The ExCel Award honors more than 30 students, staff, faculty and community members for their commitment to creating a campus environment that promotes diversity and excellence. Anjali Naik is the recipient of the ExCEL Award for the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs. She was nominated by Hindi instructor Mrs. Leena Karambelkar. Mrs. Karambelkar saw in her tremendous awareness of the community and a wish to help others.

Anjali Naik is a junior at the College studying Computing in the Arts with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. She is a member of the Bonner Leader Program, and has been a member of at least 5 other student organizations over her college experience. Her involvement in the community is of a change maker, a reformer, a role model.

Her exceptional work is for “Girls Rock Charleston” where she has already spent more than 800 volunteering hours. Anjali is also a co-founder, organizer and a daily mentor at the Girls Rock After School Program that builds power with prominently at-risk girls and trans youth to creatively collaborate with peers and use art and music as a platform to promote social change.

This weekend was a busy one for German and Russian Faculty at CofC. Dr. Nancy Nenno presented her research at the annual conference of the Philological Association of the Carolinas in Charlotte in a talk entitled “Angelo Soliman: Exemplum of Austrian Multiculturalism, Today and Yesterday.”

Meanwhile, back at CofC, the German program hosted the annual workshop of the South Carolina chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (SCAATG). 26 German teachers attended the conference and the final presenter was our very own Stephen Della Lana, who gave an excellent presentation on his German Contemporary Issues class entitled “Incorporating current events in the classroom.” Many thanks to everyone, especially to LCWA board member Bill Semmes, who helped sponsor the SCAATG meeting!

The SCAATG workshop also happened to be during Accepted Students Day at CofC, where our faculty and students were also involved:  Dr. Irina Erman gave a lecture on her Vampires course at noon and German and Russian Studies students Todd Middleton and Tyler Owens manned the German and Russian Studies table at TD arena from 10-1, while Dr. Koerner ran back and forth between Accepted Students events and the SCAATG workshop!

This weekend, Dr. Irina Erman, program director and assistant professor of Russian Studies at CofC, is presenting her research in Philadelphia at the annual conference of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies.

On Thursday she served as a respondent on a panel entitled “Writing Crime and Literary Theft,” and today she gives a talk on her most recent scholarly work:  “Nation and Vampiric Narration in Aleksey Tolstoy’s ‘The Family of the Vourdalak’.”

Russian Studies minor Kathleen Holden ‘015 writes about her fantastic, transformative experience in Oksana Ingle’s Maymester in Russia program: http://magazine.cofc.edu/2015/10/21/pulling-back-the-curtain-kathleen-holden-russia/

Russian Studies minor Kathleen Holden ‘015 writes about her fantastic, transformative experience in Oksana Ingle’s Maymester in Russia program: http://magazine.cofc.edu/2015/10/21/pulling-back-the-curtain-kathleen-holden-russia/

Stephen Della Lana’s popular and successful summer internship program to Germany is profiled in this fall’s edition of College of Charleston Magazine: 

http://magazine.cofc.edu/2015/10/21/guten-tag-opportunity-summer-internship-program-germany/

Stephen Della Lana’s popular and successful summer internship program to Germany is profiled in this fall’s edition of College of Charleston Magazine: 

http://magazine.cofc.edu/2015/10/21/guten-tag-opportunity-summer-internship-program-germany/

This weekend, five faculty members from the Department of German and Russian Studies at the College of Charleston will present at the annual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, held this year at the Marriott on Lockwood in Charleston! Here are there times, locations, and titles:

This weekend, two CofC German professors presented on the research at the Annual German Studies Association Conference in Arlington, VA.

Dr. Nancy Nenno presented on her work at the GSA Seminar “Political Activism in the Black European Diaspora: From Theory to Praxis.” Her paper explores the role that public memorials play in the political activism of Black Germans and Austrians by juxtaposing the establishment and role in public discourse of memorials to Black individuals.

Dr. Morgan Koerner gave a presentation on the prolific German theater author and director René Pollesch and his theater’s complicated relationship to digital culture, in a paper entitled “‘Macht es für euch selbst!’ Participatory Culture and Performative Process in René Pollesch’s Theater.”

It was a busy weekend for the German and Russian Studies Program at CofC!

On Friday night at 6pm, Afro-German filmmaker Mo Asumang visited campus for a screening of her film Die Arier (The Aryans) at the Wilcox Auditorium of the Charleston Museum. A large audience came and the film and post-film discussion with the director were  inspiring. Special thanks to Dr. Nancy Nenno, who invited Ms. Asumang and organized the event!

Then, on Saturday morning at 10am, 30 high school students of German from four local high schools descended on campus for the first annual “Lowcountry German Day,” hosted by Dr. Morgan Koerner. Students from Wando, West Ashley, Summerville, and Ashley Ridge High Schools received a German lesson on Berlin and Bamberg, witnessed a panel discussion on study abroad by three German majors, and took a tour of the campus. Special thanks to local High School teachers Kelli Akers (West Ashley), Ramona Montjoy (Ashley Ridge), Kelsey Cater (Summerville), and Stephanie Mignone (Wando), as well as German Majors Matthew Orvin, Therese Spaseff, and Kevin Tully!

Local High School Students on campus for Lowcountry German Day!

Dr. Nenno introduces Mo Asumang before the screening of “The Aryans”