Dr. Valenzuela leads linguistics workshop for native teachers in the Amazon


Pilar Valenzuela,Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Languages, Wilkinson College,recently led a four-day workshop to analyze the grammar of Shawi, an indigenouslanguage spoken in the Province of Alto Amazonas, in northeastern Peru. The workshop took place in Yurimaguas, a small town on the banks of the Huallaga River, and was organized by a group of native teachers specialized inintercultural bilingual education. With a population of approximately 22,000individuals, the Shawi are among the largest indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. Their language continues being passed on to the children, who tend tobe monolingual until they attend elementary school in their villages. The Shawi bilingual teachers approached Dr. Valenzuela in search of linguistic training due to her intensive research on the sister language Shiwilu as well as a comparative work involving the two languages.

Dr. Robert Buranello represents CU in Multiple Universities 

Dr.Robert Buranello, Musco Professor of Italian in the Department of Languages, participated in The CaliforniaInterdisciplinary Consortium of Italian Studies (CICIS) Annual Conference atScripps and Pomona Colleges, California, February 10-11, 2012.  For itstenth year, the conference adopted the theme, “Italian Cities: Visible andInvisible.”  On Saturday, February 11, 2012, Dr. Buranello presented thepaper “Zonderwater: the ‘tendopoli’ of identity,” part of his on-going researchinto Italian POW literature. 
OnWednesday, February 15, 2012, Dr. Buranello will be giving a guest lecture atthe George L. Graziadio Center for Italian Studies at California StateUniversity, Long Beach, entitled, “Mooseon the Loose: A Theatrical Representation of the Italian CanadianExperience in Los Angeles.”  This contemporary comedy by Dina Morroneplayed to excellent reviews and enjoyed an extended run in Los Angeles in theSpring and Summer of 2011.  Dr. Buranello will be joined by the playwrightat this event.