Research in World Languages and Cultures


The Department of World Languages and Cultures in Radow engages in innovative, interdisciplinary research that explores language, culture, identity, and global communication. Faculty and student researchers investigate critical issues spanning linguistics, literature, language pedagogy, translation, cultural studies, and digital humanities.

This work not only advances academic scholarship but also deepens cross-cultural understanding and prepares students to navigate a globally connected world!

Kennesaw Tower

The Kennesaw Tower is Kennesaw State University’s undergraduate research journal dedicated to showcasing scholarly work in world languages and cultures.

An individual holds a vibrant assortment of flags, representing different countrie

 

Hosted by the Department of World Languages and Cultures, the journal promotes high-quality undergraduate research in Chinese, FLED, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish to a global audience through an accessible online platform!

Visit Kennesaw Tower

Research Archive

  • Zaya Rustámova, “Nuevas violaciones en la Intimidad (2022) de Netflix” in Mujer, voz y representación: fotografía y materiales alternativos en el mundo hispanohablante Argus-a, 2025, pp.97-117.

    Meredith White. "Supporting Neurodiverse Students in the Secondary World Language Classroom," in The Handbook of Research in World Language Instruction, Russell, V., Murphy-Judy, K., John Troyan, F., Moeller, A.J., & Hines-Gaither, K. (Eds.).  Routledge, 2025 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003409182 

    Andrea Scapolo (contributor) "Making Invisible LGBTQIA+ Students Visible in World Language Curricula," in The Handbook of Research in World Language Instruction, Russell, V., Murphy-Judy, K., John Troyan, F., Moeller, A.J., & Hines-Gaither, K. (Eds.).  Routledge, 2025 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003409182 

    Zaya Rustámova, “Imperfect Symbiosis: Memory and Family Affairs in Sunday’s Illness.” in Iberia and Beyond: Challenges and Perspectives. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025, pp. 158-170. 

    https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-0364-5291-9/

    Jee Hye Park, Tinker Sachs, G., & Jang, G. "Untold messages and ideologies: A critical visual analysis of South Korean 6th grade EFL textbook." Asian Englishes, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2025.2537537 

    Anisah Bagasra (KSU Dept. of Psychological Sciences), Sha
    Huang, Arturo Matute Castro, and Andrea Scapolo. Digital Narratives of Trauma Among Immigrant and Refugee Women. IGI Global, 2025.

    Luc Guglielmi, “Exploring Male Nudity in Advertisement," The Artifice, 31 Jul 2025, the-artifice.com/male-nudity-in-advertisement

    Sha Huang, "You Have Your Own Share," Mukoli, no. 4, Summer 2025, mukoli.net/issue-4/sha-huang 

    Federica Santini, "Dreamswelling," "Open Eyes," and "After Alice (Sprouting Wings)," Mukoli, no. 4, Summer 2025, mukoli.net/issue-4/federica-santini 

    Robert Simon, "Sukkah (a heart poem)" and "Blues Song: (To sing to a Delta Blues rhythm)," Mukoli, no. 4, Summer 2025 mukoli.net/issue-4/robert-simon 

    Jeongyi Lee and Kathy Negrelli, “Students on the Move: Assessing Intercultural Competence of American Study Abroad Sojourners in Japan and Korea,” Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, Vol. 17 No. 2 (2025), eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1472917

  • Marie Bashkirtseff

    Noëlle Brown. The Literary Encyclopedia, August 7, 2024. 

    Poesia China - Eight Poems

    Sha Huang, Nueva York Poetry Review, March 4, 2024

    “What the I Ching Can Teach Us About Peaceful Equanimity in a Rapidly Changing World

    Dan Paracka and Tom Pynn in Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research, vol 49, no. 1, January 2024, pp. 34-50. 

  • Anya Bernardy, translator. Diaries for Stefan Zweig, by José Prats Sariol. Editorial Casia Vacia, 2023.

    Sha Huang “A tale of two less successful CSL readers: A qualitative study of reading difficulties and strategies to use,” Reading in Chinese as an additional language: Learners’ development, instruction, and assessment, edited by Liu Li and Dongbo Zhang, Routledge, 2023.

    Wenhua Jin, Chunsheng Yang, Yiping Zhang, and Wayne Wenchao He. "Acquisition of three Chinese de structures by English-speaking learners." Chinese as a Second Language, vol. 58, no. 1, Dec 2023, pp. 23 - 60.

    Lucien Brown, Soung-U Kim, and Hyunji Kim. “The embodied enactment of politeness metapragmatics.” Journal of Politeness Research, vol. 19, no. 1, 2023, pp. 149-183. 

    Thierry Léger. « Folie, » Les Cahiers J.-M.G. Le Clézio, № 16, Abécédaire : Le Procès-verbal.  Passage(s), 2023, pp. 107-116.

    Thierry Léger. « Philosophie, » Les Cahiers J.-M.G. Le Clézio, № 16, Abécédaire : Le Procès-verbal.  Passage(s), 2023, pp. 183-194.

    Hellena Moon. Liberalism and Colonial Violence: Charting a New Genealogy of Spiritual Care, 
    Pick Wick Publications, 2023.

    Brian Olovson. "Collaboration and Writing Development in L2 Spanish: A Microanalytic Perspective." Dimensions, vol. 58, no. 1, 2023, pp. 10–33. 

    Gyewon Jang, Gertrude Tinker Sachs, and Jee Hye Park. "Conflicting understandings of multicultural society, global world, and English: Multimodal content analysis of 5 Korean elementary EFL textbooks." Critical Inquiry in Language Studies.

    Zaya Rustámova. “Latin@ Visions: Race and Gender Representations in Netflix’ Cocaine Coast." Americanized Spanish Culture: Stories and Storytellers of Dislocated Empires. Edited By Christopher J. Castañeda and Miquel Bota. Routledge, June 2022, pp. 144-157.

    Zaya Rustámova. “Spanish Krausism: Visions of Spain’s Progressive Future through the Prism of German Philosophy.” Hispanic Studies Review, vol. 6, no. 1, 2022.

    Zaya Rustámova. "Resilience of No Longer Others." The Academic Minute. National Public Radio. May 16, 2023. 

    Federica Santini. “When There is no Light.” Panoply, Issue 23, January 2023.

    Federica Santini. “Night Swim.” Witchery, Issue 4, Oct. 2023

    Federica Santini. “The Three Pomegranates." Tangled Locks Journal, Issue 10, Oct. 2023.

    Federica Santini and Andrea Scapolo. "Studying the Holocaust and the Jewish Experience at Kennesaw State University: Pathways for Students and Beyond." Italica, vol. 100, no. 1, speing 2023, pp. 98–104.

    Andrea Scapolo and Angela Porcarelli (Eds). Interpreting Urban Spaces in Italian Cultures, Amsterdam University Press, 2023.

    Robert Simon “The Tongue and the Bee: Ana Rossetti, Clara Janés, and the Embodied Discourse of Mystical Sexuality.” Hispanic Studies Review, vol. 7, no. 1, January 2023.

    Robert Simon. “Just send an email”. Last Stanza Poetry Journal, vol. 11, 2023

    Robert Simon. “Tefillin,” Jewish Literary Journal, Issue 119, April 2023: 

    Robert Simon. Mystical Symbolism and the Posthuman in the 20th and 21st Century Poetic Voice of Ana Rossetti, Lexington Books, 2023. 

  • Abby Alexander, Chris Ray, and Jon Cogburn, translators. The Architecture of the Possible by Tristan Garcia. Wiley, 2022. 

    Noëlle Brown. "Review of Dressing Up: The Women who Influenced French Fashion, Elizabeth L. Block," Nineteenth Century French Studies Journal, vol. 60, nos. 1-2, Fall-Winter 2022.

    Sha Huang. “Questions”《问》Quarterly Literary Journal: First Line New York 《纽约一行》 Volume 7.

    Lee Jackson. “Narco-trafficking and Camba Identity in Homero Carvalho Oliva’s La conspiración de los viejos.” Bolivian Studies Journal, Vol. 28, 2022.

    Lucien Brown, Hyunji Kim, and Bodo Winter. “Is It Polite to Hiss? Nonverbal Sound Objects as Markers of (Im)politeness in Korean.” Frontiers in Communication, volume 7, 2022. 

    Lucien Brown, Hyunji Kim, Iris Hübscher, Bodo Winter. "Gestures are modulated by social context: A study of multimodal politeness in two cultures." Gesture, Volume 21, Issue 2-3, Dec 2022, pp. 167 - 200.

    Noah McLaughlin. “Metacognition in Online Language Learning: Putting Principles into Practice.” Online Language Teaching in Diverse Contexts, edited by Rachel Friedman and Angela George, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022, pp. 42-58. 

    Federica Santini. “For Women Only” and “A Toast to the End of the World,” The Ocotillo Review, Vol. 6, no. 2, Summer 2022, pp. 60-64.

    Federica Santini. "Fires/Fallen,” “Other Alices,” and “Morning After” Defunct Magazine (Long Island University), no. 11, Dec. 2022.

    Federica Santini. "Review of Nicole Greaves' Having Witnessed the Illusion." Ovunque Siamo, Fall 2022.

    Murtha Baca and Federica Santini, translators and editors. Laura Liberale, Thanato-Aesthetics, Agincourt Press, 2022.

    Luigi Ballerini and Federica Santini, translators. "Poems by Peter Gizzi," Rossocorpolingua, Vol. 5, no. 4, Dec 2022, pp. 77-131.

    Robert Simon. “O Amor em Chamas: O Amor e a Sociedad em Guardar o Fogo (2013) de Joaquim Pessoa.” Romance Notes. Vol. 62, No. 1, 2022, pp. 185-96.

    Robert Simon interviewed by Millicent Borges Accardi.“Robert Simon: A Lover of All Things Portuguese.” Portuguese-American Journal, 13 July, 2022

    Robert Simon. “Clara Janés: la poética cuántica o la física de la poesía.” Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2021. Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea, Vol. 47, No. 1, 2022, p. 154-56

    Nyasha M. GuramatunhuCooper, Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez, Uttam Kokil, and Sabine Smith. "Cross-Cultural Contexts of Teaching and Learning: Experiences of International Faculty at a Southeastern University in the United States." Currents in Teaching and Learning, vol.14, no. 1, September 2022, pp 55-69.

    Andrea Scapolo. "Maria/Medea/Ulrike: Figures of Destituent Power in the Feminist Theater of Franca Rame." K. Revue trans-européenne de philosophie et arts, n. 8, January 2022, pp. 290-306.

    Zaya Rustamova "Latin@ Visions: Race and Gender Representations in Netflix’s Cocaine Coast." Americanized Spanish Culture Stories and Storytellers of Dislocated Empires. Edited By Christopher J. Castañeda, Miquel Bota, Routledge. 2022, pp. 144-157.

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    "Reflective Learning Through Observation, Performance, and Design: Intermediate Italian Beyond the Textbook"

    By Mattia Begali, Laura Bilanceri, Andrea Scapolo, and Emily Sposeto. In Italica Vol. 98. n. 3 

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    Poetry of Life, the Life of Poetry: Essays in Honor of Jacques Neefs

    Festschrift in co-edited by Abigail Ray Alexander in Modern Language Notes, Volume 136, no. 4, September 2021 (French Issue) Supplement.

    MLN Front cover

    “Une sorte de lien...”: Madame Bovary alongside Notre-Dame de Paris."

    Article by Abigail Ray Alexander in Modern Language Notes, Volume 136, no. 4, September 2021 (French Issue) Supplement, pp. S-90-119

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    "(Dis)locación exílica y espacio (trans)nacional."

    Essay by Arturo Matute Castro in Reinaldo Arenas: La escritura como destino. Edited by Rita Molinero and Yolanda Izquierdo (Isla Negra Editores, 2021).

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    “Tra un mondo che si disfa e uno che si fa: neoavanguardia e sperimentazione in Principessa Giacinta di Rossana Ombres.”

    Article by Beppe Cavatorta and Federica Santini in Studi  Novecenteschi, Vol. XLVIII, N. 101, 2021, pp. 137-159.

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    "Addressing Loss and Nostalgia: Two Cuban Diasporic Novels of the Nineties."

    Article by Arturo Matute Castro in Forum For Contemporary Issues in Language and Literature, no. 2 (December 2021)
     

    Marie Bashkirtseff

    "Marie Bashkirtseff: A Multidimensional Story of Curation"

    Article written by Noëlle Brown in Crossways Journal, Vol. 4 No. 1 (2021): Transmission, conservation et médiation des savoirs: la curation à l'œuvre

  • "Estación Miami: la experiencia diaspórica en crónicas de Legna Rodríguez Iglesias."

    Article by Arturo Matute Castro in Cuadernos del Sur, no. 50 (2020).


    "Voces en Disensión: la Articulación de Archivos Silenciados"

    Article by Arturo Matute Castro, Zaya Rustamova and Andrea Scapolo in Gramma, Vol. 31, Núm. 10 (2020).


    Unearthed

    Poetry chapbook written by Federica Santini and published by Kelsay Books


    An Ode to Friendship

    Public poetry reading by Robert Simon, July 13, 2021, at the Switzer Library, Marietta, GA.


    "As Ilhas Prisões, As Prisões das Ilhas: Algumas Reflexões sobre o Símbolo da Ilha-Cárcere e a Noção da Ilha Encarcerada ...”

    Written by Robert Simon in Ilhas de Vozes em Reencontros Compartilhados. Susana Antunes, Coordating Editor, Universalia, 2021, pp. 431-442.


    "Sine linea: citazioni spezzate e rifiuto della logica di mercato in alcuni testi di Luigi Ballerini"

    Written by Federica Santini in Il Remo di Ulisse. Saggi della poesia e la poetica di Luigi Ballerini, edited by Ugo Perolino, Marsilio Editori, 2021, pp. 59-72.


    "Lost & Found Memories: Letters to Dr. P. from his Senegalese Students"

    Written by Cherif Diop in the April 2021 Journal of the African Literature Association.

    诗歌之力: 袁枚女弟子屈秉筠 1767-1810

    Chinese-language translation by Wu Xiaping (吴夏平) of Louis Liuxi Meng's Poetry as Power: Yuan Mei's Female Disciple Qu Bingyun (1767-1810) 


    "Spaces of Critique & Transformation inBande de filles"

    Written by Noah McLaughlin in Popular Culture Review, volume 32, no. 1, Winter 2021.

    "On Biting"

    Written by Federica Santini in Q/A Poetry Journal no. 33.

    "After the Flood”

    Poems written by Federica Santini in Iris Literary Journal, volume I, issue 3, Fall 2020.

    "Coiling Heat," "Full House ATL," and "Standing Still"

    Poems written by Federica Santini in Verse-Virtual, volume 8, no. 1, January 2021.

    An Ode to Friendship

    Poetry volume written by Robert Simon and published by Finishing Line Press

    "Enhancing Engineering Course Evaluations: An Intercultural Competence Intervention and Assessment Program"

    Explorance Faculty Research Grant awarded to Awatef Ergai, Ginny Zhan, Sabine Smith, and Shane Peterson

    "Transcendence and Abjection in Vergílio Alberto Vieira’s Cleptopsydra"

    Written by Robert Simon in Journal of Lusophone Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, Fall 2020, pp. 141-157.

    "Longing for Return: An Existential Search and Identity Formation in Almodovar’s Volver"

    Written by Zaya Rustamova in Humanities Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 3, Nov 2020, pp. 237-245.

    “Not Our Own” and “The Last Speech”

    Poems written by Federica Santini in VIA: Voices in Italian America vol. 31, no. 1-2, pp 135-136.

    Eight poems from "Quiet Woman" by Katie Kalis

    Translated by Sha Huang in 散文诗(Prose and Poetry), 2020, vol 5

    "Rising She Spreads" & "Easters"

    Poems written by Federica Santini for Plath Profiles 12.1 (2020), pp. 38-39.

    "L'Asie et l'interculturel dans l'œuvre de Le Clézio"

    Written by Thierry Léger for Les Cahiers J.-M. G. Le Clézio, no. 13, 2020 pp. 119-132.

    "Violence and Silencing Systems in Nawal El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile"

    Written by Chérif Diop for The New York African Studies Association Newsletter no. 73, Spring/Summer 2020.

    Thomas Bernhard's Afterlives

    Edited by Olaf Berwald, Stephen D. Dowden, Gregor Thuswaldner and published by Bloomsbury New York.

    "Queering the Italian Classroom: A Course on Gender and Society in Italy"

    By Andrea Scapolo in Italica vol. 97, no. 3, Fall 2020

    "Online, Hybrid, Hyflex, and High Stress: Preparing for Fall 2020"

    July 2020 IALLT Webinar by Kevin Gaugler, Florencia Henshaw and Noah McLaughlin in The FLTMAG

    "Scattered Ashes: The Reception of the Gramscian Legacy in Postwar Italy"

    By Andrea Scapolo in Gramsci in the World, eds. Fredric Jameson and Roberto Dainotto (Duke University Press, 2020)

    "Fado"

    By Robert Simon in The Academic Minute, 21 July 2020

    "Voices from the margin: female protagonists navigating power geometries"

    Written by Oumar Cherif Diop in the Routledge Handbook of Minority Discourses in African Literature

    "Illustrated Editions of Novels as Marketing Strategy: The Case of Wilhelm Raabe.”

    Written by Shane D. Peterson in Market Strategies and German Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century, eds. Vance Byrd and Ervin Malakaj (De Gruyter, 2020).

    Nuova poesia Americana. Chicago e le praterie

    Select poems translated by Federica Santini. Published by Nino Aragno Editore

    "Una borghese piccola piccola: ragazze milanesi in Giorgio Scerbanenco ed Elio Pagliarani"

    Written by Federica Santini in Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies vol. 54.1 (2020).

  • Translations of春的暴力 (Violence of Spring), 礼物 (The Gift), and 九月的火焰 (Flame of September in Ta Bei)

    By Sha Huang in the Anthology of Chinese Poetry, edited by Xuan Gong, from Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, pp 96-101.

    Translations into Italian of Poems by Anne Sexton

    By Federica Santini and Beppe Cavatorta, JIT, Journal of Italian Translation, Vol. XIV, N. 2, Fall 2019, p. 72-85.

    "'Finally I made it to the City': Comic Violence and Culture Clashes in Ruzante’s Dialogues."

    Written by Andrea Scapolo in Annali d'Italianistica 37, pages 1-26.

    "The Vitruvian Source of Marvell’s Tortoise in 'Upon Appleton House, To My Lord Fairfax'"

    Written by Dylan Goldblatt in South Central Review 36.3, Fall 2019

    "Fostering creativity and language skills of foreign language learners through SMART learning environments: Evidence from fifth‐grade Korean EFL learners"

    Written by Keun Huh & Jeongyi Lee in TESOL Journal

    "Staging the Revolution: The Politics of the Theater of Dario Fo and Franca Rame"

    Written by Andrea Scaplo in Essays on Dario Fo: Remembering the Consummate Playwright/Performer, edited by Antonio Scuderi, from Troubadour Publishing Ltd.

    "Guilt and Autonomy in Geoffrey Hill’s and Hermann Broch’s Works"

    Written by Olaf Berwald in Complicity and the Politics of Representation, edited by Cornelia Wächter and Robert Wirth, from Rowland and Littlefield International.

    “Waiting as Resistance: Confined Spaces in Broch and Weiss"

    Written by Olaf Berwald in Timescapes of Waiting: Spaces of Stasis, Delay and Deferral, edited by Christoph Singer, Robert Wirth and Olaf Berwald, from Brill.

    "Happiness, The Wound and the Word: Aminatta Forna Joins the Conversation on Trauma."

    Written by Omar Chérif Diop in the Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, vol 6.3, September 2019 , pp. 388-399

    "Acquisition of Tone Sandhis by English Speaking Learners of Chinese"

    Written by Wenhua Jin in the Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages. Vol 25, pp 67-107.

    Deconstructing the Model in 20th and 21-st Century Italian Experimental Writings

    Edited by Beppe Cavatorta and Federica Santini. Published by Cambridge Scholars Press

    "Las voces de la memoria en la serie televisiva Cuéntame cómo pasó"

    Written by Zaya Rustamova and published in Mito e historia en la televisión y el cine español, edited by Christine Blackshaw Naberhaus (Albatros Ediciones. Valencia, 2019, p. 233-252).

    Blanca Andreu, Galicia, and the New Iberian Mysticism: From Post-Mortem to Post-Mystic

    Written by Robert Simon and published by Rowman and Littlefield

  • "Effective Strategies Groups Used by Readers of Chinese as a Foreign Language"

    Written by Sha Huang Reading in a Foreign Language 30.1 (2018), pp 1-28

    "北美中文学习者词汇推测研究: 策略,困难,及教学建议 (An investigation into word inferring process of CFL learners in America: Strategies, difficulties, and pedagogical implication

    Written by Sha Huang in 中美人文学刊 (Sino-American Humanity Studies), volume 2

    "Authentic Texts as Reading Materials in a Chinese as a Foreign Language Classroom: Learners’ Perceptions and Pedagogical Implications"

    Written by Sha Huang in The Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, volume 23

    "A qualitative case study of CSL readers' reading strategies"

    Written by Sha Huang in Chinese as a Second Language 53.2

    José Prats Sariol, Delusions: A Bilingual Collection of Short Stories

    Translated by Anja Bernardy and published by Casa Vacia

    Violence and Trauma in Selected African Literature

    Written by Oumar Chérif Diop and published by Africa World Press

    Francophonie académique et dynamique des savoirs contemporains

    Edited by Achille Elvice Bella, Thierry Léger, Sanda-Maria Ardeleanu et Louis Hervé Ngafomo and published by Connaissances et savoirs

    Environment and Pedagogy in Higher Education

    Edited by Lucie Viakinnou-Brinson and published by Rowman and Littlefield

    Justice and Human Dignity in Africa and the African Diaspora

    Special Issue of the Journal of African Literature Association edited by MaryEllen Higgins & Lucie Viakinnou-Brinson