Convocation Program

Thank you to our event sponsors!

Inaugural Convocation September 1, 2015 3:30 pm (785)864-9250 sllc.ku.edu sllc@ku.edu

Connect with us: #KUSLLC

Ballroom, Kansas Union

Program Musical Guest Performance by: Tamburaški sastav Kas

Welcoming Remarks Marc L. Greenberg Director SLLC, University of Kansas

Donors We would like to sincerely thank our first donors, who have embraced the vision of the School and have begun helping us to strengthen the institution and contribute to its sustainability. We seek to use our resources to establish scholarships and awards to enrich the teaching and research mission of the School as well as, most importantly, to make its resources as accessible as possible to the widest group of meritorious students.

Jeffrey S. Vitter Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, University of Kansas

Don Steeples Interim Dean, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Anna Lambertson

Christian J.C. and Katherine E. Beer John T. Bidwell Ann Cudd Dan E. Davidson

Executive Director, International Relations Council of Kansas City

Howard A. and Suzanne Greenberg Angela Jackson Founder and Director, Global Language Project

Viktoria Olskaia President, Gabriel Al-Salem Foundation

Ashlie Koehn KU senior majoring in Global & International Studies, Economics and Environmental Studies

James Sterbenz Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Kansas

Marc L. Greenberg and Marta Pirnat-Greenberg Grant H. Lundberg David C. and Cheryl K. Meredith Alisa V. Moldavanova

Jesse H. and Andreja Saich Matthew J. Senior William M. Tsutsui

Victor Jackovich, Keynote Speaker First U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Slovenia

Recognition Ceremony Marc L. Greenberg

C. Patrick Woods

Donations Greater Than $1,000 Gabriel Al-Salem Foundation Kansas City Power & Light Company

Closing Remarks Marc L. Greenberg

Barbara K. Nelson Rex L. and Sonoko Niswander Baha Safadi

Reception Musical performances by: Yuka Naito-Billen, harp ; and Amy Lauters, piano

Steele Compliance & Investigation Services

Silent Auction We extend special thanks to Strawberry Hill Povitica Company for their generous contributions to our silent auction. Visit them at www.povitica.com.

Affiliate Departments and Centers Santa Arias

Elizabeth MacGonagle

Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies

Kansas African Studies Center

David Cateforis

Anna Niell

Kress Foundation Department of Art History

English

Vitaly Chernetsky

Daniel Stevenson Religious Studies

Megan Greene

European Studies Program

Lorie Vanchena Center for East Asian Studies

Tara Welch Classics

Anthropology

John Younger Allard Jongman

Maureen Cole

Amanda McCoy

Emeriti

Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies

John Hoopes

Amanuenses

Linguistics

Jewish Studies Center for Global & International Studies

Clarence Lang

Sandra Zimdars-Swartz

African & African-American Studies

Humanities & Western Civilization Program

SLLC Action Committee Members

EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES GERMAN LANGUAGES & & CULTURES LITERATURES

SPANISH & PORTUGUESE

Kimiko Yamamoto

Frank Baron

Vernon Chamberlin

FRENCH & ITALIAN

Helmut Huelsbergen

Michael Doudoroff

David A. Dinneen

SLAVIC LANGUAGES & LITERATURES

Roberta Johnson

J. Theodore Johnson

Rosalea Postma-Carttar

Maria Carlson Raymond Souza

Jan Kozma Stephen J. Parker

SLLC Mission

During the 2013-14 academic year, the SLLC Action Committee developed the proposal to form the SLLC. This list below recognizes the main AC members who convened nearly a dozen additional committees.

Marc L. Greenberg

Carsten Holm

Jon Perkins

Special Advisor to the Dean and Committee Chair GLL, SLL, CREES

University Advising

EGARC

Caroline Jewers

Amy Rossomondo

FRIT

Naima Boussofara

John Kennedy

AAAS

POLS, CGIS

William Comer

Laura Leonard

SLL, CREES

CLAS Advising

Megan Greene

Jorge Perez

CEAS, HIST

SPAN

E. Bruce Hayes FRIT

The SLLC serves as a gateway to understanding the diversity of the world, through learning languages, literatures, and cultures, past and present.

SPAN, LAS

Peter Ukpokodu AAAS

Lorie Vanchena GERM, EURS

Nina Vyatkina GLL

Crispin Williams EALC

Through its research and teaching, the SLLC offers students opportunities for deep engagement with a wide range of languages, literatures, and cultures that provide the knowledge and skills to interact with and understand the world.

Departments & Programs

KU 150 100 Years of Languages, Literatures

Special Thanks

Cultures

From the first day of classes at the University of Kansas, the study of languages, literatures, and cultures has played a central role in KU’s curriculum. The first Jayhawks studied Classics, English, mathematics, the sciences, philosophy, and French and German. Today's students continue that strong tradition, and can choose from over forty languages that bring the cultures of the world to the heart of campus. From the days when KU was one lone building at the top of Mount Oread, to the thriving academic community we now share, the growth of languages and cultural studies has mirrored the expansion of our institution.

Special thanks go to Dean Danny Anderson, who in 2013 charged the Action Committee to form the School, and to Associate Deans Ann Cudd and Ann Schofield, who supported the project through its early phases. Artwork for this and other SLLC events was provided by Caitlin Fitzgerald and Toni Brou, CLAS Media Services. Mark Reynolds, CLAS, and Tim Spencer, CLAS SSC, were instrumental in organizing the financial structure of the SLLC. We are grateful to our out-of-town Advisory Board members, Ambassador Victor Jackovich, Rex Niswander, Viktoria Olskaia, and special guest Angela Jackson, who have covered their travel and lodging expenses in support of this event.

Here are a few milestones from the KU SLLC Core Departments. We are just beginning to write our story – please write and add to our archive!

1866-68: KU enrolls its first students.

1887: German becomes a major at KU. 1894: Spanish is introduced.

1899: Italian is first taught through the curriculum of Arts and Architecture, and becomes part of Romance Languages in 1903.

1902: Creation of the Department of Romance Languages. Throughout the following decades the constituent departments will reorganize several times as they grow.

1917: Portuguese is taught for the first time.

1947: The first East Asian Studies course is taught by Thomas R. Smith, Associate Professor of Geography.

1959: KU establishes the Committee on East Asian Studies (CEAS), and Chinese is taught for the first time.

1961: Creation of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. KU Library had already amassed strong holdings of books and magazines in Russian in the late 1950's.

1962: KU's first Summer Japanese Institute.

1965: The Department of Romance Languages splits into Spanish and Portuguese, and French and Italian.

1969: KU becomes the seventh American university to offer classes in Korean.

Czech classes begin.

1975: Spanish & Portuguese and French & Italian move to Wescoe.

1977: Creation of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

2005: Tibetan and Uyghur are taught for the first time.

2010: Hindi is first taught.

2012: Farsi is introduced.

2015: Creation of the SLLC. Spanish launches its minor in Spanish.

SLLC Staff Sarah B. Greenwood

Cynthia Willingham

Christian Beer

Eileen Larson

Caitlin Fitzgerald

Benjamin Snook

SLLC Directors Marc L. Greenberg

Caroline Jewers

Director

Associate Director

Core Departments Maggie Childs

Liz Kowalchuk

East Asian Languages & Cultures

Germanic Languages & Literatures

Stephen M. Dickey

Jorge Pérez

Slavic Languages & Literatures

Spanish & Portuguese

Caroline Jewers

Esra Predolac

French & Italian

LCTL Coordinator