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Events
Carol Murphy inducted into the French Legion of Honor
Carol Murphy will receive the title Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, or knight of the legion, for her work in facilitating academic and research collaboration between France and the United States. More>>
PLIDA Italian Proficiency Exams
September 25, 2009 - Italian Studies at the University of Florida together with the Dante Alighieri Society of Gainesville is pleased to announce that students of Italian and other speakers of Italian may now obtain certification recognized by the Government of Italy attesting to their respective levels of competence.
New Faculty Appointments
Youssef Haddad joins the faculty as Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Linguistics. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Florida in 2007, with a thesis on "Adjunct Control in Telugu and Assamese" under the direction of Professor Eric Potsdam. He is an expert on syntactic theory and Arabic Linguistics. His publications have appeared in *Linguistic Inquiry*, *Word Structure*, and *Journal of Linguistics*, among others. He joins UF from the Lebanese American University in Byblos, where he held appointment as Assistant Professor.
Sean Macdonald joins the faculty as Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Universite de Montreal in 2002. His publications on modernist and avant garde cultural production, the 1920s-30s Shanghai New Sensationalists, and star discourse in China have appeared in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Modernism/Modernity, and Stars of the Chinese Cinema. He is an expert on modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture. He joins UF from McGill University, where he held appointment in Chinese Studies.
Sarra Tlili joins the faculty as Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature. She received her Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, with a thesis on The Nature and Status of Animals in the Qur'an, under the direction of Professor Joseph Lowry. She is an expert on the Qur'an and its exegesis, medieval Arabic literature, and modern Arabic language and literature, particularly Tunisian literature.
Alessia Colarossi joins the faculty as Lecturer in Italian. She received her Ph.D. in Foreign and Second Language Education from the Ohio State University in 2009, with a thesis on Defining Cultural Competence in Foreign Language Programs. She is an expert on language education and Italian language pedagogy.
PLIDA Italian Proficiency Exams
The Italian Studies program has recently been authorized to offer the PLIDA certificate of Italian Language Competence. This certificate is recognized by the Italian Government so students will be able to use this certificate when applying for jobs in Italy. The qualifying exam will be administered in conjunction with the Dante Alighieri Society of Gainesville.
McLaughlin awarded International and Area Studies Fellowship
Fiona McLaughlin has been awarded an SSRC/NEH/ACLS International and Area Studies Fellowship for the 2008-2009 academic year by the American Council of Learned Societies in order to work on a book entitled Dakar Wolof: The language of an African city. She has just published an article entitled “On the origins of urban Wolof: evidence from Louis Descemet’s 1864 phrase book” in Language in Society 37(5):713-735, and a chapter entitled “The ascent of Wolof as an urban vernacular and national lingua franca in Senegal” in Globalization and language vitality: Perspectives from Africa, Cécile B. Vigouroux and Salikoko S. Mufwene, eds. (London: Continuum).
