The Polyglot, Brown鈥檚 multilingual student publication, is working to showcase cultural and linguistic diversity on campus and create space on campus for underrepresented languages.
Founded by Selena Kiu 鈥�24 and Olivia Howe 鈥�22 in 2022, the publication 鈥� which recently released its third volume 鈥� is supported by the Center for Language Studies. Its latest issue follows a theme of tales, according to co-editor-in-chief Isabella Collins 鈥�26.
Co-editor-in-chief Markus Joerg 鈥�26 hopes that the most recent volume showcases 鈥渨orldwide themes of the hero鈥檚 journey,鈥� adding that for many readers, the term 鈥渇airy tale鈥� may have Eurocentric connotations.
鈥淓very single culture has their own variation of these stories that have been passed down and cultivated through thousands of years,鈥� Joerg said, describing the current volume of the Polyglot as a 鈥渨ealth of personal stories.鈥�
Joerg explained that the Polyglot aimed to represent each language possible once in the printed version of the publication, but all submissions to the publication by students were published online.
Submissions that take a more visual approach 鈥� rather than using a traditional written format 鈥� are accepted as well. Joerg noted that despite a debate concerning the inclusion of visual media in the Polyglot, these submissions were ultimately included after a sign language professor inquired how submissions in a non-written language would be handled.
The inclusion of visual media also allows the publication to go beyond multilingualism and touch upon multiculturalism, Joerg said.
The current volume of the Polyglot includes two watercolor paintings by Ciprian Buzila PhD鈥�22 titled 鈥淔lowers III and IV.鈥� Buzila chose to portray flowers in their artwork because each bouquet conveys emotions and a connection between humankind and nature.
Buzila first came to learn of the Polyglot from a poster in the Writing Center and was drawn to the publication because of their background as an international student from Romania and love for multiple languages.
鈥淎rt is a universal language that 鈥� unifies people and speaks to all of us,鈥� Buzila said. 鈥淚t is still (a) major way of expressing myself.鈥�
Ilektra Bampicha-Ninou 鈥�26 submitted her work in a more traditional medium: a collection of poems written in Greek, her native language. Her poems explore specific styles of writing, rather than forming a cohesive story. Bampicha-Ninou describes the poems as personal stories and observations that are 鈥渁 summary of realizations鈥� concerning identity.
Editor Sunny Choi 鈥�24, a former staff writer at The Herald who previously submitted a German essay for the second volume of the Polyglot, was contacted by the publication to edit a translation in the most recent volume. The text, originally written in English, was translated into Korean for the Polyglot, according to Choi.
During the editing process, Choi said she checked if the translated piece followed the correct conventions and properly conveyed the meaning of the original piece but tried not to 鈥渙verpower the translation that was originally given to (her).鈥�
Collins said that serving as editor-in-chief of the Polyglot was 鈥渁 learning curve鈥� for both her and Joerg, as neither of them had prior experience in magazine publishing. Plus, the inflexibility of magazine layout software like Adobe InDesign made it hard to format languages that read right-to-left such as Hebrew and Arabic, Collins added.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really interesting 鈥� just to see how different languages were written鈥� in designing the layout of the volume, Collins said. 鈥淚n the publication, (there鈥檚) such an interesting variety between all the languages and I think publishing (them) makes it look so gorgeous.鈥�
Manav is a sophomore from Indiana, concentrating in International and Public Affairs. In his free time, he likes attempting the daily Connections puzzle or falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes.
