November 2025 Recap

Graduate Symposium

We have many brilliant graduate students working with our department, and we were delighted to have the opportunity to hear about their research at the Department of Language Studies' Fall Graduate Symposium. This year's presenters are currently in the PhD program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). 

Tatiana Fimognari shared about "Rethinking Italian Language Learning: Fostering Student Agency through the Action-Oriented Approach", Gabrielle Forget gave a talk on "Ontario French Immersion Students: Program Retention Factors", and Yuou Sheng discussed "The Impact of Orthography on French Liaison production by L1 Mandarin learners".

We look forward to hearing about the research of more of our graduate students at the Spring Graduate Symposium!

Guest Lectures

As part of the International Education Centre's International Education Week program, Professor Michelle Troberg explained how and why pidgin and creole languages form and evolve, highlighting the creativity in language and the adaptability of human communication. Students interested in learning more are recommended to take LIN366 on Contact Languages.

ITA311 "Italian Cinema: Comedies and Comedians" welcomed award-winning director and producer Paolo Virzì on Wednesday, November 5 for a special guest lecture. Paolo Virzì, an Italian filmmaker, began his career as a screenwriter and made his directorial debut in 1994 with La bella vita. Known for his poetic film style, Virzì's works often blend melancholy, irony, and social drama, portraying Italian society over the past thirty years. In 2017, he directed The Leisure Seeker, starring Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren (nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress). He has received numerous awards, including seven David di Donatello awards and eight Nastri d’Argento (Silver Ribbon) awards. He has been nominated twice for the European Film Award for Best Director for La prima cosa bella and Il capitale umano / Human Capital) and has represented Italy twice at the Oscars.

Events

We welcomed Lin King, translator of Taiwan Travelogue and Terao Tetsuya, author of Spent Bullets, to UTM on Monday, November 3 for Taiwanese Fiction in Dialogue: The Art of Creation and Translation. The conversation with Lin King and Terao Tetsuya was both inspiring and wide-ranging. Lin’s unique insights on translation and Terao’s reflections on writing opened new perspectives for everyone. The discussion flowed from the art of translation to the publishing worlds of Taiwan and the United States, and from fiction writing to life’s unexpected turns. Thanks to the speakers’ generous sharing and the audience’s lively engagement, the event became a true exchange of ideas—so engaging that participants were reluctant to leave even after it ended.

On November 25, Dr. Yaohsing (Jason) Kao, cultural worker, art critic, and UofT alumnus, delivered a lecture commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. He presented wartime artifacts from his personal collection, including physical and digital materials, and led a discussion on how the experience of war in different regions, including East Asia, has shaped cultural memory, identity, and our understanding of the twentieth century.