On Oct. 1, more than 1,000 attendees celebrated the Chinese Mid-Autumn and Global Food Festival at the Cohon University Center, hosted by LCAL's Chinese Studies program. The event featured traditional foods like mooncakes and dumplings and cultural performances, including a dance by Sue-mei Wu and her students in 82-139 Chinese Learning Through Arts, Cultural Practices and Community Engagement.

Read more about the festival.

Isabelle Chen published "L'Indépendance de l'entre-deux dans le récit initiatique contemporain" [The independence of in-betweenness in the contemporary coming-of-age narrative]. Her article explores how Frantz Fanon's anti-colonial writings on the psychology of race remain a useful framework for understanding modern-day stories about identity and belonging. http://doi.org/10.1353/nef.2025.a970636

Kenya Dworkin has been contracted to translate Christopher Rivas' book Brown Enough: True Stories About Love, Violence, the Student Loan Crisis, Hollywood, Race, Familia, and Making it in America (Row House Publishing, 2025 [2022]) into contemporary U.S. Spanish for high school ELL students in public schools across major U.S. cities. The book explores language, skin color, code-switching, whitewashing, representation and ambition, including a discussion guide to support classroom conversations.

Sanghee Kang presented her paper “AI-Generated Feedback in L2 Writing: Collaborative Process of Feedback, Revision Quality and Learner Perceptions” at the Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) hosted by Northern Arizona University. She was one of seven LCAL community members who participated, alongside alumni Henry Aberle (DC 2024) and Xiaomeng Li (DC 2023) and doctoral students Adam Bramlett, Joseph Garcia and Candice Guerbeau.

Other talks included: “From Arrival to Six-Weeks: Tracking Arabic Language Ideologies of L2 Learners Studying Abroad in Morocco” (Garcia & Khaled Al Masaeed), “Multiple Linguistic Thresholds in Cross-linguistic Transfer of Metalinguistic Awareness Skills: A Change-point Analysis” (Li), “Investigating L2 French Teachers’ Beliefs and Pedagogical Practices on Gender-Inclusive and Neutral Language” (Guerbeau), “The good, the bad, and the ugly of web-based experimental second language acquisition research” (Bramlett, Seth Wiener & Chisom Obasih (DC 2025), Yikai Li) and “Learning mechanisms of L2 speech: A replication of Nixon (2020) for Mandarin, Japanese, Southern Minto” (Bramlett). Collaborators of Ryuki Matsuura also presented their poster “The Role of Fluency and Rhythm in the Assessment of Task Delivery.”

On Sept. 26, Anne Lambright and Mary Jayne McCullough spoke about language access and justice in the panel "When Words Matter Most: The Human Factor of Language Access" at the 2025 Pennsylvania Latino Convention in Pittsburgh.

Anne Lambright also served as a Pennsylvania delegate in the JNCL-NCLIS Advocacy Action Day, meeting with the offices of Representative Summer Lee and Senator Dave McCormick to advocate for federal funding for language education programs in K-12 schools and universities.

Mame-Fatou Niang participated in the one-day symposium “Who is this ‘Black’ in Black Studies: Race, Democracy and the Discipline” at Ohio State University. The event examined how African and Black European immigration is reshaping Black communities in the U.S. and influencing the field of Black Studies. Dr. Niang’s talk highlighted how incorporating Europe into Black Studies expands the discipline’s scope, while underscoring the need for continued scholarly work amid democratic backsliding and rising authoritarianism in the U.S.

Emanuele Stefanori's essay "When the Clock Took the Floor: Technology as Non-Human Actor in Augusto de Angelis’ Detective Novel Il banchiere assassinato (1935)" was published as a book chapter in The Human and the Machine in Literature and Culture, ed. by Kate Foster and Molly Crozier (Rutledge, 2025).

Arabic Studies held a calligraphy workshop led by Ethan Pullman. Students learned about the different styles of writing Arabic and enjoyed seeing their names written in different ways.

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 non-CMU students 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 Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. (ET) — Register today!
• M.A. in Applied Linguistics & Second Language Acquisition — Advanced Study
• Open House on Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. (ET) — Register today!
• M.A. in Global Communication & Applied Translation
• 4+1 GCAT Program (for current undergraduate students)

Visit our website for more details!

The call for submissions for SONA 2026 is now open. 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.