s. However, there are still issues regarding the diversity, equity and inclusion in Japan, a country where the population is declining and yet the number of foreign residents continue to grow. How is it possible for Japan to reinvent itself in response to the fast-paced global trend of multiculturalism?

To facilitate a discussion of multiculturalism in Japan today, Professor Yoshihiro Yasuhara will introduce the case of Kawasaki, a city that “became the first municipality to pass an ordinance that makes hate speech a punishable offense” and its repercussions.

This lecture features Yoshihiro Yasuhara, Associate Teaching Professor of
Japanese Studies in the Department of Modern Languages.

Registration and more information

Wednesday, May 18 | 1pm-2pm ET | Zoom Event

View a recording of the event

Language learning abroad was once an essential component of most education abroad experiences. But with the rise of “the center model” with all classes taught in English and more universities around the world offering courses and full degree programs in English, the motivation and the necessity for US students to learn a foreign language has seemed to decline. In this episode of the Gateway Spotlight, we’re talking with Katharine E. Burns, Assistant Professor of Second Language Acquisition and Hispanic Studies at Carnegie Mellon University about the current trends in language learning and the innovative ways programs around the world are helping students become bilingual through study abroad. We’ll also discuss why language learning is STILL a critical skill needed in the digital age with all its tech hacks.

Sponsored by the Spanish Institute for Global Education

Register