WKU News

Faculty and students of Potter College of Arts and Letters gathered on Tuesday 19, 2021 at the Kentucky Museum to commemorate the beginning of the fall season and celebrate a staple WKU tradition: the PCAL Fall Festival. Students experienced the usual-- music, popcorn, festivity, fresh weather-- but they also experienced the opportunity to participate in modern language and culture activities through the Department of Modern Languages and its various programs.

Students approaching the Modern Languages table were greeted by WKU Modern Languages faculty such as the Arabic Program’s Lhousseine Guerwane and students such as Kerby Gilstrap, an Arabic major currently completing her senior year and leader of the WKU QatarDebate Team. The WKU QatarDebate Team annually debates topics such as politics, education, and the environment entirely in Arabic and will be present this semester at the debate championship in Chicago.

Students also had the opportunity to discover and try henna designs (an important cultural product of weddings and celebrations in the Arab world) and get their names transliterated into Arabic. Many students also tried on traditional clothing of the Middle East and truly experienced a piece of the international world.

As students made their way to the other side of the festival, they also made their way to the “other side  of the world” where both the Department of Modern Languages and the Chinese programs were present with additional language and culture activities for students. Students experienced international culture via the ancient Chinese art of calligraphy and were assisted by Chinese professors on the Hill. Additionally, students were given the chance to meet Modern Languages Interim Department Head Dr. Alex Poole and the Modern Languages festival pumpkin, Consuelo.