Devin Ferri and Finn Schuemann, both rising Juniors from the Core French Caribbean class, presented papers along with Prof. Ramakrishnan at the 44th Caribbean Studies Conference held from June 3-7 in Santa Marta, Colombia. The title of their panel was: Identity Movements in the French Caribbean: Paths to Integrate or Separate.
Here’s what the students had to say about their experience:
“Participating in this conference allowed me to really engage with our course material to understand why it is still important to study history and in what ways it is still shining through in the present. The educational components of this trip alone were incredible. However, being able to actually be in a location of relevance was even more powerful. I was able to meet people who were from the Caribbean and engage with their culture and language in a more intimate manner.” (Devin Ferri ’21)
“Many aspects of the French Caribbean class I took were present in the panels during the conference. For example, we learned about the various different cultures in the Caribbean and how that affects relations between the different people in the Caribbean. I believe that school trips like these are very valuable for students, as they can see what they learned in class for themselves in real life. Thank you for making this trip possible.” (Finn Schuemann ’21)
Literary Magazine Quimera celebrates Javier Marías, one of Spain’s literary giants, with a special issue dedicated to honor his novelistic and journalistic production. Eight literature scholars who have specialized in his works are invited to contribute with their thoughts, interpretations and opinions on Marías’s oeuvre. Marta Pérez-Carbonell’s article deals with the portrayal of uncertainty in Marías novel The Infatuations. How does the author pull his readers into a fictional world they can never leave? This piece explores the spider web-esque scenarios constructed by Marías and the many ways in which they trap readers.
Completing the cultural component of class, students in Marta Pérez-Carbonell’s Core Spain class engage in a time-honored Spanish tradition: the Spanish omelette contest!!
Gabriela Rodriguez (’21) will present her research on “Belonging and not Belonging in Puerto Rican Diasporic Literature” this April at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research. Gabriela’s research originated in the class she took with Professor Lourdes Rojas, Spanish 478, “Literature of the Caribbean.” Congratulations to Gabriela for competing successfully in this prestigious event. For 2019 Professor Rojas will serve as a juror for the conference. NCUR “creates a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement; provides models of exemplary research, scholarship, and creative activity; and helps to improve the state of undergraduate education.”
The meeting “Memory and Polemics: A Symposium on Moriscos,” was held at Syracuse University on March 2, 2019. Professor Plata delivered a response to a paper by Professor Lisette Balabarca (Siena College) on “Moriscos en el exilio y la polémica anticristiana: el caso de Ibrahim Taybili y Muhammad Alguazir.” Both paper and response focused on an anti-Catholic defense of Islam written in Spanish octavas by Ibrahim Taybili (a.k.a. Juan Pérez) in 1628 during his exile in Tunisia.
“El sentido de ‘barranco’ en La Perinola de Quevedo y en otros textos del siglo de oro.” In Docta y Sabia Atenea. Studia in Honorem Lía Schwartz. Ed. S. López Poza et al. A Coruña: Universidade da Coruña, 2019. 653-669.
This research event will feature one invited speaker (Professor José Antonio Mazzotti from Tufts University) plus paper presentations from scholars coming from New York (Syracuse University and Colgate University) and New Jersey (Monmouth University). In addition to these more formal
