The Judaic Studies Program at W&M sponsored an all-day “Jewish University” Sunday, December 7th to a sold-out crowd at the Sadler Center. Four lectures by W&M faculty presented various aspects of Judaic history, lives, and media from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible to the Nazi Genocide and Jews in American Cinema in the 20th century: Professor Michael Daise: The Essenes and the Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls;Professor Julie Galambush: “Who is Like You among the Gods?” – Understanding Israelite Polytheism; Professor Rob Leventhal: Forms of Antisemitism from the 18th Century to the Present; Professor and Director Marc Lee Raphael: The Jew in American Cinema.
Berel Lang, Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Letters at Wesleyan University, is one of the foremost scholars on the representation of the Nazi Genocide of the European Jews in the world. His books include: Faces and Other Ironies of Writing and Reading (1983);Writing and the Holocaust (1989); Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide (1990); The Anatomy of Philosophical Style (1990); Heidegger’s Silence (1996); Writing and the Moral Self (1991); Holocaust Representation: Art within the Limits of History and Ethics (2000); Post-Holocaust: Interpretation, Misinterpretation, and the Claims of History (2005); Philosophical Witnessing: The Holocaust as Presence (2009) and, most recently, Primo Levi: The Matter of a Life (2013). Berel Lang gave a public lecture based on his new book — “Primo Levi: The Matter of a Life” (Yale, 2013) — and taught Rob Leventhal’s GRMN 387 class “Germans and Jews since 1750”.
Kate Wessman (’13) conducts an interview in Cádiz, Spain, during summer of 2013.
Phi Beta Kappa scholar Kate Wessman (HISP ’13) is currently teaching 4th and 5th grade Mathematics, Science, and English at the bilingual Escuela Cristiana El Puente in Quepos, Costa Rica. After graduating with a major in Hispanic Studies, she went on to earn an MA in Elementary Education with endorsements for Spanish (preK-12) and English as a Second Language (preK-12) in 2014. Kate explains her ow background, her academic trajectory, and her experiences at El Puente in her website.
During her years as an undergraduate, Kate spent semesters abroad in Florianópolis (Brazil) and Sevilla (Spain) to perfect her language skills. During the summer of 2013, and thanks to the support of a Weingartner Fellowship, she accompanied Prof. Francie Cate-Arries and fellow graduate Megan Bentley to Spain and conducted interviews in several small towns in the Sierra de Cádiz and in Madrid, with family members of victims of the Franco regime, and survivors of state repression and political exile. Kate, Megan, Prof. Cate-Arries and IT Academic Liaison Mike Blum presented their project, “Franco’s War & Repression 75 Years Later: Picking Up the Pieces of Mourning & Remembrance,” in January 2014 as part of the Bellini Colloquium, a lecture series sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and named after the first professor of Modern Language at the College, Carlo Bellini.
John E. Pence (’12) is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese
Currently a J.D. candidate at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Hispanic Studies alumnus John E. Pence (’12) has recently co-authored a study on the history of corporate law practice in Brazil. His research, “Legal Elites and the Shaping of Corporate Law Practice in Brazil: A Historical Study,” is forthcoming (2015) in Law and Social Inquiry, an interdisciplinary academic journal sponsored by the American Bar Foundation.
While at William & Mary, and thanks to the support of the Philpott-Pérez Award, John was able to travel to Nicaragua with Prof. Jonathan Arries and W&M alumna Lauren Jones (’04) to work on “Poets and Pedagogy,” a service-learning, community-based research project that investigated the role of poetry as a tool for critical literacy in Nicaragua. John was also able to provide English-language instruction in an under-resourced elementary school in Managua.
The Philpott-Pérez Award in Hispanic Studies was generously established by Sharon K. Philpott in 2010 in order to support faculty-student research.
Libro de buen amor (manuscript S; 1343), fol. 2r. The manuscript has been digitized by the Biblioteca Nacional de España
Hispanic Studies alumna Katie Brown (’13) recently published an article on orality and performativity in the 14th-century Libro de buen amor by Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita. The article appears in the latest issue of the e-journal eHumanista. Journal of Iberian Studies: “La voz performativa y el voluntarismo en el Libro de buen amor“. eHumanista 28 (2014): 748-58. Katie is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University.
Kristin Giordano, surrounded by her students, at an English public speaking competition
Since graduating with a double major in Hispanic Studies and Linguistics, Kristin Giordano (’14) has been teaching English at the Liceo (High School) Pablo Neruda in Temuco, Chile.
A Phi Beta Kappa Scholar who worked as a Teaching Assistant for the Hispanic Studies program, Kristin’s deep interest in the way language shapes our lives and the realities we inhabit led her to apply to the English Open Doors Program, an initiative launched by the Chilean government and supported by the United Nations Development Program. Upon arrival, prospective teachers receive intensive language-teaching training, and are then transferred to their respective institutions, which are located throughout Chile.
A dynamic English classroom
While Kristin had already taught English during her semester abroad with the W&M program in La Plata, Argentina, prior to traveling to Chile, she enrolled in the special MDLL course “Teaching English Abroad” (MDLL 348). During her undergraduate trajectory, Kristin also participated in Prof. David Aday’s project M.A.N.O.S. (Medical Aid Nicaragua: Outreach Scholarship), and interned at the Embassy of Spain in Washington D.C.
For more information on teaching English in Chile via the English Open Doors Program, please consult their website.
Traduttore, traditore (roughly, ‘translators are traitors’) is a phrase frequently invoked when discussing the art of translation. Why would the act of translating be considered analogous to treason? What lies behind the act of translating? Can we speak of an ‘original’ and a ‘subservient translation’ or ‘copy’? What are some of the challenges a translator may face? How does one transit between texts and languages?
Neva Mícheva
On November 13, 2014, a group of Hispanic Studies students and faculty members convened to discuss these and other questions related to literary translation. As a special guest, they were joined by Neva Mícheva, one of the most accomplished translators of contemporary literature in romance languages into Bulgarian.
Neva Micheva, a polyglot with M.A. degrees in Italian Philology and Journalism, was distinguished with the coveted 2014 Hristo G. Danov National Literary Award for her translations into Bulgarian of Los poemas de Sidney West (1969) by Argentine poet Juan Gelman, and Centuria: cento piccolo romanzi fiume (1979) by Italian writer Giorgio Manganelli. This fall, Micheva has been a Writer-in-Residence at the renowned and highly selective Omi International Arts Center (Ghent, NY). Thanks to Micheva’s translations, Bulgarian readers can enjoy the works by notable Hispanic intellectuals such as Eduardo Galeano, Manuel Puig, and Augusto Monterroso, Catalan writers such as Manuel de Pedrolo, and Sergi Belbel, and Italian authors like Antonio Tabucchi, Italo Calvino, and Dino Buzzatti, among others.
Since graduating in May 2013, Kate Furgurson has been trying to ameliorate the lives of farmworkers in North Carolina. A double major in Environmental Policy and Hispanic Studies, Kate joined Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) in order to work on helping farmworkers access health care services. Her proficiency in Spanish (which she uses on a daily basis) and her commitment to social justice, which reverberated throughout her trajectory in our Hispanic Studies program, played a major role in her professional decision. Through SAF’s Sowing Seeds for Change fellowship, Kate received the necessary training to work in rural health clinics in NC, and provide health care education. Kate’s work in this leadership program was showcased in the following video, in which farmworkers from Coahuila, Mexico, share their experiences, concerns, and anxieties with her.
During her undergraduate trajectory Kate worked with Students Helping Honduras and participated in the W&M study abroad program in La Plata, Argentina. She was also a Sharpe Community Scholar. Kate is currently Farmworker Health Outreach Coordinator at the Surry County Health & Nutrition Center in Dobson, NC.
Every year, Student Action with Farmworkers accepts applications for their 10-week summer internship “Into the Fields,” and for their Sowing Seeds for Change Fellowship. For their 2015 programs, the application deadline is February 4, 2015. For further information, please consult their website.
Since the Middle Ages the Camino de Santiago has been a major goal of pilgrimage in the Christian West, but its role in shaping a distinct Galician identity in our age is still a matter of research. Thanks to the generous endowment of the Philpott-Pérez Award, professor George Greenia and Hispanic Studies major Ryan T. Goodman (’14) were able to present their initial findings at a most unique conference on Galician studies held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwakee in May 2014, and to extend their collaboration by carrying out field research in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, during the summer.
Ryan Goodman (’14) presenting his research on “Patron Saint of King, Country and Post-National ideal” at the 2014 Symposium on Pilgrimage Studies
At a conference on (Re)Mapping Galician Studies in North America: A Breakthrough Symposium (May 2-3, 2014), Prof. Greenia and Ryan participated in a session exclusively devoted to the Camino de Santiago. Prof. Greenia presided the session and offered his remarks as a respondent, while Ryan presented his paper on “Modern Galician Youth: Pilgrimage and Diaspora.” Soon afterwards both travelled to Spain as Professor Greenia co-led the W&M summer study abroad program in Santiago de Compostela and mentored over a dozen student research projects. Ryan remained in Santiago after the William & Mary study abroad experience interning at the cathedral’s Pilgrim Office and conducting further work on Galician identity amid competing claims of loyalty to the Autonomous Region of Galicia and the Spanish monarchy. Ryan was even present for the new King’s inaugural speech on the Feast of St. James when Felipe VI and his wife the Queen gave their formal declaration of support to the pilgrimage while Galician nationalists protested outside the cathedral precinct. Goodman presented the results of his summer research as a poster presentation for the 2014 Symposium on Pilgrimage Studies, Shared Journeys: The Confluence of Pilgrimage Traditions, celebrated at William & Mary (September 26-28, 2014), and Goodman and Greenia are coauthoring an article entitled “Santiago: Patrón de una nación y protector de su monarquía y un ideal posnacionalista.”
Ryan’s internship in Santiago also captured the attention of local media. For a full story of Ryan’s experience, please read the following article prepared by staff reporters of the College.
The Philpott-Pérez Award in Hispanic Studies was generously established by Sharon K. Philpott in 2010 in order to support faculty-student research.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia represent the Spanish Crown in solemn ceremonies for the Feast of St. James. Ryan Goodman sat just six rows away helping represent the Pilgrims Office of the cathedral.
The Feast of St. James at the cathedral of Santiago.
The cathedral of Santiago boasts the largest incense censer in the world. It weighs over 150 lbs., and swings from the roof of the cathedral symbolizing the prayers of the faithful.
Comisión Provincial por la Memoria (La Plata, Argentina)
When she was 17, Sarah Caspari (’15) decided she would apply to William & Mary and spend a semester abroad in La Plata, Argentina. During the fall semester of 2013, Sarah was finally able to realize her dream. She prepared herself as much as she could taking several classes in Hispanic Studies and Latin American Studies, but, as she puts it, “there’s only so much you can learn from books.” Hers was a transformative experience: “The experiences I had abroad re-lit my fire and gave me new inspiration to advocate for people who continue to suffer, and for the people who gave their lives for the legacy of human rights, who are presente: ahora y siempre. They’re here: now and forever.”
Sarah shares her thoughts on life, culture and politics in Argentina, and several other intercultural insights, in her article “La Plata’s legacy: igniting passion and freedom,” which appeared in the latest issue of the Reves Center’s magazine, World Minded (Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring 2014; pp. 4-5).
Sarah Caspari is a Robert M. and Rebecca W. Gates Scholar. Her passion for La Plata led her to return last summer in order to conduct on site research for her honor’s project on a series of kidnappings and forced disappearances of young students in La Plata. Sarah is also a Teaching Assistant in the Hispanic Studies program.
