Research areas
Faculty in the Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures are active in their areas of specialization. LLLC is committed to fostering an environment where research and creative activity thrive; research takes our students and faculty across the globe in the pursuit of scholarly engagement. Here you will find our areas of research, exemplifying our commitment to active engagement.
Student projects
Over the course of the spring semester, the students in “Cinderella” read nearly fifty tellings of the Cinderella story from around the world, starting from the earliest recorded version, written in Chinese in the ninth century.
We read folktellings from Vietnam, Tibet, China, Iraq, Brazil, Norway, Ireland, and elsewhere, fairy tales penned by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Madame d’Aulnoy, and Giambattista Basile, and contemporary adaptations by Angela Carter, Aimee Bender, Tanith Lee, Susan Palwick, Peter Straub, and others. We read children’s picture books and visited Special Collections; we read poems by Anne Sexton and Roald Dahl.
Some of the stories we read were familiar, but others were not, for example the Brazilian story in which the magical helper was the heroine’s sister, born as a snake wrapped around her neck, or the many stories in which magical helper was a cow, often a reincarnation of the heroine’s mother. The heroine in these stories isn’t always nice, and many stories are violent and surprisingly gruesome. In some tellings, the heroine forgives her abusers and all live happily ever after; in others, she takes revenge. As part of their final project, class members wrote stories inspired by our readings. We now invite you to enjoy these stories.
Research and creative production in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
As part of a top-tier, AAU-accredited public research university, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences holds scholarly, scientific, and artistic discovery at the heart of our mission.
Throughout our departments and programs, our professors are at the forefront of their disciplines. They bring their world-class research and artistry into their classrooms, studios, and labs, giving students the unparalleled opportunity to learn right from the source of the latest innovations in knowledge and practice.
Graduate students and many undergraduates work side-by-side with faculty members, conducting breakthrough research and creative production that advances humanity’s understanding of ourselves and the complex, ever-changing world in which we live.
The creation of knowledge and understanding is an exhilarating and never-ending mission—and is at the core of every University of Iowa liberal arts and sciences education.