BSC to Host Fifth Modern Foreign Languages Day

For Immediate Release
Mar. 6, 2020

On March 12, Birmingham-Southern College’s Department of Modern Foreign Languages will host the fifth annual Modern Foreign Languages Day. Events celebrating languages and cultures will be held throughout the day in Norton Theatre on the second floor of Norton Campus Center.

BSC’s Department of Modern Foreign Languages, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Cross Cultural Committee joined together to invite Jennifer Grout, an American singer who won second place in the 2013 “Arabs Got Talent” competition, as this year’s keynote speaker.

Grout will deliver a lecture titled, “A Journey of the Self through Music and Cultural Exchange” at 11 a.m., followed by “Tarabiyat: An Arabic Musical Performance.” A lunch reception will follow.

Other events include the following: "Ancient Women Speak: Anyte of Tegea” at 3:15 p.m. with BSC Professor Dr. Mary Hamil Gilbert and BSC student Claire LeSar; “Cuba in Transition” at 4:30 p.m. with University of Montevallo Professor Dr. John Bawden; and “Arabic Music Medley” at 6 p.m., performed by BSC student Noah Todd.

Associate Professor of Arabic Dr. Lamia Benyoussef started Modern Foreign Languages Day in 2016 to help promote BSC’s Arabic program, and it has now become an annual, department-wide tradition.

“My colleagues and I use this program to promote the teaching of foreign languages and cultures at BSC and to show the wonderful work of our students and the opportunities available to them,” Benyoussef said.

The department welcomes the Birmingham community to attend the lectures and performances. All events are free, and parking is free. Contact Benyoussef at [email protected] for more information about specific events. See a full list of participants here.

Thank you to the event’s sponsors: Dr. Andre Elliot, CAIR-Alabama, The Provost's Office, the Krulak Institute, the Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion, the Middle Eastern Cultural Events Committee, the C3 Women’s History Month Committee, the Cross Cultural Committee, BSC Residence Life, and the Department of Modern Foreign Languages.

Birmingham-Southern College is a four-year, private liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The institution is the result of a 1918 merger of Southern University, founded in Greensboro, Alabama, in 1856, with Birmingham College, founded in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1898. Birmingham-Southern has students from 34 states and 13 countries and a student/faculty ratio of 12:1.