Judd International Graduate & Professional Fellowship

On Tuesday, October 20th, Tim Frye (MA/PhD Hispanic Literatures & Cultures Grad Student), along with seventeen other graduate and professional degree students, will be celebrated for receiving the 2015 Walter Judd International Graduate & Professional Fellowship.  

Walter H. Judd International Graduate & Professional Fellowships are designed to support the continued internationalization of the University of Minnesota by providing critical assistance to students enrolled in master’s and professional degree programs, and to increase opportunities for students to study, undertake internships, and conduct research projects abroad.

Tim's research involves literary fieldwork of memory sites of the Canal Zone in Panama. His research goes beyond the study of race alone by examining the way power and politics in Panama are spatially determined. The Canal Zone is best understood as space that bridges race, commerce, and ecology at once intertwined with social and economic marginalization, but which are invisible to the official historical record. For that reason, the study of these spaces is paramount in the study of cultural narratives of Panama. 

Latin American Visions: Film, Memory, and Human Rights

A Conversation with filmmaker Sergio Schmucler about  The blue Shadow/La sombra azul (2012).

Wednesday, October 14th

1:00-2:15 p.m.

335 Nicholson Hall

Javier Rodriguez is a police officer who suffered torture during the last military dictatorship in Argentina. After his exile in Denmark, he returns to his home country to find out that some of the same police officers who tortured him are now senior officials.

This film is about the long-lasting effects of the violence of the past, and about the role that survivors of political repression have had (and still have) in the struggle against impunity.

This film is also about the difficulties of representation of the testimonial accounts of survivors.

The talk will be in Spanish and is open to the public. 

For more information contact Prof. Ana Forcinito aforcini@umn.edu 

This event is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies

Spanish & Portuguese Research Group (SPRG)

Friday, October 9, 2015
317 Folwell Hall
3:30-5:00pm

Veronica Menaldi

Enchanting Go-Betweens: Mediated Love Magic Within and Without "El Libro de buen amor"

and

Carla Manzoni

Multi-screen Post-dictatorial Memory: Alternative narrative suture in Argentina and Spain

Flyer

Spanish and Portuguese Research Group (SPRG)

Friday, September 25, 2015
3:30-5:00pm
317 Folwell Hall

Sophia Beal

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Spanish & Portuguese

21st-Century Brasília: Spatial Negotiations in Cultural Texts

In learning about Brasília, we learn about the power of place, not as deriving from some static, unchanging location, but from the  dynamic negotiations that unfold there. Drawing on theory related to  social space and cultural geography, particularly that of Henri  Lefebvre and Doreen Massey, this study analyzes cultural texts concerned with the negotiations that imbue the city with meaning. Four of Brasília’s contemporary cultural texts shed light on the spatial negotiations that continuously transform the city and shape the subjectivities of its residents: Ellen Oléria’s song “Senzala (a feira da Ceilândia),” Viela 17’s song “20 de 40,” Sexy Fi’s album Nunca te vi de boa, and Augusto Rodrigues’s poetry collection Do livro de carne (brasílias invisíveis).

SPACO Welcome Back Event

SPACO Welcome Back Event
Tuesday, September 22nd
4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
30 Folwell Hall

SPACO is proud to host our beginning of the semester Welcome Back event! Join us to eat tacos, play games in Spanish, listen to Spanish music, and hold conversation in Spanish or Portuguese.  Everyone is welcome, we just ask that you RSVP to will2381@umn.edu so we know how much food to order. 

April E., Toledo, Spain

Last semester (Fall 2010), I had the opportunity to study abroad in Toledo, Spain. It was a bit of a last-minute decision as I am a senior this year and will be graduating in May. As an English and Spanish double-major, one of my advisors recommended the Toledo program to me since I was far enough ahead in my English studies and had to do some catching up in Spanish credits. I took her advice and a year later, I was flying across the ocean preparing myself for the experience of a lifetime. In Spain, I chose to live with a host family as I thought that having a native Spanish family speaking with me every day would help improve my speaking and listening skills more than in a classroom. Unlike most of my friends in the program, I chose to take 6 classes while in Spain (18 credits), some of which included conversational classes, linguistics, literature, art history, and film. Linguistics was definitely my favorite of my classes over the semester and, because of this, the class in which I learned the most. The linguistics class also helped my reading, speaking, and listening skills as I was able to learn about the origins and formations of the Spanish language and the reasoning behind the way it is now spoken. In addition to learning about Spanish language and culture inside the classroom, I also had many opportunities to travel around Spain and visit many of the historical places I read about. Getting to visit the landmarks and historical places of Spain that I had so often read about gave me a whole new perspective on my learning: it wasn't just some distant land of the past; it was all right there within my grasp.

Claire M., Quito, Ecuador

2010-2011 Study Abroad Scholarship Winner
Spring 2011

"Quien no aventura, no cruza el mar." This Spanish proverb, meaning 'he who does not take risks [adventure] will not cross the sea,' has been an inspiration to me since high school. It pertains not only to my life as a whole, but especially at this stage in my college career. I hope to take my first trip abroad to Ecuador through the Minnesota Studies in International Development (MSID) program in the spring of 2011 and am so looking forward to that adventure.

I am currently a junior Spanish major and have thoroughly enjoyed my classes in the department thus far. One of my favorite classes was 3404 Medical Spanish. Through this class and my involvement in the Community Engagement Scholars Program I volunteered with the preschool program and prenatal classes at Centro. In addition to academics, working with this community has helped me improve my language skills, be more confident, and make a difference for the children there. This volunteer position also sparked a new interest for me in working with Spanish-speakers, especially pregnant women and children in the medical field as an interpreter. All of these elements are why I love service-learning and chose the MSID program over the others. I am hoping that my experience in Ecuador will allow me to grow, learn, and make a positive impact on the community I will be with.

Barbara Weissberger, Professor Emeritus, Honored for Her Human Rights Work

Barbara Weissberger, Professor Emeritus, was honored with The Advocates for Human Rights’ Volunteer Award for her work as a Spanish interpreter in immigration court for unaccompanied minors from Central America. The award was presented to Weissberger at a June 16 event, attended by 800 people and held at the Minneapolis Depot.

“Professor Weissberger has been an integral part of The Advocates’ response to help refugees from Central America who fled their homelands for safety and protection,” said Deepinder Mayell, director of The Advocates’ Refugee & Immigrant Program. “She has been there when vulnerable children and families needed her the most. She gave voice to people who otherwise would have had to remain silent. She was a voice for those who left their homes, sometimes in the middle of the night, which nothing but a shred of hope. She helped save lives.”

The Advocates is the largest provider of free legal services in the Upper Midwest to people seeking asylum and to immigrants. In addition to Weissberger, translators Eleni Beyene, Mary Diaz, Sophia Leenay, Teresa Mesa, and Ali Tews were recognized.

Other volunteers honored at the dinner included Elizabeth Cutter, a Minnesota district court judge, for her work to protect women from domestic violence; Minneapolis Institute of Arts docent Carreen Heegaard, for conducting human rights tours at the Institute; and marketing executive Jörg Pierach, on behalf of the Minneapolis-based Fast Horse, for designing a new website for the organization.

VocalPoint Chorus and Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) each received The Advocates’ Special Recognition Award. VocalPoint was honored for staging two concerts to benefit The Advocates’ work to make a better, safer world for women. CTUL was honored for combining extraordinary organizing with an everyday use of a human rights advocacy approach to empower workers who are far too often invisible.

The event’s keynote speaker was Sonia Nazario, the Pulitzer Prize Award-winning journalist and author of the book, Enrique’s Journey, also a newspaper series which describes a Honduran boy’s struggle to flee violence in his home country. Nazario spoke about the determination and plight of Central American refugees based, in part, on her journey with migrants from Honduras through Mexico to the United States on top of the “Train of Death.” At the event, Nazario was presented with The Advocates’ Don and Arvonne Fraser Human Rights Award.

Language Alumni Reunion

(Pictured from left to right: Maggie Broner (Ph.D. 2000), Carol Klee (Professor and Chair), Paula Kempchinsky (M.A. 1980), Jackie Mosio (M.A. 1979), Tom Romens (Ph.D. 1980), Patrick Shoemaker)

On Saturday morning, April 25, 174 alumni from the Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies, together with alumni from the Departments of French & Italian  and German, Scandinavian & Dutch came to the beautifully remodeled Folwell Hall to enjoy the company of faculty, staff, and new or old friends. They gathered on the fourth floor for coffee and pastries, voted for the best student photographs from the past year's study abroad experiences, and donned "conversation pins" to facilitate discussions of how their language studies have enriched and informed their lives. Everyone then went to the first floor to participate in three mini-class sessions. A total of seventeen mini-classes were offered on a wide range of topics and were taught by a mix of faculty, students, and alumni. 

Professor Michelle Hamilton (photo to the left) offered a mini-course on “Convivencia in Medieval Iberia,” Professor Jaime Hanneken taught a mini-course on “The Historic Cultural Phenomenon of the Cuban Rumba,” while Professor Luis Ramos-García taught one on “U.S. Latino Theater,” and Kathleen Ganley offered a course on “Latino Immigration.” In addition to faculty, one of our alumni, Maggie Broner, who is an Associate Professor at St. Olaf, gave a mini-course on “Language Learning Assumptions,” and another of our alumni, Kelsey Rademacher, participated in a panel on “Teaching Abroad - the Benefits and Challenges”; one of our undergraduate students, Julia Potach, took part on a panel on “Language Learning Outside the Classroom”; and, one of our graduate students, Luz Hernández, participated in the World Café on “Contemporary Language Evolution & Impact of New Technologies.” You can see the full range of mini-courses below:

Session A
Teaching Abroad - the Benefits and challenges

Regions of France

Language Learning Outside the Classroom 

Finnish Origins: Linguistics & Genetics

Danger in Francophone Africa

Convivencia in Medieval Iberia

Session B

Saints and Soldiers in Medieval France

The Historic Cultural Phenomenon of the Cuban Rumba

Language Learning Assumptions

Growing Anti-Semitism in Europe

Divine Decadance: Berlin in the Roaring '20s 

U.S. Latino Theater

Session C

25 Years After the Wall 

Only in Italy: Events not to be Missed

Food, Energy & Politics in Germany 

World Cafe: Contemporary Language Evolution & Impact of New Technologies

Latino Immigration 

The alumni who attended enjoyed the morning. A number of our alumni sent us the following comments about their experience at the reunion:

Robert Cook, B.A. 2005, Spanish and Sociology, Corporate Sales

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the U of M Language Alumni Reunion last Saturday (April 25th).  Having spent many, many hours in Folwell Hall during my undergrad years ten years ago, it was first & foremost nice to reconnect with a space that holds many positive memories for me.

As expected, the mini-classes were all interesting, ranging from the origins of the Finnish people to modern life in Berlin, 25 years after the fall of the wall.  We particularly enjoyed the class on the social history of rumba music in Cuba, which touched not only on race and economics, but also provided a bit of music theory as well.

All of these sessions reminded me of why I chose to be a Spanish major in the first place: when one reflects on the structure and history of a foreign language and culture, one naturally begins to reflect back on one's *own* language and culture.  This sort of critical thinking helps a person to develop a positive world-view, and to recognize that we are all indeed "global citizens".

We were very happy that the Language Departments offered these mini-classes, as it also provided alumni with an opportunity to gain a brief overview on new scholastic developments, as well as providing "refreshers" on topics we may have studied in the past.  These sort of alumni events show the U's commitment to life-long learning, and we hope to attend many similar events in the future.

¡Arriba las Tuzas! (Go Gophers!)

Jane Magnuson, B.A. 1997, Spanish, Global Human Resources - Onboarding at Accenture. 

The reunion was a great event!  It was well-organized and a great opportunity to reconnect with fellow alumni and professors, see the beautifully renovated Folwell Hall and take interesting courses.

The event was also a reminder of the value of my university experience (especially studying abroad and getting a degree in a foreign language) and how it continues to resonate to this day.  My time at the University helped me develop a unique perspective and certainly has shaped my career in global human resources. 

            I am grateful to be an alum who lives close to the University, and able to participate in all of the opportunities the University offers the community (not just alums) to get involved, learn and give back.  Maintaining a connection to the university and the foreign language department is like a gift that keeps on giving, and for that I am grateful!

Ada Cifuno, B.A. 2010, Spanish, Associate Business Analyst at SPS Commerce

The reunion was a great experience. Nostalgia was high and it re-sparked my passion for languages. It was refreshing to be surrounded with others that share that same passion again.

Tanya Novak, B.A. 1984, Spanish, ESL teacher at Anoka Hennepin School District

It was really wonderful being back in a stimulating environment where alumni of all ages came together just for the fun of learning. Although Folwell Hall has entered the modern age with its funky plastic desks and modern technology, it has still retained its beautiful architecture. Walking down the hallways brought back memories of some of the great language instructors and professors who impacted my life.

Alexandra Kivley, B.A. 2011, Spanish, Manages translations at Arch Language Network

It was so refreshing to be back in the academic setting and in such a relaxing and fun atmosphere. Working full time, it is hard to continue your education on a regular basis - and this was much needed brain food!

Carolyn Fernandez, B.A. 1992, Spanish and Psychology,  Web Team Customer Service & Inside Sales. Velocity Tech Solutionskytown

"I had a great time at the reunion.  I hope to attend others.  The classes I took were fantastic!"

2015 Study Abroad Photo Contest Winner

Students from all the language departments that had studied abroad were welcomed to submit photos that they have taken on their year or semester abroad. The Alumni that came to the 2015 Language Alumni Reunion on April 25, 2015, voted on the entries.  

This year the winner, from over 50 entries, is Kayla Maring's picture entitled," Water Reflection in Kassel, Germany." Kalya will receive her photo in an 11" X 14" frame as winner for the 2015 Academic Year.

Description of Photo:

This photo was taken in April 2014 at the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel, Germany. I took a day trip to the city during my study abroad and decided to hike all the way up to the top of this hillside park—one of the largest in the world. When I was at the top, I watched the sunset, which was absolutely stunning as the gorgeous hues shone over the entire city. Just after sunset I realized I was running late for my train, so I began to head back down the hill. However, on my way down I caught a glimpse of the water reflecting the still beautiful sky and I knew I needed to capture the beauty of nature in Kassel. Too say the least, it was worth having to run four kilometers back to the train station to catch my train in time.

Congratulations Kayla!!!

Segmental, syllabic, and stratal domains of Dominican [s]-hypercorrection

A lecture by
Rafael Núñez-Cedeño
University of Illinois at Chicago
 
Friday, May 1st
1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
105 Folwell Hall

The appearance of [s]/[h] in unexpected contexts (hereafter "Surprise-[s]") - e.g. negativa[s]mente 'negatively', atra[s]co 'robbery'- in speech varieties that we will call "popular Dominican Spanish" (PDS) has been the topic of numerous analyses. Among other claims, Surprise-[s] has been regarded as hypercorrection of the deletion of rhyme /s/ (Henríquez Ureña 1975, Andrade 2009, Terrell 1986, Núñez Cedeño 1988, Harris 2002); it has been held to be subject to constraints on syllable position (Terrell 1986, Núñez Cedeño 1988, Harris 2002, Bradley 2006); it has been thought to obey voicing restrictions across a word boundary and phrase finally  (Morgan 1998, Bullock and Toribio 2010, Bullock et al. 2014). In this presentation we focus our attention on Bullock et al's. (2014) hypotheses that Surprise-[s] is followed predominantly by voiceless stops, and that this alleged distributional restriction is theoretically significant, and further consider its behavior in phrasal contexts. First, we propose that the distribution of Surprise-[s] is not due to any phonological restriction but rather to the lexical frequencies of consonants. Second, we demonstrate the interplay between aspiration or deletion of /s/ and Surprise-[s].  We argue that surprise-[s] resists resyllabification because silent positions (Selkirk 1984), which we contend are still present at the post-lexical stratum, block the process from occurring, while a lexically-derived [s]/[h] can resyllabify because there is not a  physically realized pause intervening between adjoining words; it is a matter of fast speech.

Further information can be found at: z.umn.edu/nunezcedeno

Identity, authority and authenticity in language policy: Reflections from the Peruvian Andes

Lecture by Professor Virginia Zavala
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Monday, April 27th
3:00-4:30pm
103 Folwell Hall

This talk will be based on ethnographic research about a language policy favoring Quechua in the Apurímac region of the southern Peruvian Andes, which has developed in the context of the decentralization of the central government since 2000. At least at the level of official policy documents, the region is being imagined as a community of apurimenians unified by the local language, which creates an emotional identification with the region. In this talk, I will analyze the power relationships that are constructed between a community of practice of Quechua "experts" and the rest of Quechua-speaking people from Apurímac. Although the declared wish is to build a regional "us", Quechua experts interpret and negotiate language policy from particular language and literacy ideologies and end up establishing identity divisions between "us" and "them" through tactics of intersubjectivity based on difference, authority and authenticity (Bucholtz 2003). This work follows earlier studies about language ideological battles in relation to Quechua and shows that, after several decades, the former top-down language policies coming from the capital city are now being reproduced within the Quechua-speaking social actors themselves, and the conflict has diversified into new dilemmas.

Further information at: http://z.umn.edu/zavala

Towards a Theory of Situated Languaging

Lecture by Per Linell
Senior Professor in the Department of Education, Communication and Learning at Gothenburg University, Sweden

Friday, April 17, 2015
125 Nicholson Hall
10:30 am-12:00 pm

There is an ongoing perspective shift in the language sciences from unquestionably assuming abstract language systems to be primary with regard to language use, to the opposite assumption with situated languaging (language use) in talk, text events, new media, etc. as the primary phenomenon of language. This shift will move linguistics from structuralism to substantialism (but still with a fair amount of structuralism), and it will require partly new approaches to most domains of language study, as compared to modern linguistics of the 20th century. I argue that these theories of situated languaging should build on a dialogical meta-theory of human sense-making. Such a meta-theory is an antidote to monological theories of individualist information processing in cognition, unidirectional transfer in communication, and code models of language.

In this lecture I will sketch the implications of the meta-theory of dialogical activities for theories of syntax, lexicology/semantics, phonology and pragmatics. Other topics that will be mentioned, and at least minimally discussed, in the lecture are the embodiment of language, the relation of language to non-linguistic semiotic resources, the participatory agency of speakers (and other participants), and the relationship of talk and writing.

Further reading at z.umn.edu/perlinell

Alumni Reunion

Come back to Folwell Hall and spend the morning with us. Learn again from esteemed University scholars, hear from current students about their experiences inside and outside the classroom, and get tips from expert alumni and friends.

Saturday, April 25

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Folwell Hall

Cost $25 ($10 will support students in the department of your choice)

To view the Program and Register go to z.umn.edu/reunion or to register by phone, call 612-624-2345.

(Up)rooted and (Un)moored: Discourses of Belonging in Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics

Second Annual Graduate Student Conference in Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics
Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies
April 10 & 11, 2015
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Campus

Keynote Speakers:

Ana Celia Zentella, Professor Emerita, UCSD
"Bilinguals and Borders: Patrolling Languages and Identities on the US-Mexico Border"

Vincent Barletta, Associate Professor, Stanford University
"Blackness, Rhythm, and Empire in Renaissance Portugal"

More Information HERE.

THE STATE OF IBEROAMERICAN STUDIES SERIES

XX THE STATE OF IBEROAMERICAN STUDIES SERIES
HUMAN RIGHTS ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES / HUMAN RIGHTS AND THEATER
A TRIBUTE TO REVISTA CONJUNTO: CASA DE LAS AMERICAS 50 + 1

University of Minnesota and College of St. Benedict /St. John's University
March 12-14, 2015

Providing a forum for interdiscursive theoretical discussions and dialogue, The State of Iberoamerican Studies Series, at the Spanish and Portuguese Department, supports a number of critical symposia that bring together not only the monologues of traditional scholarly disciplines, but also the powerful, struggling and often unarticulated voices, postures and assumptions of contemporary non-canonical, grassroots cultural discourses. Organized by Luis Ramos-García, Nelsy Echávez-Solano, and Alberto Justiniano in collaboration with the College of St. Benedict / St. John's University; Teatro del Pueblo; and other interdepartmental, intercollegiate, and international organizations, this symposium on Human Rights as well as Art and Theater festival; celebrating its twentieth version, dedicates its program to the 50 years (+1) anniversary of the Revista Conjunto: Casa de las Américas (La Habana-Cuba), and to the recent release of Una montaña en el horizonte: Los Audaces. Cuarenta y cinco años de teatro arequipeño.
Sponsored by the Imagine Funds; Spanish and Portuguese Studies; Human Rights Program; Global Studies; Department of French and Italian; College of St. Benedict / St. John's University; Teatro del Pueblo; McKnight Foundation; Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Teatro La Candelaria; Colombian Government; Boynton Health Service & Voice to Vision Project.
Program attached