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We support our colleagues in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures in condemning Russia's war against Ukraine. Their statement (https://german.la.psu.edu/news/), reads: “The Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at the Pennsylvania State University condemns Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine. We, Penn State students and faculty, insist on the preservation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and the safety of its inhabitants. We resoundingly reject the false accusations and historical distortions that the Russian government and its media have used to justify the war against Ukraine. Russia’s flagrant violations of international law and human rights must be rebuked. We are profoundly troubled that by invading Ukraine Russia has placed the world in a precarious condition that threatens to escalate globally so that the stability and security of all nations is now under threat. We urge all concerned citizens of the world to petition their government representatives to rebuke Russia’s assault on a sovereign democracy and to aid the Ukrainian people in their hour of need. We are committed to educating future generations about Ukrainian and Russian languages, literatures, and cultures, so that they may understand the vital role that the national cultures of Eastern Europe play in the modern world. Please join the department in speaking out publicly." March 16, 2022

on receiving a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers; this award will take her to the University of Cologne for an extended research stay. 

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on the publication of the article, "Of Freedom and the Problem of the Future in Contemporary Diasporic African Speculative Fiction," in the Journal of the African Literature Association. The article is available here and will appear in the April issue of the journal.

who has passed the Comprehensive Exam. 

who has accepted a tenure-line position at SUNY (State University of New York) Cortland as Assistant Professor of Global Anglophone Literature.

in collaboration with Will Beattie (University of Notre Dame), Logan Quigley (University of Notre Dame), and Reed O'Mara (Case Western Reserve University), for the launch of the second season of the podcast series, The Multicultural Middle Ages. This season launched with Episode #7 ("Medieval Jewish Women & Intersectionality," presented by Sarah Ifft Decker of Rhodes College) and Episode #8 ("Women, Books, & Pregnancy in Medieval France," presented by Andrew Rivard Hill of University of Virginia. The podcast, available free on Apple Podcsts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher, is sponsored by the Medieval Academy of America. Contact mmapodcast1@gmail.com for more information.

who accepted a tenure-line position at Clemson University as Assistant Professor of Medieval Literature. 

who was selected for a 2023 Liberal Arts Student Award for Research on Sustainability.

on the publication of the book, Heroic Awe: The Sublime and the Remaking of Renaissance Epic (University of Toronto Press, 2022). The book is available for purchase here and other internet booksellers.  

Kelly Lehtonen completed her PhD in Comparative Literature at Penn State under the direction of Patrick Cheney. She is currently an Assistant Professor at The King’s College, New York City.

who was named as a Perreault Fellow for 2022-23. An article featuring Charis appeared in Penn State News on February 3 and is available here. 

for successfully defending the dissertation, “Democracy and its Doubles: Representing the People in Sinophone and Francophone Extraterritoriality.”

as their article "Sound as a way of knowing: reading the 'Soundscape' in Zimbabwean Migrant Fiction" has been accepted for publication by The Journal of African Cultural Studies.

who has been elected to the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies. 

for successfully defending the dissertation, “Allotropes of Realism: The Bilingual Political Imaginary of Turkish-German Literature (1972-2015).”

See the full story here: ‘[A] blind date with a book’ | Penn State’s Comparative Literature Club prepares for book sale fundraiser | Lifestyle | collegian.psu.edu

See the story here: Liberal Arts alumna combines Penn State passions to build manga career in Japan | Penn State University (psu.edu)

who was awarded a Humanities Institute Residency Fellowship for Fall 2023 to work on her book project, “nravelling the Nation: Criticality and Agency in Contemporary Syrian Women’s Fiction.”