Some of the recent highlights of the department’s varied activities.
We would like to share some of the recent highlights of the department’s varied activities including faculty research, student achievements, study abroad programs and curriculum developments.
Faculty Spotlight
In 2014, Dr. Nicolas Carbo taught courses in Spanish Grammar and Composition, Strategies in Spanish Oral Communication, Advanced Spanish Conversation, and Trends and Tendencies in Hispanic America.
Dr. Jonathan Hiller continues work on his book Arresting Physiognomies: Positivist Criminology and Italian Culture, 1870-1910. He has also begun work on a translation of the 1866 novel Paolina by I. U. Tarchetti. In June, 2014 He presented research on operas set in Tuscany at the Monash University campus in Prato, Italy. He is currently writing reviews of translations of dramatic works by Massimo Bontempelli and Luigi Pirandello, and will be chairing panels at conferences in Italy at Sorrento and Siena in late June 2015. Along with Prof. Amador, he participated in the “Humanistic Approach to Language Learning” at Wellesley College this past November. Lastly, he is proud editor of this newsletter!
Dr. Nicole Rudolph is in her second year directing the International Studies major and continues to direct the European Studies minor. In April 2014, she chaired a panel at the Society for French Historical Studies conference in Montréal, Canada, and in July she delivered a conference paper at the Society for French Studies annual meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her essay, “Plunging the Soul into Contemplation: On MoMA’s Le Corbusier, An Atlas on Modern Landscapes” appeared in the Winter 2014 issue of French Politics, Culture and Society, and her review of Sophie Corbillé’s book Paris Bourgeois, Paris Bohème: La ruée vers l’est, was published by H-France Review in December 2014. The journal Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture published her article “Model Homes: Negotiating Interiors in Postwar France” in its July 2014 issue. Professor Rudolph’s book, At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort, is due to appear in print in March 2015.
Dr. Raysa Amador, in addition to her myriad duties as chair and tireless champion of the study of languages on campus, received a grant with co-director Dr. Ana Simón-Alegre for the 2015 Spanish Film Festival at Adelphi form Pradga Film. She will present research at the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC in October 2015 titled “The Female Body as a Marker: Cristina Garcia and Judith Ortiz Cofer.” This past November, she attendend the professional development workshop “A Humanistic Approach to Languages” at Wellesley with Prof. Hiller.
Dr. Rakhel Villamil-Acera’s book chapter, “Pedro Muñoz Seca (1881- 1936): The Comic Effect of the Grotesque”, came out in Spanish and Portuguese Across Time, Place, and Borders. Essays in Honor of Milton M. Azevedo. Her article “Discurso cómico y discursos grotescos en las tragedias grotescas de Carlos Arniches” was published in the Revista Iberoamericana de Lingüística #9, as was her “¡Qué divertido es divorciarse!: la desentimentalización del divorcio en el teatro madrileño antes y después de la Segunda República,” which appeared in Hispania 97.2 (2014): 233-43. She continues work on her book manuscript, La construcción del diálogo teatral en el teatro cómico madrileño (1898-1936): el discurso humorístico en el contexto social. Rakhel has a translation under review “Un recuerdo de odio: turismo e identidad en un entorno poscolonial”, a translation of the article “Souvenirs of Hatred: Identity and Tourism and the Postcolonial Destination” by Marina T. Crouse. This translation is to be published by the UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She will be attending the Northeast Modern Language Association Convention in Toronto in April 2015 to deliver the paper “Cuernos o matrimoniosde conveniencia o cuando la tragedia es risible.” and has been invited to participate in the Symposium in honor of Professor Dru Dougherty at the University of California, Berkeley in February of 2015. She made a presentation of her published book chapter on Pedro Muñoz Seca (see previous description) in April of 2014.
Dr. Priya Wadhera has been approved for tenure and promotion by the Faculty Committee on Retention, Tenure and Promotion. Hearty congratulations for reaching this milestone! Her book Original Copies: The Postmodern Aesthetic of Georges Perec and Andy Warhol will be published by Editions Rodopi as part of theHer book will be part of the Rodopi’s peer-reviewed Faux Titre series. It is scheduled for publication in 2014. She also currently has an article on food in Perec “‘Privés de repas du soir’: Meals and memories in Georges Perec’s W ou le souvenir d’enfance,” under review by French Forum. Forthcoming is a second co-translation with Kent Mintum of “Dubuffet ou la lecture du monde” (1962). Priya presented the paper “(Painting) for the love or money: Artist and /as a sales-person in Balzac and Perec,” at the CUNY Center in New York in March 2014. She has been invited to speak, alongside the Executive Director of the MLA, Rosemary Feal, at the conference on Teaching Language, Teaching Literature: State of the Union at CUNY’s new Institute for Language Education in Transcultural Context in 2013.
Dr. Ana Simón-Alegre edited the latest special issue of the journal, Prisma Social. She wrote the introduction, selected and edited the articles, and contributed with an interview of the author Michael Kimmel. In addition to organizing numerous cultural activities (see p. 3), Dr. Simón-Alegre participated in a special session at the MLA Annual Convention in Vancouver, BC Canada called “Las hijas del mar and Rosalía de Castro: Emotions from Coast to City in the Nineteenth Century.”
The Entrance to Earle Hall, home of our Language Resource Center and Language Classroom
Student News
Third-year student and French minor Ashley Corbeil won a scholarship from the Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amérique for summer study abroad at the Université Laval in Québec. Ashley will be enrolled in a four-week full immersion program.
Valeria Mendoza, an International Studies and Latin American Studies Major, has had a paper accepted for presentation at the 22nd Annual Latin American Studies Symposium to take place at Birmingham-Southern College on April 11-12, 2014. She also presented at the PA’LANTE! ¡SIEMPRE PA’LANTE! FORWARD AND ONWARD!, the Second LACAS Latin American, Caribbean, Latino and Indigenous Undergraduate Student Conference at Binghamton University in February 2014.
I hope you have enjoyed reading our recent updates on faculty and students and invite you to share your experiences with us. If you have a moment, feel free to drop an us e-mail at amador@adelphi.edu and let us know what you would like to read in future issues.
–Raysa Amador
Professor of Spanish and Chair of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
For further information, please contact:
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
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