MONMOUTH, Ill. — Although its name reflects the central theme of the celebration, Monmouth College’s upcoming Modern Foreign Languages Week promises to offer insight into many other subjects during the course of its four featured lectures.

"This year’s Modern Foreign Languages Week speakers will offer several opportunities for our students to make connections across disciplines," said Susan Holm, the Dorothy Donald Professor of Modern Foreign Languages, of the event that begins Oct. 27.

Holm noted that 11 separate disciplines will be represented in the four talks, covering a large sampling of the majors offered at Monmouth.

First up on Oct. 27 will be the subjects of mathematics, biology and chemistry in a 6:30 p.m. talk in the Private Dining Room of Stockdale Center by the week’s keynote speaker, Susanna Neid. The winner of the 2007 Academy of American Poets Harold Morton Landon Award, Nied will discuss "Translation as Frontier: The Fibonacci Sequence Meets ‘alphabet.’" Danish poet Inger Christensen’s "alphabet" is a book-length poem structured on the mathematical Fibonacci sequence. The cost for the dinner and lecture is $9.75 for anyone not on Monmouth’s meal plan.

On Oct. 29, assistant professor of modern foreign languages Heather Brady will present an International Luncheon program at noon in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room of the Stockdale Center. Titled "Quebec’s Independent Spirit," Brady’s talk will focus on Quebec’s regional identity and some unique lessons about language and identity. The MC faculty member spent part of her summer there with the sponsorship of the Quebec Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A buffet lunch, featuring international foods, is available. A meal ticket may be purchased for $7.25 in the food service office in Stockdale Center. Lunch reservations must be made in advance by calling 309-457-2149, but anyone may attend the presentation without obligation to purchase the meal.

At 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, two talks will be held back-to-back in the Morgan Room in Poling Hall. University of Illinois faculty members Wail S. Hassan and Stephanie Hilger will deliver talks titled, respectively, "Arabic Literature and Translation" and "Jane Austen’s Forgotten Contemporaries: The Politics of Textual Transmission and Translation." Both talks are free and open to the public.