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Chicago Latino Film Festival
A group of Hispanic Studies M.A. students taking Professor Rodr铆guez Navas's spring 2026 graduate seminar, "Place, Past, and Present in Latin American Fiction,鈥� attend the Chicago Latino Film Festival to watch the film Escritor (dir. Paula de Luque) with De Paul film studies professor Luisela Alvaray.
El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego
A group of students from Prof Natalia Valencia's SPAN 251 Spring 2026 course enjoy a performance of the opera El 脷ltimo Sue帽o de Frida y Diego at the Lyric Opera House.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A group of students from Prof Natalia Valencia's SPAN 364 Spring 2026 course at the Goodman Theater enjoy a production of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Polish Guest Speaker: Dr. Josephine Długopolski-Gach
The LUC Polish Student Alliance hosted a Speaker Night featuring Dr. Josephine D艂ugopolski-Gach, bringing together students interested in medicine, language, and Polish culture. The event offered valuable insights into medical careers and highlighted the importance of communication in healthcare, especially in multilingual environments. It also emphasized that Polish Studies is one of the few programs that offers a specialized course in Polish medical terminology. This unique opportunity is especially valuable for students considering a career in the medical field, as it helps build professional vocabulary and prepares them to work effectively with Polish-speaking patients.
Polish Pisanki Event
The LUC Polish Studies program hosted a vibrant Polish Pisanki Event on March 24, 2026, organized by Prof Aleksandra Majkowska Smith, bringing together students and faculty to celebrate Polish Easter traditions.
Latin Heritage Celebration
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Students from Dr. Gabriela Buitrón Vera's upper-division Spanish joined the Latinx celebration, played Latinx Bingo and enjoyed some multicultural food and music.
Pisanki Polish Event 2023
Easter event where Loyola students had a chance to hear about Polish Easter tradition and had a chance to create their own PISANKI using the scratching method.
Event took place at the Loyola campus on Tuesday, March 28th. You can see the result of their work
Israel 75 Birthday
"ISRAEL@75" BIRTHDAY PARTY! ENDS HEBREW STUDIES YEAR
Hebrew Studies celebrated Israel Independence Day with Birthday Cake in the shape of the Israeli flag, with Israeli Music Videos and some videos direct from Israel showing the celebrations in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv, and with the Hebrew students helping guests make Hebrew Name Bead Bracelets. There were also lots of Israel-themed giveaways!
L'Italiano oltre i confini: adotta una parola
Italian students who attended Italian 250 in Fall 2025 taught by Anna Clara Ionta won first and second prize at the competition 'L'Italiano oltre i confini: adotta una parola' organized by the Consulate General of Italy and the Education Office on the XXV Week of the Italian Language in the World. The Consul General of Italy Dr. Mario Alberto Bartoli and Education Officer Prof. Marina Lenza welcomed the students and their teacher on March 19, 2026, and received a certificate of merit. First prize winners: Sofia Call, Alexander Fiorentino, Genesis Morro, Grace Newell. Second prize winners: Gelannie Carbonell, Bryce Lepkowski, Evelyn Morrison, Anthony Mentas (not pictured). Congratulations to all!
Latin Heritage Celebration
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Latin Heritage Celebration
Students from Dr. Gabriela Buitr贸n Vera's upper-division Spanish joined the Latinx celebration, played Latinx Bingo and enjoyed some multicultural food and music.
From the classroom to the theater
A group of Spanish upper-200-level students, learning about Latin American dictatorships, attended Aguij贸n Theater Company of Chicago, accompanied by their professor, Dr. Gabriela Buitr贸n Vera, and saw the play 鈥淟a Muerte y la doncella,鈥� a political thriller by Ariel Dorfman. The play explores how a country, disturbed by repression, heals its wounds, and moves toward democracy through accountability.
The students in the Spring 2021 class FREN319 (The Romantic Century), taught by Dr. Julia Elsky and tagged with Women's Studies & Gender Studies, is excited to share the exhibition that they created on Omeka.
In this article for the Harry Ransom Center鈥檚 series 鈥淲hat Is Research?鈥� Julia Elsky reflects on her experience in archives in France and the United States while writing her book, Writing Occupation: Jewish 脡migr茅 Voices in Wartime France (Stanford University Press, 2020). She discusses what archival research can tell us about the life of a novel, and in particular about Jean Malaquais鈥檚 wartime novel told from the perspective of refugees in France.
Julie Elsky's ground-breaking book Writing Occupation: Jewish 脡migr茅 Voices in Wartime France was published in December (2020) by Stanford University Press. It appears in the series Jewish History and Culture, and studies the wartime experiences and writings of Jewish 茅migr茅 authors in France. It also focuses on the topics of bilingualism and translation.
Initiatives for Racial Justice
Learn about recent and future initiatives contributing to combat racial justice.
Vorstufen des Exils / Early Stages of Exile by Reinhard Andress
In May 2018, Dr. Reinhard Andress organized a conference at Loyola on The Early Stages of Exile. The conference volume with additional articles, edited by Dr. Andress, appeared in July 2020 with Brill/Rodopi in the Netherlands under the title of Vorstufen des Exils / Early Stages of Exile. Exile is usually defined as the time one lives elsewhere, involuntarily separated from home. However, exile can also be conceptualized more broadly as a process already starting at home, while traveling into exile and/or before arriving in the place of exile. It includes the sense of alienation at home for political, racist, religious, cultural or linguistic reasons, also for reasons of sexual orientation or censorship. Pondering the pros and cons of exile, establishing networks of resistance, matters of bureaucracy or learning a new language are just some of the additional aspects. This volume attempts to shed detailed light on those early stages of exile.
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Carinne Jarvis, a French Minor at Loyola University Chicago, competed in a call for papers from the American Journal of French Studies in the Spring of 2020 on the topic of "Transportation and New Technologies". Carinne came in 4th place in this highly competitive call for papers for her essay "Ce qu'on peut attendre dans une soci茅t茅 qui est bas茅e sur la technologie". Carinne is continuing to study French this year and is currently enrolled in French 270, a survey course to explore French literature from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. Congratulations Carinne!
Speaker Series
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola University Chicago is sponsoring the 2020-2021 lecture series, which will address issues of health and sickness, both individual and social, engaging with how discourses of plague, hygiene, and containment are inflected with power and race.
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Arabic and the Philippines: A Labyrinth of Bonding Possibilities
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marHaba! Salamaat! My name is Isabella Steele, and I am a sophomore majoring in Global Studies and Political Science with a minor in Arabic Language & Culture at Loyola. I am a Filipino adoptee, born in the U.S. It has not been until I have come to Loyola that I have found a Filipino community in KAPWA, the Filipino Student Organization. Through KAPWA, I have learned about various Filipino dances, youth movements in the Philippines, and overall, I have joined a welcoming community that I know is always there for me. (My photo below is with KAPWA at the Filipino Americans Coming Together Conference (FACT) 2023).
The Philippines is a vast country of numerous cultures and languages. When I was about 13 years old, I humbly researched a bit on the imperial interest in it and its impact. The Philippines was colonized, politically, economically, and culturally for over 300 years- first by Spain and then by the United States of America (U.S.). It is important to recognize the amalgamation of cultures and civilizations that has been shaping the country鈥檚 identities prior to the Spanish and American perpetuation of what we know as the Philippines today. Upon graduating my high school, I decisively decorated my graduation cap with the Philippines flag star!
When joining Loyola, I knew I wanted to study a world language spoken in the country of my ancestors. However, Loyola does not offer Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines today (although KAPWA students have hosted Tagalog learning sessions). Therefore, I decided to study Arabic when I found out that it is a recognized minority language in the Philippines, where my birthmother is from. While researching Arabic in the Philippines, I realized that Arabic is still spoken today in Mindanao Island. Arabic first arrived in Mindanao Island during the 1000s and flourished during the 14th century by Arab traders in the region- some of them settled there. Arabic eventually evolved into a lingua franca; a language spoken by two people who did not grow up with the same language. Through these Arab traders, Indigenous people of Mindanao Island learned Arabic and combined/adapted its use within their own language/culture. Unlike the controversial Spanish arrival with its hierarchical association towards the Indigenous people of the Philippines, Arab traders appreciated mixing and intermingling with the locals fusing beautifully diverse languages and cultures.
At the simple level of vocabulary, several Tagalog words are derived from Arabic. One Tagalog greeting, 鈥淪alamat鈥�, comes from the Arabic word for peace, which is salaam. cilm, which means knowledge in Arabic, influenced the Tagalog phrase 鈥渁lam mo ba鈥� which means do you know. The Tagalog word 鈥渕abuhay鈥� which means may your life be long, has the word Hayy which means living in Arabic. Arabic is still integrated into Filipino society today, specifically in Mindanao. In 201, an education system called madrasah in Mindanao (which comes from the Arabic word madrasa(t) for school) received funding to be further included in the national education system of the Philippines. One of the components of the madrasah is Arabic Language and Islamic values. More examples of the subtle connections of Arabic to the Philippines can be further excavated.
Again, I am not sure specifically where my ancestors are from in the Philippines, but I do know that I鈥檓 enthusiastic to learn about as many cultures of the Philippines as possible. I do take special interest in promoting and connecting with Filipino authors (images shared here). Learning Arabic allowed me a venue to deeply reflect on my own native Filipino identity, to research trajectories of colonial encounters, and to critique the limited historical introductions, if any, to such topics in the Philippines in the US school system. There is ample variation to Filipino culture(s) which may stereotypically be misrepresented and even downgraded due to lack of knowledge. I am so grateful that my Arabic classes have provided me with this opportunity to research my homeland! Learning to speak Arabic language allows me an innovative emotional bond to my homeland thousands of miles away.
