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Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk will give talk for KU Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies will welcome an esteemed Ukrainian poet for the 2022 annual Palij Lecture on Nov. 6. Lyuba Yakimchuk will present “Ball and Chain: Russian Culture Invasion of Ukraine” from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania St. The event is free and open to the public.
New book shares struggles, successes of transnational students training as English teachers
LAWRENCE — Making it through higher education and graduate school can feel like navigating a foreign country. Thousands of students from around the world are making that journey in the United States, pursuing a degree while learning in an additional language. A new book from University of Kansas authors documents the stories of these students studying in the United States to be English teachers and suggests how their stories can improve education for others.
Kansas Geological Survey map of Miami County wins award
LAWRENCE — A new geologic map of Miami County published by the Kansas Geological Survey received an Excellence in Cartography award at the world’s largest conference dedicated to geographic information system (GIS) technology. Judges from the International Cartographic Association and the International Map Industry Association chose the winners from more than 600 maps displayed in the conference’s map gallery. “Surficial Geology of Miami County, Kansas” is available online.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Megan Luttrell, KU Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, [email protected], @KUCREES
Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk will give talk for KU Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies will welcome an esteemed Ukrainian poet for the 2022 annual Palij Lecture on Nov. 6. Lyuba Yakimchuk will present “Ball and Chain: Russian Culture Invasion of Ukraine” from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania St. The event is free and open to the public.
In her talk, Yakimchuk will explain how what is currently happening in Ukraine is not just a war, but the spread of archaic Russian culture all over Ukraine. She will examine how Russian cultural tradition affects Ukrainian culture during the ongoing war, how the Ukrainian and Russian languages are changing in Ukraine, why profanity is no longer taboo and the ways that language changes affect poetry. Her talk is about culture as a part of war and politics.
Yakimchuk recently performed with John Legend at the 2022 Grammy Awards. She is the author of several full-length poetry collections, including “Like FASHION” and “Apricots of Donbas,” as well as the film script for “The Building of the Word.”
Yakimchuk’s awards include the International Slavic Poetic Award and the international “Coronation of the Word” literary contest. Her writing has appeared in magazines around the world and has been translated into 11 languages.
She performs in a musical and poetic duet with the Ukrainian double-bass player Mark Tokar; their projects include “Apricots of Donbas” and “Women, Smoke, and Dangerous Things.” Her poetry has been performed by Mariana Sadovska (Cologne) and improvised by vocalist Olesya Zdorovetska (Dublin).
Yakimchuk also works as a cultural manager. In 2012 she organized the “Semenko Year” project dedicated to the Ukrainian futurists, and she curated the 2015 literary program Cultural Forum “Donkult” (2015). She was a scholar in the “Gaude Polonia” program of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland). In 2015, Kiev’s New Time magazine listed Yakimchuk among the 100 most influential people of culture in Ukraine.
This talk is made possible by the Palij Family Fund, which brings the world’s leading experts in Ukrainian studies to Lawrence.
For more information about CREES or Yakimchuk’s presentation, visit crees.ku.edu.
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
New book shares struggles, successes of transnational students training as English teachers
LAWRENCE — Making it through higher education and graduate school can feel like navigating a foreign country. Thousands of students from around the world are making that journey in the United States, pursuing a degree while learning in an additional language. A new book from University of Kansas authors documents the stories of these students studying in the United States to be English teachers and suggests how their stories can improve education for others.
“Transnational Language Teacher Identities in TESOL: Identity Construction Among Female International Students in the U.S.” follows the stories of 13 women studying to be teachers of English to speakers of other languages at universities across the country. Their experiences with sexism, racism and assumptions about their supposed linguistic deficiencies made for challenging times but helped lead to recommendations on appreciating the value such unique students bring to the table.
“All of us are former international students, so we wanted to discuss the unique experience we had in American higher education,” said Hyesun Cho, associate professor of curriculum & teaching at KU and the book’s lead author. “In the book we use the term transnational students instead of international students. It indicates more complex, fluid and ‘in-between’ identities of people who cross borders and are not just foreign sojourners in one other country. We wanted to demonstrate the wide range of experiences and diverse goals of these students.”
The book, published by Routledge, was co-written with Reem Al-Samiri, of the University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Junfu Gao of Nova Southeastern University. Al-Samiri and Gao are former doctoral students of the TESOL program in curriculum & teaching.
The text establishes that transnational students are not a monolith. They come from countries around the world with a wealth of language and life experiences. Some are parents with established professional careers who will continue to work in the United States, while others return to their native countries or work abroad. The enrollment number of these students is expected to increase as pandemic-induced international travel restrictions are lifted. At KU alone, there are roughly 1,700 transnational students from 110 countries, Cho said.
The 13 participants in the book hailed from China, Japan, Korea and Saudi Arabia and learned English as a foreign language in their home country. The Saudi students had completed their graduate studies and returned to careers in their home country, while the others were still in U.S. graduate programs at the time of their interviews. All were studying teaching English to speakers of other languages, or TESOL, and several are now working in the United States. While education was what brought them to American institutions, it was far from their only concern.
“One of the eye-opening experiences for our participants was about their identity shift. They grew up with a majority identity in their home countries. And when they came to the United States, they had a minority identity imposed on them by others,” Cho said. “They felt marginalized because of their language backgrounds. Along with racism and sexism, there were assumptions about their language skills not being sufficient for graduate studies and teaching English. But they challenged those reductionist labels in their stories.”
In addition to sharing their experiences, the book examines how the students navigated intersectional identities and were able to use their experiences to their advantage. Several of the students were mothers, and what they learned from having their children in the American school system provided lessons they could use in their own work as future educators. Also, their experiences with largely Eurocentric curriculum often fed a desire to help diversify educational offerings, both in higher education and in K-12 schools. “Transnational Language Teacher Identities” discusses how the students are making that goal happen as TESOL teachers, higher education faculty, policymakers and administrators, both in the United States and in their home nations.
Several of the book’s participants reported being overlooked for graduate teaching positions because it was assumed their English was not sufficient to work with American students. Those who did get the opportunity uniformly reported how beneficial it was for them. Such opportunities are not only beneficial for the future teachers by providing them with real-life teaching experience but can be good for the students in the classroom as well, who learn from a diverse body of teachers with a wealth of diverse perspectives, Cho said.
That shared experience leads to the book’s recommendation for universities to form more partnerships with K-12 schools to provide student teaching experiences for transnational higher ed students. Cho, Al-Samiri and Gao make several other recommendations as well, for higher education faculty, administrators and policymakers. Among them, faculty should view transnational students as assets with a wealth of diverse experience who can enrich classes at all levels and should not be viewed as deficits or liabilities. University administrations could help by diversifying faculty who share similar life experiences with transnational students and by providing more social support as well, such as affordable child care on campus.
“As faculty, we must resist labeling transnational students just as ‘foreign students’ and assuming they’re all the same, or on similar career paths,” Cho said. “We should also provide opportunities for them to share their experiences with us to strengthen our educational curriculum and instruction. We need to make sure no one is excluded in learning and contest the deficit-oriented rhetoric in higher education. That was something all of our participants were very passionate about.”
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Contact: John Dunham, Kansas Geological Survey, [email protected]
Kansas Geological Survey map of Miami County wins award
LAWRENCE — A new geologic map of Miami County published by the Kansas Geological Survey received an Excellence in Cartography award at the world’s largest conference dedicated to geographic information system (GIS) technology.
A panel of judges from two mapping organizations — the International Cartographic Association (ICA) and the International Map Industry Association (IMIA) — selected “Surficial Geology of Miami County, Kansas” as one of two recipients of the Excellence in Cartography award at the 2022 Esri International User Conference. The winners were chosen from more than 600 maps displayed in the conference’s map gallery.
In addition, the map has been selected to appear in Esri Map Book, Volume 38, to be released in July at the 2023 Esri International User Conference.
John Dunham, KGS Cartographic Services manager, performed the computer compilation, editing and cartographic work on the Miami County map. Former KGS student employees Emily Bunse, Sarah Child, Hillary Crabb, Dustin Fross, Richard Jarvis and Charity Phillips-Lander assisted in digital data compilation and map layout. KGS geologists Anthony Layzell, K. David Newell, Stephan Oborny and Rolfe Mandel mapped the geology.
GIS is a system in which all types of geographic information is collected, interpreted, managed and displayed using specialized computer software. GIS data is used regularly in cartography, or map making. For example, the Miami County map displays newly acquired geologic data as well as data from several other sources, including surface elevations, contour lines, and the location and dimension of creeks, lakes, towns, roads, airports and quarries. It represents the first detailed geologic mapping of the area since 1966.
About 15,000 professionals from various industries attended the Esri International User Conference in July in San Diego sponsored by Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute), a private company that produces GIS software and GIS-related web applications and data.
The Kansas Geological Survey is a nonregulatory research and service division of the University of Kansas. KGS researchers study and provide information about the state’s geologic resources and hazards, including groundwater, oil and natural gas, rocks and minerals, and earthquakes.
“Surficial Geology of Miami County, Kansas” is available online.
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