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.

The Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature will be holding an in-person informative session this Wed Oct 26^th 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.

[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)

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. 

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 Sociales, Guaraguao, Caudal, and on Hanging Out, Bilingual Publication of Essays and Creative Writing by Caribbean Authors, among others. She 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.

The Memory Work of Jewish Spain, book co-authored by our colleagues Daniela Flesler and Adrián Pérez Melgosa, has won the 2021 National Jewish Book Award, in the category Sephardic Culture, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council. A com­plete list of the 2021 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award win­ners and final­ists can be found here.

Daniela Flesler is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature and specializes in Contemporary Spanish Literature and Cultural Studies, with a focus on contemporary Spain’s negotiations of cultural identity.  Adrián Pérez-Melgosa is Associate Professor in Hispanic Language and Literature and Director of the Stony Brook’s Humanities Institute. His research and publications focus on the intervention of visual, performative and written narratives on the shaping of collective identities in the Americas and Europe.  Congratulations to our dear colleagues!

We are delighted to announce that this December 7th, 2021 from 4.00 to 5.30 pm (NY time) the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University will host a virtual open house for all interested applicants to our doctoral program.

All students interested in our PhD can apply for our competitive full scholarships (Teaching Assistantships).

Come and join us for an open conversation in Spanish or English.  Explore our website for more information on the structure of our programs, the research fields of our faculty and  doctoral students and bring your questions to our Open House!

Please, register  here.

Poster in PDF: OPEN HOUSE Stony Brook Graduate Program HLL

Este 7 de diciembre de 2021, de 4.00 a 5.30 pm (hora de NY) tendremos una sesión abierta para conversar y resolver preguntas sobre nuestro programa doctoral en estudios hispánicos en la universidad de Stony Brook (State University of New York)

El Departamento de Hispanic Languages and Literature ofrece becas integrales competitivas que cubren los gastos de estudios y brindan una compensación económica por el trabajo como asistentes de docencia (Teaching Assistantship).

Les recomendamos visitar nuestra página web, donde podrán encontrar más información sobre la estructura de nuestro programa y sobre las áreas de investigación y docencia de nuestros profesores y estudiantes doctorales.

Para asistir a nuestra sesión informativa, por favor, regístrense aquí.

¡Nos vemos el martes 7 de diciembre a las 4 pm!

Congratulations to our doctoral candidates in Hispanic Languages and Literature, Anay Rodríguez, Alberto Sánchez Medina and Carolina Vittor Medina, recipients of the 2021 Presidential Dissertation Completion Fellowships. These new awards, initiated by the new Stony Brook President, are designed to provide financial support for students in their last stages of dissertation research and writing.

Anay Rodriguez’s dissertation studies post Revolutionary Cuba: “Literatura y memoria cultural en la Cuba post revolucionaria”; Alberto works on contemporary novels: Ángeles fríos: el asesino como guerrero cultural y la crisis del capitalismo global en las narrativas hispánicas del siglo XXI; and Carolina Vittor’s explores Argentina after 2001: Un transatlántico de lujo a la deriva. Imágenes de la crisis en la cultura argentina pos 2001. 

We wish you all success in these final steps of your dissertation research and writing!