N E W S L E T T E R DELANTE In This Issue 2 The Department Has Gone Digital 3 Students in the Spotlight 4 Graduates 6 Focus on Faculty THE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE 6 Go Away… With Us That Is! 7 Reaching Out Alice Boebinger (Dempster) attended the U of A College of Humanities Homecoming Event this October where she was honored for her contributions. While here, she shared many fond memories of her time as an undergraduate in Spanish decades ago. Yet, she wistfully recalled how she was unable to participate in a study abroad program. Now she has made that dream come true for others with her endowment of the Study Abroad Fellowship for our department. Her generosity will enrich the lives of students for decades to come. A Message From the Head Amazing Alum Makes Dreams Come True Study Abroad Fellowship Endowment Malcolm Alan Competillo Vol. 1, Fall 2011 8 The P in Spanish and Portuguese 5 Undergraduates It has been quite some time since the Department has produced a newsletter. The primary focus of this latest one is to let you, our alumni and friends, know the news from our Department and our students, past and present. This annual newsletter will become one of the cornerstones of the Department’s efforts to maintain a wider-ranging community engagement. Since 1995 when I assumed my duties as head of the Department the incredible level of achievements, the enormous efforts made by the faculty, graduate students and staff alike in support of the University’s mission have been absolutely outstanding. The most noticeable transformations have been the numerous changes to the faculty, ones which have given the Department the ability to rejuvenate itself while at the same time solidifying its national and international reputation. We are now positioned as one of the strongest teaching units on campus at all levels. (Next page)
9
Embed
Amazing Alum Makes Dreams Come Truerhall1/documents/adelante.pdf · 5 5 University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011 Matt Teller 1980s
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
N E W S L E T T E R
DELANTE
In This Issue
2 The Department Has Gone Digital
3 Students in the Spotlight
4 Graduates
6 Focus on Faculty
THE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE
6 Go Away… With Us That Is!
7 Reaching Out
Alice Boebinger (Dempster) attended the U of A College
of Humanities Homecoming Event this October where she
was honored for her contributions. While here, she shared
many fond memories of her time as an undergraduate in
Spanish decades ago. Yet, she wistfully recalled how she
was unable to participate in a study abroad program. Now
she has made that dream come true for others with her
endowment of the Study Abroad Fellowship for our
department. Her generosity will enrich the lives of
students for decades to come.
A Message From the Head
Amazing Alum Makes Dreams Come True
Study Abroad Fellowship Endowment
Malcolm Alan Competillo
Vol. 1, Fall 2011
8 The P in Spanish and Portuguese
5 Undergraduates
It has been quite some time since the Department has produced a newsletter. The
primary focus of this latest one is to let you, our alumni and friends, know the
news from our Department and our students, past and present. This annual
newsletter will become one of the cornerstones of the Department’s efforts to
maintain a wider-ranging community engagement.
Since 1995 when I assumed my duties as head of the Department the incredible
level of achievements, the enormous efforts made by the faculty, graduate
students and staff alike in support of the University’s mission have been
absolutely outstanding. The most noticeable transformations have been the
numerous changes to the faculty, ones which have given the Department the
ability to rejuvenate itself while at the same time solidifying its national and
international reputation. We are now positioned as one of the strongest teaching
units on campus at all levels. (Next page)
2 2
University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011
Melissa Fitch
We believe strongly in the importance of an overseas study
experience and encourage all our majors to participate in
one of the wide variety of programs we offer during the
academic year and summers. Thanks to the generosity of
Alice Boebinger Dempster’s Endowment of our Study
Abroad Fellowship, we can now offer greater support for
students participating in our programs.
Without public and private support, our national reputation
could not have been achieved. The benefactions of
individuals and organizations have provided substantial
supplements to funds provided the state of Arizona. The
combination of private and public assistance is vital if we
are to meet the challenges ahead.
We are grateful to you, our supporters, our outstanding
alumni, distinguished faculty, and talented students.
Because of your contributions, the Department has had the
opportunity to reconfigure the curricula, to establish new
study abroad programs and to extend our outreach efforts
to our local community.
I invite you to read the news from the fifth floor Modern
Languages and to share your comments with us. Please
send us your information using the attached link or
response card. We look forward to hearing from you!
University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011
Carl Atlee (Ph.D 2002) teaches at Rice University where his
research specifically focuses on the life and times of fifteenth-
century Castilian writers. His article, "Political Protest in Gómez
Manrique’s Defunzión del noble cauallero Garçía Laso de la
Vega," will appear soon in the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies.
Julia Dominguez-Castellano (Ph.D 2005) After only five years
as an Assistant Professor of World Languages and Cultures, Julia
has received three teaching awards: the Iowa State University
Award for Early Achievement in Teaching (2010); the Cassling
Family Award for Outstanding Teaching (2010); and the Liberal
Arts and Sciences College Award for Early Achievement in
Teaching (2009).
Manuel Gómez (Ph.D 2004) is currently serving as the Director of
Education and Training for the Higher Learning Comission of
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Sarah Owens (Ph.D 2000) published her book, The Journey of
Five Capuchin Nuns, with The University of Toronto Press. Her
work received the prestigious Josephine Roberts Award for the
best scholarly edition in 2009 from the Society for the Study
of Early Modern Women. She has begun her next research
project on religious women and breast cancer in the 18th
century.
Susan Sotelo (Ph.D 2003) has published her work, Chicano
Detective Fiction: A Critical Study of Five Novelists, with
McFarland.
Sarah Owens
Carl Atlee
2000s
Book Sarah Owens
Graduates
Book by
Susan Sotelo
ctive lums
1990s Claudia Aburto (Ph.D 1998) teaches at Bates College as an
Associate Professor. She continues to publish actively, both critical
studies and creative works. Based on her work along the border,
she recently wrote a foreward to Crossing with the Virgin: Stories
From the Migrant Trail by Kathryn Ferguson, Norma A. Price and
Ted Parks, published by the University of Arizona Press.
Leah Fonder Solano (Ph.D 1997) serves as Chair of the
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University
of Southern Mississippi. She played a leadership role in creating
an introductory Arabic language course sequence and securing an
IHL/NCAT grant for curricular redesignThe Department of
Foreign Languages and Literatures at USM became one of only six
programs in the U.S. awarded "National Recognition" from the
National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
for the Spanish and French licensure programs.
Alicia Garza (Ph.D 1996) is currently an Associate Professor of
Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages at Boise State
University. In 2003, she was named “Carnegie Professor of the
Year.”
Leah Fonder Solano Claudia Aburto
Guzman
Alicia Garza
5 5
University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011
Matt Teller
1980s and Before
1990s cont.
Susan Larson (Ph.D 1998) is an Associate Professor
in the Department of Hispanic Studies at the
University of Kentucky. Her most recent book,
Constructing and Resisting Modernity: Madrid 1900
– 1936, was published this year in Madrid by
Vervuert / Iberoamericana. She received funding
from National Endowment for the Humanities for her
current project on the politics and social consequences
of the urban policies of the PSOE (Partido Socialista
Obrero Español) between 1982 and 2000.
Matt Teller (M.A. Linguistics 1993) holds the
position of Head of School at Green Fields Country
Day School in Tucson.
Bonnie Frederick (Ph.D 1983) is a Full Professor in
the Spanish and Hispanic Studies Department at
Texas Christian University, where she served as Chair
for six years. She enjoys being on the faculty with
two of her UA graduate school colleagues, Arturo
Flores and Don Frischmann.
Bonnie Frederick
6 6
University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011
Nina Barber (B.A. 1979) teaches in world languages for
Hamilton Middle School, part of the Denver Public School
System.
David Browning (B.A. 1974) works in Denver and
specializes in outbound corporate international tax,
including international business expansion. He is
experienced in dealing with foreign tax authorities and
assisting US companies doing business in foreign
countries.
E. Autumn DiGaetano Fedoruk (Spanish Linguistics
and Economics, 2005) works in New York in operational
management for MacMaster-Carr. Since graduating, she
spent two years in Teach for America and then served as
Director of Marketing and Recruitment for the ProWorld
Service Corps. She also worked for a nonprofit
organization called Uncommon Schools that starts and
manages outstanding urban charter public schools that
close the achievement gap and prepare low-income
students to graduate from college.
Amanda Marie Lester received her Spanish degree in
2005 from the U of A, where she also majored in
Agricultural Sciences, then went on to get an MS at Texas
A & M University in 2007 and a Ph.D at Purdue
University in 2010 in Agricultural Economics,
International Trade and Policy. She will move to
Washington, D.C. in January to begin a position as a
research economist at the USDA Economic Research
Service in the Market and Trade Economics Division.
Amanda has lived and/or studied and conducted research
in Spain, South Africa, Guatemala, Brazil, and Japan.
Undergraduates Anne McGettigan (Economics, Mathematics, Political Science and
Spanish, 2008) works as an Associate Consultant at the Semiar Brossy
Consulting Group in Los Angeles. She reports that in her job, she has
served both public and private companies, with revenues from $500M to
over $30B. She also served as an intern with the Federal Reserve Board
in the Division of International Finance-Advanced Foreign Economies
in 2007.
Nick Madrid got his degree in Spanish/Portuguese and Business in
2006. He is currently the Latin American Equity Analyst with the
Bloomberg Corporation, a New York-based company that employs more
than 10,000 people in over 135 offices around the world.
Jennifer Philips (Political Science and Spanish Literature, 2009) is
currently in law school at USC. She was excited to share the news that
she has been selected for USC’s Law Review, a tremendous honor. She
hopes to focus on emerging issues in immigration or international law,
specific to Latin America.
Lauren Giesecke Sontag (Spanish and MCB, 2004) was accepted
into every medical school that she applied to after finishing at UA,
including Harvard and Johns Hopkins. She decided to go to Mayo
Medical School on a complete scholarship, where she is currently finishing her studies.
Lauren Giesecke
Sontag
7 7
University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011
Our website and Facebook provide regular updates on the
amazing achievements of our faculty in research, teaching
and service. Below are just a few highlights:
Prof. Katia Bezerra has distinguished herself as Director of
Graduate Studies through her dedication to our graduate
students. Yet, her contributions to our undergraduate students
are equally impressive. In Spring 2010, she won the College
of Humanities Distinguished Undergraduate Advising and
Mentoring Award.
Prof. Jaime Fatas reports that the National Council for
Interpreting in Health Care (sponsored by the California
Endowment for the Humanities) has selected our Translation
and Interpretation sequence as one of ten outstanding
programs they will feature in a certification report to be
published soon.
Prof. Robert Fiore was awarded the Encomienda con Placa
de La Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio in 2006. He joined a
handful of international scholars on whom the government of
Spain has bestowed one of its highest honors in the field of
arts and sciences. Imagine his surprise when he was
informed that he has earned the right to be addressed as
“Comendador!”
Prof. Lanin Gyurko has recently published three books
(Magic Lens: The Transformation of theVisual Arts in the
Narrative of Carlos Fuentes; The Shattered Screen:Myth and
Demythification in the Art of Carlos Fuentes and Billy
Wilder; and Lifting the Obsidian Mask: The Artistic Vision of
Carlos Fuentes). He also co-edited two significant homage
volumes, one for Enrique Anderson Imbert, the other for
Denah Lida, and was honored by his own students with a
volume dedicated to him in a moving ceremony. In Fall, 2009 he
received the Outstanding Achievement Award, granted by Arizona
Student Union Advisory Council, in 2009. In recognition of those so
honored, the Bell from the Battleship Arizona, now in the Tower of
the Arizona Student Union, was rung seven times on December 7th.
Prof. Antxon Olarrea is busy working on his fifth book;
meanwhile, the College of Humanities recognized his outstanding
contributions to teaching by granting him the Distinguished
Teaching Award.
Prof. Miquel Simonet, working together with Natasha Warner, has
won a $227,000 NSF grant for their project entitled "Speech
Reduction across Languages and Dialects." Look for an article on
Prof. Simonet, the grant, and our new SPORTS (Spanish and
Portuguese Speech Laboratory) lab in the next issue of our
newsletter.
Lanin Gyurko and Robert Shelton
Focus on Faculty
Go Away…With Us That Is! Take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad…it’s never too late to enjoy this rewarding experience. Again, thanks to the
generosity of Alice Boebinger (Dempster), we can now support more students.
For the latest on our programs, check out the Facebook links:
Arizona in Alcalá: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=100324046697220
Arizona in Chile: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=114651558573095