German Studies Success Stories! Congrats!
Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Congratulations to Boston College German Studies students!
2025 Graduating Class
Leopold Brickner [major]
Samuel Brown [minor]
Alexander Hopman [minor]
Christina Menke [minor]
Timothy (TJ) Prame [major]
Payton Robinson [major]
Christopher Roberts [minor]
Hector Tyser [minor]
Patrick Zimmermann [major]
Advanced Study Grant Recipients
Tianmu Wei (‘26), $2500 for Thesis Research in Germany
Aalok Bhattacharya (‘27), $2500 for Language Acquisition in Germany
Ava Lynch (‘27), $3000 for Language Acquisition in Germany
Study Abroad in 2024-25
Dylan Berry, University of Tübingen
Thomas Dohoney, Summer Abroad: Vienna Art & Architecture
Bridget Frauenheim, Summer Abroad: Vienna Art & Architecture
Annabelle Langford, Summer Abroad: Vienna Art & Architecture
Sophia Lovejoy, IES Vienna
Claire Mengel, University of Tübingen
Sarah Meyler, Summer Abroad: Vienna Art & Architecture
Aria Nafziger, Summer Abroad: Vienna Art & Architecture
Rachel Wegener, IES Vienna
Korean Language Table Continues to Foster Community
The Korean Language Table continued in the Spring 2025, meeting three times throughout the semester in the Lyons Hall Cafeteria. Led by Professor Seung Hee Jeon of the Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies, in collaboration with Prof. Kyung-Jin Rhee, Prof. Jaehee Ju, and Prof. Young Suk Park, the Table fosters Korean conversations and provides Korean food for the participating BC students and faculty members. This initiative provides a valuable space for student-professor interaction, Korean speaking skills, and community building.
Boston College Hosts Successful Korean Studies Programs Showcase
The Global Korea Project and the Korean Language Program at Boston College proudly presented the first annual Korean Studies Programs Showcase on Friday, April 25, 2025, at Connelly House. The event was well attended by students, faculty, and community members, celebrating a successful year of Korean studies at BC.
The showcase featured a diverse array of final projects from students enrolled in Korea-related classes. Highlights included a South Korean drama discussion site, a family history booklet written in Korean, and research-based final papers on topics such as South Korean overseas adoption and controversies surrounding "Comfort Women." These presentations provided valuable insights into the various levels of Korean studies and language proficiencies taught at BC.
The event also included lively Q&A sessions, allowing attendees to engage directly with the presenters and delve deeper into their research and projects. Performances by students taking Korean language classes added to the cultural richness of the event, showcasing contemporary Korean culture. The reception that followed was festive, with a variety of Korean foods served, adding to the celebratory atmosphere.
Professors Seung Hee Jeon and Ingu Hwang, who spearheaded the event, expressed their gratitude to all participants and attendees for making the showcase a memorable and enriching experience. For more information about the Korean Studies Programs at Boston College, please contact: Prof. Seung Hee Jeon and Prof. Ingu Hwang.
Korean Language Program Participates in the 6th Region-Wide Korean Speech Contest; Two BC Students Win Honors
On April 12, 2025, the Boston College Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies participated in the 6th New England Korean Speech Contest, hosted by Wellesley College and co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Boston, the New England Association of College Korean Educators, and the American Association of Teachers of Korean. Altogether, 21 students from eight different institutions—BC, Brandeis, Brown, Harvard, MIT, Smith, UMass Amherst, and Wellesley—delivered speeches on various topics, ranging from the origin of pumpkins to women’s participation in protest movements. In this festive gathering, held to celebrate the impressive efforts and accomplishments of regional college students studying Korean, we shared our enthusiasm about Korean culture, while enjoying performances by traditional Korean dance, music, and taekwondo teams from Wellesley.
With three Boston College students participating in the competition, the Korean Language Program is pleased to announce that Seo Yeon Kim, taking Advanced Korean II, won second prize in the advanced level. And, Aaliyah Pina, currently in Intermediate Korean II, won third prize in the intermediate level. We congratulate all of the students on their success and are pleased to share their achievements and our joy with the Boston College community.
Boston College Hosts Successful Panel Discussion on Nobel Laureate Han Kang
On March 10, 2025, Boston College's Asian Studies Program hosted a panel discussion titled "Urgency! A Panel Discussion on the Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean Novelist Han Kang." The event, held in McGuinn Hall 121, was well attended by students, faculty, and community members.
Han Kang, the first Asian woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, was honored for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” Her works resonate deeply in today's world, where crises in democracy and the environment are ever-present. The panel featured distinguished experts: Prof. Ji-Eun Lee from Washington University in St. Louis, Prof. Min Song from the English Department, and Prof. Seung Hee Jeon, the first English translator of Han Kang’s work. Prof. Franziska Seraphim, Director of Asian Studies, chaired the discussion.
Panelists explored the relevance of Han Kang’s literature through their presentations. Prof. Ji-Eun Lee discussed “History and Memory in Han Kang's Works,” followed by Prof. Min Song, who examined “Han Kang and the Persistence of Soft Power.” Prof. Seung Hee Jeon addressed “The Poetic Prose of Han Kang: Challenges in Translation.”The event concluded with a lively Q&A session, followed by a kimbop reception celebrating Korean culture and cuisine.
The event was co-sponsored by the Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies, the Global Korea Project, and the Department of English. We congratulate all participants and extend our gratitude to the panelists and attendees for making this event a resounding success.
Congratulations to our Russian/Slavic students!
We are happy to announce that our Russian/Slavic students won several prizes at the New England Olympiada of Spoken Russian held at Harvard University on April 6, 2025.
Working with Professors Tony Lin (right) and Leon Kogan (third from left), our students competed with 17 other universities and won the following awards:
Rebekah Che (1st place, monologue; 2nd place, poetry)
Louise Madigan (3rd place, monologue)
In addition, Russian/Slavic students won BC-sponsored awards to study and research in various countries:
Advanced Study Grant
Rebekah Che (Russian summer program in Middlebury)
Nicholas Fisher (Polish summer program in Poland)
Connor O'Brien (research in Georgia)
Omar A. Aggad Travel & Research Fellowship
Connor O'Brien (research in Tajikistan)
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Congratulations to our Japanese students - winners in the 14th Annual Japanese Language Contest!!!!!
The final round of 14th Annual Japanese Language Contest was held on March 29 (Saturday) at the Consulate General of Japan, Boston. The contest is annually organized and sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan, Boston. Japanese language students in New England are invited to enter. While these students from many prestigious colleges, including Harvard, Brown, Yale, Tufts, Smith and Amherst, demonstrated their excellent Japanese writing and speaking skills, our very own BC students beat those competitors! BC did not have any winners last year. But with the students’ hard work, BC is back!
Congratulations and Cheers to these students:
Connor Jang (EALC3222) 1st place Advanced Speech
Jackson Yates (EALC3222 last year) 2nd place Advanced Essay
Adam Laboissonniere (EALC2222) 3rd place Intermediate Speech
Emily Lavins (EALC2222) 1st place Intermediate Essay
"What next for Syria? Challenges, Opportunities and Paths Forward for a Fractured Country."
A lecture by Amr Al-Azm
Friday, March 28th 2025
1pm
Fulton Hall 511
Amr Al-Azm is Professor of Middle East History and Anthropology at
Shawnee State University in Ohio, and Georgetown University-Qatar.
His main research deals with terrrorism, threats to cultural
heritage in conflict zones, and looting and trafficking of cultural property.
Daniel Bowles longlisted for International Booker Prize
The English-language version of Christian Kracht’s novel Eurotrash—translated from its original German by Associate Professor of German Studies Daniel Bowles—has been longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. The annual prize, split equally between author and translator, recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English and published in the United Kingdom and/or Ireland.
Eurotrash is one of 13 titles—representing novels and short story collections—on the longlist. The longlisted books have been translated from 10 languages: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Romanian and Spanish. The judges chose their longlist from 154 books submitted by publishers.
This is the first time Bowles, a scholar and translator of German-language fiction and nonfiction, has been named to the International Booker Prize longlist. He previously was awarded the Goethe-Institut’s Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his 2015 translation of another Kracht novel, Imperium. He also is the author of the book, The Ends of Satire: Legacies of Satire in Postwar German Writing.
Kracht is a Swiss writer who has been compared to Nick Hornby and Bret Easton Ellis. The protagonist of Eurotrash is a jaded writer named Christian who embarks on a tragicomic road trip with his elderly mother and her ill-gotten wealth. The acclaimed novel received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was named one of the Best Books of 2024 by The Times (U.K.).
As described by the judges of the International Book Prize, Eurotrash is “one of the most entertaining and ultimately moving stories we read. It is brilliantly, bitterly funny, even as it documents a vicious and tarnished emotional universe.
”The judges called Bowles’ rendering “immaculately and wittily translated; on every page its sentences sparkle and surprise like guilty-legacy gold.”
The six-book International Booker Prize shortlist will be released on April 8, and the winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on May 20.
For more about the International Booker Prize, including an excerpt from Eurotrash, visit the International Booker Prize website.
(Article by Kathleen Sullivan, reposted from BC News)