Current News
April 2009
Critical Theory Lecture Series for Graduate StudentsVisiting Professor Jaime Ginzburg, will be delivering a series of lectures on Critical Theory. This is an extracurricular activity in connection with the research interests of graduate students from our Department. The meetings will be conducted in English. The subjects may be related to Latin American intellectuals and writers of interest to students in Spanish and Portuguese.
The meetings will include theoretical and conceptual approaches, bibliographical comments and discussions on literary and cultural production. No prior registration is required. This is an extracurricular activity that entails no grade or credit.
Thursdays, starting 9 am.
April 16 - Room 12 Folwell
April 23 - Room 12 Folwell
April 30 - Room 426 Folwell
May 7 - Room 12 Folwell
We would like to congratulate two of our department’s undergraduate students that were awarded the Selmer Birkelo Scholarship for 2009-2010. These students are Chelsey Rosetter (Spanish Studies major) and Elizabeth Troolin (Spanish Studies and Political Science double major).
To be considered for a Birkelo Scholarship, students must be majoring in fields relating to history, modern languages, classics, or the social and behavioral sciences and must be nominated to the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs by their major department. For the 2009-10 academic year Birkelo Scholarship recipients will receive up to $4,000, depending on financial need.
The Selmer Birkelo Scholarships provide one year of scholarship support for approximately 14 outstanding CLA students majoring in fields relating to history, modern languages, classics, or the social and behavioral sciences.
To be considered for Birkelo Scholarship students must intend to pursue a degree from the College of Liberal Arts and may not be enrolled in any other college. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit, with particular attention paid to depth of study in the major, general breadth of coursework, and clarity of academic purpose.
The Department is delighted to announce that Professor Michelle Hamilton will be joining our faculty beginning Fall 2009! Her proficiency in Arabic and Hebrew as well as in the Romance languages gives a unique scope to her research and teaching on the interactions of these three cultures in medieval Iberia and the Mediterranean. We look forward to her arrival in the Fall, when she will be teaching SPAN 5106 “The Literature of the Reconquest and Feudal Spain." Click here to view Professor Hamilton's profile.
May 2008
ACCOLADES FOR 2007-2008FACULTY
Recently Published Books —
Timothy Face - Intonation of Castilian Spanish Declaratives and Absolute Interrogatives was published by Lincom Europa, and the first issue of the new journal, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, was released.
Ofelia Ferran - Working through Memory was published by Bucknell University Press.
Luis Ramos Garcia - Panorama de las artes escénicas ibérico y latinoamericanas was published, along with the State of Ibero-American Studies Series, by the FIT of Cadiz supported by Spain's Ministry of Culture.
Nicholas Spadaccini - along with the Hispanic Issues team, published the 35th volume of Hispanic Issues, Post-Authoritarian Culture: Spain and Latin America’s Southern Cone through Vanderbilt University Press.
Grants and Awards for 2008-2009 —
Timothy Face was awarded a single semester research leave for Fall 2008.
Ana Forcinito was awarded a single semester research leave for Fall 2008.
Jaime Hanneken was awarded a CLA Faculty Summer Research Fellowship and McKnight Fellowship for Summer 2008.
Raúl Marrero Fente was awarded a CLA Faculty Summer Research Fellowship and McKnight Fellowship for Summer 2008.
Joanna O'Connell - received a Minnesota Futures grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research for her symposium, “Networks and Neighborhoods in Cyberspace.”
New Hires —
Michelle Hamilton will be joining us in Fall 2009 as an Associate Professor of Spanish Medieval Studies. She will be coming from the University of California, Irvine. Click here to view her profile.
Jaime Hanneken joined us this year as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Latin American literature. She came from the University of Pennsylvania. Click here to view her profile.
Raul Marrero Fente joined us this year as an Assistant Professor of Trans-Atlantic studies and Colonial Latin American literature and culture . He came from the University of Richmond in Virginia. Click here to view his profile.
Conferences 2007-2008 —
Current Approaches to Spanish & Portuguese Second Lanaguage Phonology Conference - organized by Timothy Face.
The State of Iberoamerican Studies Series: Human Rights and Theater. The Iberoamerican African Diaspora and the VI Political Theater Festival - organized by Luis Ramos Garcia.
Symposium on Human Rights in Latin American and Iberian Cultures - organized by Ana Forcinito and Raúl Marrero-Fente.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Graduating Ph.D.s 2007-2008 —
Matthew Desing has accepted a tenure track professorship at the University of Texas at El Paso and will be defending his dissertation this summer in Peninsular Literature and Cultures.
Tania Gomez accepted a position at St. John's University in the Department of Languages and Literatures and will be defending her dissertation this summer in Hispanic Linguistics.
Marie José Hellin-Garcia received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics has accepted a tenure track position at the University of Georgia.
Alexis Howe accepted a position at St. John's University in the Department of Languages and Literatures and will be defending her dissertation this summer in Spanish-American Literature and Cultures.
Maria de Lourdes P. Mills received her Ph.D. in Spanish-American Literature and Cultures.
Rachel Shively received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics and has accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics and Spanish at Illinois State University in Bloomington starting in August
Julie Sykes received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics and has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
Completed Preliminary Exams for Doctoral Candidacy 2007-2008 —
Peninsular Literature and Cultures - Vanesa Arozamena, Eric Dickey,
Marcela Garces,
Kajsa Larson
Lusophone Literature and Cultures - Marcus Brasileiro, Eléusio Filipe, Barbara Pierre-Louis
Hispanic Linguistics - Sara Mack, Mandy Menke, Deyanira Rojas-Sosa
Spanish-American Literature and Cultures - Carlso Vargas-Salgado
Completed M.A. Final Exams 2007-2008 —
Hispanic Literature - Michael Arnold,
Nelly Pilares
Recently Published Works —
Vanesa Arozamena has had an article accepted for publication related to her dissertation topic on the role of orality in Basque literature and culture.
Awards, Scholarships and Announcements 2007-2008—
Michael Arnold received the FLAS Fellowship for summer 2008 and will be going studying Portuguese in Lisbon.
Matthew Desing received a Travel Fellowship to go to the MLA Conference in Chicago in December 2007.
Eric Dickey received a grant from the Program for Cultural Cooperation Between Spain's Ministry of Culture & United States' Universities last summer to undertake research in Spain for his dissertation “The Representation of the Concentration Camp in the Work of Max Aub.”
Maria Eugenia Dominguez received a Travel Fellowship to present at the V Congreso Nacional de Investigaciones Lingüístico-Filológicas: "La euseauza de lenguas enel Torcer milenio."
Alejandro Enriquez received a Travel Fellowship to go to the MLA Conference in Chicago in December 2007.
Marcela Garcés received a Summer Research grant to travel to Madrid. Her grants include The Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Spanish Ministry of Culture and U.S. Universities; a Dissertation Research Support Grant; and a 2008 GRPP Summer Award for Que paso con la Movida? Recordando La Movida Marrilena: The Role of Visual Memory in Novels, Autobiography, Museum Exhibits and Films that Memorialize Late 1970's and early 1980's Spain. She also received a Small Dissertation Grant for Spring 2008.
Adriana Gordillo a 2008 Summer GRPP Award for "The Silences of History: A Review of Carlos Fuentes' Fantasy Fiction from 1954-1980", and Travel Fellowship to travel to the Conference of Hispanic & Hispanic American Poetry.
Maria Jose Hellin Garcia - received at Travel Fellowship to present on Research and Applying Metaphor (RaAM) and to attend the 2007 MLA Conference in Chicago.
Kajsa Larson received a grant from the Program for Cultural Cooperation Between Spain's Ministry of Culture & United States' Universities Summer 2007 and a GRPP Summer 2008 Award to undertake research for her dissertation “Remembering the Thirteen Roses: Thinking between History and Fiction.” She also received a Travel Fellowship to attend the AILCFH: Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica.
Kelly McDonough received a Small Dissertation Grant for Spring 2008, a Thesis Research Grant, and a Travel Fellowship to present a paper on panel "Ethnographic Research and Noncanonical Literatures" at the 2007 MLA Conference in Chicago.
Sara Mack did fieldwork in Puerto Rico, five weeks during Fall 2007 and one week during Spring 2008 and was the selected participant for the Workshop on Exemplar Phonology, Ohio State Department of Linguistics, October 2007. She also received a Department travel grant & COGS travel grant to go to the Linguistic Society of America.
Malcolm McNee a former Ph.D. in Portuguese, obtained a tenure-track teaching position at Smith College.
Mandy Menke received a Travel Fellowship to go to the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, a Small Dissertation Grant for Spring 2008, and a Thesis Research Grant.
Sarah Miller Boelts traveled to Paris, France in January 2008 to interview Zoé Valdés, a Cuban author, for her dissertation. She also received a Travel Fellowship to travel to the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies: Latin America: Peoples & Possibilities.
Katherine Ostrom received a Travel Fellowship to go to the XVII Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica. She also received a Small Dissertation Grant for Spring 2008.
Deyanira Rojas-Sosa received a Small Dissertation Grant for Spring 2008.
Rachel Shively received a Travel Fellowship to go to the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL).
Julie Sykes received two awards at the CALICO (The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) conference on March 21st and was selected by CALICO's Editorial Board as the outstanding article for year 2006-07. She also received a Travel Fellowship to attend the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages 2007 (ACTFL) and to go to the MLA Conference in Chicago in December 2007.
Carlos-Vargas-Salgado received a Small Dissertation Grant for Spring 2008 and a OIP Small Summer Grant.
Naomi Wood received a Travel Fellowship to go to the Virtual Caribbeans: A Conference on Representation, Diaspora and Performance in and on the Caribbean, a FLAS Fellowship for Summer 2008 to study Portuguese in Brazil, and a Small Dissertation Grant for Spring 2008.