Aiming for Superior: A Memorial Conference Honoring the Legacy of Olga E. Kagan

A Memorial Conference Honoring the Legacy of Olga Kagan

Friday, May 31, 2019
9:00 AM – 5:30 PM
UCLA Faculty Center – Hacienda Room

The UCLA Center for World Languages, the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures, and the Division of the Humanities invite you to a conference celebrating the legacy of Professor Olga E. Kagan. The all-day conference will bring together scholars from UCLA and around the country who worked closely with her, to present on topics that are representative of her extraordinary career on heritage language teaching and second language acquisition.

Please RSVP here.

 

Conference Program

Aiming for Superior

A Memorial Conference Honoring the Legacy of Olga E. Kagan

UCLA Faculty Center, Hacienda Room, May 31, 2019

9:00 – 9:15 Welcomes and Introductions

David Schaberg, Dean, Division of the Humanities

Ronald Vroon, Chair, Dept. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures

Peter Cowe, Director, Center for World Languages

Chris Erickson, Senior Associate Vice Provost, International Institute

9:15 – 9:45 Keynote Address

Samuel Eisen, Director, The Language Flagship and NSEP Director of Programs

Perspectives on Multilingualism for Overseas Language Immersion and Government Service

9:45 – 11:00 Panel One: Heritage Pedagogy

Maria Carreira, California State University, Long Beach

Engineering the Field of Heritage Languages: Olga Kagan’s Trailblazing Roads, Bridges, and Canals

Andrew Lynch, University of Miami

Perspectives on the Past and Present of Heritage Language Studies

Maria Polinsky, University of Maryland

Olga Kagan: A Pioneering Legacy (Video)

11:00 – 11:15 Break

11:15 – 12:30 Panel Two: Russian L2 Pedagogy

Dan Davidson, Bryn Mawr College, American Councils

Exploring the Relationship between L2 Proficiency and Intercultural Development in the Overseas Immersion Learning Environment

William Comer, Portland State University

A Deeper Look at Shekhtman’s “Islands”: Fluency and Restructuring in Learning Russian

Jennifer Bown, Brigham Young University

Developing a Self-Directed Russian for Professional Purposes Course

12:30 – 1:30 Lunch

1:30 – 2:45 Panel Three: Russian Pedagogy and the Flagship Program

Sandra Freels, Portland State University

Business as Unusual: Aiming for Superior in the Russian Language Flagship”

Maria Lekić, University of Maryland, American Councils

Transformative Learning: The Way of Flagship

Karen Evans-Romaine, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Learning from the Russian Flagship (video)

2:45 – 3:00 Break

3:00 – 4:15 Panel Four: Moving Forward: The Next Generation

Netta Avineri, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey

Sociolinguistic and Intercultural Abundance: A Social Justice Approach

Anna Ice, University of California, Los Angeles

Raising Bilingual-Biliterate Children in a Monolingual Context: The Impact of Family and Supplementary Education

Ekaterina Moore, University of Southern California

Affect in a Russian Heritage Language Classroom

4:15 – 4:30 Break

4:30 – 5:30 Panel Five: Reflections

Kathleen Dillon, University of California, Davis

The Empowerment of Language Inheritance: Fulfilling Olga Kagan’s Dream and Vision

Benjamin Rifkin, Hofstra University (Video)

Olga Kagan and Pedagogy of the Heart

Shushan Karapetian, University of California, Los Angeles (Video)

Tribute to a Mentor

Boris Dralyuk, University of California, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Review of Books

Autumnal People: Learning from Olga

Max Boot, Washington Post

A Tribute