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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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Intertwined Arabic Traces within Ethiopian Languages & Orthodoxy
marHaba! My name is Hana Maru and I am a Freshman at Loyola University Chicago. I am double majoring in Political Science and Global Studies and double minoring in Arabic Language & Culture and Law & Politics. I was born in Ethiopia, and the majority of my family emigrated to the US from Ethiopia in 2005. My interest in Arabic stems from the similarity it holds to Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, and the relationship between my religion and Islam. I am a part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. I grew up with Muslims and Christians alike and I loved seeing the small similarities, especially in practices between the two. In my quest to gain a deeper understanding of my religion, I decided it was pertinent that I also study the other biggest religion of my nation, Islam. Part of this involves learning the languages the religions use, Ge鈥檈z and Amharic for EOTC, and Arabic for Islam.
Arabic, Ge鈥檈z, and Amharic all stem from the Afro-Asiatic linguistic family, and they are further separated as Arabic is considered to be from the central Semitic branch while Ge鈥檈z and Amharic are southern Semitic or Ethio Semitic/Ethiopic. Amharic evolved from Ge鈥檈z and is widely considered to be a creole. However, the Ge鈥檈z script evolved from an ancient southern Arabian language, the Sabaic script. The Arab world has strong ties with the formation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and as a result, the language of Arabic has seeped into both Ge鈥檈z and Amharic. The Aksum empire was converted to Christianity by two brothers, Frumentius and Aedesius from Tyre, Lebanon. Frumentius then went on to become the first bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and he was regarded as 鈥�Abuna '' which means 鈥渙ur father鈥� in Arabic. Abune is still used today to describe the archbishop of the church. The appointment of St. Frumentius as the first head of the church for EOTC by the Pope of Alexandria, gave birth to a long tradition of Egyptian Bishops until 1959 when the first Ethiopian born Bishop was appointed due to EOTC becoming autocephalous.
Canonical literature was translated from Arabic into Ge鈥檈z by Coptic scholars. For example, the Ethiopian Legal code, Fatha Nagast, which included the stipulation that forbade Ethiopian men from becoming an Abune nor could they appoint one themselves was, compiled by Coptic Scholar al-Safi ibn al-Assal who translated it from Arabic to Ge鈥檈z in 1238. Growing up it was heavily emphasized within my community that Christianity was born in Ethiopia, so it was super interesting learning that it came from the Arab world despite Arab countries being thought of as purely Islamic especially in the West. I also learned about other Orthodox churches in Arab countries like Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Interestingly, there are plenty of shared words between Amharic/ Ge鈥檈z and Arabic. For example, the word Habesha or al-Habesh is an Arabic word used to describe the Semitic-speaking Ethiopians and Eritreans. One of my favorite things is noticing the similarities between languages and religious practices. Ge鈥檈z is no longer widely used as a spoken language and is limited to liturgical speech/text. So, the main similarities in language that I see are between Amharic and Arabic, and the loanwords they share.
Some of the religious aspects are also similar. In both places of worship for Muslims and Ethiopian Orthodox, it is forbidden to wear shoes and both religions adopted this from the story of Moses. It is also forbidden to eat pork in any nature. My favorite though has to be the modesty aspect. Just like Muslims, Ethiopian Orthodox men and women are required to dress modestly. For women, we are required to wear loose ankle-length dresses and a veil with what we call a netela ( essentially a long scarf.) Men are required to wear loose-fitting long-sleeved shirts and pants and they wear a netela on their body and head. Traditionally this was required as a part of daily wear but in modern times it is mostly just required to be followed at church. The same is true for fasting. Traditionally you are supposed to fast from midnight until 3 pm however it has been reduced to refraining from eating meat and meat products like dairy, and drinking alcohol.
Being in Arabic class has taught me the importance of language and its influence. Despite being thought of as an 鈥淚slamic language,鈥� Arabic has influenced the language of multiple religions as showcased by the Egyptian Coptic church's foothold on the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The language was an obvious barrier between the Egyptian Bishops and monks and therefore allowed for the influence of Arabic and what we know as Amharic today. It is also seen in the words all of the languages share. As previously mentioned, I want to learn the languages to read and understand the religious aspects of both Islam and Orthodoxy which are both limited to their respective languages. My mother and I have a little competition going on. Despite being Orthodox I don鈥檛 believe in the standard bible, because of the endless number of versions being circulated and the most likely inaccurate. However, back home there are untouched Bibles written in Ge鈥檈z that I believe to be true. So, we are competing to see which one of us will be able to learn Ge鈥檈z first to read the bible back home in Ethiopia.
