Research
Find out more about the Department of Modern Languages faculty and student research and awards.
Research and Discovery in Modern Languages at a Top R-1 University
The University of Mississippi is designated as a R-1 Highest Research Activity University by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. We are in an elite group of 2.5% of universities nationwide for world class research faculty, spending on research, and production of graduate students.
The Department of Modern Languages has faculty and students working in diverse areas of language acquisition, culture, and linguistics.
Female French Film Directors
Dr. Anne Quinney, Professor of French, has a current book project that centers on the work of five French film directors - Mia Hansen-Love, Justine Triet, Céline Sciamma, Alice Diop, and Mati Diop - who share a primary concern about the cinematic portrayal of a range of women’s experiences from a woman’s perspective. Dr. Quinney is a 2024-26 Fellow with the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, which supports the work on this project.
Community-engaged Research on Spanish in the US South
Dr. Stephen Fafulas, Associate of Spanish and Linguistics, is an inaugural UM Faculty Laureate to build community partnerships to serve Latinx communities across the US South. Fafulas, a recent Fulbright recipient, mentors students in community-engaged research on Spanish in the US South, and has helped develop dual-language immersion programs in K-5 schools. Cofounder of the SEC Spanish Consortium and Director of the Study of Community Involvement and Outreach in Linguistics Laboratory, he teaches and conducts research in sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and US Spanish.
Highly Praised Book on a Medieval Italian Woman
Dr. Valerio Cappozzo recently co-authored A Female Apostle in Medieval Italy: The Life of Clare of Rimini published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The English translation of an anonymous account written at the time brings to a wider audience the life and times of Clare of Rimini (c. 1260 to c. 1324–29), an Italian holy woman who was beatified by the Catholic Church. Through this work, we also gain a better understanding of life in a medieval Italian city.
Dr. Valerio Cappozzo
Associate Professor of Italian
National Science Foundation Grant
The National Science Foundation awarded Dr. Jimin Kahng, Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, and her team a $445,000 grant to discover more about how language works in the human mind. Her study, "Deconstructing Wordlikeness Judgments" aims to analyze the variety of factors involved in word pattern recognition in order to better understand the nature of the underlying grammatical system.
Fulbright Fellowship
Dr. Corina Petrescu, Professor of German, is interested in subversion under authoritarian regimes. Her current research is about the life story and creative output of Yankev Shternberg (1890-1973), an Ashkenazi poet, playwright, theatrical director, and cultural analyst of the twentieth century. By analyzing Shternberg’s theoretical and applied approach to avant-garde theater in interwar Bucharest, Romania, Petrescu presents him as a cultural mediator at a time of powerful social and political conflicts in Eastern Europe. Her work has been supported by a recent Fulbright award and a fellowship at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem.
Linguistics Lab
The department has a dedicated space for linguistics research projects. For example, in a project called “Linguistic Illusions,” Dr. Christiana Christodoulou investigates the language development of children in Mississippi, in populations with both typical and atypical language development. She and her research assistants study language acquisition in people who speak both Southern African American Vernacular and Southern English, children diagnosed with a language disorder, and those born with Down syndrome. This important work aims to dispel myths that regional varieties of a language are deficient or incomplete versions of English. Students working under Dr. Christodoulou have a rare opportunity to do research with and about an underrepresented group of people in Mississippi.
Faculty Awards
Many of our faculty have been recognized by the College of Liberal Arts, University of Mississippi, and beyond. Their research, teaching, and service is outstanding.
Professional Journals
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Balkanistica
Dr. Donald Dyer, Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs for the College of Liberal Arts, and Distinguished Professor of Modern Languages, is the editor of the multidisciplinary journal of Balkan and Southeastern European studies.
Balkanistica -
L’Érudit franco-espagnole
Dr. Diane Marting, Professor of Spanish, is an Editorial Board member for this journal dedicated to the literatures of France, Francophone countries, Spain, and Spanish America.
L’Érudit franco-espagnole -
Revista de Estudios de Género y Sexualidades
Dr. Diane Marting, Professor of Spanish, is an Executive Board member for this journal of gender studies, women authors, and feminist theory in the context of Hispanic literatures and cultures.
Revista de Estudios de Género y Sexualidades -
Romance Monographs
Dr. Donald Dyer, Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs for the College of Liberal Arts, and Distinguished Professor of Modern Languages, is the editor of this distinguished book series of contributions to the discipline in Romance languages and literatures.
Romance Monographs -
Southern Journal of Linguistics
Dr. Felice Coles, Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, is the Managing Editor of this journal dedicated to all areas of linguistics by the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics.
Southern Journal of Linguistics
Second Language Studies
Graduate Student Research Examples
Charlie Winnick, M.A. in Modern Languages, emphasis in Languages (French) ‘19. A Case Study of the Relationship between Student Motivation Type, Performance, and Task- Based Instruction in a Second Language Classroom
Marcella Cascione Cerqueira Netto. M.A. in Modern Languages, emphasis in Linguistics ’19. A Corpus-Based Study on the Portuguese Translations of English Adversative Coordinating Conjunctions and Adverbs in News Texts
Margaree Gabrielle Obioha. M.A. in Modern Languages, emphasis in Languages (Spanish) ‘22. Memoria, Historia y El Feminismo Decolonial: Un Análisis de la Poesía de Cristina Rodríguez Cabral y Otras Poetas Afrolatinas
Holly Sallah. M.A. in Modern Languages, emphasis in Applied Linguistics and TESOL ‘22. Metaphors in Language Learning and Teaching: Discovering the Underlying Factors Affecting Demotivation in Anglophone Learners of Modern Foreign Languages
Chien-Hui Hsu. M.A. in Modern Languages, emphasis Applied Linguistics and TESOL ‘24. Crosscultural Backchannelling Responses Among Second Language Learners
Elizabeth Clauss. M.A. in Modern Languages, emphasis in Languages (French) ’24. How French-Produced and North American-Produced French Textbooks Differ in the Teaching of French and Francophone Culture
Marta Galindo Parra. Ph.D. in Second Language Studies, emphasis in Applied Linguistics ’22. Linguistic Landscape-Economics
Jimoh Junior Braimoh. Ph.D. in Second Language Studies, emphasis in Applied Linguistics ’22. Linguistic Expressions of Pidgin in Nigerian Stand-up Comedy
Timur Akishev. Ph.D. in Second Language Studies, emphasis in Applied Linguistics ’23. Morphosemantic Integration of -ING Anglicisms into Russian and Kazakh in the Context of Trilingual Code-Switching
Rosalynn Vásquez Rutland. Ph.D. in Second Language Studies, emphasis in Spanish ’24. Listening to the Voices of Educators in the Implementation of the Mississippi Seal of Biliteracy
Yasmine Sedeek, Ph.D. in Second Language Studies, emphasis in Applied Linguistics ‘24. Improving American Learners’ Pronunciation of Arabic Pharyngeals: Traditional vs. TBI Method
Undergraduate Research: Africans in French Popular Culture
Kappy Eastman's Croft and Honors thesis examined the linguistic representation of African peoples and cultures in French popular culture, specifically as this pertains to immigration. Her research question was: how has the representation of Africans in French popular culture evolved since the colonial period? To answer this question, she examined seven sources of popular culture, all works of either literature or cinema, depicting three different time periods: 19th-century French colonization in Algeria (1830-1900), the post-World War II “Trente Glorieuses” [Thirty Glorious Years] (1945 to 1975), and the contemporary era (1990-present). She worked with faculty at UM and the Université
Catholique de l’Ouest during her study abroad in Angers, France.
Kathrynanne Eastman
B.A. in International Studies and French, minor in English '24
Undergraduate Research: Basque Language Laws
Jenna's Croft and Honors thesis focused on the Spanish autonomous community of the Basque Country to understand the effects of a minority language on educational systems, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the connections to both the EU and the UN. She explored the interconnectivity between language laws and regional identity, focusing on education, public health, and transnational systems. Through her case study, the context and wording of the language laws were utilized to understand how they affect the usage and understanding of the Basque language, “Euskera.”
Jenna Ebel
B.A. in International Studies and Spanish, minor in Intelligence and Security Studies '23