SIP Weekly
Monday,
May 1st, 2006 |
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Our department celebrated yesterday a great event, the promotions to Full Professor of Cristina Della Coletta (fourth from left, first row), and Alison Weber (fifth from left, first row). |
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LinksNews EP3 Journals and Magazines Chronicle
Higher Ed Radio Radio
Locator Reference Desk Find
Articles A good source for nearby events in Italian is The Italian Cultural Institute For news and links about Spanish art, see Spanish Books: ISBN The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
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Departmental NewsThe Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, April 20-22, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, had many sessions dedicated to honor Donald Shaw, as well as a luncheon with several speeches in his praise, organized by UVA Ph.D. and University of Kentucky Professor, Susan Carvalho. Speakers were Phillip Swanson, Iana Konstantinova, Richard Cardwell, Silvia Shaw, Randolph Pope, and Javier Herrero. You can watch the slide show which was presented at the luncheon. (For those of you who do not know, you are not seeing double; Mr. Shaw has a twin brother, Ken.)
In order of their appearence in the program, the following faculty and graduate students from our department spoke at the conference: Leslie Maxwell Kaiura, "'Es preciso poner un término a todo': Responses to Feminism in Four 19th-Century Plays. Eunice Rojas, "Cuerpos de modelo en Modelos de mujer de Almudena Grandes." Jeannie LaPlatney, "Cristina's Inner Bitch: Line's Role in Lucía Etxebarría's Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas. Tamara Bjelland, "Historias del Kronen' s Unfinished Protagonist." Keith Howard, " Renaissance Humanism in the Royal Commentaries of Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca: Prudence and Fábula in the Foundation of the Inca Empire." Donald Shaw, "Some Prominent Symbols in the Poetry of Olga Orozco." Gustavo Pellón, "From Bongo Drum to Rifle: The Evolution of Nicolás Guillén's Racial Politics." José Manuel Hidalgo, "Insultos y enredos en El alcalde de Zalamea." Iana Konstantinova, "Performance and Theatricality as Metafictional Devices in Luisa Valenzuela's Novela negra con argentinos."
Not many people left at UVA during the KFLC... (Photo by Stephen Silverstein) Alejandra Gutiérrez, "2666 de Roberto Bolaño. ¿Cinco novelas cortas o una última gran obra?" Javier Herrero, "El joven Lorca y el 98: Impresiones y paisajes." Randolph Pope, "Meeting the Significant Other in Fortunata y Jacinta." Diane Gigantino, "Good Confessors, Bad Confessors, and the Demonic in Saint Teresa of Ávila's Libro de la vida." Elizabeth Herman, ""Show Me the Money!" The Material World of the Middle Class in Ventura de la Vega's El hombre de mundo." Javier Herrero and Andrew Anderson, Roundtable discussion of El veintisiete en tela de juicio (Gredos 2005), by Andrew Anderson. Patricia Reagan, "Dos mujeres en Praga: The Orphaned Child of Juan José Millás." David Vassar, "Autobiography as Ritual in Sylvia Molloy's En breve cárcel." Ana Cornide, "Neuróticos, coquetos y suicidas, o la autobiografía contada por otro." Diana Burkhart, "The Relationship between Self-Knowledge and Madness in "Cambio de armas"." Fernando Tejedo, "Standarizing Practices in 15th-Century Spanish: The Siete partidas (1491)."
Antonio Skármeta and the participants in the Spanish Writers' Workshop which ended this past week and brought to campus as professors Mempo Giardinelli, Laura Freixas, and Antonio Sármeta. From left to right, Julianna Gallardo, María Alejandra Cabal, Kimberly Parker, Alejandra Gutiérrez, Nube (Cloud) Spurlock, Juana Yunis, Antonio Skármeta, Kathleen Baireuther, Shoshana Griffith, Avispa (Tony) Angell. (Click on the photograph to see a larger version.) The Workshop will be taught again in the spring of '07, thanks to the support of the Vice President for Research at UVA, Ariel Gómez. From the work of the Creative Writing Workshop, Julianna Gallardo brings to us this week a story by Kimberly Parker, "Vestido de jeans." Click on its cover to read it.
Amy Wentworth was honored by the Seven Society (the most secret and therefore most distinguished society on campus) as one of the 12 finalists, among over 80 candidates nominated by their students for the Fellowships to the best Teaching Assistants. She is shown above with a diploma (which hides behind it a substantial check).
But wait!
Amy did also receive one of the Top Three Honors, the Fellowship of the Class of 1985, which hides behind its frame a check six times bigger that the first one. Way to go, Amy! Next to Amy is her nominator, Emily Russell.
Fernando Tejedo-Herrero has been awarded one of the highly competitive University of Virginia Teaching Fellowships. The University Teaching Fellows' Program supports impressive junior faculty as they refine their teaching expertise while pursuing strong research agendas. Faculty members chosen as University Teaching Fellows receive a $7,000 research grant during the summer at the end of their fellowship year to support them in developing one or more new or existing undergraduate courses. During the 2006-07 fellowship, Fernando Tejedo-Herrero will work with a mentor on new approaches to teaching Sociolinguistics, a course that introduces students to some of the fundamental topics related to the study of language in its social context.
David
Gies lectured at Harvard on "Genderama: The Del Greco Library saw this year plenty of action, with many successful M.A. and Ph.D. exams around this venerable table, which now rests for the summer.
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SectionsAll the following sections of the SIP Weekly are flash sites (just click on their names in blue so they open). If you are using Microsoft Explorer, you may have to click to authorize the sites as they open. Art: In this flash section edited by Ana Cornide see the paintings by the Peruvian painter Arrisueño; read about Veronese and Goya at the Frick; discover a new angle of Le Corbusier; Rembrandt as a brand; Buenos Aires public sculptures chipped away; a deconstructive architect; and the Chilean painter Pedro Lira. Conferences: In this flash site edited by Virginia Talley, there are some added tips on how to talk about teaching at a job interview; the answer to "Do you need a web page?"; and how to take charge of your career; plus the students' seven deadly sins. Cultural News : In this flash section edited by Angeli Leal, read about a new documentary about the Mapuches in Chile; the new Premio Cervantes winner, Sergio Pitol; Tomás Eloy Martínez opinions; a new novel by Carme Riera; the most beautiful word in Spanish; conflict in the Paseo del Prado; and girls overwhelming boys... Film: In this flash section edited by Katherine Karr, read about a new movie about old Habana; the filming of Love in the Time of the Cholera; "quinqui" movies; who goes to Cannes from Mexico; video clips the whole world has seen; and more, including a tip on who will be Hernán Cortés in a forthconing movie. Music: In this flash section edited by Elizabeth Herman you can hear Ginesa Ortega; Vicente Amigo; EP3; Marisa Monte; Alejandro Escovedo; Beladona; and a reminder about Batanga. Travel:In this flash section edited by Karen Frazier, do not miss dinosaurs in Argentina, wine horses in Spain, the Pantheon in Italy, reasons for traveling, what's up with volcanoes, and how to travel in the Shenandoah Valley.
If you are not a member of the AIH, you may wish to join now in order to qualify to attend the XVI triennial conference in Paris (8-13 July 2007). It's simple; here are the steps:
Of Interest
Mark Edmunson, the Daniels Family Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the University of Virginia, published an essay yesterday in the New York Times Magazine, "Freud and the Fundamentalist Urge." It begins: "To most of us, Sigmund Freud, who was born 150 years ago next Saturday, is known chiefly as a provocative and highly controversial student of individual psychology. He is the man who theorized the unconscious and the Oedipus complex. What is less well known — and now perhaps more important — is that Freud devoted the final, and maybe most fruitful, phase of his career to reflections on culture and politics. In his later work, Freud brought forward striking ideas about the inner dynamics of political life in general and of tyranny in particular." Deborah Solomon asked questions forCarlos Fuentes, in "Novel Politics," in yesterday's New York Times Magazine. Most interesting exchange:
"[DS] How do you explain the public's fascination with [Kondoleeza Rice]? [CF] She is intelligent. She dresses well. She is capable of nuance. She seems to have something more behind her facade than one would suspect. She has better legs than Bush. And I know what his legs look like because I have seen him falling off a bicycle in shorts. [DS] If you talk about a woman being interesting for her legs in this country, you risk being stoned, and deservedly so. [CF] I can say it! I'm a Mexican!" Also in yesterday's New York Times Magazine, the Ethicist answered a question about whether to donate to universities who already have enormous endowments. His answer seemed wise to us, since it read in part, "'Put your good where it will do the most.' Thus you might consider which institution has the greatest need for your gift, which will use it most effectively, what its social goals are."
We take this opportunity to thank all the donors to our Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese at UVA, who have generously encouraged us this year by sending us their contributions, which have been greatly appreciated. We can assure you we need them, we use them effectively, and our social goals are commendable. (Photo by Stephen Silverstein) Are you dreaming of a career as a public intelectual with frequent invitations to TV shows? An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that "faculty members who engage in these public conversations risk being taken less seriously."
Who are now the voice of (Hispanic) America on television? Fin out in an article in Sunday's New York Times dedicated to María Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos, from the Noticiero in Univisión. María Elena Salinas has her own web site. MiscellaneousProfessors tired of receiving e-mails asking questions about topics which are on the syllabus or phrased with too much levity are laying out a "netiquette" for their classes.
Italy's most successful food import into the US is pizza. American Heritage has a detailed article about the history of its 2oth-Century arrival and adaptation. For "Perfect Pizza in its Italian Home," read the article in the Timesonline. (The city is... Naples.)
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) A snappy and entertaining review of a new book on Mussolini ends with these words: "In the end, the failures of Mussolini's regime were an indirect credit to the Italian people, and maybe brava gente isn't so wrong after all. While Hitler succeeded all too well in making many Germans into a nation of conquerors and killers, the Italians quite ignored Mussolini's attempt to do the same thing to them. Indeed, maybe Hitler should have the last word: The "decadent Italians" had never had their hearts in fascism, and they lacked the hardness necessary for conquest, the Führer fumed, since "the excessive warmth of family relations there overwhelms all the rest." Has a greater compliment ever been paid to any people?"
A new book, Tango: An Art History of Love, got an extensive and informative review in the TLS. The book speaks about the African roots of tango, a genre in which "the grounded footwork of ceremonial African dance was fused with the embrace of European couple-dancing made familiar through the polka and the habanera." A Spanish Version of "Star-Spangled Banner" is generating controversy, reports the Washington Post. (Listen to "Nuestro Himno.") An article in the New York Times today, " A Protest Song of Sorts, to a Very Familiar Tune," affirms that "Within hours of its release the song had done what protest songs everywhere aim to do: it had annoyed people." It concluded: "The reason "Nuestro Himno" is an effective protest song is that it doesn't protest too much. Listeners are free to hear it as a brazen provocation or as a heartfelt expression of American pride or both. That makes it not only the most effective protest song of the moment but also, as politicians on both sides might concede, the canniest." On related news, the Washington Post brings a profile of Eduardo Sotelo, "El Piolín," a D.J. in L.A. whose program is the top-rated morning radio show--and it is in Spanish. The Guardian has a brief but excellent overview of the current importance of Spanish-speaking readio in the US. For May 1st there is call not to work as usual in solidarity with undocumented immigrants:
A new show for tourists, Ópera Pampa, attempts to do for gaucho culture in Buenos Aires what Cats did for cats in Broadway. Visit Ópera Pampa's web site. |
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Your Editorial Team wishes you a happy summer vacation. We will see you again in late August, when classes resume.
Ana Cornide, Karen Frazier, Julianna Gallardo, Elizabeth Herman, Katherine Karr, Angeli Leal, Virginia Talley, and Randolph Pope |
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Last modified 05/02/06 by RDP
