Fries Center for Global Studies

FCGS Staff

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  Gabriela N. D. Berzinskas

  Study Abroad Advisor

  262 High St., Fisk 201B

  (860) 685-3006

  gberzinskas@wesleyan.edu

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  Jennifer Collingwood

  Administrative Assistant V

  262 High St., 201F Fisk Hall

  (860) 685-3661

  jcollingwood@wesleyan.edu

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  Anita Deeg-Carlin

  Director for Intercultural Learning

  262 High St.; 117 Fisk Hall

  adeegcarlin@wesleyan.edu

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  Anita brings almost two decades of experience in higher education, first at Mount Holyoke College, previously at Wesleyan, Fairfield University, and Trinity College, mainly in the global education space. Raised in an international and multilingual home, she made a career out of intercultural engagement and advocacy, interning in Uganda for six months as an undergraduate studying subsistence farming, volunteering and working for four years in Madagascar as an Environment Sector Peace Corps volunteer and Rural Appraisal Consultant, and running an immersive high school service and leadership program for three years on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica.  She received her interdisciplinary undergraduate degree from Wheaton College, IL, in Culture and Development, and holds a Master’s Internationalist degree from Colorado State University in Watershed Management. 
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  Thais García Bagué

  Global Language and Outreach Fellow

  262 High St., 201G Fisk Hall

  tgarcia@wesleyan.edu

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  Thais, a native Spanish speaker from Caguas, Puerto Rico, is a recent graduate from Wesleyan with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Education Studies. She has always been interested in language learning and language pedagogy. From studying French for six years in her high school in Puerto Rico, to immersing herself in the Swedish language and culture through Wesleyan's collaboration with the DIS Stockholm study abroad program, and finally delving into American Sign Language and Deaf studies here at Wes in her final year, her many experiences with other languages and cultures has helped her appreciate the growing multilingual and multicultural community at Wesleyan.

  Her senior capstone for the College of Education Studies was inspired by her own experiences as a native Spanish speaker coming to the United States for university. The capstone was titled My Professors Say My Sentences in English are Too Long-- I Can Read them Perfectly Well, This is Just How People Write in Spanish-- This Alone is Not Helpful Feedback. It explored the relationship between first language cultural thought patterns, a psychological theory that posits that each language is formed by the context in which it arose, and how these influence the way in which students express their ideas in academic writing in a new language. Her capstone also focused on multilingual language learner (MLL) programs in the United States for emerging English language bilinguals, and evaluates how helpful teacher feedback is in academic writing interventions for MLL programs. 

  As our GLO Fellow, Thais is involved in our newsletter, planning events for the Language and Culture Hub, and doing other kinds of outreach, such as working with Foreign Language Teaching Assistants and the Language Collective, to promote language learning across the entire campus. You may catch a glimpse of her collaborating with different language sections for International Education Week or organizing other co-curricular activities at Wes throughout the academic year.

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  Emily Gorlewski

  Director, Study Abroad

  262 High St., 201A Fisk Hall

  (860) 685-3007

  egorlewski@wesleyan.edu

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  Masami Imai

  Director

  262 High St., 201E Fisk Hall

  (860) 685-3681

  mimai@wesleyan.edu

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  I am professor of economics and East Asian studies. Currently, I am serving as the Director of Fries Center for Global Studies. I received his PhD from University of California, Davis, and his BA from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. My research focuses on banking and has been published in American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics; Journal of Banking and Finance; Journal of Development Economics; Journal of Financial Intermediations Journal of Law and Economics; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Journal of Public Economics; and Journal of Urban Economics as well as other scholarly journals and book chapters. I have been a research fellow at Tokyo Center for Economics Research (TECR) since 2014. I was a research fellow at the Center for Financial Research at Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 2008 and at the Center for International Research on the Japanese Economy (CIRJE) at University of Tokyo in 2018. I was awarded the most significant paper published in 2012 in Journal of Financial Intermediation. I teach courses on Introduction to Economic Theory, Macroeconomic Analysis, Money, Banking and Financial Markets, Economy of Japan, Economies of East Asia, and Quantitative Methods in Economics.

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  Erica Kowsz

  Associate Director for Fellowships

  262 High St., Fisk 201C

  (860) 685-3686

  ekowsz@wesleyan.edu

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  Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret

  Director, Language Resources and Technology

  262 High St., 201D Fisk Hall

  (860) 685-2560

  eparis@wesleyan.edu

Core Faculty

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  Abderrahman Aissa

  Adjunct Assistant Professor in Arabic

  262 High St.; 306 Fisk Hall

  (860) 685-2553

  aaissa@wesleyan.edu

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  A. Translation & interpretation (from and into English: Arabic, French, Spanish, German, Tamazight, Italian & Portuguese). 

  B. While I continue to improve, solidify and maintain my skills and proficiency/fluency in the eight languages above, I have recently embarked on the ambitious linguistic journey and enterprise to explore and learn, at least at the basic/conversational level, along with familiarizing myself with  the corresponding scripts, 27 more world languages, on my own: 

  1. Romanian (Limba Romana) 2. Amharic (Amarinya) 3. Hebrew (Safaa Ivreet) 4. Farsi (Zabaanee Farsee) 5. Greek (Elliniki Glossa) 6. Turkish (Turk Dili)  7. Russian (Roskee Yazik) 8. Finnish (Suomen Kieli) 9. Swahili (Lugha ya Kiswahili) 10. Filipino Tagalog (Wika ng Tagalog) 11. Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) 12. Albanian (Gjuha Shqipe) 13. Armenian (hayots' Lezu) 14. Dutch (Nederlands) 15. Hindi (Hindi Bhaasha) 16. Swedish (Svenska)  17. Korean (Hangu-eo) 18. Polskie (Polish) 19. Srpski/Hrvatski (Serbo-Croatian) 20. Magyar (Hungarian) 21. Chinese (Zhongwen)  22. Japanese (Nihongo) 23. Kartuli langguaji (Georgian language) 24. Cesky Jazyk (Czech language) 25. Bulgarskiyat ezik (Bulgarian ) 26. Ede yoruba (Yoruba language) 27. Runasimi (Quechua language)

  C. Using the Translation technique as one of the learning techniques in the classroom for effective learning and production of the target language.

  D. Learning foreign languages using the Word/Linkword/Image association technique.

  E. Learning foreign languages by making connections between the target language and one's native language (s) , background, education  & life experiences. 

  F. Simplifying Grammar to make grammar less "painful" and fun: using devices & techniques to remember grammar/syntax rules ( Mnemonic devices etc)

  G. World languages and their similarities

  H. Linguistics.

  I. World History & Geography. 

  J. Islamic Spain: History & culture

  PENDING PROJECTS / RESEARCH:

  1. A biographical novel: "يومياتي مع "بنو هرقن
  

  2. Mutterzunge: اللغة الأم Mother tongue (Translation of the German sem-biographical novel Mutterzunge by Emine Sevgi Özdamar ): Publishing

  3. Common errors students of Arabic make.

  4. Arabic words in world languages.

  5. Revisiting the kinship between Arabic and Hebrew: Beyond  سلام &  עלום (Salaam & Shalom)

  6. Revisiting the kinship between Arabic & Spanish: Beyond ان شاء الله & ojala 

  7. Revisiting the kinship between Arabic & Farsi: Beyond صباح الخير & صبح بخير

  8. Moroccan Arabic words of classical Arabic origin not used in other Arab dialects.

  9. Memorizing the measure chart of Arabic verbs the easy way

  10. A compendium of Top 200 survival phrases and words in Arabic & 22 other languages.

   

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  Pedro Pascual Villanueva

  Assistant Professor of the Practice in American Sign Language

  262 High St.; 116 Fisk Hall

  ppascual@wesleyan.edu

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  A teacher at heart, Pascual’s lifelong career focuses on sign language teaching, as both L1 and L2. Pascual strives to keep abreast of the best practices in teaching languages and to follow the latest developments in the study of deaf cultures and sign languages. He is working on a phonological writing system for sign languages that is practical to use in everyday life, as opposed to the notation systems used for the analysis and research of sign languages. He is also interested in sign language etymology.

  After graduating from the Universidad de Deusto in Spain with a Master’s in Computer Engineering, Pascual participated in research projects on advanced technology at CERFACS in France. At the request of parents of deaf children, a multidisciplinary team, including Pascual, designed an innovative bilingual high school program for Deaf students in Toulouse, France, which is still operating since its creation in 1995. He also became a teacher in this pioneering program for a few years. This educational endeavor captivated Pascual, redirecting his career to the teaching of sign languages.

  Pascual married an American fellow teacher and moved to Connecticut in 2008. Thanks to living and working in Spain, France, and the United States, he is fluent in six languages (Spanish, French, and English, as well as three sign languages, Spanish, French, and American). He also has meaningful insights into the cultures of the three countries and their respective deaf communities. Before being appointed at Wesleyan University in 2022, Pascual taught American Sign Language and Deaf Studies at the University of Connecticut, Northwestern Connecticut Community College, Central Connecticut State University, and Quinnipiac University.

  A learner at heart, Pascual continually seeks to learn about languages and cultures by reading, traveling, and connecting with local communities. He also loves science fiction because it satisfies his curiosity about different topics including society, history, politics, science, and technology. He and his spouse enjoy spending quality time with their family and walking on trails, along with the occasional fine dining.

Affiliated Faculty

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  Dalit Katz

  Professor of the Practice in Religion

  Religious Studies Center

  860-685-2297

  dkatz01@wesleyan.edu

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  Dalit Katz specializes in teaching the Hebrew language and contemporary Israeli culture through films. At Wesleyan she teaches courses in Hebrew language, modern Hebrew literature, and Israeli films, In addition, she organizes Israeli cultural events, an annual Israeli film festival, and endowed lectures.

• Naho Maruta

  Associate Professor of the Practice in East Asian Studies

  Fisk Hall, 303

  (860) 685-3458

  nmaruta@wesleyan.edu

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  Interested in fostering cross-cultural understanding through improved communication in Japanese for more than a decade, Naho Maruta has taught all levels of Japanese at Wesleyan since 2014. As coordinator of the Japanese program, Maruta also has organized periodic Japanese language lectures on various topics including the value of US-Japan relations by the Consul-General of Japan in Boston.  Maruta is a primary resource for study abroad in Japan, the Japanese placement exam, and the Japanese conversation partner program. 
  
  Maruta’s dedication to language teaching began when she was an undergraduate at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan where she specialized in English and American languages and literatures, teaching English and Japanese as a foreign language. She was trained as Japanese teaching assistant at Wake Forest University, and earned her master’s degree in Japanese linguistics and pedagogy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to Wesleyan, Maruta taught at the University of Notre Dame and Bowdoin College.
  
  Outside of academia, Maruta enjoys yoga, travel, and sampling global cuisine. Maruta, who holds a 200-hour yoga teacher training certification in accordance with the Yoga Alliance standards, admires wellness and is interested in taking the practice into her language teaching.

• Liana Pshevorska

  Associate Professor of the Practice in French

  Romance Languages and Literatures

  lpshevorska@wesleyan.edu

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  Camilla Zamboni

  Assistant Professor of the Practice in Italian

  300 High St., 208

  (860) 685-3587

  czamboni@wesleyan.edu

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  Camilla Zamboni's work centers on innovative pedagogy, particularly related to language learning, open educational resources (OERs), and gameful L2TL / analog game-based learning. She is the coordinator of the Italian language program at Wesleyan: she creates, maintains, updates, and coordinates the curriculum for first and second year Italian courses. 

  Current projects involve a Board Gaming Lab, born out of the successful “Italian Board Game Nights” at Wesleyan, and a language learning tabletop RPG, Mistero, which was made possible by a grant of the Center for Pedagogical Innovation at Wesleyan. Other ongoing projects are Assaggi, a complete Intermediate Italian curriculum in OER form used for second year courses at Wesleyan; WeScrive, a magazine in Italian written and edited by Wesleyan students; and Italian at Wesleyan, a Facebook group dedicated to the Italian community on and off campus. 

  Areas of interest / expertise:
  Analog Game-Based Learning, Italian Film, Italian Language and Culture, Second Language Acquisition, Teaching Pedagogy, XX and XXI century Italian Literature