Newsletter        Spring 2001

 

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Reflexiones de la directora              

Cynthia Steele, Chair

 

It is gratifying to see that the hard work and perseverance of the entire Division over these past few years have begun to bear fruit. We have secured approval for our new M.A. program in Hispanic Studies, for which we have admitted seven new graduate students beginning in the Fall. In our search for a new assistant professor, we have succeeded in hiring our top candidate, María Soledad Barbón (Ph.D. University of Cologne, Germany,1999), who specializes in Colonial Latin American satire. The recent inauguration of the Center for Spanish Studies opens a new chapter in the University’s collaborations with Spanish teachers and students from throughout the Puget Sound area; and the founding of a Casa Hispana in the UW dormitories beginning in the Fall enhances undergraduate opportunities for immersion in the language and cultures of Spanish-speaking peoples.

In the course of the past year, two of my colleagues, Professors Anthony Geist and George Shipley, have organized highly successful scholarly symposia, “Desire Unlimited: the Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar” and “Impolitic Cervantes.”

The months ahead promise more intellectual stimulation, in the form of a new team-taught course, film series and November 10, 2001 symposium entitled “The Liberating Eye: The Cinema of Luis Buñuel.”  This year we have also secured approval for new courses in Spanish for Heritage Students, Mexican Cinema, Art and Culture of Oaxaca, and Culture of Andalusia. The latter two courses are offered in conjunction with our popular study abroad programs in Cádiz, Spain and Oaxaca, Mexico, which continue to thrive and grow. 

I am confident that, by continuing to pool our talents and energy over the coming years, we will continue to move forward as a department. We are very grateful to all the alumni and friends who have supported our efforts, and look forward to your continued involvement in the months ahead.                         

 

Center for Spanish Studies

The Center for Spanish Studies is an initiative of cooperation between the University of Washington, the Education Office of the Embassy of Spain and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Center’s mission is to promote the study of the Spanish language and the appreciation and understanding of the cultures that use this language as a means of expression.

 

The Center was inaugurated on October 27, 2000.  The ceremony took place at Parrington Commons, where distinguished members of the public, political and academic community were present.  Among those attending were the Vice-Governor for the State of Washington, Mr. Brad Owen; the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Terry Bergeson; Dr. Antonio Sánchez from the Chamber of Representatives, who represented Mr. Luis Fernando Esteban, Honorary Consul of Spain, and Ms. Phyllis Kenney, Congress Deputy.  Distinguished members of the University who attended this event were Dr. Steve Olswang, Vice-Provost; Michael Halleran, Divisional Dean of the Humanities and Professor Cynthia Steele, Chair of Spanish & Portuguese Studies.

 

The Center is located in Padelford Hall, room C-224, and open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.  Lola Rodríguez and Eduardo Tobar are in charge of lending to students books, videos, CD Roms, computer programs and other materials that promote knowledge and appreciation of the Spanish language and Latin-American and Peninsular cultures.  They organize workshops and seminars on topics related to teaching Spanish, and produce conferences, film series, recitals, and cultural activities related to Spanish literature, language and culture.    For information on the Summer Institute for Spanish teachers in August 2001, visit the Center’s website:

http://depts.washington.edu/spnrectr.

 

OAXACA in Autumn 2000

Once again, fourteen UW undergraduates studied and lived with families in

Oaxaca, Mexico, last Fall, under the direction of UW Lecturer Leon Bensadon.  The program, which has existed since 1993, is coordinated by Cynthia Steele and is offered every Autumn quarter.  Since Oaxaca is one of the regions of Mexico that preserves the strongest traditions for the Days of the Dead, this season offers abundant opportunities to participate in Mexican folk culture.  The program was housed at the Instituto Cultural Oaxaca, a language institute situated in a  beautiful Colonial-style home  surrounded by lush gardens.  Our students, who were placed individually with Mexican families and matched with conversation partners, studied Spanish conversation, Mexican literature, Mexican history and intermediate Spanish grammar.  In addition, they participated in workshops on cooking, weaving, and salsa dancing and they traveled as a group to archeological sites and artisan villages.

 

As they have expressed in their own words,  "It was an experience we shall never forget.”

 

For further information on the Program, please see our Division webpage:
http://depts.washington.edu/spanport.  Follow the link to Study Abroad Programs.

 

 

Faculty News

Professor Farris Anderson retired from the university on September 15, 2000, after 33 years of service on the Spanish faculty, including four years as Chair of the Division of Spanish and Portuguese.  Exercising the post-retirement re-employment option that the university offers to its retired faculty, Professor Anderson continues to be involved in the life of the Division and the university.  He still serves as Executive Director of the Division's study-abroad program in Cádiz, Spain, overseeing the program's administration at UW and making  two visits each year to the program site.  Additionally, he plans to teach one or two courses each year for the foreseeable future.  Professor Anderson continues to pursue his research interests in the fields of the modern Spanish theatre, the work of Benito Pérez Galdós, and advanced Spanish grammar.  He is always delighted to hear from former students and colleagues.

 

Maria Soledad Barbón, Ph.D. University of Cologne, will be joining the Division as an Assistant Professor in September 2001. Professor Barbón specializes in Colonial Latin American satire.

 

 

Senior Lecturer Paloma Borreguero continues to serve on the Executive Board of WAFLT, currently as Awards Chair, and is Vice President of the Juan de Fuca (Washington) Chapter of the AATSP.  She was very active in the effort to bring the new Center for Spanish Studies to the UW, and currently is cooperating with the Center in its various outreach efforts described in the EVENTS and WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS sections of this Newsletter. She also spearheads the Division's participation in World Languages Day.

 

Anne Doremus (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) came to the Division in Fall of  2000 as a Teaching Associate.  She is curently teaching various classes at the undergraduate level including a new Latin American film course described in this Newsletter on page 4. Her current publications include: “Authenticity, the Pelado and the Mexican National Identity: Essay versus Film during the 1930s and the 1940s”. Confluencia, Volume 16, No. 1 (Fall 2000); and Culture, Politics and National Identity in Mexican Literature and Film: 1929-1952. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2001.

 

Professor Tony Geist has received grants from a number of organizations for continuing work on a traveling art exhibit of children's drawings from the Spanish Civil War.  The Puffin Foundation, the Program for Cultural Cooperation, the Sonya Staff Foundation and the Spanish Consulate General have all given support for curating the show, titled "They Still Draw Pictures:  Children's Art in Wartime."  Sol Sender, grandson of Spanish exile novelist Ramón Sender, is designing the catalogue for the exhibit.

 

Professor Geist taught last Summer in the federally funded GEAR UP program for economically disadvantaged 7th-12th graders.  He found the experience extremely challenging and rewarding.

 

With the aid of his wife Jennifer he has initiated a program of Spanish at their daughters' school, John Hay Elementary.  All 18 classrooms receive two half-hour Spanish lessons weekly, taught by undergraduate volunteers from UW and Seattle University.  The curriculum is being created by former UW lecturer Carrie Tamburo.  He has initiated a curriculum-sharing partnership with PS 116 in New York City as well.

 

Winter quarter, 2001, Geist is teaching a course on the films of Pedro Almodóvar, cross-listed between Spanish and Cinema Studies.  An evening film series as well as an international conference on Almodóvar accompany the class.  He gave a talk on the Spanish Civil War children's drawings at a conference in Cuba last summer, and in the Fall participated in a roundtable discussion in New York on Lorca's filmscript "Viaje a la luna."  The event was sponsored by the Instituto Cervantes and the King Juan Carlos Center (NYU)

 

His photoessay on Seattle-area veterans of the Lincoln Brigade, written in collaboration with the award-winning Spanish photojournalist José Moreno, will appear in February of this year.  Otra cara de América:  Los brigadistas y su legado de esperanza/Passing the Torch:  The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and its Legacy of Hope is being published by the University of Cádiz, with the support of the Graduate School Fund and the Center for Labor Studies at the UW.  The authors will give a reading and slide show from it at Elliott Bay Book Company (date to be announced).

 

While Associate Professor Suzanne Petersen continues to work on her online ballad project, directing the Northwest Cádiz Program in Spain occupies most of  her time this year.  Research activities in the fall included a 30 minute TV interview on the Oral Pre-Hispanic Ballad Tradition for a local television station in Granada and a recent Curso de Doctorado at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid on Textualización y Oralidad which led to an agreement with a major Portuguese ballad archive for collaboration with her web project.

 

Assistant Profesor Nil Santiáñez has had the following publications since the last newsletter was published:

"Drieu la Rochelle y Agustín de Foxá ante la decadencia de Occidente".  Ínsula 641 (2000): 16-19.

"'Mala cuna y mala fosa' (1883), de Silverio Lanza: Teoría y práctica del espacio de intersección".  Hispanófila 129 (2000): 1-14.

"Lorca, poeta neoclásico: la 'Oda a Salvador Dalí'".   Anales de literatura española contemporánea 25 (2000): 587-607.

"Carlyle and Ganivet".  Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 77.4 (2000): 329-341.

"Prologue".  El Anacronópete.  By Enrique Gaspar.  Barcelona: Círculo de

Lectores, 2000.  5-19.

 

He has also been invited to write a chapter for the Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, general editor David T. Gies (University of Virginia). He has completed a chapter for a book entitled Madrid, de fortunata á Almodóvar:  cultura y literatura urbanas, edited by Edward Baker and Malcolm Compitello.  This chapter is entitled "El fascista y la Ciudad" and is now in the hands of the editors.

 

Professor George Shipley conceived and organized, with the cooperation of Prof. Barbara Fuchs of the English Department, a well-attended and well-received colloquium on the short fictions of Miguel de Cervantes, "(Im)Politic Cervantes" (April 2000).  The participants included respected scholars from Oregon,U.C.L.A. and Georgetown U.  In February he presented a paper on Cervantes's "El licenciado Vidriera" at a conference held annually at the University of New Mexico.  A revised and extended version of that study will be published next Spring in Cervantes, the journal of the Cervantes Society of America.  An article on Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina that was published in England and in English some years ago will reappear in Spain and in Spanish next Summer as part of an anthology of scholarly studies and criticism of Rojas's work.  Prof. Shipley continues to serve on the editorial board of Celestinesca and  was appointed this year to a term on the editorial board of Cervantes. Most recently, Prof. Shipley was invited by the Cervantes Society of America to serve as Pacific Coast delegate, an honor which he was pleased to accept.

 

Professor Cynthia Steele served as secretary of the Executive Committee on Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature of the Modern Language Association, and continued to serve on the boards of directors of the Simpson Center for the Humanities at UW and of the Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana at the University of Pittsburgh. She also continued as a member of the editorial board of the Modern Language Quarterly, and reviewed articles for the PMLA and book manuscripts for the Universities of Minnesota and Texas Presses. She completed two multi-year projects, as consultant editor on Mexico for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American Culture (2000), and as director of the section on Spanish American exclusions for the Oxford Literary History of Latin America (in press). Also, she wrote an essay on Mexican Literature of the 1980s, for a literary history of twentieth-century Mexico to be published by the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes in Mexico City, and another on Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos as chronicler, for a collection of essays on the Mexican chronicle being considered by SUNY Press. For the 2000 MLA Convention she organized and chaired an official session on  “Mixed Subjects: Women Read Latin America.” This year Steele taught two new courses, “Men with Guns: Film and Dictatorship in Latin American,” for Spanish, and “Literatures of the Maya World,” for the Honors Program.

 

A long term project of Associate Professor O'Hara's celebrated a very important milestone in July of 2000 when the Hernández Archives were established in the Allen Library.  The Archives consist of of 18 compact discs with 2,545 images of the notebooks of the Peruvian poet Luis Hernández (Lima 1941-Buenos Aires 1977).  Likewise, the Archives contain reproductions of these images in 54 notebooks, with additional texts.  An additional two workbooks were found after the Archives were established and they are currently in the process of being integrated into the Archives.  This project is more fully described in an interview with Professor O'Hara in the CARTAH Newsletter 2001 [U.W.], pp22-41.

 

Prof. O’Hara’s publications since the last newsletter include a book, Palabras a cuestas ['País de Jauja': una poética]. Studies of lyricism in the narrative of Edgardo Rivera Martínez (Lima: Lluvia editores, 2000), and the following essays and notes:

"La estancia solitaria: Luis Hernández en Buenos Aires".  Tsé-Tsé [Buenos Aires] núm.7-8, Otoño 2000, pp.177-183;

"En sigilio, qué frutos". About the poetry of de Rossella diPaolo. Iris [Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III] 2000, pp.191-212;

"Solitario es el acontecer". Oneiric material in the poetry of Pedro Lastra. Línea imaginaria [Quito] núm.2, 2000, pp.50-53;

"Las fronteras por decir". Oralidad y poesía. In the issue of Línea imaginaria [Quito] due to come out in February 2001;

"Enrique Lihn o la perfección del estilo". Interview reproduced in the next issue of Diario de poesía Año 14, No.56, Buenos Aires- Rosario, Argentina, verano de 2000-2001, pp.3-6.

"A pedido del público". A note on Colombian poets. It will come out in Boletín cultural y bibliográfico de la Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango [Bogotá];

"Amores sobreentendidos". Chronical for the book "La Buenos Aires ajena. La ciudad vista por los extranjeros: 1536-1999". Edition y prologue, Jorge Fondebrider. It will be published by Emecé of Argentina in April 2001.

 

Prof. O’Hara’s poetry has been published over the last year by the following publications:

"Three Poems of June". Translated by Michael Weingrad. Center for the Humanities Bulletin [U.W.] # 15, Vol.3, June 2000.

Poems included by Ricardo González Vigil in his "Poesía peruana, Siglo XX: de los años '60 a nuestros días". Tomo II (Lima: Copé, 2000), pp.503-508.

Poems included in the bilingual anthology (Spanish/French)edited by Claude Couffon: "Poésie Péruvienne du XXe. Siécle" (Géneve: Editions Patiño, 2000), pp.436-443.

Poems in the literary journal of the Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese of the U. de California, Berkeley: "Everba.com"

 

He has also participated in a video, Literatura peruana I. Alfredo Bryce: "La historia personal de mis libros" / Edgar O'Hara: "Los sueños diurnos que nos calan". Edited by el Congreso de la República del Perú / Televisión nacional del Perú.

 

Last, but definitely not least, shortly before the press deadline for the newsletter, the College Council voted in support of Edgar O'Hara's promotion to Full Professor, effective in September 2001, and Dean Hodge has endorsed their decision.

 

 

 

 

Graduates:  Where are they now?

Rita Wirkala, who passed her general exam in Autumn of 1999 and is currently working on her dissertation had two publications:  "Don Quijote, Sancho Panza y el Mula Nasrudin", in Working Papers in Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania, Volumen IV, 1999-2000; and "La mujer en la literatura medieval peninsular: misoginia general o lectura superficial?",  in Torre de Papel, University of Iowa, Fall 1999, Vol. IX, No. 3.

 

 

Degrees Granted

Since  publication of the last Newsletter the following degrees have been granted:

BA’s   Winter 2000  -  3     

Spring 2000 -  30    

Summer 2000 - 8     

Fall 2000 -   5

 

MA’s   Spring 2000: 

      Isabel Anievas Gamallo

      José Luis Gastañaga Ponce de León

      Alfonso Lara

      María Mercedes Ortiz Rodríguez

      Serena Williams

 

Ph.D.’s granted:

    Spring 2000:  Marina McVittie

    Fall 2000:  Paloma Martínez Carbajo

 

 

Events

 

Luz Mary Giraldo

The Division had the honor and pleasure of a visit from the Colombian poet and academic, Luz Mary Giraldo, who teaches at theUniversidad Javeriana and Universidad Nacional (Bogotá).  She has  published numerous essays and anthologies on Colombian narrative.  Her latest book of poems, Con la vida, appeared in 1996.  On September 27^th, 2000 she participated in a bilingual reading of her poetry and on the 29^th  she presented a lecture on El nuevo cuento colombiano.

 

¡Song and Dance !

November saw two events that took place in Brechemin Auditorium of the Music Building.   These were outstanding performances enjoyed by all and wonderful opportunities to expose students to two widely different cultural experiences.

 

On the 21^st of November there was a Luso-Brazilian- Spanish-Sephardic classical and popular music concert, organized by Portuguese instructor Elwin Wirkala.  The performers were classical guitarist Marcos Carvalho, flutist Lucas Robatto, singer Carol Gown, guitarist Vilson Zattera, soprano Rosa Duarte accompanied by pianist Georges Julius, and jazz pianist Jovino Santos of the Cornish Institute.  This event was a great success, with a standing-room-only audience who gave the performers a standing ovation.

 

On November 30^th there was a dance performance by los Danzaq de Ayacucho, amazing Andean acrobats, who displayed their fancy foot and scissors work. They are a dance troupe from  Perú whose visit was sponsored by the Division of Spanish and Portuguese, the Latin American Studies Program and by the new Center for Spanish Studies which also sponsored the troupe’s appearance at various venues throughout Washington state.  The group performed the scissors dance, a tradition from the Central and Southern Andes which embodies the fusion of Catholic and pre-Columbian religion in an ages-old art form - a one-on-one musical/dance competition of strength, imagination and agility.

 

Poetry Reading:  De teléfonos, puentes y cuerpos   ( y otros poemas)

On Tuesday, December 5^th  the students of Spanish 426, taught by Tony Geist, held a bilingual poetry reading of their own translations of contemporary Spanish poets they have read.

 

Colloquium on the short fictions of Miguel de Cervantes

Professor George Shipley conceived and organized, with the cooperation of Prof. Barbara Fuchs of the English Department, a well-attended and well-received colloquium on the short fictions of Miguel de Cervantes, "(Im)Politic Cervantes" (April 2000).  The participants included respected scholars from Oregon,U.C.L.A. and Georgetown U.  In February he presented a paper on Cervantes's "El licenciado Vidriera" at a conference held annually at the University of New Mexico.  A revised and extended version of that study will be published next Spring in Cervantes, the journal of the Cervantes Society of America.  An article on Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina that was published in England and in English some years ago will reappear in Spain and in Spanish next Summer as part of an anthology of scholarly studies and criticism of Rojas's work.  Prof. Shipley continues to serve on the editorial board of Celestinesca and  was appointed this year to a term on the editorial board of Cervantes. Most recently, Prof. Shipley was invited by the Cervantes Society of America to serve as Pacific Coast delegate, an honor which he was pleased to accept.

 

The University of Washington Fourth Annual World Languages Day

The University of Washington Fourth Annual World Languages Day took place on March 2^nd, 2001.  This very popular event once again attracted a record  number of participants. Fifteen hundred secondary school students and their teachers were introduced to the language offerings at the University of Washington. Besides hosting visiting students in various classes, the Division of Spanish and Portuguese offered presentations on: The Mexican Muralists, presenter - Lecturer Jorge González; La Mancha y el Quijote, presenter - María Dolores Rodríguez of the Center for Spanish Studies; Mexican Art and Artesanías, presenters - Monica Gartman and Maurilio Amezcua Rodríguez; Peruvian Arpilleras, presenter - Teaching Associate Anne Doremus; A Culinary Trip to Spain, presenter Paloma Borreguero, 100 level language Coordinator; and, A Culinary Trip to Latin America.  The latter two presentations were accompanied by  samples of the respective cuisines.  Students from Teaching Assistant Emy Manini’s 301 class will bring to life the story Los tres cuervos, by Antonio Campos.  Two Teaching Assistants, Jay Munson and James Bryan presented  a lively session for language teachers on incorporating music into the curriculum.

 

Spring Seminar for Teachers

The new Center for Spanish Studies is offering a  professional development opportunity for Spanish teachers.  A Virtual Tour of Contemporary Spain  is a nine-hour class that  will take place over three days, from 4:00-7:00 pm on April 3^rd, 5^th and 10^th, 2001.    Instructors will be: Eduardo Tobar of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction who represents the Education office of the Spanish Embassy; Lecturer Inma Raneda of this Division who will make two presentations: The New Spanish Cinema and The Social and Cultural Advances of Women in  Democratic Spain; and, María Dolores  Rodríguez, The Center for Spanish Studies’ Language Assistant who will make a presentation on her native La Mancha.

 

Autumn Quarter 2001 Conference on Luis Buñel

On November 10-11, 2001, the Center for West European Studies, the Division of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, and the Cinema Studies Program in the Department of Comparative Literature will be sponsoring a conference entitled The Liberating Eye:  the Cinema of Luis Buñel.  Invited speakers will include Peter Evans (University of London), Jean Franco (Columbia University), Marsha Kinder (University of Southern California), and Kathleen Murphy (Cinema Seattle).

 

In conjunction with this conference, Profs. Steve Shaviro and Cynthia Steele will be team-teaching a new course during Autumn Quarter 2001, SPAN 491 / C LIT 497; Special Topics: Cinema: Buñuel.  In connection with the course and conference, they will screen seven Buñuel films on campus and two 35-mm films at the Grand Illusion Theare.  Also, Profs. Steele and Shaviro will teach a two-day seminar on Bunuel for K-12 teachers as part of the Simpson Center's Scholars as Teachers Program.

 

 

Developments at the Undergraduate Level

Spanish 103 in the High Schools

The Division’s Spanish 103 curriculum continues to be taught in high schools throughout Washington state, and once again  is being offered in more schools than in the previous year.

 

Experimental Spanish 110 on the WEB 

Spanish 110 is a class designed for students who studied Spanish in high school or another college before coming to the University of Washington.  It gives them a chance to review the material of Spanish 101 and 102 before enrolling in 103.

Over Fall and Winter quarters of this academic year 200 students each quarter have participated in a pilot course which makes use of a website.  Students meet in a 25-student class session twice a week, instead of the usual five days.  The remaining three days of the week they access the website to work with  material that would normally be covered in class, while the in-class sessions are dedicated to communicative activities.  If this course proves to be successful it will enable the Division to meet a greater proportion of the demand for Spanish classes at the 100 level.

 

New Courses: The Culture of Andalusia and The Culture of Oaxaca

The Culture of Andalusia, taught by Lecturer Inma Raneda, was offered for the first time Winter quarter 2001.  Its goal is to acquaint students with the culture and history of Spain’s largest region, Andalusia.  The course covers relevant aspects of Andalusian life; regional identity, politics, gender roles, religion, festivals and culture.  Students who are planning to study abroad through our program in Cádiz are encouraged to enroll in the class. 

 

The Culture of Oaxaca, taught by Teaching Associate Anne Doremus in Spring 2001, provides an overview of contemporary art, folk art and culture in the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.  This course is ideal to prepare students planning to participate in our study-abroad program in Oaxaca in Autumn Quarter.

 

Innovations at the 300 Level

 

Lecturer María Gillman, Language Coordinator at the 300 level, has introduced two interesting innovations into classes at the 300 level.   One of these innovations is the Taller de Redacción which functions as a Spanish writing center offering students of Spanish 301, 302 and 303 the opportunity to meet with instructors on a one on-one basis to receive help to improve their writing skills. 

 

The other innovation is the introduction of a service learning component into Spanish 302.  Students volunteer 2-4 hour per week at organizations that address issues with the Hispanic community, such as Casa Latina, Northwest Immigrant Right Project; etc, or at the new John Stanford International School or Hamilton Middle School.  They keep a reflective journal of their experiences, as well as integrating them with other written assignments for the class.

 

New Course: Spanish 334  Latin American Film

Taught by Teaching Associate Anne Doremus, this course traces the development of the film industries of Mexico, Cuba and Chile, the three Latin American countries with the strongest cinematic traditions.  It also examines the relationships between cinema, the state and society.  It pays particular attention the ways films either support or contest the dominant ideology, in part through constructions of gender, class and national identity.

 

New Course: Spanish 314  Spanish for Heritage Speakers

The objective of this course is to provide students whose formal education has been primarily in English the opportunity to hone the skills necessary to succeed in upper-division Spanish classes. The students will participate in a variety of activities that include an intensive review of grammar, readings of literary and journalistic texts, Web-based exercises, writing review and  production of a play.

 

 

International Conference on Almodóvar

 On February 17, 2001, the Division was host to An International Conference on the films of Pedro Almodóvar, which was organized by Tony Geist in conjunction with a new course taught Winter Quarter 2001 which was coordinated with a series of showings of Almodóvar’s films..For the conference, four distinguished scholars of Spanish Film gathered at the University of Washington to discuss different aspects of Almodóvar’s cinema in an all-day session that included a Spanish lunch.  In addition to the Division’s Tony Geist, the speakers were: Paul Julian Smith, Cambridge University; Kathleen Vernon, SUNY, Stoneybrook, Susan Martin-Márquez, Rutgers; and Tatjana Pavlovic, Tulane.

 

Spring Quarter 2001 Seminar for Teachers

The first major event sponsored by the new Centro para Estudios Hispanos/Center for Spanish Studies, which it co-sponsored with the Juan de Fuca Chapter of the American Association of  Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, was a seminar  that  was specifically designed for teachers.  It was a day-long event which focused on teaching the Spanish Civil War through film with a particular emphasis on the impact of the war on children. 

 

The seminar included the showing of the film “La lengua de las mariposas” followed by  a presentation by Paloma Borreguero, the 100 level language coordinator of the Division, and María Dolores Rodríguez of  the Center for Spanish Studies, explaining how this film could be used as a teaching tool.  The Division’s Tony Geist then presented his project “They Still Draw Pictures: Children’s Art from Spanish Civil War Refugee Camps”.  The afternoon session saw the showing of the documentary “Art in the Struggle for Freedom” by Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran Abe Osheroff.   The participants received materials sufficient for a week’s worth of lesson plans, as well as clock-hour credits.  Their evaluations of the workshop were very positive.  The Division and the Center are planning to collaborate on similar teacher workshops on a quarterly basis

 

¡Casa Hispana!

In Fall quarter of 2001 the Division of Spanish and Portuguese Studies will be piloting a program based in a Spanish-language block of rooms in Lander Hall.  Twenty spaces have been set aside for students who have completed Spanish 103 by the end of Summer quarter 2001.  Students who elect to live in this wing will be expected to speak only Spanish with each other, and to participate in group activities, such as the weekly tertulia (conversation group), bi-weekly Spanish-language films, and occasional dinners and/or dances.  We are hoping to bring a graduate student assistant directly from Spain, with the support of the newly established UW Center for Spanish Studies and with financial support from the Provost’s Office and the Office of International Programs and Exchanges.  This student will live in the dorm.

 

The cost to students will be the same as for any other dorm room.  For further information, please contact Lecturer Jorge González, who is coordinating this endeavor:  (panta@u.washington.edu).