Devon L. Strolovitch

 

381 Adams St. Apt.B

Oakland, CA  94610

(510) 271-8004

strolovitch@cornell.edu

 

 

Education

Ph.D. in Linguistics, Cornell University, August 2005.  Dissertation title: Old Portuguese in Hebrew Script: Convention, Contact, and Convivência.

Intensive Portuguese Summer Course, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.  2002.

Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, France.  Coursework in Judeo-Spanish, Judeo-Arabic, Yiddish, and Persian languages.  2001-2002

M.A. in Linguistics, Cornell University, September 2000.  Qualifying paper titles: Reassessing the interaction of Spanish and Portuguese in Sephardic Jewish history; Texts for the study of Hebrew-letter writing systems.

Intensive Yiddish Summer Program, Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies, Oxford, UK.  1999.

B.A. with Highest Honors in Linguistics (Individual Major), Minor in Anthropology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, May 1997. Senior Honors Thesis, Modern Hebrew: A Contact Language in Search of a Genetic Past.

University of Wales, Bangor, UK.  Coursework in Phonology, Syntax, Psycholinguistics, and Welsh language.  Spring 1996.

 

Teaching Experience

Instructor, French I and French II, Piedmont Adult School, Piedmont, CA.  Summer 2006.

Instructor, French 630, Academic French for Reading, Cornell University.  Spring 2004/2005.

Instructor, French 209, Intermediate Composition & Conversation, Cornell University.  Fall 2004.

Instructor, French 123, Accelerated Elementary French, Cornell University.  Fall 2003.

Instructor, French 121-122, Elementary French, Cornell University.  2002-2003.

Lecteur d'Anglais, English Conversation and Phonetics Lab, Universit de Paris XII Val-de-Marne, France.  2000-2001

Co-instructor, Liguistics 390, Practicum in Corpus Linguistics, Cornell University.  Spring 2000.

Instructor, First Year Writing Seminar, We Are What We Speak, Cornell University, 1998-2000.

Undergraduate teaching at Oberlin College: Instructor, The Beatles (Experimental College, Fall 1995), Teaching Assistant, Elementary French 101-102 (1994-95).

 

Teacher Training

Language Teacher Training Workshop, Department of Romance Studies.  Covered methods in second-language teaching, classroom strategies, and curriculum development.  2002.

Teaching Writing, John S. Knight Writing Institute.  Summer course covered facilitating discussion in seminars, designing assignment sequences, assessment, transitioning first-year students into college writing.  Concurrent with work as Teaching Assistant, Critical Reading and Writing (Instructor: M. Migiel).  1998.

 

Publications and Presentations

"Old Portuguese in Hebrew script: contact, cosmology, and convivencia,"  talk presented at Medieval Studies Colloquium, Cornell University, March 2003.

Passover in medieval Iberia I: Seder instructions in a Spanish mahzor. Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 17: 42-49. 

Passover in medieval Iberia II: Two Portuguese mahzorim. Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 17: 50-59.

Selections from a Portuguese treatise in Hebrew script. Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 17: 185-196.

Co-editor, Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 17: Romance Philology.  Spring 2000.

"Portuguese language, Hebrew script: conventions in contact," talk presented at Annual Linguistics Graduate Student Conference, Cornell University.  December 1999.

"Jewish language beyond Yiddish," invited lecture in Linguistics XXX, Yiddish Linguistics (Instructor: M. Diesing).  November 1999.

Co-editor, Semantics and Linguistic Theory VIII & IX.  1998, 1999.

 

Awards and Fellowships

Field of Linguistics Research Grant, Cornell Department of Linguistics.  Spring 2002.

Sage Fellowship, Cornell Graduate School.  2001-2002.

Teaching Exchange with Universit de Paris XII Val-de-Marne.  2000-2001

Graduate Summer Research Fellowship, Cornell Department of Linguistcs.  1999-2001.

John S. Knight Institute Teaching Writing Internship, Cornell University.  Summer 1998.

Sage Fellowship, Cornell Graduate School.  1997-1998.

Phi Beta Kappa, elected Fall 1996.

 

Professional Experience and Affiliations

Team Teaching (, Elementary French (122), Cornell University.  Spring 2003.

Office Manager, Cornell Linguistics Circle Publications.  1998-2000, 2003-2004.

Translator (Spanish-English), The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Paris, France.  2001-2002.

Peer Collaboration Program, John S. Knight Writing Program, Cornell University.  Fall 1999.

Member, Cornell Linguistics Circle.  1997-present.

 

Language skills

English            Native speaker.

French             Near-native fluency.

Hebrew           Reading: Excellent.  Speaking/writing: Good.

Yiddish            Reading: Excellent.  Speaking/writing: Good.

Spanish            Reading: Excellent.  Speaking/writing: Good.

Portuguese       Reading: Excellent.  Speaking/writing: Good.

Welsh              Reading/writing: Good.  Speaking: Basic.

Others studied: Judeo-Spanish, Persian, Wolof, Old Irish, Arabic, German, Breton, Hungarian, Latin, Classical Greek.