News Links to Department Sites

The following articles have been collected from the departments and programs within the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. For specific news articles from one of these departments or programs, please visit the following pages:

American Sign Language News Asian and Slavic News French and Italian News German News

Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures News

Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Culture Symposium: Advocating for DEI in the Academy, Oct 6th-8th

Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Part of understanding race in America means understanding that anti-Blackness, ethnic discrimination, and colonialism are global issues. Acknowledging and addressing structural inequalities in the cultures that Division of World Language, Literatures, and Cultures and its constituent units represent, and how they advantage some and disadvantage others, is an essential part of our curricula and research programs, and innovative learning takes place in many forms. We look forward to a multidisciplinary dialogue and exchange of ideas concerning global ethnic and antiracism studies.

Sharing the Voices of History

Thursday, September 15, 2022
María Márquez Ponce’s current internship centers upon Latinx immigrants’ and Native Americans’ stories and experiences in Iowa, and she has seen her personal and scholarly interests collide. After sorting archival materials and establishing a timeline for cultural events affiliated with the Latino Native American Cultural Center (LNACC), she’s started reaching out to affiliated students, faculty, staff, and alumni from past years.

University of Iowa Introduces BA in Translation

Friday, May 13, 2022
The University of Iowa is meeting a pressing need for undergraduate training in translation with a new Bachelor of Arts in Translation. Drawing on the university’s recognized strength in writing and communication, the degree will be the first BA in Translation to be offered at a Research 1 university in the U.S. The new major builds on the success of Iowa’s undergraduate minor in Translation for Global Literacy and responds to increasing demand for translation skills in an increasingly international job market. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, employment of interpreters and translators is projected to grow 24% from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations.

Goldrush Campaign for Anne Frank Sapling

Wednesday, February 16, 2022
On February 23, 1944, a 15-year-old girl gazed from an attic window at the topmost branches of a tree. In her diary, she wrote, “I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists…and I may live to see it, this sunshine, these cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy.” The girl was Anne Frank. She would die in a concentration camp less than a year after penning that entry. Decades later, the tree succumbed to old age; before it was removed, however, germinated chestnuts were collected, saplings sprouted, and Anne’s trees now grow all over Europe. Only a dozen so-called Anne Frank trees are rooted on U.S. soil, including at the Boston Commons and a 9/11 memorial park in New York City. The thirteenth will be planted on the University of Iowa Pentacrest on April 29, 2022. The tree was awarded to our campus and community in recognition of our literary heritage, for the UI’s excellence in tree stewardship, and in observation of the Pentacrest’s long history as a space of peaceful youth activism.

Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Culture: Advocating for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Academy

Monday, December 6, 2021
A symposium organized by the Division of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures (DWLLC) at the University of Iowa, supported by an International Programs Major Projects Grant. Following the resurgence of protests against racialized police violence since May 2020, citizens, activists, artists, and academic communities across the globe have renewed efforts to reflect on and respond to issues of race and ethnicity and racial and ethnic discrimination. The Division of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures has joined these efforts.

News from around the Division

Critical Language Scholarship winner Abigail Fowler to study Japanese in Okayama this summer

Wednesday, March 15, 2023
University of Iowa international studies student Abigail Fowler of North Liberty, Iowa, has been awarded a 2023 U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study in Japan this summer at Okayama University for an intensive Japanese language program.

Sabine Martin named as DI 2023-24 executive editor

Monday, March 6, 2023
Martin, the DI’s current managing editor, is a third-year University of Iowa student majoring in journalism and mass communication and international studies with a minor in French. She has worked at the DI since her freshman year and previously served as a news editor during summer 2021 and the 2021-22 school year.

Prof. Elke Heckner receives Global Curriculum Development Award for "Accountability, Justice, and War Crimes: Current Trends"

Thursday, February 23, 2023
Prof. Elke Heckner has received a Global Curriculum Development Award from UI International Programs (IP) to create a new course on recent developments in international criminal law as well as non-juridical approaches to conflict resolution, providing students with up-to-date tools of critical analysis regarding war crimes. As Prof. Heckner notes on the IP website for these awards, “since the UN Security Council (due to Russia's and China's veto power) can no longer prosecute, stop, or effectively intervene in ongoing massive human rights abuses or near-genocidal conflicts, it is important for undergraduate students who are interested in the areas of international and humanitarian law to be aware of other avenues in which international criminal law can be effectively mobilized to prosecute aggressor states and perpetrators. The example of the invasion of Ukraine is [a] case in point. It is important for our students to understand the limitations and possibilities of current human rights interventions in the international arena.”

The course is currently under development for Spring 2024. It will strengthen and expand the University of Iowa's existing engagement with international conflict zones such as Kosovo and serve as a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration with the School of Law and the UI Department of Political Science.

Ancient Exchanges Translation Journal holds lively panel at the Society for Classical Studies Conference

Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Coinciding with the release of their latest issue, Ancient Exchanges editors Adrienne Rose, Laura Moser, and Echo Smith represented the journal at the annual Society for Classical Studies conference hosted in New Orleans in January, where they organized a panel called "Making Space for Translation" devoted to the vital role translation plays in Classical Studies pedagogy, scholarship, and publication. Presentations on the manifold "spaces" in which translation lives (from the metrical and miniscule to indigenous and interdisciplinary) were followed by a lively discussion with participation from both in-person and Zoom audiences.

Anne Frank Initiative established at the University of Iowa

Tuesday, February 7, 2023
A new International Programs (IP) affinity group, the Anne Frank Initiative (AFI), launched last week, and its mission is to investigate Anne Frank’s literary contributions and her legacy in a more contemporary context.

The initiative was conceived by Kirsten Kumpf Baele, a faculty member in the University of Iowa (UI) Department of German, who also serves as the director of AFI. Kumpf Baele was behind the planting of a descendant of Anne Frank’s chestnut tree on the University of Iowa campus in April 2022, which in turn inspired numerous events, including the Provost’s Global Forum: Teaching Anne Frank, a workshop, traveling exhibit, lectures, and film screening, which all focused on the continued importance of Anne Frank’s legacy.