After more than 40 years at Carnegie Mellon — including 36 years with LCAL — Nancy Monda has retired. As business manager, Nancy was the department's steady cornerstone, guiding it through decades of growth with unmatched dedication, warmth and institutional knowledge. Her colleagues describe her as "the heart of LCAL" and "a quiet force behind every success."

To celebrate her extraordinary career, LCAL hosted a heartfelt retirement gathering and launched a crowdfunding campaign in her honor to support awards recognizing exceptional service among LCAL staff. Read more.

Adam van Compernolle and Tianya (Sophie) Qin (DC 2018) were awarded a Research Priorities Grant by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) to fund their study "Developing pragmatic competence in digital interaction: A computerized dynamic assessment of L2 Chinese learners."

Katharine Burns and her collaborator Tracy Quan (University of Colorado Boulder) published "The ideological positioning of heritage language learners: A critical discourse analysis of world language teacher preparation textbooks" in The Modern Language Journal. http://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70008

Michael McEachrane published the chapter "Situating Afro-/African Swedish Studies" in Black Studies in Europe: An Anthology of Soil and Seeds (Northwestern University Press, 2025).

Felipe Gómez virtually presented his paper “Balada para niños muertos: Memoria afectiva y espectralidad en el documental de Jorge Navas,” and led a conversation with the director of the film at the XXIV Congreso Bienal Asociación de Colombianistas: “Colombias posibles” hosted by Ithaca College from Oct. 8–10.

Lynette Shin, a Hispanic Studies major and pre-med student in the Humanities Scholars Program, recently co-presented research with Joshua H. Gordon, M.D., from the Department of Psychiatry at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center. Lynette’s humanistic perspective helped shed light on Veterans who may be overlooked by current suicide risk prediction tools in their talk “Risk factors for suicide among Veterans suicide decedents who were not considered to be high risk for suicide.”

On Oct. 30, Pina Gemboni gave a guest lecture on Italian postcolonial literature to students in the University of Florida's Italian program. The talk was part of the course Translating Migration taught by professor Gabriele Belletti.

On Oct. 24, Italian studies students enjoyed a performance of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème by the Pittsburgh Opera with professors Pina Gemobini and Emanuele Stefanori.

On Oct. 28, students in 82-139B Chinese Learning Through Cultural Practices and Community Engagement participated in a special martial arts sessions with members of the CMU Washu Club. The club gave a demonstration and introduced students to basic Washu forms and techniques.

On the same day, students in 82-139A Chinese Learning Through Cultural Practices and Community Engagement were visited by master Kate Wang, founder of MW Taichi & Wellness. Students practiced Taichi and Qigong (Ba Duan Jin) in an energetic, hands-on class.

On Oct. 30–31, Candace Lukasik, assistant professor of religion at Mississippi State University, visited a Humanities Scholars class, engaging students in thoughtful discussion about religion, migration and global identity. During her visit, Dr. Lukasik also delivered a talk and led a workshop exploring Copts, Assyrians, transnational identity and the persecution politics of the U.S. empire.

After studying the history, origin and contested claims of Egyptian and Levantine dishes, students in Elementary Arabic and Global Food Cultures classes engaged in a hands-on 'cookalong.' They put their learning into practice by chopping, slicing and layering to make the very dishes they had researched.

On Oct. 28, German studies in collaboration with the College of Engineering hosted the second event in the Germany on Campus series sponsored by the German Embassy. Guest speakers Mikael Lindvall and Prahlad Menon from Fraunhofer USA delivered a talk titled "Accelerating Innovation for Real-World Applications: Using AI to Solve Applied Research Problems." More than 140 students attended!

We are now accepting applications for our summer 2026 study abroad programs in Doha, Qatar; Freiburg, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Monteverde, Costa Rica; Nantes, France; and Shanghai, China! While our program in Seoul, South Korea has not opened applications yet, students can still fill out our inquiry form and will be notified when the applications go live.

Our Online Language Learning program has officially launched Arabic I for independent learners! This course is geared toward learners who are not enrolled at CMU (like CMU faculty and staff) who are interested in language learning. Learn more on our website.

• Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics & Second Language Acquisition
• M.A. in Applied Linguistics & Second Language Acquisition
• Open House on Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. (ET) — Register today!
• M.A. in Applied Linguistics & Second Language Acquisition — Advanced Study
• Open House on Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. (ET) — Register today!
• M.A. in Global Communication & Applied Translation
• Open House on Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. (ET) — Register today!

Visit our website for more details!

The call for submissions for SONA 2026 is open until December 12. Following the success of the first festival, the second edition will showcase immersive technology in language and culture and bring creators from the immersive storytelling community to CMU. To discuss inviting artists or supporting new projects through the Immersive Cultural Innovation Fund, please email Stephan Caspar.