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.”
Gabeba Baderoon, associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, African studies and comparative literature at Penn State, was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from South Africa’s Nelson Mandela University.
Baderoon, a South African native and co-director of Penn State’s African Feminist Initiative, was recognized for her work as a poet, scholar and public intellectual, with the university referring to her as “one of the foremost literary voices to emerge from democratic South Africa.”
who guest-edited a special issue of Culture as Text Volume 3, Issue 1, titled "Reading Cultures." Besides the introduction, Beebee also contributed a piece to the issue, entitled "Guns Don't Kill People, Books Do! William Pierce's The Turner Diaries and its Victims."
on the publication of the chapter “Martín Luis Guzmán’s La sombra del Caudillo and Novels of Political Disillusionment” in the volume Teaching the Mexican Revolution, which is part of the MLA's “Options for Teaching” series. More information is available here here.
who successfully passed the Comprehensive Exam.
who successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Haunted Archives: Testimony and Militarized Intimacy in the 20th Century Transpacific.”
The Department of Comparative Literature congratulates Newlyn Bonidie (M.A. In Comparative Literature), Alexia Bozas (M.A. in Comparative Literature), Marilena Hadjieftychiou (M.A. in Comparative Literature), and Noor Mensah (M.A. in Comparative Literature).
for successfully passing the Comprehensive Exam.
for successfully defending her dissertation entitled “Hospital Encounters: Literary and Visual Mobilities of Care Across Borders.”
who received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor of German at Standford University.
on the publication of her article "Claiming Resentment: Repressed Emotions in Honduran Literature on Migration" in the journal Latino Studies. You can access the full article here.
on the publication of the podcast interview "Place Presents Itself to You in Fragments,” a conversation between the South African novelist Ivan Vladislavić and the critic Jeanne-Marie Jackson, which Magalí coordinated and hosted. You can read about and listen to the episode here.
who received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Nelson Mandela University in South Africa on April 10. Read more here.
who was awarded the Superior Teaching and Research (STAR) Award from the College of the Liberal Arts.
who was named this year’s winner of the Lombra Graduate Outstanding Research Award from the College of Liberal Arts. The award recognizes Sam's recently published article “Mobility and Marginalization via the Nairobi Expressway" in the journal Africa. The article is available here.
who was elected as the 2026-2027 Graduate Council-Chair Elect for the College of the Liberal Arts.