Choose your character, write spells, map the dungeon and move up levels. It sounds like Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s not. It’s Latin class.

Each student plays a hero from Graeco-Roman myth with a backstory, personality and actions determined largely by the student. Over the semester-long journey the players face obstacles, challenges and opportunities both independently and as a group.

And they learn to write Latin.

Game theory for teaching languages

“The best way to learn a language is by immersing yourself in it,” says Ted Gellar-Goad, a post doc teacher-scholar in Wake Forest’s classical languages department who teaches the class. “And it’s even more fun in a world not quite our own, in time, place or nature.”

The first day of Latin prose composition class, the most challenging required course for Latin majors and often the dullest, the 12 students chose a character to guide through the 20 levels of the course.

Sophomore Amy Templin chose Ariadne as her play character (PC) — the princess of Crete who clandestinely helps Theseus slay the mythological Minotaur. “My PC tends to help solve riddles and puzzles,” says Templin. “She matches my actual personality nicely.”

Students in Ted Gellar-Goad’s class ‘map dungeons’ while learning to write in Latin.

Templin says generally other women in the class were more hesitant to embrace role-playing than the men, something Gellar-Goad expected might happen. “But the class is not a video game, it’s a paper-based role-playing game, and its extrinsic value is to create increased engagement in the class. Something I think we’ve definitely accomplished,” he says.

“I look forward to the class, and I’m not constantly checking the clock,” says Templin. “Though I was initially intimidated by the set up, especially starting the class at level zero, I’ve noticed so much growth in my abilities. I’m looking at the dictionary less and less. That we craft our sentences according to our character and the motivations of game players is a big challenge, but so much more fun than translating the vanilla sentences someone else wrote from a 1940s textbook.”

Experience points: Level zero to level 20

Students earn experience points, not grades. They gain levels. They learn Latin in a “super-structure of fun,” says Gellar-Goad. This includes:

• Scribing spells (complete translation projects),
• Mapping the dungeon (construct visual representations of Latin grammatical constructions);
• Crafting magic items (produce creative projects); and
• Completing side quests (establish standards of a Latin author’s style, for example).

The idea for the course setup came from a Teaching and Learning Center book group on José Antonio Bowen’s “Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning.” Gellar-Goad was most interested in Bowen’s exploration of using games as a useful pedagogical tool. “The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game,” was another useful resource for course design.

Learning through avatars

As game master, Gellar-Goad moderates the class, provides the setting and helps guide both the storytelling and the adventures. Students work as a class to figure our how their player characters will respond to given situations. Gellar-Goad sets up the simulation: We are in a city in ancient Greece and the Mycenean people are rebelling against their queen. The rebels have caught you, and you have two options: Confess you are gathering information on how to defeat the Sphinx or hide your true motives. The group discusses the options and possible outcomes, and then composes sentences in Latin to move the game forward.

“One of the biggest takeaways for me from the class is that Dr. Gellar-Goad’s unique approach is inspiring students in our class who have different ways of learning,” says senior Matt Sherry, an aspiring high school Latin teacher. He encourages creativity and that creativity gives students different ways to approach learning.”

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but this might not be the case for a honeybee.

Just ask David Hale (’15), a sophomore biology major. Hale has been studying the relationship between brain structure and cognitive function in honeybees since the summer after his freshman year.

He explains that as a honeybee ages, a pair of structures in its brain called mushroom bodies grow larger. Larger mushroom bodies may give older bees an advantage over their younger counterparts when it comes to learning and memorizing new things like the color of certain flowers. In nature, this would help older honeybees remember which flowers have more pollen, making them better foragers for the hive.

Hale went to biology professor and honeybee expert Susan Fahrbach to see if she would help him design a scientific study to investigate the phenomena.

With Fahrbach’s guidance, Hale designed a basic IQ test to see if older bees’ enlarged mushroom bodies make them more adept at associating color with reward.

After collecting bees of different ages and fitting them into a harness fashioned from a drinking straw, Hale exposed his tiny subjects to bursts of blue or green light from a projector to simulate different colored flower patches.

A flash of blue light signaled a sugary reward. A flash of green light signaled no reward. Hale put each bee through 20 trials and then reversed the experiment. His results showed that of the 64 bees that completed the test, older ones proved more capable at associating color with reward. The younger bees, the ones less than 10 days old, weren’t yet ready to learn.

Hale said putting together the experiment under Fahrbach’s guidance was the most challenging aspect of his collegiate career to date. His mentor took an available, yet hands-off approach, which allowed Hale to learn from his own mistakes.

“Instead of telling me what to do, professor Fahrbach told me to think outside of the box and come up with my own solution to the problems at hand,” Hale said.

From Honeybees to Humans: Meeting of the Minds

It is exactly this outside the box thinking that will be showcased at the Eighth Annual ACC Meeting of the Minds Undergraduate Research Conference, taking place April 4-6 at Wake Forest.

The three-day event, funded in large part by revenue from athletic events such as the ACC football championship, will showcase the work of nearly 100 undergraduate researchers from 12 ACC member schools.

“We are breaking down barriers between a group of the nation’s leading universities so that students from across the ACC can learn from one another and grow through shared experience,” said Richard Carmichael, professor of mathematics at Wake Forest and the University’s Faculty Athletic Representative.

Susan Fahrbach in the lab with David Hale.

Undergraduate REsearch and Creative Activities (URECA) Center, the Office of the Dean of the College and the Office of the Provost are organizing and sponsoring the event, which rotates from campus to campus each year.

“We are proud to celebrate the mentored or independent scholarship of such talented students from Wake Forest and other ACC institutions renowned for their commitment to scholarly and creative work and their dedication to outstanding undergraduate education,” said Jacquelyn Fetrow, Dean of Wake Forest College.

The URECA Center provides student grants (summer fellowships include $4,000 plus housing) and an administrative umbrella for mentored, undergraduate research and encourages and supports high-quality programs of great impact. Shannon Mihalko, associate professor of Health and Exercise Science and Co-Director of the URECA Center, said the program supports undergraduate scholars in all disciplines of Wake Forest College.

This year’s “Meeting of the Minds” also represents the first-ever ACC-sponsored event including the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Louisville.

“The expectation for undergraduates to participate in research has become standard for admittance into good graduate schools,” said Dale B. Billingsley, vice provost of Undergraduate Affairs and Enrollment Management at the University of Louisville. “Starting early is a really good thing to do for students who will be participating in research events like this for the rest of their careers.”

Josh Courtney, an English and political science major, will showcase his work analyzing linguistic trends in the writing of first-year Wake Forest students. He said working with his mentor Laura Aull, an assistant professor of English, not only gave him a realistic idea of what it is like to do research but also has him considering a PhD in linguistics after graduation.

“You don’t realize the amount of time and effort that goes into this kind of work until you do it,” Courtney said, adding that professor Aull is helping him to get his work published in an academic journal.

If you are going to attend

A complete schedule of events is available on the conference website. Wake Forest faculty known for their dedication to undergraduate research will give keynote addresses.

Friday’s keynote speaker will be Miles Silman, Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest. A leader in the sustainability movement, Silman has taken dozens of undergraduate students to the Amazon rainforest, where his work centers on understanding species distributions, biodiversity, and the response of forest ecosystems to climate and land use changes over time.

Saturday’s keynote speaker will be Christina Soriano, Associate Professor of Dance. Her mentee, senior Cynthia Huang, will dance to demonstrate their collaborative work on composer John Cage, which Soriano will address in her presentation called “Choreographing Cage: A model for undergraduate scholarship in the arts.”

Wake Forest University graduate Wade Murphy (’00) is donating $1 million to support the Humanities Institute, extending the reach and impact of humanities and the liberal arts. Murphy is the youngest person in the University’s history to make such a large gift.

“Wade’s generous support underscores the critical role that the humanities play in the education and preparation of today’s students,” said Mary Foskett, professor of religion and director of the Humanities Institute. “The humanities are rooted in intellectual traditions that empower students to engage the world. Today’s graduates must be prepared to interpret complex information, understand diverse cultures and create solutions that serve the common good. Wake Forest provides a rigorous liberal arts education, where the humanities are central, and where faculty and students confront big questions in innovative ways.”

Murphy, the executive vice president of Marmik Oil in El Dorado, Ark., graduated in 2000 with a major in history. He earned an MBA from American University in 2007. He has served as a member of the Wake Forest Young Alumni Development Board and currently serves on the Wake Forest College Board of Visitors.

“Wake Forest is and always has been a place that teaches students how to identify and pursue that which is good, beautiful and true,” said Murphy. “One of the prevailing reasons I want to support the Humanities Institute is that it will go a long way to ensuring that these ideals are carried forward.”

The Humanities Institute was launched in October of 2010 to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship and explore creative ways to use knowledge to solve real-world problems.

With Murphy’s support, the Institute will continue to build partnerships that contribute to the common good. One example of this kind of work is Humanities Matters, a program funding “The Imagination Project: Artists of the Holocaust” — a collaboration among professors and students that aims to educate audiences about anti-Semitism and promote understanding, tolerance and respect.

In December 2010, the National Endowment for the Humanities offered the Institute a challenge grant of $500,000 with Wake Forest raising $1.5 million by July 2015 to establish an endowment that will help sustain the Humanities Institute and its mission for years to come. With Murphy’s gift, the Institute has exceeded the challenge amount more than two years earlier than required.

“Not only has Wade given us the needed funds, he has made it clear that Wake Forest University values the liberal arts,” said President Nathan O. Hatch. “It is comforting to know that the next generation of Wake Forest stewards is stepping forward in leadership and acting definitively toward preserving the very best of the Wake Forest education.”

Based on his experience as a Wake Forest student, Murphy wants to affirm the central place the humanities have played in shaping his life.

“We cannot expect to continue to build a Wake Forest for future generations without appreciating and honoring the Wake Forest that was provided for us by those who embodied the Pro Humanitate model,” said Murphy. “I fervently believe that the Humanities Institute will help us carry that spirit forward for many generations of Wake Foresters to come.”

Anita Ostrovsky on stage in “VOX.”

One by one, students take center stage in the Ring Theatre and share personal stories about sexuality, isolation and identity conflicts. Without costumes or scripts, the “actors” take part in a devised production of their own creation.

The ensemble of Wake Forest students spent three weeks with visiting actor and director Tim Miller producing “VOX” (which is Latin for “voice”) — creating a production based on their own personal stories, experiences and memories.

In this Q&A, Anita Ostrovsky, a senior from Johnson City, Tenn., majoring in theatre and Russian, shares what it was like finding her voice and talking about the challenges of being a first generation American with Ukrainian parents.

Q: How did you decide what part of your life story you wanted to tell? 

 A: As I went through a week of workshops with Tim, my feelings about my family and identity kept popping up. Growing up as a first-generation American with parents who spoke Russian at home made me feel conflicted. Many cultural nuances that were handed down to me from my family conflicted with cultural nuances in the U.S. I felt myself having to determine whether to align myself with the values they grew up with or with those that my American peers supported.

Talking about these experiences seemed natural. As director, Tim stressed that we let our strongest feelings come to the top.  My final piece in “VOX” is a sum of all the pieces I did in the rehearsal process.

Q: How do you communicate your story to the audience during your performance?

A: I use the whole stage and move from one corner to the other to communicate the dichotomy and to explore the question, “Am I a loud, proud American or a poised, quiet, Ukrainian/Russian ballerina?” I also strive for high-energy performances that excite the audience while making them think. I incorporate my dance training into the piece to give it that energy. Its heart lies at its very instinctual and a bit improvisational nature.

Q: Can you describe the relationships that developed among cast members?

A: Tim encouraged us to delve into hard issues from the start. He provided an environment where we were all comfortable with each other. To help us organize the play, he encouraged us to look at how our stories connect, and I think the audience members will see these connections. Some stories are very heart wrenching. All are raw and real. We supported each other, and I respect everyone in the cast so much for opening up their hearts first to their peers, and now to the community, to share their thoughts and experiences.

Q: What do you hope that the audience will take away?

A: For my story, I want them to understand that a person’s identity is not black or white, and that an individual can identify with more than one culture even though the values of each can conflict. I think immigrants and first-generation Americans will identify with my piece.

“VOX” runs through February 10 in the Ring Theatre of Scales Fine Arts Center. Click here for ticket information.

Twenty-one nations in the world use Spanish as their primary language. But a basic Spanish course, with its entry-level lessons on uno, dos, tres and rojo, blanco, azul, is unlikely to make it easier for students to communicate when studying abroad in one of these countries.

“Spanish is often taught as if it is a uniform language, but it varies from region to region and country to country to different extents,” says Jerid Francom, a Spanish language and linguistics professor. “Finding the unique features in the way a particular culture uses Spanish means students will be better prepared for their study abroad. The more quickly a student feels comfortable in a culture, the more he or she will take away from their experience.”

With funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities, Francom has been using language from film to learn more about how conversational Spanish is spoken in three Spanish-speaking countries — Argentina, Mexico and Spain — collecting data on word usage that may someday change the way language courses are taught.

The research

Jerid Fracom

More than 300 films from these three countries studied formed the basis of his research. Francom collected the available subtitles from an online repository. Using cutting-edge computer technology, he merged 1.5 million words from films, looking at the appearance of these words and the context in which they were used.

“By pulling dialogue from all movie genres, from comedy to horror, we learned more about the similarities and differences in the Spanish that people speak in Argentina, Mexico and Spain,” he says.

Francom next traveled to each of the three countries and conducted tests with native speakers to determine if the information on word use collected from the film subtitles would hold up against in-field testing.

“One cannot know beforehand if the words collected from a source will truly be reflective of those people actually use or how these words will be used in context. In collaboration with colleagues from Spain, Mexico and Argentina, we consulted more than 80 native speakers in each country and used word recognition response time and personal evaluation tests to gives us the psychological validation we needed to assess the language data.”

The results look promising.

The future of language instruction

To best prepare for study abroad, students need a working knowledge of authentic, real-world language in order to confidently interact in meaningful ways in their host country. Effective preparation needs to incorporate those words and their meanings that are specific to the country being visited, Francom says.

Unlike a textbook, Francom’s language database is dynamic and will evolve as he and his researchers add more movies. In the next phase of the research, he plans to examine word phrases rather than just individual words.

“Some day, I hope to make our research accessible in an easy to understand and usable fashion by creating a website where anyone will be able to search for word and phrase usage information to learn more about a country they will be visiting. After all, language is a window into culture.”

Francom joined the Department of Romance Languages in 2009.

Humanistic inquiry is at the heart of Wake Forest’s liberal arts tradition. Together, faculty and students bring to life scholarly and undergraduate research, campus and community programming, and interdisciplinary activities that connect the humanities with science, social science and artistic fields. Here are some of last year’s highlights.

The arts promote inclusivity, intellectual curiosity, innovation and problem solving. From music competitions to documentary films to art exhibitions, artistic commitment and academic rigor coexist and inspire new connections at Wake Forest. Here are some of this year’s arts highlights.

To better understand virtue and vice and how to define good character, The Character Project at Wake Forest University has granted funding to theologians and philosophers from around the world.

The Character Project, a three-year, multimillion dollar program, awarded 16 grants, totaling nearly $1 million to scholars seeking new insights into the nature of character.

Eight projects on the philosophy of character and eight projects on the theology of character were selected. In total, 170 proposals were submitted.

Christian Miller, director of The Character Project and associate professor of philosophy at Wake Forest, oversaw the review process for the philosophy awards.

“We were thrilled with the quality of the submissions,” Miller said.  “Those selected should contribute many new and far-reaching insights into our understanding of morality and character.”

Angela Knobel, associate professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America, oversaw the review process for the theology awards.

“These projects, which focus on forgiveness, grace, humility and other theological aspects of character, will do much to advance an underexplored aspect of research into moral character,” Knobel said.

The awards complement the many other Character Project initiatives, including a major conference held during the summer.

“The Character Project has already made a number of discoveries about how and why we behave the way that we do, and these projects will take the existing research further by considering topics such as the characters of those who commit war crimes and the importance of following moral exemplars,” Miller said.

The Character Project is supported by a $4.2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation with the goal of fostering new advances in the study of character in psychology, philosophy and theology. Because of the quality of the research proposals, Miller also received a grant of $417,759 from the foundation to be able to fund all 16 of these projects.

Following is the list of winners:

Philosophy of Character

• “Epistemic Justice and the Social Virtue of Deference”  Principal Investigator: Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij (University of Kent)

• “Vindicating Virtue”  Principal Investigator: Bradford Cokelet (University of Miami)

• “Virtue Epistemology: Unexplored Territory”  Principal Investigator: Nathan King (Whitworth University)

• “Aristotelian Autonomy”  Principal Investigator: Rebecca Stangl (University of Virginia)

• “Character, Emotion and Value”  Principal Investigator: Charles Starkey (Clemson University)

• “Virtue Epistemology & Intellectual Character”  Principal Investigator: John Turri (University of Waterloo)

• “War Crimes, Obedience, and Responsibility”  Principal Investigator: Jessica Wolfendale (West Virginia University)

• “Moral Exemplars in Theory and Practice”  Principal Investigator: Linda Zagzebski (University of Oklahoma)

Theology of Character

• “Humility:  A Study in Analytic Moral Theology”  Principal Investigator:  Michael Austin (Eastern Kentucky University)

• “Pious Fashion:  The Virtues of Hijabi Fashionistas”  Principal Investigator:  Elizabeth Bucar (Northeastern University

• “Virtue, Providence, and the Moral Life: Retrieving the Stoics for Contemporary Christian Ethics”  Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Cochran (Duquesne University)

• “Being for the Good:  Essays on Liturgy and Character”  Principal Investigator: Terence Cuneo (University of Vermont)

• “Voles, Vasopressin, and Virtue”  Principal Investigator: Daniel McKaughan (Boston College)

• “The Virtue of Forgiveness:  Between Jerusalem, Athens, and M.I.T.”  Principal Investigator:  Cristian Mihut (Bethel College)

• “’And Afterward None Like Him Arose’: Exemplarity and the Limits of Exemplarity in Rabbinic Judaism”  Principal Investigator: Tzvi Novick (University of Notre Dame)

• “Character Formation by Grace: Towards a Model for Understanding the Role and Nature of Transforming Grace in Christian Character Formation”  Principal Investigator: Clemens Sedmak (King’s College London)

In 2011, the Character Project granted $2 million in funding to researchers focused on the psychology of character.

If all the world were a stage, and all men and women were players, then Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” would be easier to understand — at least that’s what Wake Forest theatre professors say.

That Shakespeare’s plays are challenging is a sign they are not meant to be quietly read to oneself, at a desk, in a classroom. They are meant to be performed.

“I don’t read Shakespeare well,” says Sharon Andrews theatre professor and director of Wake Forest’s upcoming performance of “As You Like It.” “I empathize with high school students trying to read these plays. The words have to have some ‘doing’ behind them to be understood.”

Education professor Alan Brown, who teaches a methods class for future high school English teachers, agrees. “Teaching Shakespeare in a high school classroom is difficult — the language, the play length, the classroom setting — all pose significant challenges. I want my students to consider how performing Shakespeare in a classroom could make it easier for their students to grasp.”

To teach his students how to teach Shakespeare, Brown collaborated with the theatre department. A timely option considering “As You Like It” was in rehearsal.

“There’s no secret handshake to understanding Shakespeare,” said theatre professor Brook Davis. “What it takes is seeing the play performed. Shakespeare’s plays are meant to be experienced.”

But it doesn’t hurt to read a play summary before tackling Shakespeare, says Davis. “It’s not cheating to read the play summary before reading a scene from the play or seeing a production,” she said. “It reduces confusion to be familiar with the characters and the plot before tackling the piece.”

“To hand a student one of Shakespeare’s plays to read without any background understanding would be like asking someone with no musical knowledge to read the score of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Music needs to be heard, and Shakespeare’s plays needs to be performed,” says Leah Roy, a senior lecturer in theatre.

The lesson for future high school teachers is to “get the play on its feet.” Have students role play parts in the classroom. “The minute you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you have a vested interest in the material, even if you don’t understand every word,” Roy says.

Brown’s students read Act 1, Scene 3 of “As You Like It” to themselves at the beginning of the class. Then, they read the scene aloud on the stage. Finally they watched the same scene performed by Wake Forest student actors. Alyssa Gera (‘15), who plays Rosalind in the upcoming production, told the future teachers “reading Shakespeare aloud gives you a sense of what it feels like in your body and how it feels on your tongue.”

The education students enjoyed watching the performance, but Brown said his students were thrilled to be on the big stage practicing. “In the future, I would love to make this a longer seminar so students can spend more time physically planning and performing these scenes. My goal is for English teachers to be prepared and excited to teach Shakespeare so they can make it come alive for their future students.”

A new book written by Associate Professor of English Dean J. Franco, “Race, Rights, and Recognition,” looks at modern Jewish-American literature since 1969. To better understand how Jewish Americans experienced their identity, Franco read great works by Jewish writers in order to “think along” with them.

Franco, who is a co-founder of Wake Forest’s Humanities Institute, says he began thinking about the topic of Jewishness in America in 2007 after finishing his first book, “Ethnic American Literature: Comparing Chicano, Jewish, and African American Writing.”

After spending years reading and investigating literature written by minority ethnic groups, Franco has developed a broad social and historical understanding of U.S. cultures, which he uses to interpret stories about social and racial issues of the time. He then takes this broad approach to his students – teaching them to use works by writers from different races to see the world through another’s experiences.

“Great literature is inexhaustible and generous,” says Franco. “And literature can strip a reader of all his or her presumptions. I teach my students how to read literature to upend convention so they can imagine new ways of living in the world.”

Franco has several projects underway and recently traveled to Los Angeles to explore Jewish and Chicano neighborhoods and the boundary markers used by both communities to demarcate territory.

He is also writing about Helena Maria Viramontes’ novel, “Their Dogs Came With Them,” about a neighborhood in East Los Angeles. “Viramontes’ novel is one of the best books of the decade,” says Franco.

Viramontes will speak at Wake Forest in February.

Q&A with English professor Dean Franco on “Race, Rights and Recognition: Jewish American Literature since 1969.” (2012)

What inspired you to write this book?

The American Jewish experience intersected with, but was very different from, that of other minorities. Writers like Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, and Saul Bellow explored the political, ethical, and philosophical foundations of concepts like ‘race,’ and ‘recognition’ in their works. When I realized that no one had previously taken this literature seriously as an engagement with the social issues of the day, I was eager to begin writing.

What kind of research did you do for your book?

For the first half of the book, I looked at writers who comprise the staple of the contemporary Jewish American literary canon. I began with a hunch, for instance, that Roth was thinking about race when he was writing “Portnoy’s Complaint.” With support from an Archie Grant, I went to the Library of Congress where Roth’s archives are kept, read his research files and looked at his manuscript drafts and notes. Sure enough, Roth had amassed a considerable file on New York City civil rights policies and had heavily annotated documents on human and civil rights remedies for the city.

For the chapter on Ozick, I worked with a graduate student to research the print journals in which Ozick’s early short fiction appeared, especially Commentary Magazine.

The second half of the book looks at how contemporary writers are addressing the new realities of global multiculturalism and human rights. For the second half, I chose writers who I thought were especially insightful about how human rights work and do not work: Lore Segal, Gary Shteyngart, and especially Tony Kushner.

What did you have to learn about outside of your expertise in English?

To get at the philosophical complexity at work in the literature, I had to study up on the social history of the 1950s and 70s and read a lot of social and political theory. I co-taught a course with Wake Forest politics professor Michaelle Browers called “Multiculturalism in Political Theory and Literature,” and preparing for that course helped me build my knowledge base for the book.

Of those you researched, which author is your favorite and why?

Tony Kushner is my favorite, by far, for his ability to first expose all the fallacies and limitations at the core of our presumptions about human rights, and then to insist that we can and must find yet better ways to care for one another.