02
Apr 15

A Peek Inside the PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages

The Graduate Center’s Videography Fellows have produced this peek inside our PhD program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages. Learn what HLBLL is like from the perspective of its professors and students.

Many thanks to Amanda Matles and the GC’s Videography Fellows program for the production of this video.

09
May 17

Presentation of the LL Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1

The PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages

invites you to attend

The Presentation of the LL Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1

Join the HLBLL community in celebration of the launch of another issue of the LL Journal and the hard work of its editors and all its contributors! Volume 12, Number 1 will go live on Friday, May 12 at 6:30pm.

The LL Journal is a multi-disciplinary, open-access, electronic journal dedicated to the investigation of various realms of Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian studies including literature, language, and culture. A collaboration of HLBLL’s students as editors, readers, and designers, the Journal has contributors from all over the world and invites us all to engage in reflection and discussion. The LL Journal is hosted on the CUNY Academic Commons. Previous issues of the Journal, dating back to 2006, can be found on their site.

Flyer, LL Journal Presentation on May 12

The Journal’s presentation will be followed by an end-of-the-semester reception.

This event is free and open to the public.


19
Dec 16

The HLBLL Holiday Gift Guide

Looking for the perfect last-minute gift for your friends or your family? This season, choose from one of three new publications featuring the outstanding scholarship and hard work of the HLBLL community, and give them the gift of erudition.

LL Journal's Editorial Illustration by Belén Paredes.

LL Journal’s Editorial Illustration by Belén Paredes.

What: The LL Journal (Volume 11, Number 2)

The details: The LL Journal is a publication of the students of the PhD program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages featuring scholarly articles, interviews, and reviews from the realms of Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian studies on topics ranging from applied linguistics to literature to the visual arts. Recently, the LL Journal has included a section devoted to original creative works.

This issue of the LL Journal includes the work of three HLBLL students: Lorena Paz López published a review of Museo del consumo. Archivos de la cultura de masas en Argentina by Graciela Montaldo; Natalia Castro’s review of Space and the Memories of Violence. Landscapes of Erasure, Disappearance and Exception edited by Estela Schindel and Pamela Colombo is also available; and Ernesto Cuba logs an interview with Mariel Acosta titled “Agitando lo cotidiano. Una conversación sobre el desafío Ⓐnarquista frente al sexismo en el lenguaje.”

The best part? The LL Journal is completely open access, meaning that its excellent scholarship is available for free!

 

screen-shot-2016-12-10-at-10-11-26-pmWhat: Dramatized Societies: Quality Television in Spain and Mexico, by Paul Julian Smith

The details: HLBLL’s distinguished professor and prolific scholar, Dr. Paul Julian Smith, studies television series from the past decade–from Spain’s Física o química to Mexico’s XY–as a lens for understanding the two countries’ national narratives.

Now available: Dramatized Societies is available in hard cover from Oxford University Press (US) or Liverpool University Press (UK).

Filosofia y culturas hispanicasWhatFilosofía y culturas hispánicas: nuevas perspectivas, edited by Nuria Morgado and Rolando Pérez.

The details: This new book is not only edited by two Graduate Center professors (Nuria Morgado, College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center; Rolando Pérez, Hunter College and the Graduate Center), but the publication also contains chapters by several others from the Graduate Center community:

Professor Linda Martín Alcoff (Philosophy, Women’s Studies; Hunter College and the Graduate Center)
Professor William Childers (Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center)
Professor Silvia Dapía (John Jay College and the Graduate Center
HLBLL alumnus Dr. Adrián Izquierdo (Hunter College)
HLBLL alumnus Dr. José Antonio Losada-Montero (Southwest Minnesota State University)
our most recent HLBLL alumna–who defended her dissertation last month!–Dr. Laura Sández
HLBLL alumnus Dr. Marcos Wasem (Purdue University)
and Professor Oswaldo Zavala (College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center)

Now available: Filosofía y culturas hispánicas: nuevas perspectivas was published last month and is now available on Amazon.


16
May 16

Jennifer Prince Receives Vice Chancellor’s Award for Student Leadership

Jennifer Prince (left) and Christina Nadler at the Excellence in Leadership Awards luncheon, May 13, 2016.

Jennifer Prince (left) and Christina Nadler at the Excellence in Leadership Awards luncheon, May 13, 2016.

On Friday, May 13th, Jennifer Prince was awarded with a CUNY Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Leadership. Two students from each CUNY college are chosen to receive the award each year. The award was presented at a luncheon ceremony at the Great Hall at City College.

Jen is a PhD candidate in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages and a Program Social Media Fellow in her sixth year as a Graduate Center student. She is writing her dissertation—under the supervision of Professor Paul Julian Smith–on representations of the Spanish Civil War in multi-generic texts written by American and Spanish women.

For the HLBLL program, Jen was one of three organizers of the 18th Annual Graduate Student Conference. She also has been a member of standing and ad-hoc committees on faculty membership, social media, and alumni engagement. For two years she served as HLBLL’s elected representative to the Graduate Center’s Doctoral Students’ Council (DSC).

Jennifer Prince (right) and Christina Nadler after receiving their Excellence in Leadership Awards, May 13, 2016.

Jennifer Prince (right) and Christina Nadler after receiving their Excellence in Leadership Awards, May 13, 2016.

Jen is a four-year member of the DSC—two years as a program representative and two as an at-large representative. She has been elected to serve as an at-large representative for the 2016-2017 school year. Currently, Jen is in her second year elected as the Co-Chair for Business of the DSC. Prior to being elected co-chair, Jen also was elected to the DSC’s Steering Committee and served as Officer for Health and Wellness for one year. Within the DSC, Jen was a member of several committees, including the Governance Task Force, the Grants Committee, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, the Knowledge Grants Committee, and the Health and Wellness Committee. She is currently co-chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Tuition Remission.

Outside of her commitments to her program and to the DSC, Jen also has been a member of the Graduate Council’s committees for Information Technology and for Library. She currently serves on the Auxiliary Enterprise Board and the College Association, and was a student member of the Strategic Plan’s Finance Task Force during the current school year. She also participated as a member on the search committees for the Vice President for Communications and External Affairs and for the Provost.

The other student recipient of the award in 2015-2016 was Christina Nadler, a PhD candidate in Sociology.


10
May 16

This Friday: Presentation of Los Bárbaros 7 and Launch of the LL Journal!

This Friday!

Presentation of Los Bárbaros 7

and

Launch of the new LL Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1

The PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages invites you for an afternoon and evening of language and literature launches and celebrations this Friday, May 13th, in our lounge (room 4116)

Los Bárbaros 7At 5:00, we welcome founders, editors, and contributors to the literary magazine Los Bárbaros as they launch the 7th edition, specializing in science fiction and fantasy writing. Los Bárbaros 7 is a project very much dependent on the various talents of student in the HLBLL program, including Alexis Izaguirre, Sara Cordón, Mariana Graciano, and, of course, Ulises Gonzales.

Additional reading/listening: Pliego Suelto‘s PDF of the first three numbers of Los Bárbaros; La trova neoyorquina podcast featuring Ulises Gonzales and Sara Cordón, along with Los Bárbaros contributor Mayte López.

LL Journal LogoAt 6:00, we launch the LL Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1! The LL Journal is a multi-disciplinary, open-access, electronic journal dedicated to the investigation of various realms of Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian studies including literature, language, and culture. A collaboration of HLBLL’s students as editors, readers, and designers, the LL Journal has contributors from all over the world and invites us all to engage in reflection and discussion. Recent numbers of the LL Journal also include a creative writing section.

Additional reading: All previous LL Journals are open access and available online in their archives!

 

After the launch, please join us for the best end-of-the-year party at the Graduate Center, the envy of all other programs.

HLBLL holiday party

 


12
Feb 16

Nan Zheng Publishes in Chinese Journal 书城 (Book Town)

In the PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages at the Graduate Center, CUNY, we are officially tri-lingual (Spanish, Portuguese, English). But with students and faculty from many different countries ranging over four continents, the first languages spoken by members of our intellectual community number much greater than those three.

Nan Book Town Article

Earlier this year, PhD candidate Nan Zheng published “Because of his stories, the past has never passed: Review of Mis documentos by Alejandro Zambra” in 书城 (Book Town). Nan’s article is a review of Zambra’s collection of short stories, Mis documentos, which will be translated into Chinese this year. Nan also analyzes the key themes and symbols that reoccur in Zambra’s works and are pertinent to his life–memory, creation, reading, writing machine, among others—in order to further present a general introduction to the so-called Generación de los hijos and their oeuvre.

Full bibliographic information: Zheng, Nan. “Because of his stories, the past has never passed: Review of Mis documentos by Alejandro Zambra.” Book Town Jan. 2016: 117-22.

 

If you are a current or former HLBLL student or current faculty member and you would like information on one of your recent publications, upcoming appearances, or other news to be featured here, please contact HLBLL’s social media fellow here


08
Nov 15

Alumna Luana Ferreira Named 2015-17 Empire State Fellow!

Congratulations to Luana Y. Ferreira, PhD, a 2014 graduate of our program!

luana ferreiraLuana has been named a 2015-17 Empire State Fellow! The fellowship program selects 10 professionals to train with top State government officials for careers as future policy-makers. Luana will be placed with the New York State Department of State for her fellowship’s tenure.

Over the course of her career, Luana has been committed to education. She is a former New York City Teaching Fellow and received her M.S. Ed. from City College, CUNY. While a student at the Graduate Center, she also worked as a research assistant on a project focused on developing diagnostic tools for measuring proficiencies of immigrant students in urban settings at the GC’s Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society (RISLUS).

Luana’s dissertation is titled “Densidad léxica en la prensa hispana de EE.UU. e Hispanoamérica: Un estudio comparativo” and was supervised by Professor Ricardo Otheguy.


15
May 15

Student Emir Cruz Directs and Stars in “Simón del desierto”

HLBLL student Emir Cruz directs and stars in “Simón del desierto,” a new play he also adapted from the Luis Buñuel film of the same name. The play is running for two weeks beginning Friday, May 15th, at the Broadway Blackbox Theater.

Read on to find out more about the play.

Simón del desierto

“Simón del desierto” es una obra teatral miscelánea inspirada en la película del mismo título realizada en México por el director vanguardista Luis Buñuel en 1965. Aparte de adaptar gran parte el controvertido film buñuelesco, en esta obra de carácter experimental el actor Emir Cruz llamativamente ha orquestado elementos de distintas fuentes tales como el monólogo dramático “Saint Simeon the Stylites” de Alfred Lord Tennyson publicado en 1842, fragmentos poéticos extraídos de textos del libanés Khalil Gibrán, música medieval tanto de la liturgia ortodoxa griega como de la católica romana, entre otros aditamentos que contribuyen a la creación de un universo paralelo en el que extrañamente se rompen las nociones del tiempo lineal y simultáneamente conviven el presente, el pasado y el futuro.

Simón, el personaje principal de esta pieza teatral, interpretado por el propio Emir Cruz, está inspirado en San Simeón el Estilita, un santo ermitaño que durante treinta y siete años vivió en lo alto de una columna en las afueras de la ciudad de Alepo, en Siria. En pos de convertirse en santo y entrar al Paraíso, Simeón se sometía a fuertes penitencias sobre su pilar: pasaba la mayor parte de su tiempo en oración y meditación, casi no comía, dormía poco y con frecuencia se torturaba físicamente flagelándose hasta el extremo. Según la tradición, el Estilita caía en éxtasis profundos similares a los que experimentaba San Francisco de Asís, tenía diálogos de tú a tú con Satanás, con la Virgen María y a veces conversaba con el mismo Dios. Considerándolo una celebridad medieval, campeón y digno representante del ideal de santidad de su época, muchas personas venían a verlo en busca de milagros de todo tipo y de aliento espiritual.

En su nueva propuesta teatral Cruz ha creado un mundo ficticio en el que no sólo se parodia la religiosidad extrema que caracteriza a Simón, el ermita protagonista de la obra, sino que también pone en relieve realidades universales que transcienden el tiempo tales como la dicotomía entre el ser y parecer, la complejidad de la relaciones humanas, el declive de los valores en una sociedad en crisis y la “cultura del espectáculo”, un fenómeno o síndrome del que muchas personas padecen hoy día.


18
Apr 15

HLBLL’s 20th Annual Student Conference is April 24th and 25th

Relocating Identities, Theories, and Languages

The 20th Annual Graduate Student Conference of the PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages

#HLBLL20th

20th Annual Student Conference Poster

HLBLL’s 20th Annual Graduate Student Conference is Friday, April 24th and Saturday, April 25th, 2015.

The Graduate Center, CUNY.
365 Fifth Ave.
NYC, NY 10016

Keynote speakers:

Dr. Idelber Avelar (Tulane University) “Brazilian transitional justice, indigenous struggles, and the Amazon” (Friday, April 24, Segal Theater, 6pm)
Dr. Jonathan Rosa (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) “Languages and Identities Beyond Borders” (Saturday, April 25th, Room 5414, 2:45pm)
View the complete conference program here.

The Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages Annual Student Conference is celebrating 20 years of excellence in graduate student scholarly work.

 

Many thanks to the conference organizing team for their dedication in creating an extraordinary 20th year:
José Chavarry
Ulises Gonzales
Luis Henao Uribe
Kristina Jacobs
Inés Vañó García
Sara Cordón
John Flanagan


14
Apr 15

Professor Oswaldo Zavala Wins the 2015 LASA Mexico Humanities Essay Prize

Congratulations to Professor Oswaldo Zavala (College of Staten Island & The Graduate Center)!

Oswaldo-Zavala

Professor Zavala won the 2015 LASA Mexico Humanities Essay Prize for his essay “Imagining the U.S.-Mexico Drug War: The Critical Limits of Narconarratives” published in Duke University Press’s Comparative Literature journal.

This LASA Mexico Prize is awarded yearly to an outstanding scholarly contribution to the study of Mexico in the fields of the humanities written by a member of Mexico Section of the Latin American Studies Association.

The entire text of Professor Zavala’s award-winning essay can be read here.

 


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