Category Archives: Education

Tertulia Spring 23 Poetry Reading

Once again, our vibrant HLL community gets together for the Spring Tertulia and Poetry Reading, with the participation of our undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. This literary event in Spanish reflects the vitality and engagement of our community, particularly of our undergraduate students, Teaching Assistants and  lecturers, under the coordination of our Director of the Spanish Language Program, Dr. Lilia Ruiz-Debbe.

Mark your calendars for this Wednesday, April 19th (2023) from 1 to 2.20 pm in Humanities 1003 (see poster here). More details and program soon to come!

You can download last year Tertulia program and pictures here: Spring 2022 in PDF.

 

HLL grad students at NeMLA 2023

Valentina, Alex, Bea, María and Jesús.

Attending a large academic conference and presenting your research as a graduate student is always a great challenge. We are proud that six of our doctoral students in the Department of Hispanic Languages at Stony Brook University presented their work at the 54th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Languages Association 2023 (NeMLA), held this year on March 7-10 in Niagara Falls, New York, and hosted by the University at Buffalo, SUNY.

Here is the list of our six students that participated in following roundtables and panels:

  • Jesús Jiménez Valdés was co-chair of the roundtable “Resilience and Identity: America and the Spanish Empire,” and presented a paper on “Identidad y contacto en la América dieciochesca: la mirada viajera de Ulloa y Jorge Juan”. 
  • María Medín Doce presented a paper titled “Salir de Casa, Volver a Casa: Narrativas del exilio en la obra de María Luisa Elío” in a panel on “Dissenting Voices: Agency and Resilience in Iberian Exiles”
  • Valentina Pucci presented her paper “La rebaba de la memoria afrodescendiente en la novela Elástico de sombra [2019], de Juan Cárdenas” in the panel on “Corporality and the Senses in Hispanophone and Lusophone Literature and Film II”. 
  • Jeannette Rivera was chair of the roundtable on “Obstructions to Colonial Debts” and presented a paper on “Poéticas que obstruyen la visión tropical en el Caribe”. 
  • Alexis Smith presented her paper titled “A Scholarly Model for Community-based Belonging in Tardes Americanas [Mexico, 1778],” in the  roundtable on “Resilience and Identity: America and the Spanish Empire”. 
  • Beatriz Solla-Vilas presented on “Transgressing Humanity: Body Dystopias and the More-than-human in Tentacle [La mucama de Omicunlé], by Rita Indiana” in the panel titled “Trans Worldbuilding.” 

Back in Long Island, our students highlighted the fact that NeMLA opens spaces for dialogue and creates networks with students and faculty from other institutions . A student mentioned that NeMLA is a great platform for a first-time experience at a US conference because of its format (panels, roundtable discussions) and the diversity of topics and periods included. In addition, NeMLA offers a mentoring and mentee program on career opportunities and practical professional issues, such as cover letters and resumés. One of our students summarized the experience saying that “participating in NeMLA helps students to showcase their projects, engage in dialogue and establish potential contacts.”

Regarding funding, the NeMLA Graduate Student Caucus provides a number of annual travel awards to graduate students (national or international) who are accepted to present papers or chair sessions at the convention. Our Stony Brook Graduate Student Organization (GSO) also offers grants to help cover travel expenses and registration. As Teaching Assistants at Stony Brook, students can become members of the GSEU (Graduate Students Employees Union), which also offers a GSEU Professional Development Program, a fund that covers expenses for professional development activities. Another possible source of travel support is available through the Stony Brook Center for Inclusive Education.

I would like to point out that the roundtable “Obstructions to Colonial Debts” was inspired in Rocío Zambrana’s Colonial Debts: The Case of Puerto Rico, which is a remarkable intervention on the role of debt and neoliberal coloniality, and although its focus is on Puerto Rico, its approaches and concepts could be extrapolated elsewhere. I highly recommend it! As for me, it was a delightful experience to moderate and participate in this roundtable, even more so when it was about poetics and politics of refusal against coloniality and erasure through debt, neoliberalism and necropolitics. I feel very humbled to have shared insights with the other participants who, I must emphasize, are working on fascinating and socially committed projects. In addition, the Niagara falls are incredibly beautiful!! I really enjoyed the view. (Jeannette Rivera)

The NeMLA 23 PDF program is available here. Information on next year NeMLA 24 conference hosted by Tufts University (Boston on March 7-10) can be seen here

New Scholarly Edition on Calderón by Roncero-López

Our colleague Víctor Roncero López, professor in Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University, specialist in the literature of the Spanish Baroque and in the courtly politics of kings Philip III and IV, has just released a new scholarly edition of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s play El postrer duelo de España (The Last Duel in Spain), one of the lesser studied comedias of one of the greatest European dramatists of the seventeenth century.  In 2019, Roncero López also edited Calderón’s play Saber del mal y el bien, and in 2020, in colaboration with Abraham Madroñal Durán, they published a selection of Calderón’s short pieces for the celebration of the Corpus Christy.

Illustration 1: Cover page. Pedro Calderón de la Barca. El postrer duelo de España. Ed. by Victoriano Roncero López. Madrid and Frankfurt: Iberoamericana, 2023. Biblioteca Áurea Hispánica (155, 30). 226 pages.

This new scholarly and annotated edition, based on one of the manuscripts revised and corrected by Calderón himself, includes a thorough literary study of the play and its manuscripts and printed transmission.

El postrer duelo en España is based on a historical duel that took place in Valladolid (Spain) in December 1522 in the presence of the emperor Charles V, in which two gentlemen from Aragon were involved in a legal duel, the last official one in Spain. The confrontation was reported by a French witness, later translated by a Dutch Jesuit, and then included in Prudencio de Sandoval’s History of Charles V (1604-1606), which became the historical source used by Calderón to create his play.

Illustration 2: Final page of one of the manuscripts of El postrer duelo de España (BNE) with the official play approval or license.

Calderón adapted the 1522 historical event into the popular form of the comedia, which required a love story and a conflict of honor, along with a parallel lighter plot in the roles of the servants. Although duels were great entertainment on stage, they were also a serious social and legal problem in the early modern times, especially after the popularization of chivalry and aristocratic manners through printed pamphlets and theater.

Prof. Roncero López, who has extensively published on the works of Quevedo, Calderón, Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina, among other classics, regularly offers undergraduate and graduate courses and seminars on Spanish Golden Age theater in our Department (check our webpage). The plays and other texts studied in Prof. Roncero López’s courses show the way of life and thinking of seventeenth century society in Spain and frequently represent empowered women, who controlled their lives and participated in public government.

HLL Doctoral Students Win Guiliano Fellowships 2023

The Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature is honored to announce that two of our doctoral students, Beatriz Solla Vilas and Jesús Jiménez Valdés, have been awarded the Edward Guiliano ‘78 Fellowship, which supports research for Stony Brook University graduate students.  The fellowships will be used this spring 23 for research travel in South America towards the generation of publishable articles and the advancement of their dissertations.

Beatriz Solla Vilas, a native from Galicia, Spain, presented a research project titled “Becoming Travesti: Self-narrative and activism in transgender Brazilian literature.” Thanks to the Guiliano fellowship, Beatriz will travel to Rio de Janeiro to do research at the National Library and National Archive and to Salvador de Bahia to visit the archives and galleries of the Museu Transgênero de História e Arte (MUTHA).

Jesús Jiménez Valdés, born in Seville, Spain, presented a research plan on “Local archives and imperial Texts: Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa’s scientific writing in the 18th century,” which will take him to Lima, Perú, to do research at local archives, the National Library and museums, as well to establish contact with city universities and local academics.

The Edward Guiliano ‘78, PhD, Global Fellowship Program, “provides students with the opportunity to broaden their perspectives by engaging with the world beyond Stony Brook University and their local communities.” The ultimate goal of this prestigious fellowship program is to provide graduate students at Stony Brook with the opportunities to have a transformational educational experience.

GradCon22 Program

¡Muchas gracias a todes por esta gran conferencia graduada! Queremos agradecer al @stonybrook_gso@lacs_sbu, al @sbuhumanities, a les discussants, a nuestre Speaker PJ DiPietro, a lxs participantes y a lxs asistentes.
¡Fue un día maravilloso y esperamos repetir tan buena experiencia el próximo año!


Conference Schedule Friday Nov 4, 2022

Each panel has its own Zoom link.
9:30am. Presentation and breakfast
9:30a-11:00am. Panel 1. Desplazamientos geo-afectivos: raza y territorialidad
Discussant: Prof. Javier Uriarte (HLL). HUM 2036.

O nascimento do rei e a cura do vira-latismo? Pelé, Nelson Rodrigues e a identidade racial brasileira na Copa de 1958.
Paulo Soares (Stony Brook University)

La palabra que se aplaza en gesto. Implicancias intertextuales de los pensadores martiniquenses Frantz Fanon y Édouard Glissant.
Valentina Pucci (Stony Brook University)

(Des)Amores: trayectorias migrantes en el cine de tema andino.
Mario Alexis Hernando Cubas (Johns Hopkins University)

Searching for Grounded Normativity in the Sertão.
Michael Mcmahon (Stony Brook University)

9:30am-11:00am Panel 2. Traslaciones de lo queer: migraciones y cuerpos
Discussant: Prof. Lena Burgos Lafuente (HLL). HUM 1051.

“Un aquelarre de brujas multicolores”. Comunidades de afectos y experiencia suburbana en Las biuty queens de Monalisa Ojeda.
Juan Evaristo Valls Boix (Universidad de Barcelona)

Queer-Cuir Translations and the Affective Holding of Suspicion.
Galia Cozzi (Stony Brook University)

Afecto, disidencia sexual y la política del deseo en La manzana de Adán (Paz Errázuriz y Claudia Donoso, 1990) y Arte social por las trochas, hecho a palo, patá y kunfú (Argelia Bravo, 2011).
Patricia Gonzalez (New York University)

Forced displacement or a voluntary movement? The search for belonging in Futuro Beach/Praia do Futuro.
Simone Calvacante (University of Pennsylvania)

A chilean drama queer. Los límites afectivos de la disidencia sexual en las series de ficción.
Cristeva Alexis Cabello Valenzuela (New York University)

11:10am-12:40pm Panel 3. Escribir los afectos: ¿una cuestión de género?
Discussant: Prof. Kathleen Vernon (HLL). HUM 2036.

Las (im)posibilidades del afecto en el desarrollo de las mujeres en Una holandesa en América e Ifigenia.
José Miguel Fonseca Fuentes (The Pennsylvania State University)

Reclusión y afecto: la construcción de la poética de la mujer escritora en Porqué hacen tanto ruido de Carmen Ollé.
Grober Omar Quichua Ayvar (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú)

El realizador como amante: las estrategias de escucha en el cine de Gustavo Vinagre
Andrés Felipe Ardila Ardila (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

La agencia femenina en el campo del amor en Despertar a quien duerme de Lope de Vega
Sandra Melissa Nathalie Huaringa Niño (Brown University)

11:10am-12:40pm Panel 4. De lo personal a lo público: representaciones sociales del cuerpo
Discussant: Prof. Matías Hermosilla. HUM 1051.

Posporno: del cuerpo deseado al cuerpo politizado.
María Isabel Reverón Peña y Mario Antonio Parra Pérez (Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia)

Archivo anodino. Materia de archivo.
Samuel Espíndola Hernández (Stony Brook University)

Infancia nicaragüense: focalizaciones desde la precariedad en La Yuma (2009) y El Camino (2008).
Eric Barenboim (The City University of New York)

12:45pm-1:30pm Lunch
1:45pm-3:15pm Panel 5. Ese oscuro objeto de lo natural. Miradas desviadas de la naturaleza en el arte y la literatura
Discussant. Prof. Paul Firbas (HLL). HUM 2036.

Límites del posthumanismo queer latinoamericano: La mucama de Omicunlé de Rita Indiana.
Gabriel Rudas (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá)

Sir Gawain y el caballero verde (S.XIV): La perturbación del deseo en el amor cortés y en la representación ética/estética de la naturaleza.
Pilar Espitia (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá)

Dos sexos en un cuerpo; una naturaleza perfecta. El caso de Juana Aguilar, hermafrodita que confirma el binarismo de género.
Mario Henao (Stony Brook University)

Sexilio de las compatriotas: Acústicas, amistades y archivos del performance transgénero y Travesti.
Ignacio Andrés Pastén López (The City University of New York)

3.30pm Keynote Speaker Presentation. Humanities Institute Room

PJ Dipietro (Syracuse University)

5pm Conference closure

See here the full GRADCON 22 PDF brochure (Spanish, English and Portuguese)

Caleveritas Poetry Contest 22

Calaveras Literarias, or Literary Skulls, are compositions of verse and rhymes, originally from Mexico. These poems typically circulated in the days leading up to the Day of the Dead. They are fun and  irreverent expressions that usually satirize a well-known person or event by playfully parodying the inevitable death of those involved.

Following the spirit of the calaveritas,  our Hispanic Languages and Literature  undergraduate students (SPN 100 to 300 level) have written 931 poems to compete in what might very well be the largest literary contest on campus! The winners in the three categories will be announced during the Día de los Muertos celebration in the LACS gallery in SBS N-320 on Wed. Nov. 2nd (2022) from 1 to 2.20 pm. Congratulations to all students that participated. Our thanks to all HLL faculty and Teaching Assistants (graduate students) that contributed to this literary event, coordinated by Dr. Lilia Ruiz- Debbe.  The jury was composed of six faculty members in our department: Aura Colón, Elena Davidiak, Lena Burgos-Lafuente, Luis Rodríguez Chávez, Pablo García Gámez and Zaida Corniel.

Our Calaveras Literarias Contest is a fun language exercise in humorous rhymes and verses.  A good Literary Skull is ingenious, ironic, subtle, uses caricatures and has a certain rhyme and rhythm. These can be in English, Spanish or bilingual.

The structure of the calaveritas literarias typically consists of stanzas of four lines in which the second line rhymes with the last, or stanzas of five in which the third line rhymes with the last. The length of the poem varies, but this is often short. However, nowadays people do not follow a particular structure, sometimes these being written in a form of ‘blank verse’ or even free verses. The calaveritas always put an emphasis on musicality.

Though the caleveritas or literary skulls have been around since the colonial era, they were popularized in Mexican newspapers in the nineteenth century. Inspired by long and ostentatious epitaphs of nobles, Mexican literary artists used this format to criticize governing officials. Some literary critics believe that friar Joaquín Bolaños’ “La portentosa vida de la muerte” is a precursor to the Literary Skulls of the 1800s. The first Skull to appear in a newspaper was in 1849, in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), the great Mexican graphic artist and satirist, author of the iconic Calavera Catrina, an etching of 1910-1913 that satirized upper class women before the Mexican Revolution, also wrote satiric poems. Here is one stanza of Guadalupe Posada’s calaverita, an invitation to participate in the joy of writing:

Quien quiera gozar de veras
y divertirse un ratón,
venga con las calaveras
a gozar en el panteón.

 

Spanish Open House F22

The Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature will be holding an in-person informative session this Wed Oct 26th from 1.00 pm to 1.45 pm in the Humanities Building faculty lounge, room 2029, located on the second floor. All interested students are welcome to attend and explore our courses, academic programs and cultural events.

The Open House will present an overview of our Major, Double Major, Minor, Honors Program, as well as our spring 23 course offerings, Teaching Program and the path to the BA/MAT. Explore our website for more information.

Students that came to Stony Brook with prior knowledge of Spanish (but no standardized tests, such as AP) should take the Foreign Language Placement Exam (FLPE) or a Challenge Exam. In either case, start by contacting the Language Learning Resource Center (LLRC). For more information on challenge exams (offered for SPN 112, SPN211, SPN212 and SPN311) see here or contact the Spanish director of undergraduate studies, Prof. Paul Firbas (Fall 22) or Prof. Joseph Pierce (Spring 23).

The Spanish Major (BA in Spanish) give students a solid education in the languages, literatures, cinema, arts and cultures of Latin America, Spain and the Latinx communities of the United States. The Major requires twelve Spanish courses in the 300/400 level. If the student decides to combine two majors (Double Major), the requirement of courses drops to ten. Many students do Double Majors in Spanish and Biology, for example, but combinations with English, History, Psychology or other languages are also popular.

The Spanish Minor is one of the largest and more popular Minors in the College of Arts and Sciences. Our Minor program is very flexible and requires six Spanish courses in the 300/400 level.  Any student can easily change from a Minor to a Double Major. It only requires four more courses in Spanish.

Tip: Don’t forget to consult both directors of undergraduate studies to be sure that you can fulfill all requirements for your Double Major in time for graduation.

Students that are interested in research and are considering an academic career and applying to graduate or professional schools (such as Medicine or Law), can explore our Honors Program, which is similar to our Major but requires a senior thesis.

Many of our Spanish Majors (BA in Spanish) opt for the Secondary Teaching Preparation Program (Teaching Certificate) or decide to pursue a 5-year combined BA with a Master of Arts in Teaching (BA/MAT). For all questions related to pedagogy courses and field experience, please see here or contact Prof. Sarah Jourdain.

If you have any questions about your Spanish courses or our Programs, email Prof. Paul Firbas (Fall 22) or Prof. Joseph Pierce (Spring 23).

¡Nos vemos el día 26!

See our Open House Poster in PDF.

Grad Conference 22

[See Conference Program here]

The Department is extremely glad to announce our 2022 Graduate Student Conference that will be held in-person (and hybrid) on campus on Friday November 4th. Presentation proposals will be accepted until October 20th, 22. The general topic and title of the conference is:

I was not born to love: Capabilities, affect and care

Yo no nací para amar: Capacidades, afectos y cuidados.

Eu não nasci para amar: Capacidades, afeto e cuidados

Of the many things that have been said about love, there are two that stand out as opposites: love is either a form of control or it is a subversive feeling. Between these two poles, one can find multiple approaches that make the experience of love an unique way of being in the world. Love can be understood, therefore, as a politics that questions how we relate to one another and the options we are given to engage in those relationships. Who are those who love? Do we need to have the ability to love and be loved? What is the connection between sex and love? Is the capacity to love manifested through sex and sexuality? Loving is a way of putting (oneself) at risk. Through love, one practices care, but this is also connected to the act of choosing; choosing who deserves our attention and who we might harm in order to take care of what (or who) we love. This ambiguity makes the experience of love a power that questions our ways of being with others.

DEADLINE ABSTRACT: October 20th, 2022

Keynote Speaker: PJ  DiPietro (Syracuse University)

We invite you to participate in Spanish, English or Portuguese with papers related to, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Latin American Diasporas
  • Languages that imagine the Dis/U/topical future
  • Science, nature and affect
  • Affection, love and care within the home
  • Love on the border, or border loves
  • Affective dissonances: power and violence
  • Loving bodies, loved bodies
  • Sex work and affection
  • Aesthetics and poetics of care
  • Disability studies and crip theory
  • Critical race theory
  • Pandemics and the politics of care

Presentation proposals should be 200 to 300 words in length, in either Spanish, Portuguese or English, and should include full name, academic affiliation, and contact information. Please submit proposals electronically to <conferenciagraduadalacshll@gmail.com>
Please write “Conferencia Graduada HLL SBU” as the subject of the email and specify your attendance preference so that we can accommodate you virtually or in-person.

The conference will take place on Stony Brook University campus on Friday, November 4, 2022. See conference program here .

See here the full GRADCON 22 PDF brochure (Spanish, English and Portuguese)

Obituary Notice of Prof. Adrián Pérez Melgosa

The Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature sorrowfully announces the death on June 24 of our beloved colleague, Adrían Pérez Melgosa, Associate Professor and former Director of the Stony Brook Humantities Institute. An innovative and inspiring teacher and mentor, Adrián directed multiple undergraduate, MA and PhD theses, working with students from the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature as well as Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. He also served as Director of Graduate Studies. As a scholar, his research explored the intervention of visual and written fiction narratives on the shaping of collective identities in the Americas and Europe.

A graduate of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the University of Rochester, Adrián’s articles have appeared in Social Text, American Quarterly and the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, among other journals. His 2012 book, Cinema and Inter-American Relations: Tracking Transnational Affect (Routledge) studies the key role that commercial narrative films have played in the articulation of the political and cultural relationship between the United States and Latin America since the onset of the 1933 Good Neighbor policy. 

His most recent book, The Memory Work of Jewish Spain (Indiana University Press, 2020), co-authored with Daniela Flesler, explores the phenomenon of the “re-discovery” of Spain’s Jewish heritage. Through oral interviews, visits to museums and newly reconfigured “Jewish quarters” and Jewish memory sites, and the analysis of  literature, cultural performances, tourist promotional materials and political discourse, the book explores the recent cultural and political initiatives that seek to memorialize and reconnect Spain with its Jewish past in the context of the long history of Spain’s ambivalence towards its Jewish heritage. The book earned the 2021 National Jewish Book Award, in the category Sephardic Culture, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council. The NJBA is the longest-running North American awards program of its kind and is recognized as one of the most prestigious.

Adrián co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, “Revisiting Jewish Spain in the Modern Era”; it was republished in an expanded edition by Routledge in 2013. The volume of essays explores the different and contradictory ways in which Spain as a nation has tried to come to terms with its Jewish memory and with the absence/presence of Sephardic Jews from the 19th century to the present.

He also directed the digital humanities research project, “Cultural and Social Map of Latino Long Island,” funded by a three-year grant (2016-2018) from the Hagedorn Foundation. This interactive online map provides a visual rendering of historical, cultural and statistical information and includes a series of oral histories captured in video interviews, with the goal of making visible the social, economic and cultural contributions of the growing Latino population on Long Island. 

Information on a memorial service will be announced at a later date. 

Dr. Zaida Corniel Receives Inclusive Teaching Award

Our dear colleague Dr. Zaida Corniel has been distinguished with the The David L. Ferguson Award for Inclusive Teaching at Stony Brook University, this academic year of 2021-2022. This award is a great recognition of Zaida’s commitment to the education and development of our undergraduate and graduate students and an honor for our department of Hispanic Languages and Literature.

The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Stony Brook University “encourages experimentation, innovation, inclusivity, and evidence-based practices in all learning environments” and ” serves as the hub for teaching and learning, and is dedicated to the belief that excellent teaching in all its forms is vital to student success”.  This year CELT granted a total of nine awards, four in teaching, in the following categories: In-Person, On-line, Assessments, and Inclusive Teaching.  See  here for more information on the excellent work of CELT.

Dr. Zaida Corniel is Lecturer of Spanish and Caribbean Literature and its diaspora in our Department, founder and organizer of the drama group in Spanish Teatro Abierto, which meets weekly on campus. As a journalist, she has worked as a cultural editor and has published extensively in various Dominican magazines and newspapers. Her writings have been included in the journals Estudios SocialesGuaraguaoCaudal, and on Hanging Out, Bilingual Publication of Essays and Creative Writing by Caribbean Authors, among othersShe is the author of the short story collection Para adolescentes, premenopáusicas y especialistas de la salud. Two of her plays, De mujeres and Ay Fefa, Where is the Wind?, have been staged in the United States and the Dominican Republic.

Watch the 2 minute video of Zaida Corniel receiving the award this May 2022.