Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

8:00-11:00 am
Registration Open- Lakeside Second Floor Hall
9:00-10:15 am
Session I (A): Feminism, and Displacement in Latina/o/e/x Studies
Moderator: Amrita Das, University of North Carolina Wilmington (Lakeside Room I)

“Rereading the Frontier Hero: Luis Alberto Urrea's Into the Beautiful North as a Feminist Western,” Bryan Russell Pearce-Gonzales, Shenandoah University

“Ricardo Armijo’s ‘La balada urbana’ to Chichicastenango Supermarket”
Amrita Das, University of North Carolina Wilmington

“ICE Activity and Latinx Mental Health”
Adrienne Erazo, Appalachian State University
9:00-10:15 am
Session I (B):Teaching Language, Literature and Culture through an Advising Lens
Moderator: Federico Pous, Elon University (Lakeside Room II)

“Engaging through Experience, Language, Literature and Cultures”
Lucia Galleno, Queens University

“Engaging World Language Students through Academic Advising”
Sarena Tien, University of Virginia

“Integrating Advising into a World Language Course”
Paola Monteros-Freeman, University of Virginia
9:00-10:15 am
Session I (C): Gender, Violence and Resistance
Moderator: Adrienne Erazo, Appalachian State University (Lakeside Room III)

“Understanding Violence in Mexico through Fernanda Melchior’s 2013 Collection of Short Stories Aquí no es Miami”
Alan Hartman, Mercy University

“Venezuelan Diaspora Voices in the 21st century”
Fabian Balmori, Spring Hill College

“Maternidad frustrada: muerte y eternidad en la poesía de Carmen Conde, Concha Méndez, Ernestina de Champourcin y Josefina de la Torre”
Isabel Gómez Sobrino, East Tennessee State University
10:30-11:45 am
Session II (A): Digital, Multimodal and Creative Language Learning
Moderator: April Post, Elon University (Lakeside Room I)

“Exploring Cities and Languages: Interactive Learning with Google Maps and Google Earth,”
Elise Caron, The University of Tennessee

“Piecing it Together: The Role of Creativity in Second Language Listening Skills”
Brandee Strickland and Ashleigh Pipes, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

“Bridging the Gap: Integrating Multimodal Cultural Analysis and AI Fluency to Foster Global Competence in the Spanish Literature Classroom”
Eugenia Romero, Ohio State University
10:30-11:45 am
Session II (B): Fostering Belonging through Community-Based Language Learning
Moderator: Mayte de Lama, Elon University (Lakeside Room II)

“Connecting Communities: Critical Service-Learning in Language Courses”
Joan Clifford, Duke University

“Bridging Distances: Making the French Connection with Community Engagement”
Laura Florand, Duke University

“From Local to Global: Bridging Cross-Cultural Perspectives Through Community-Based Learning”
Yan Liu, Duke University
10:30-11:45 am
Session II (C): Historical Memory, Spain and Cultural Education
Moderator: Tania de Miguel Magro, West Virginia University Lakeside Room III)

“La transición española (1975-82): acercamiento pedagógico interdisciplinar”
Javier Sánchez, Stockton University

“Intercultural and Global Learning Beyond the classroom: Reflecting on Historical Memory during Study Away in Spain in Fall 2025”
Lourdes Manyé, Furman University
12:00-1:00 pm
Lunch Break - Lakeside Dining Hall
1:00-2:15 pm
Session III (A) : Religion, Spirituality and Literary Representation
Moderator: Brian Pennington, Elon University (Lakeside Room I)

“Foolishness in Pursuit of the Divine”
Jenna Barnes, University of California, Berkeley

“The autobiography of María de la Purificación”
Tania de Miguel Magro, West Virginia University

“Catholic Imagery as Emotional Language in Federico García Lorca”
James "Trey" Powell, Middle Tennessee State University
1:00-2:15 pm
Session III (B) : Fantasy, Speculative Worlds and Embodiment
Moderator: Corey Roberts, Elon University (Lakeside Room II)

“Casting Controversies: The Little Mermaid and Black Atlantic Fantasy”
Errol Nelson, University of Delaware

“Life and Love Beyond the Machine: Artificial Worlds and Technological Reproductions in La invención de Morel, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, and The Machine Stops”
Maria Rippon, Furman University

“Colores Monstruosos y el retorno del pasado”
Jaime Omar Salinas Zabalaga, University of North Georgia
1:00-2:15 pm
Session III (C) : L2 Writing, Creativity and Literary Practice
Moderator: Mariana Stone, University of North Georgia (Lakeside Room III)

“From Situation to Story: Teaching Memoir to Empower Sense-Making and Student Engagement in the L2 Composition Classroom”
Britton Newman, Wofford College

“Teaching Writing in L2 through the Imitation of Literary Works”
Kristina Štefanić Brown, Wofford College

“Teaching Culture in a Big C Pedagogical World: Going Beyond the Factoids”
Steven Lownes, University of South Carolina Union
2:30-3:45 pm
Session IV (A): AI and Language Teaching
Moderator: Kristin Lange, Elon University (Lakeside Room I)

“Synonym Thoughts: Teaching L2 Critical Thinking in the Age of AI”
Scott Windham and Olivia Choplin, Elon University

“AI’s Growing Influence on Topic-Based Instruction”
Caitlin McClelland Methvin, DePauw University

2:30-3:45 pm
Session IV (B): Inclusion, Accessibility, and Equity
Moderator: Mariche Bayonas, University of North Carolina Greensboro (Lakeside Room II)

“Inclusive from the Start: Gender-Just Language and Intercultural Competence in Early French Language Acquisition”
Guylène Deasy, Elon University

“Toward Inclusion: Gender-Inclusive Spanish in Foreign Language Learners’ Academic Writing”
Mariche Bayonas, University of North Carolina Greensboro

“From Classroom to Clinic: Teaching Spanish for Healthcare through Community Engagement”
Adelheid Bethanny Sudibyo, Elon University
2:30-3:45 pm
Session IV (C): Literature, Film and Cultural Interpretation
Moderator: Leslie Kaiura, The University of Alabama in Huntsville (Lakeside Room III)

“From Aula to Pantalla: Leveraging Film in the Literature Survey Course”
Linda B. Bartlett, Furman University

“Cristo con poca teología: Reading Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, mártir with the Film Elefante Blanco (2013)”
Leslie Maxwell Kaiura, The University of Alabama in Huntsville

“Calligrammes and the L2 Language Classroom”
Nathan Brown, Furman University
4:00-5:30 pm
Session V (A): Interactive Session:
From Curricular Design to Intercultural Praxis: The Go Intercultural! Initiative

Purificación Martínez, Laura Levi Altstaedter, Magalí Krosl and
Rachelle Savitz, East Carolina University
(Lakeside Room I)
4:00-5:30 pm
Session V (B): Interactive Session:
Interculturally Competent Bots?: Evidence from a Qualitative Pilot Study

Stephanie Knight, LingroLearning/University of Oregon
(Lakeside Room II)
6:00-7:30 pm
2026 Plenary Interactive Workshop and Banquet (LaRose Student Commons Room 200)

(Tickets for the pre-registered dinner will be given to you at the Registration Table upon check-in. Please remember to bring your ticket to the banquet.)

Keynote Speaker: Todd Lee Goen, Global Puzzles
“Intercultural Competence as a Pathway to Change in Language and Culture Education”

Introduced by Deandra Little, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, Elon University

Friday, Oct. 2, 2026

8:00-11:00 am
Registration Open - Lakeside Second Floor Hall
8:30-9:30 am
MIFLC Executive Board Meeting – Room: Lakeside Room I and II
9:45-11:00 am
Session VI (A): Blurring Borders in Literary Texts
(Lakeside Room I)

“Los golpeteos modernistas de Rubén Darío, Leopoldo Lugones y Ricardo Jaimes Freyre”
Charles B. Moore, Gardner-Webb University

“The Poet in the Poem: Renée Vivien’s (Meta)Poetic Personas”
Kayla Burrell, North Carolina State University

“Identidades en movimiento: lengua, cultura y globalización en la narrativa del escritor
Rafael Reyes‑Ruiz,” Jose A. Badillo Carlos, Queens University of Charlotte
9:45-11:00 am
Session VI (B): Resistance, Identity and Being Seen
Moderator: Jenna Barnes, University of California, Berkeley (Lakeside Room II)

“Resistance or Violence? Narratives of Chaos and Representation in Latin America”
Nerisha De Nil Padilla Cruz, Perimeter College- Georgia State University

“The Politics of Being Loud: Women, Music, and Resistance at Ruidosa Fest”
Lori Oxford, Western Carolina University

“See Me Now: Sociological Inclusion, Exclusions, and Bias against the Deaf”
Lacey Roy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
9:45-11:00 am
Session VI (C): Neurolanguage Coaching in Practice: Applications Across Language Teaching Contexts
Moderator: April Post, Elon University (Lakeside Room III)

“What Is Neurolanguage Coaching? Foundations and Applications in Language Classrooms,” Livia Livengood, Mount Airy High School and Iulia Pittman,
Auburn University

“The "Aha!" Moment: Applying Neurolanguage Coaching® for Inductive Grammar Discovery,” Simona Vaidean, Columbia University

“Emotion and Motivation Check-ins to Build Student Engagement”
Jamie Harrison, Auburn University

11:15 am-12:30 pm
Session VII (A): Guilt by Association: Representations of Complicity on Page and Screen
Moderator: Brandon Essary, Elon University (Lakeside Room I)

“Tortured Torturers in Haitian-Québécois Literature”
Olivia Choplin, Elon University

“Complicit traces. The Fog of Memory and the Ethical Decision in La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis (Márquez and Testa, 2016)”
Federico Pous, Elon University

“Judgment at Nuremberg is a Judgment on America”
Scott Windham, Elon University
11:15-12:30 am
Session VII (B): Experiential, Global and Transformative Learning
Moderator: Juan Leal Ugalde, Elon University (Lakeside Room II)

“The Urban Gloss: Study Abroad Through Collective Ethnography”
Laura Levi Altstaedter, Magalí Krosl, Mauro Falasca, Gabriela Rivera and Alex Lindo, East Carolina University

“Outcomes from a Virtual Latin American Theatre Course”
Marin Laufenberg, Idaho State University

“Losing Yourself to Your Other: The “Colonizer/Colonized” Experiential Learning Exercise”
Robert Simon, Kennesaw State University
11:15-12:30 am
Session VII (C): Cultural, Intercultural and Global Learning
Moderator: Elise Caron, The University of Tennessee (Lakeside Room III)

“Intercultural Assessment in Elementary Spanish: Fostering Early Engagement with Global Learning through Application of Cultural Semiotics”
Yeon Mi Lee, Samford University

“Does Knowledge of the L2 Guarantee Greater Culture Awareness? A Comparative Study”
Emily C. Quattrone, Furman University

“Leveraging Caribbean History and Culture in the Classroom”
Frederick H. Smith, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
12:30-1:30 pm
Lunch Break - Lakeside Dining Hall
1:30-3:00 pm
Session VIII (A): Translation and Visual, Interactive Learning
Moderator: Brandon Essary, Elon University (Lakeside Room I)

“The Connected Global Language Classroom: Leveraging COIL for Cross-Cultural Communication”
Laura Levi Altstaedter, East Carolina University

“Using Generative AI Images to Support Translanguaging and Multimodality in World Language Classrooms”
Mallory Nischan and Liv Detwiler, East Tennessee State University

“On lexical contamination: the case of ahorrar ‘to remove clothing’”
David Korfhagen, East Tennessee State University

“Toward a New Theory of Translator Positionality: An Integrative Framework for Comparative Translation Analysis”
Alexander Selimov, University of Delaware
1:30-3:00 pm
Session VIII (B): Othered Bodies: Care, Exploitation, and Radicalization in Modern and Contemporary Cultural Representation
Moderator: Federico Pous, Elon University (Lakeside Room II)

“Picture Purrfect: Considering the Work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner through Animal Studies,” Damon Reed, University of Florida

“Voices of Searching, Songs of Spectacle: Madres Buscadoras and Performative Colonialism in Emilia Pérez”
Patricia Reagan, Randolph-Macon College

“House Arrest: Maid as Prisoner in Dominga Sotomayor’s Limpia”
Andrea Meador Smith, Shenandoah University

“From the Margins to Matapacos: Detachment and Youth Cognition in Claudio Tapia Ramirez's Novel of the Chilean Estallido”
Eunice Rojas, Furman University
1:30-3:00 pm
Session VIII (C): Experiential Projects and Sequencing in the Language Classroom
Moderator: Emily C. Quattrone, Furman University (Lakeside Room III)

“Building Real-World Language Projects: A Practical Guide”
Alan Watts and Renata Creekmur, Kennesaw State University

“Supportive Structures in the World Language Classroom”
Toni Carmon, Western Alamance High School

“Rethinking the order of instruction (OOI) of the Spanish Past Tense: Freedom to Dream through OERs,”
Mariana Stone, Alvaro Torres Calderon and Sarah Hubbel, University of North Georgia

3:15-4:45 pm
Session IX (A): Interactive Session: Success Without Burnout: Designing an Academic Life That Works

Iulia Pittman, Auburn University
Moderator: Jamie Harrison, Auburn University (Lakeside Room I)
3:15-4:45 pm
Session IX (B): Interactive Session: "I'm not a bot!" Can AI Foster Peer-to-Peer Conversation?

William Jordan-Cooley, Pangea Chat
(Lakeside Room II)
5:00-6:30 pm
Wine Reception @ The Oak House, 112 N Williamson Ave

Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026

9:00 am-12:00 pm
Interactive Workshop: “Galvanizing Intercultural Competence for Growth: Building Capacities in People, Classrooms, and Organizations”

Todd Lee Goen, Global Puzzles
(LaRose Student Commons, 200)