Come to the LRC to practice your language skills and meet new people. Conversation Hours provide an opportunity to use the target language in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere. Have fun practicing a language you are learning! Gain confidence through experience! Just using your new language skills helps you learn more than you might think, without instruction or correction. Conversation Hours are are open to any learner, including the public. Campus visitors and members of the public must adhere to Cornell's public health requirements for events, which include wearing masks while indoors and providing proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test.

The Lingua Mater competition invites students to translate Cornell's Alma Mater into a different language and submit a video of the performed translation. The inaugural Lingua Mater student competition took place in 2018 as part of Cornell's Global Grand Challenges Symposium. The top three videos received cash prizes.

2021 competition details

Can you translate Cornell’s Alma Mater into your mother tongue (or a language you are learning/have learned at Cornell) and sing it? We invite you to translate “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” and submit a video of you (and your friends!) performing it somewhere on any of Cornell’s campuses.

Translations do not need to be exact or perfectly in meter but should capture the feel and tune of our university’s Alma Mater. As is customary, include the first verse, refrain, second verse, and refrain in your video submission (for guidance, listen to a performance and read the lyrics).

Video submissions need to be MP4 files at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Please ensure that you have copyright permission for any images/videos you use.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Submissions will be judged equally on the translation, the musical quality, and the creativity in visual presentation.

The top three entries will win cash prizes.

Winners will be announced during International Education Week (November 15-19, 2021) and the top three videos will be posted online that week.

Entries may be submitted by any registered Cornell student or group of students.

Submission deadline: Monday, November 8, 2021 at 5 pm ET

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO AND LYRICS HERE

Please contact Angelika Kraemer, Director of the Language Resource Center, if you have any questions.

The Lingua Mater competition is co-sponsored by the Language Resource Center and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.

The Africana Studies & Research Center (ASRC) at Cornell University will host a lecture by Meagan Sylvester: People Power Movements in Caribbean Festival Culture

Meagan Sylvester, - Senior Lecturer, Music Sociologist, Author, Researcher.

Meagan Sylvester is a published author from the Caribbean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a UWI, St. Augustine graduate and a Caribbean scholar whose doctoral research focused on Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music. Her continuing interrogation within the academy centers on Music, Gender, and National Identity in Calypso and Soca, Music of Diasporic Carnivals, Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music, Steelpan and kaisoJazz musical identities. Teaching and research interests are Caribbean Music Cultures and African Diaspora Popular Culture.

Registration is required:

https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvf--hrjwuG9UNU8OxHGrUUBkjqH…

This event will occur via Zoom. Please register for the event at the following link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hIX1iOuGSlODljETDSThLQ

IXCANUL (“volcano” in the Kaqchikel language, English Subtitles)

Time: 6-8 PM | Place: G08 Uris Hall

This year’s LACS Film Series will screen movies from all over the region, highlighting the program’s recent focus on the Caribbean. During the Fall semester we’ll watch and discuss movies from North America (Mexico), Central America (Guatemala), and the Caribbean (Haiti & Dominican Republic). In the Spring semester, the series will “go South” with films from South American countries, and once again from the Caribbean.

Feel free to join any of the screening sessions + discussions without previous RSVP. Upcoming dates are October 21 and November 18 (always at 6pm). Further details will be shared before each session.

Looking forward to seeing you all!

The LACS Film Committee

Ixcanul Description: Maria, a 17 year old Mayan woman, lives on the slopes of an active volcano in Guatemala. An arranged marriage awaits her. Although Maria dreams of seeing 'the city', her status as an indigenous woman does not allow her to go out into that 'modern world'. Later, during a pregnancy complication, this modern world will save her life, but at what price. The brilliant debut by Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante is a mesmerizing fusion of fact and fable, a dreamlike depiction of the daily lives of Kaqchikel speaking Mayans on a coffee plantation at the base of an active volcano. Immersing us in its characters' customs and beliefs, IXCANUL chronicles with unblinking realism, a disappearing tradition and a disappearing people.

Many scholars and practitioners do not necessarily know that the United States occupied Haiti for nineteen years, between 1915 and 1934. It is also not common knowledge that the monies taken from the National Bank of Haiti helped to boost the U.S. economy in the context of the great depression. With the recent assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse followed by the powerful earthquake of August 14, 2021, Haiti has yet again been in the spotlight of mainstream media, and is recurrently labelled as the “poorest country of the Western Hemisphere,” a label that not only ignores the root causes of Haiti’s contemporary issues, but also completely ignores the country’s rich history and resources. Contrary to the general scholarship that has reaffirmed neocolonial tropes about Haiti, Professor Saint Paul will unpack the myth that Haiti is the poorest country, and will explain how U.S. economic interests have driven U.S. political interventions in Haiti, from 1915 to now. The overall goal of the lecture is to raise awareness about the fact that the Caribbean country has been impoverished by powerful transnational social forces, highly influenced by the United States of America. The discussion will also explore the question of whether or not the United States has a moral responsibility in Haiti’s current state of affairs.

Virtual Event via Zoom, please register through the following link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Py9gTMsFSta3oHkkmEQqyQ

What does it take to challenge entrenched judicial dysfunction? In this talk, Janice Gallagher previews the central argument from her forthcoming book, "Bootstrap Justice: The Search for Mexico's Disappeared." She shows how the sustained mobilization of families of the disappeared widens cracks in impunity produced by shifting state-criminal alliances, and highlights the key role of state allies. Speaker is in-person.

Cornell Community may attend in-person at 1pm G01 Stimson Hall

Event is free and open to the public via Zoom--Please register through the following link:

https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5VxY9YHDS5yCp1N-FwG2Lw