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.

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!

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.

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.