Department News & Events

General News

FALL 2009 EVENTS

• Foreign Film Festival - All the movies will be in original version with English subtitles.  Don't miss them!  For more information click here.
• Come out to the Fall Colloquium - The dreamy words of poetes Ruben Dario and Hmberto Costantini in Spanish and English, read to the steamy tangos of composer Astor Piazzolla.  Poetry will be read by Dr. Hernan Fontanet also.  For more information click here.
• German Club/German Table - Anyone interested in learning about German language and culture in a relaxed conversational setting is invited to attend.  For more information click here.
• French Club/French Table - The French conversation ntable is open to all!  ou are welcome to come and join the conversation or just listen in.  For more information click here.

SPRING 2009 EVENTS

• Foreign Language Careerfest - TUESDAY March 10th in the SWEIGART BUSINESS BUILDING AUDITORIUM at 5:30 pm. 
  Come and hear professionals and alumni in a panel discussion on how they use foreign languages in their careers in Business, Government and Education.
• MARK YOUR CALENDARS ALSO FOR THE FOLLOWING!
  1.  Wednesday, February 11th: Medieval Conference: "The Hidden and Revealed in Early Modern Literature" (flyers will be placed on campus for locations and times of speakers)
  
  2. Thursday, February 19th, 5pm: "International Film and Food Festival":  La Misma Luna
  BLC Fireside Lounge 5:30 pm--Great international food will be served
  
  3. Wednesday, March 4th: Visiting Speaker for the Film and Media Studies Symposium, "Rider Goes to the Movies": Millicent Marcus to speak on Italian film--time/location to be announced shortly. This is co-sponsored by the FLL Department, The English Department, Communication Department, Fine Arts Department, Film and Media Studies, along with the Symposium itself which runs from March 3-5 (flyers and announcements of full schedule of speakers and films forthcoming).
  
  4.   Tuesday, April 7th, 5:30pm in BLC Fireside Lounge (245): Foreign Languages and Literatures Colloquium and Honor Society Induction Ceremonies.
  
  5.   Friday, April 17th: Department Co-Curricular Event :Trip to McCarter theater to see performance of Music from Mali
• WRRC 107.7 FM to launch Foreign Language Radio Shows

Don't forget to tune into WRRC 107.7 The Bronc to hear one of four Foreign Language radio shows being launched:

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Club News

The German Club has scheduled many events for the '08-’09 year including:

1. Oktoberfest Pub Night, co-sponsored with the Rider Pub
2. German Film Night in  Gee Hall Lounge
3. Trip to the Blue Danube German Restaurant in Trenton
4. Gingerbread Decorating at Plainsboro, NJ Traditions Festival annual tradition.

For more information on these and all our events, please contact Dr. Margaret Schleissner, schleissner@rider.edu.
 

French Conversation Table:  If you speak French just a little or are fluent, please join us for an informal hour or so of conversation in French, or just listen in!  All meetings are in Foreign Language Media Center located in Fine Arts 309 on the following days:

• Wednesday, February 4: from 4:30 to 5:30
• Monday, February 23: from 4:30 to 5:30
• Friday, March 6: from 12:30 to 1:30
• Wednesday, March 25: from 4:30 to 5:30
• Monday, April 6: from 4:30 to 5:30
• Friday, April 24: from 11:30 to 1:30

Foreign Festival Movie Nights

• February 19 (Thursday)
  La misma luna—106 minutes—2008—MEXICO
  Location: FIRESIDE LOUNGE (BLC 245) Time: 5:30 p.m.
  Director: Patricia Riggen Genre: Drama/ Comedy
  (International Food will be served)
• March 9 (Monday)
  Pane e tulipani—114 minutes—2000—ITALY
  Location: FINE ARTS 309 Time: 4:30 p.m.
  Director: Silvio Soldini Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Romance 
• April 15 (Wednesday)
  Piter FM—85 minutes—2006—RUSSIA
  Location: FINE ARTS 309 Time: 4:30 p.m.
  Director: Oksana Bychkova
  Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Romance

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Faculty News

Dominick Finello, Professor Emertus of Spanish has just published The Evolution of the Pastoral Novel in Early Modern Spain.
The Evolution of the Spanish Pastoral Novel in Early Modern Spain recasts the role of the pastoral novel in the intellectual life of the Spain after the initial impact of the Dianas. Spanish pastoral novels published from 1570 onward are crucial in reconstructing Spain's intellectual history and modernity. Pastorals of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Gálvez de Montalvo, Lofrasso, González de Bobadilla, Mercader, Corral, Suárez de Figueroa, Balbuena, and related eclogues and festival literature, will show that the genre became more than a resource for neoplatonic thinking and the idealization of country life. Still to be discovered in its entirety, the Spanish pastoral novel was a springboard for literary academies and poetic competitions renewing Castilian poetics for the essential concerns of artistic reception, the conception of innovative generic forms, the power of the writer in a hierarchical society and, ultimately, the novel's bold new sense of literary self-consciousness.

Dr. Mary Poteau-Tralie recently had a chapter published, "Landscape, Identity and Sexuality:  Tituba as Candide in Maryse Condé's 'Moi, Tituba, Sorcière.... noire de Salem'" in the following collection of essays: "Land and Landscape in Francographic Literature" Eds. Magali Compan and Katarzyna Pieprzak.

Dr. Stéphane Natan, assistant professor of French, published the paper, “Le décor des Pensées de Pascal: Un monde clos et ténébreux,” in the fall 2006 volume of the journal “Romance  Quarterly.” He also published another article, “Les Pensées de Pascal: Six épithètes au service de l’apologie,” in the fall 2006 volume of the journal “Études Épistémè."

Congratulations to senior Carlos Jarvis for joining Prof. Daria Cohen on a panel discussing “Best Practices in World Languages and International Education in Teacher Preparation Programs” for the NJ Department of Education on October 13 at William Paterson University.

Maria Cristina Campos Fuentes, adjunct faculty in Spanish, had her paper, "En el país de la parodia: el criollismo en Adán Buenosayres de Marechal," accepted for publication. It will be published in the May 2007 issue of the journal "Chasqui," Volume 36, Number 1, Spring 2007. "Chasqui" is a peer reviewed journal, specializing in Latin American literature.

"Adjunct Instructor of Chinese Jane Jiang publishes book in July 2006 entitled 'A Reflection Moment' (New York: Cozy House)."  This book is an award-winning collection of 40 articles published originally in major Chinese newspapers and magazines that capture Mrs. Jiang's first 10 years in the United States and trace her life stages. Critics have called it a "true inner reflection and footprint of many immigrants' whispers and unceasing hopes, and which enlightens the unconditional endurance in all of us."

Dr. Linda Materna, Chairperson and Professor of Spanish of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, recently published her article "El poder y la libertad del artista en 'Cartas de amor a Stalin' de Juan Mayorga" in El próximo acto: teatro español en el siglo XXI (Delaware, OH: Estreno, 2006).

Dr. Daria Cohen, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures, delivered the paper, “El juego metateatral en /Hermanas de sangre/ de Cristina Fernández Cubas,” at the Fourth International Congress of the Hispanic Association for the Humanities in Madrid, Spain on June 26. Dr. Cohen attended the Annual Conference of the Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese in Salamanca, Spain from June 28 to July 1 where she participated in workshops on Spanish pedagogy. Dr. Cohen also presented a paper titled “Changing Women’s Voices/ Women’s Voices of Change in Contemporary Spanish Theater” at the New Europe at the Crossroads Conference in Berlin, Germany on July 3.

Dr. Stéphane Natan, assistant professor of French, published the paper, “Les Pensées de Pascal: Au royaume des nécessités,” in the journal, “Symposium,” Volume 60, Number 6, Summer 2006, pages 93-108. "Symposium"is a quarterly journal in “Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures.”

Materna Invited Speaker at University of Salamanca, Spain
Dr. Linda Materna, professor of Spanish and chairperson of the department of foreign languages and literatures at Rider, presented academic papers this past July at the annual conference of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) at the University of Salamanca in Spain and at the biannual conference of the Asociación Hispánica de Humanidades in Madrid.

Dr. Linda Materna has published a review of a production of Jeronimo Lopez Mozo's play on domestic violence, Ella se va, staged at the Madrid Galileo theater March-May 2004 in the journal Estreno. Cuadernos del teatro español contemporaneo. In July of 2005, she presented a paper entitled "Globalization and African Immigration in Spanish Film: Chus Gutierrez's Poniente" at the Europe at the New Crossroads conference in Poznan, Poland.