Category Archives: Events

MIIS French Professor Michel Gueldry keeping busy

MIIS Professor Michel  Gueldry has had, and continues to have, a very busy semester. As a French language studies professor at MIIS, Gueldry specializes in international relations and sustainability studies. Just this year, Gueldry has completed and submitted three articles for publication: a new research paper entitled “Energy and Climate Change: The Emergence of an Overarching Security Nexus,” an essay entitled “Personal Transformation and Worldly Engagement: When Mindfulness Meets the Market,” and a paper entitled “Ecological Economics: An Alternative Grand Narrative for Capitalism and a Blueprint for a Sustainable Economy.”

Besides submitting three papers for publication, Gueldry will participate in Peter Fordos‘ student weekend workshop, “Intercultural Competence for Sustainability,” on March 29. His contribution to this workshop is a segment called “How to Communicate Climate Change for Diverse Audiences: Engaging Stakeholders across Professional Cultures.” On April 8, Gueldry will also co-teach a workshop for students with CACS Advisor Edy Rhodes. The workshop is called “Emotional Intelligence: The Tip of the Iceberg.”

Gueldry’s busy schedule will continue into the summer. He will teach three panels at the University of Leipzig, Germany, in July 2014: one on energy policy, one on narratives of capitalism, and one on personal transformation and professional growth.

Congratulations to Professor Gueldry on all of his accomplishments!

MIIS Alumni Mingle at CATESOL Conference

CATESOL 2013 - MIIS Alumni

MIIS Alumni: Back Row: Don Sillings, Larry Lawson, Tammy Wik, Jeff Madison. Middle Row: Gary Sosa, Karen Hamilton, Celeste Coleman, Belinda Braunstein. Front Row: Erin Butler, Chigusa Katoku.

Many MIIS graduates, students, and faculty attended the 44th Annual CATESOL Conference two weeks ago in San Diego. The conference is for TESOL professionals in California, and the theme this year was “Riding the Waves of Success,” which dealt with the challenges and achievements educators and students face when teaching or learning English. The event included pre‑conference institutes, multiple plenaries, featured speakers, level and interest group workshops, poster sessions, an electronic village, and general sessions for every level of ESL. Highlights of the conference were the opening plenary, the Thursday evening reception, the Presidential Luncheon on Friday, and the Saturday Night Sizzle.

CATESOL 2013 (2)

The event was a great opportunity for all TESOL educators and students to come together, especially current and past TESOL educators and students from MIIS. Many MIIS students, graduates, and faculty attended the event, including Tammy Wik, MA TESOL ‘10, who is currently the English Language Fellow Program (ELF) Regional Recruitment Coordinator for MIIS, and Celeste Coleman, also a TESOL graduate and English Language Fellow (see picture, right). All of the MIIS graduates met up and hung out at the Saturday Night Sizzle, which was a fun 2-hour social event on the last night of the conference (see featured picture above, with captions). Considering there were only about 100 total people who attended the social hour, there was a great turn out of MIIS people at the event.

Kavenoki Conducts Webinar on Interpreting for Olympics

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Russian translation and interpretation professor Rosa Kavenoki conducted a webinar on intercultural communication around interpreting for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee and volunteers on October 29 in Moscow, Russia.
 
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While in Russia, Prof. Kavenoki also spoke at the plenary session of the international conference Language and Culture in the Changing World, which took place October 23-24 at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk.

MIIS faculty coach Middlebury students at Clifford Symposium

MIIS Professors Barry Slaughter Olsen and Jacolyn Harmer were invited to participate in the annual Clifford Symposium at Middlebury last week. The topic of this year’s Symposium was “Translation in A Global Community: Theory and Practice.” As part of this event, Middlebury brought in faculty from MIIS to work together with Middlebury students. The Middlebury students were invited to try their hand at interpretation with coaching from Olsen and Harmer. (see video)

From an interpretation booth on stage, two MIIS graduates were interpreting the keynote speaker’s address into Chinese for audience members.

Former Russian Political Prisoner to Speak on Campus

Ex-Yukos manager Vladimir Pereverzin gives press conference

Vladimir Pereverzin is a former executive of the YUKOS oil company, which was forced into bankruptcy by the Putin administration for what many observers believe were political motivations.  The company’s top executives, including Mr. Pereverzin, were accused of economic crimes and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.  Mr. Pereverzin was released in February 2012 after serving seven years and two months in Russia’s notorious prison system.  He refused to testify against his former colleagues, has steadfastly maintained his innocence, and has never recognized the legitimacy of his prison sentence, which he is contesting in the European Court of Human Rights.  Since his release from prison, he has written a book (Hostage) and given numerous talks about his experiences as a Russian political prisoner.

Mr. Pereverzin will be on campus on Friday, October 4, at 1:15pm in the Irvine Auditorium to speak about his experience as a former Russian political prisoner.

Curriculum Design Trade Fair

TESOL curriculum design trade fairWhen: Friday, May 17, 12:00 – 2:00PM

Where: CF 434

TESOL and TFL students from professor Peter Shaw’s Curriculum Design course invite you to view the innovative syllabi, unit designs, lesson plans and materials produced this semester.

Engage with projects based in a variety of Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, EFL and ESL contexts and populations.

Guest Lecture on SLA Research

ortegaDr. Lourdes Ortega, Linguistics Professor at Georgetown University, will be giving a lecture on “How Useful is Instructed SLA Research for Teachers, and What does Epistemological Diversity have to Do with it?” Professor Ortega will examine ways in which the blooming of cognitive, sociocultural, and sociocognitive theories of additional language learning has invigorated the capacity of SLA researchers to make meaningful contributions to knowledge about language teaching. Come join on Friday, May 17th, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm in McGowan 102.

Seminar on “Why Russia Matters to the United States”

Dr. Dmitriattachment Trenin, the foremost expert in Russian foreign policy and US/Russian relations, will be conducting a seminar April 25, at 12:15 pm to 1:30 pm in Irvine Auditorium. He is a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment, the Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, and the Chair of its Foreign and Security Policy Program. Dr. Trenin has been with the Carnegie Moscow Center since its inception in 1993. From 1993-97, he held posts as a senior research fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome, a visiting professor at the Free University of Brussels, and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe in Moscow. He served in the Soviet and Russian Armed Forces from 1972 to 1993, and has experience working as a liaison officer in the External Relations Branch of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and as a staff member of the delegation to the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms talks in Geneva from 1985 to 1991. He also taught at the Defense University in Moscow. Dr. Trenin authored Getting Russia Right (2007, forthcoming); Russia’s Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia (2004; with Aleksei V. Malashenko), and The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization, (2001). He edited, with Steven Miller, The Russian Military: Power and Policy (2006).

French Poetry Contest at MIIS

img_7345The third annual French Poetry Contest, co-sponsored by our GSTILE French Program  and the Alliance Française of the Monterey Peninsula, was held in Irvine Auditorium on March 16, 2013. Fifty-two students from the Monterey area’s middle schools, high schools and colleges participated in the two categories: original poems written by the candidates in French, and recitations of poems from French and Francophone literature.

 

MIIS Professor Michel Gueldry  and  Alliance Française President Madame de Sibert greeted the candidates.  Three judges: Professors Edgard Coly and  John Hedgcock and Toni O’Meara (former DLI professor and published poet) read the original poems and heard the recitations. Trophies were awarded for first, second and third prizes, as well as many honorable mention certificates. The candidates ranged from young teenagers to mature college students; they all displayed much enthusiasm in their high quality presentations and interpretations. The enthusiastic applause they received from the audience emphasized the success of the event.

 

MIIS Translation and Localization Professor Max Troyer also helped with the event by designing and printing the programs, as well as all the beautiful certificates that the candidates received. A few MIIS students helped the candidates throughout the course of the event as well: Leslie Hayner was a most gracious hostess, Francesca Isaia helped tabulate the judging of the original poems, and Gael Tovivo made sure each candidate was comfortable on the stage.

 

Arab Spring Turns into Sand Storms

Guest Lecturealaa on Arab Spring, organized by the Arabic Studies Program.

Prof. Alaa Eligibali from the University of Maryland will speak        Thursday, April 4th, from 2:15pm to 1:15pm in McGowan 100.

A little more than two years ago, parts of the Arab world experienced what later came to be known as the Arab Spring. Initial world and domestic consensus of hope and optimism are turning into ambivalence and even skepticism. As chaos claims the day, many wonder if that spring has turned into a true Arab spring of sand storms and poor visibility.  Was the imagery drawn for the Arab revolutions indeed prophetic?