Lectures by BLC Fellows (L. Allais, S. Tuomainen, M. Smith, R. Carbotti), December 2, 2011

Fall 2011 BLC Fellows Instructional Development Research Projects

 

Third Place in the French Classroom: A Separate Space for a New Beginning?
Letizia Allais, GSR, Graduate School of Education
From Cultural Studies, to Linguistics, to Education, the notion of Third Place has often confused those ideas revolving around identity, language, and people’s sense of belonging. In this project, I attempt to explore Third Place as it is experienced by students of French at Berkeley. Do they feel different when speaking French? How so? To what extent is their French self different from their native self? Where does their French world exist? What does it look like?  What does it feel like? I hope to engage the Berkeley community in a conversation about Third Place as an open space of potential, of opportunity, and of continuous rebirth.
Download handout as PDF –  VIDEO

Every Object Tells a Story: Searching for Finnishness among Bay Area Finns
Sirpa Tuomainen, Lecturer, Scandinavian Department
Immigrant homes often display artifacts of cultural, historic, and ethnic importance. I have looked into the meaningful objects that Bay Area Finns of different generations and age groups hold dear to their hearts. The owners find nostalgic connections with these objects as they keep negotiating and recreating their Finnishness. This talk discusses the many fragilities found: the fragility of the objects themselves, of their nostalgic connections, of the objects’ true ethnic origins, and of the narratives the objects inspired.
–  VIDEO

Teaching Intertextuality and Recontextualization through Music
Maya Smith, GSR, French Department
I have developed a pedagogical model for the use of music in foreign language teaching. I have created activities that uncover and highlight themes of intertextuality, recontextualization, recognizability, and (re)appropriation through close readings of songs and other cultural texts to which they are linked. My activities are designed to show students how texts shed light on ideological, cultural, and symbolic systems. In order to give instructors access to these teaching materials and to other lesson plans dealing with music, I have created a website for the French department. In addition, I have designed an interactive online database modeled on the BLC Film Archive, which all language departments at Berkeley will be able to add to and use.
Download handout as PDF –  VIDEO

Resistere! – Film Language and Political Discourse in Contemporary Italy
Rosaria Carbotti, GSR, Italian Studies
The Italian filmic tradition allows us to investigate the history and culture of the 20th century from the perspective of political dissidents — individual activists and radical groups that struggled with institutional power in the attempt to redefine civil society and the State from outside the traditional arenas of political action. Through the use of film language and the study of the political discourses it implies, we can connect the dots to form a historical trajectory that links the various seasons of civil dissent in Italy from the Resistance struggle in 1943-45 to today. –  VIDEO

Friday, December 2, 2011
3:00 – 5:00 pm
B-4 Dwinelle Hall

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