RLL Newsletter - December 2021

Newsletter Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures at Hofstra University

December 2021

Note from the Chair of the Department Dear RLL family The first half of 2021 was still challenging, having to conduct classes either online or in hybrid format, we missed the vibrant life of campus. But we are very proud of our students and our faculty, and our administrators and staff. Everyone has been doing their best to keep our community safe and stay in good spirits. Thank you, all.

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As we approach the end of the fall 2021 semester, we are thankful for having been able to conduct all classes in person. It has been so gratifying to see everyone back on campus, and we certainly hope to be able to be fully back on campus in Spring 2022.

We were also very thankful for having been able to host the Spring 2021 Commencement in person and celebrate the accomplishments of our graduates and welcome their families as they deserve. Even if not in person, we were happy, as well, to recognize the work of RLL students who excelled in the study or French, Italian, and Spanish languages, literatures, and cultures: you can see in the newsletter the names of students who were inducted to the honor societies housed in the department.

2021 also marked the inauguration of Dr. Susan Poser as Hofstra’s ninth president, and the entire Hofstra community is really excited about this new phase for our university.

Another proud moment this year was the nomination of our colleague Dr. Benita Sampedro Vizcaya as the Dorothy and Arthur Engle Distinguished Professor in Literature, a well-deserved recognition to her work as a scholar and as an educator.

We also celebrated some exciting events in the department, some of them happened virtually, like the lecture on “Napoleon and the Haitian Revolution” by Dr. Marlene L. Daut, author of Tropics of Haiti, and Associate Professor in the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies and the Program in American Studies at the University of Virginia. Other more recent events were held on campus, like the visit and poetry readings by Argentinian writers María Casiraghi, Carlos J. Aldazábal, and Leopoldo “Teuco” Castilla, and by Mexican poet Balam Rodrigo.

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures welcomed a new member to the family: Ethan Thomas Kohanim, the son of our dear administrative assistant, Lynne Murray, and her husband David Kohanim, was born in early November. Please join me in congratulating Lynne and David.

We are tremendously grateful for our student aides, Alex Attilli and Tatiana Grasmann, who are doing an incredible job while Lynne is away on leave. Alex is completing degrees in Spanish and in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Tatiana completes degrees in French and Spanish. ¡Gracias a las dos! Merci à vous deux.

I hope you enjoy this issue of the RLL Newsletter, where you will also find news from our esteemed alumni. Please remember that you can stay in touch with RLL through several platforms: LinkedIn; Facebook, and Instagram Have a great holiday season! Stay healthy and see you in Spring 2022.

Warmly, Pepa Anastasio, Professor and Chair Romance Languages and Literatures, Hofstra University 2

Faculty and Staff News Spanish Professor Pepa Anastasio On March 10th, 2021, Dr. Anastasio participated in “Atlantica Sessions,” a radio series organized by the KJC Center at New York University, around the complex stories behind music and performance. Dr. Anastasio talked to radio host and organizer of the series, Casilda García Lorca, about female empowerment in the copla, a musical genre from Spain that was highly popular from the 1930s through the 1950s. The conversation can be found here. On October 2021 she participated in “Les dones y els dies,” a radio program from Catalunya Radio, where she discussed the musical genre known as cuplé, about which Dr. Anastasio has published extensively. The program can be found here. Dr. Anastasio continues to be part of the Scientific Committee for the annual conference organized by the Music and Performing Arts Research Group from the Sociedad Española de Musicología (SEdEM). The title of this year’s conference was “La escena popular española en el espacio americano: migraciones, relaciones transatlánticas y repertorios compartidos,” and the meeting took place at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid from May 19th to 24th, 2021. She has reviewed articles for the journals OCEÁNIDE, Revista de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Literarios de Cultura Popular (SELICUP), and for Romance Notes, a journal published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Spanish Professor Teresa Carandell Sarabia She held “My Experiences through Poetry” presentation at PEIR on November 15, 2021. She described her experiences and inspiration behind the poems, and selections from her book My Rhythmic Heart were presented in video form, recited by members of her family.

Spanish Professor Álvaro Enrigue As all, prof. Enrigue had a very quiet first half of the year, teaching hybrid classes, researching and working with Natasha Wimmer in her translation of his novel Now I Surrender and That's All, that will come out in English in Fall 2022 on River Head (if the supply chain issues permit it). He spent the Summer in the mountains surrounding Mexico City, finishing a fiction book about the fall of Tenochtitlán, which will come out next year too, under the title Tu sueño imperios han sido, and doing field research for the class he thought this Fall about the image of the Mexica capital through the history of art and literature. This Fall, as the world was reopening, his schedule became busy. He returned to write journalism in Spanish with a monthly column about Atlantic Exchange in the Spanish newspaper ABC, and from December on he will be writing at large for the magazine El Cultural of the newspaper La Razón in Mexico. Translations of his novel Sudden Death came out in Russian and Lithuanian, while Now I Surrender and That’s All made it to bookstores in Italy and Germany. He got lucky: the Deutsch translation was selected as the cover recommendation of the end of the year-book issue, of the very influential Berlin based newspaper Die Zeit.

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Spanish Professor Vicente Lledó-Guillem In the last academic year Professor Lledó-Guillem has written two essays about the first history of the Spanish language written by Bernardo de Aldrete and published in 1606. Both essays have been accepted for publication. The first one will be published in Hispania, the prestigious official journal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), founded in 1917. The second essay has been accepted for publication in a volume about Multilingualism and Translation that will be published by Routledge. Finally, his book chapter “The Masculine Body in the Mediterranean: Queering the Other in El Monserrate and Tirant lo Blanc", was published in the volume Queering the Medieval Mediterranean. Transcultural Sea of Sex, Gender, Identity, and Culture. Ed. Felipe Rojas and Peter Thompson (Brill, 2021). In Spring 2021, Professor Lledó-Guillem organized the ceremony of the Spanish Honors Society, Sigma Delta Pi, which recognizes the achievements of several senior students who are about to complete either a major or a minor in Spanish. He continues his role as a member of the LGBT Scholarship Committee representing the School of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts. Finally, on October 4, 2021, Professor Lledó-Guillem was a Faculty Mentor and Representative at the Latinx @ Hofstra meeting, organized for students and Faculty members who either identity as Latinx or are interested in engaging with this campus community.

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French Professor Sabine Loucif Dr. Sabine Loucif continued in her scholarly role of Editor of Nouvelles Francographies, the Journal of the SPFFA (Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amérique), a learned society based in New York that promotes French and Francophone culture in the United States and in the Americas. Dr. Loucif wrote a forthcoming journal article on “the new normal” in a novel by French author Camille Laurens entitled Who You Think I Am. The novel focuses on love relationships at the time of social media, and offers a good example of how literature keeps re-writing itself and reiterates conceptions of love and romance found in 18th century French theater. Dr. Loucif also started a long-term project dedicated to the universalist construction of French culture through state/presidential speeches and ceremonies, celebrating iconic French artists and political figures. In addition, Dr. Loucif continued as a member of the Africana Studies Committee at Hofstra University and participated in the campus wide effort to make Africana Studies more visible and relevant in the Hofstra curriculum.

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Italian Professor Gregory M. Pell This fall, Professor Pell was instrumental in the publication of a book that celebrates the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, Davide Rondoni’s L’orma di Dante: dieci passi nella Divina Comedia (In the Footsteps of Dante: Ten Walks in the Divine Comedy), Lamberto Fabbri Editors, 2021. The trilingual (Italian, Spanish, English) volume focuses on ten emblematic cantos of the Divine Comedy, with an introduction to each canto, followed by a related critical commentary. Professor Pell curated the English versions of each poem and translated all of the English introductions and commentaries. In addition, he worked with the Italian-to-Spanish translators to ensure continuity among the three different versions. The book launching took place on September 23, 2021, in Rome at the MAXXI (“The National Museum of XXI-Century Arts”). In addition, Pell has contracted with Gradiva Publications (the center of gravity for Italian poetry in North America) for a book of selected poetry by Davide Rondoni, translated in English. The book, Time Café, to be released in the spring of 2022, is a bi-lingual edition that includes an original preface and English translations of poems written in Italian by Rondoni from 1985 to 2019. This represents the first time that a collection of Rondoni’s Italian poems will appear in a single volume in English. At the moment, Pell is collaborating with a pair of Italian scholars in the English-to-Italian translation of Herman Melville’s travel journals, which have never been rendered in the Italian language.

Spanish Professor Benita Sampedro Vizcaya Since January this year, I taught various courses, including SPAN 123: Politics of the Hispanic World; SPAN 126: Contemporary Hispanic Thought; LACS 1: Putting Latin America and the Caribbean on the Map; and LACS 05: Latinx Communities of New York. I look forward to teaching a completely new course in Spring 2022, SPAN 145: Borders, Human Mobility and Migratory Experiences across the Spanish-speaking World. This year, I published two scholarly articles in Galician: “Traducindo as loitas das mulleres. A nosa negra de Harriet E. Wilson” (Mazarelos: Revista de Historia e Cultura, June 2021); and “Puntos de encontro: Redes migratorias e rutas coloniais a propósito da exposición Os adeuses / Fotografías de Alberto Martí” (Revista Clara Corbelhe, December 2021). I also submitted two articles for publication: “Houseboys. Domestic labour practices in Spanish settlers’ homes in colonial West Africa” (forthcoming in the Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies); and “No daban respuesta ni buena ni mala: Franco’s Instituto de Estudios Africanos, Spanish colonial science and local African response” (forthcoming in The Routledge companion to twentieth and twenty-first-century Spain: Ideas, practices, imaginings. Eds. Luisa Elena Delgado and Eduardo Ledesma). On October 15, 2021, I delivered an invited lecture at Florida Atlantic University, entitled “Theories of confinement and freedom in the 19th century Iberian black Atlantic”; I delivered another invited lecture on November 4 at Rutgers University, entitled “Houseboys: Domestic labor practices in Spanish settlers’ homes in colonial West Africa”. In May 2021, I was invested as Dorothy and Arthur Engle Distinguished Professor in Literature at Hofstra University.

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French Professor Colette Sumner Professor Colette Sumner has been working as a translator since her years at Columbia University. In the past few years, she has been working closely with Dr. Bob Brier, a worldrenowned Egyptologist. They started translating documents that he needed while writing a book, Cleopatra’s Needles (Bloomsbury, 2016). This collaboration took them to their most recently published work: L’Obélisque de Luxor. Histoire de sa translation à Paris [1839] by Apollinaire Lebas, relating the transport of the Luxor obelisk, which was raised on the Place de la Concorde in Paris on October 25, 1836. Professor Sumner translated the early 19th century French text.

This was quite a task because of the major differences with modern French, but also because of the poor quality of the available printed manuscript; in addition, the text contains many advanced and challenging mathematical equations, physics principles, and highly specific engineering terminology. Lebas was a young engineer from the École Polytechnique, as well as a humanist and a marvelous draftsman: his book is a treasure of diverse information, a rich and colorful canvas of geographical and sociological elements, yet, it was unfortunately unknown to the English-speaking world, as it existed only in the original French edition of 1839. Fortunately, this translation would fix that as it was accepted for publication by AUC Press and came out in March 2021. After this success, AUC Press accepted Sumner and Brier’s proposal for a second work of the same type: Notes on Excavations in Nubia and Catalogue of the Objects Found by Doctor Guiseppe Ferlini of Bologna, translated from the Italian (1837) and the French (1838) and introduced by Bob Brier, Colette Fossez Sumner, and Peter Lacovara, scheduled to appear in AUC Press in Cairo and New York spring 2022. Nile Magazine asked Sumner and Brier to write an article about their work with the Lebas book, and the thirteen-page article with beautiful illustrations came out in the January-February 2021 issue.

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Spanish Professor Miguel Ángel Zapata Professor Miguel Ángel Zapata has published a book on Cesar Vallejo’s poetry: Ya va a venir el día. Antología poética esencial (Málaga: Poéticas Ediciones, 2021). He additionally has published a book on Blanca Varela’s poetry: Blanca Varela. Pienezza Dell’occhio (Plenitud del ojo). Poesie scelte (1949-2001) with translations by Emilio Coco (Milano: La Vita Felice, 2021).

He has published an anthology of his own poetry, entitled La iguana de Casandra. Poesía selecta (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2021), and the poetry book Cancha de arcilla.

Poemas en prosa (Lima: Summa, 2021). In addition, his essay “Mi único reino es mi corazón cantando: 16 poetas peruanos contemporáneos” came out in Buenos Aires Poetry (July 2021); and his review on María Jesús Lorenzo-Modia, Sobre Mario Vargas Llosa (A Coruña: Universidade da Coruña, 2019) appeared in Revista Iberoamericana (July-September 2021). He finally published “A Rainbow under the Tombs”, as the prologue for the edition Vicente Huidobro. Equatorial / Equatorial, translated by Anthony Geist (New York Poetry Press, 2021).

Under the auspices of the Fondo de Cultura Económica and Ciudad Librera in Mexico, he offered this past summer a series of virtual lectures on pivotal Latin American authors: “César Vallejo y la materialización de la memoria” (July 1), “José Emilio Pacheco y la canción del sauce” (July 8), “La poesía de Blanca Varela” (July 15), and lastly “La subversión de la vanguardia: poesía mexicana contemporánea” (July 22).

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Farewell from faculty colleagues Spanish Professor Warren Bratter I began my university teaching career in the Hippie years of the 1960s, and I took early retirement from my tenured position at Adelphi University in the early ‘90s. I then spent weeks at a time over the next four years working in Bogotá, Caracas, Dakar, Guadalajara, Ouagadougou, Paris, Sevilla, and other world cities as the Senior Editor of a global foreign 9

language publishing company. I was tasked with creating new intellectual property alliances with pocket-sized local publishers and videographers whose output had never had access to the U.S. educational market or, according to my judgment, could be repurposed for that world. The work was challenging and stimulating, always allowing me to make use of my language skills to enter worlds previously untouched by U.S. publishers. I learned, however, much to my consternation, that I was not cut out for the internecine business battles between the company’s foreign offices and the U.S. headquarters where I worked. When a former Adelphi colleague mentioned that there was an Adjunct teaching vacancy in Hofstra’s Romance Languages and Literatures Department, I decided I would like nothing better than to find a way to return to the world that I had prematurely left. I was interviewed by the then-current Chair Billy Bussel Thompson. After the normal hiring formalities, I was offered and accepted the position. For the next 22 years, with the encouragement, camaraderie, and support from all of you, the RLL became part of my permanent human landscape. I always looked forward to coming to campus. The point and counterpoint of professor and students was as joyous for me as any musical concert. As the conductor of that language class “concert,” I was equally enthralled by the improvisational communicative flights that always took place during any given class. I hope my students discovered new facets of themselves because of the interactions in the classroom, and embraced, as well, the satisfaction and secret cultural delights of second language acquisition.

And to you, my dear colleagues for more than two decades, I happily counted on your enthusiasm for our calling, on your collective and inspiring commitment to our profession; and for the evidenced rigor and integrity of your teaching craft, erudition, and scholarship. I was then and will be forever grateful for your enduring encouragement of my own activities. So, as I say, hasta siempre, I extol your approachable and unforgettable friendships and your cumulative dedication to the place I called home all these past years.

Spanish Professor Edgar Metzger As I reflect upon my experiences in the Department of Romance languages and Literatures at Hofstra, I am reminded of the many positives. First and foremost, I was fortunate to work under the aegis of a number of superb chairpersons. The chairperson with whom I worked most recently was Dr. Pepa Anastasio. She was always ready to help at a moment’s notice and served as a sterling role model. I also had the privilege of working with a wonderful student body. The students were interested, cooperative, and a pleasure to work with. I taught Spanish levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, and found that most students were eager to learn. I also taught students in the individual one-on-one Spanish 108 course. Although they were on their way to becoming fluent in Spanish, they worked hard to achieve oral and aural ability in the language. In sum, I spent twenty-one years in the department, until my retirement in the summer of 2021. It was an experience which I will never be able to duplicate. A wonderful staff and a great student body were dear to my heart, and I will never forget them.

Remembering those who left us Homage to the late Spanish Professor Sinesio Fernández “Where intelligence, elegance, sense of humor and humility hold hands, there is Dr. Sinesio Fernández” by Teresa Carandell Sarabia, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Spanish.

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Professors Sinesio Fernández and Teresa Carandell Sarabia French Professor Sultana Ehrlich remembers Jean Paul Belmondo I would like to share with you the few exciting and unforgettable seconds I spent with the late French actor Jean Paul Belmondo. “Je ne me laverai Jamais la main.” I hope he replied: “Moi, non plus.” I touched his skin, on his way down from the dais, that is when I ambushed him. It was June or July of 2004. There he was, standing on the dais, looking like an angel, elegantly dressed with a fitting striking white silk suit. Yes, that is him, Jean Paul Belmondo, with his silver white hair looking proud and smiling to his fans, greeting them with his both hands. What a “magnificent” man, roughneck and “dégueulasse” on the outside but sweet like honey on the inside! In his lifetime, he attracted cinemagoers in millions from all over the world. He was sought after by distinguished film makers like Goddard, Truffaut, Chabrol, and others. Jean Luke Goddard was considering Charles Aznavour for the leading role of Michel Poiccard in the film Breathless but, luckily, he chose Jean Paul Belmondo. Even though Bebel was a great actor, he never made it to the Comédie-Française. The Parc was overly crowded that night. His fans, young and old, showed up to take a glance at their idol. Everybody brought their food and drink with them. It is a long movie, and these fans are seriously anchoring down for a long time. I remember that night vividly: we had to be searched before entering the Parc. This had never happened before. Jean Paul Belmondo had come to l’Hôtel De Ville to be honored with the Medal of the City of Paris by Mayor Delanoe. After the ceremony, Jean Paul Belmondo stepped outside to greet the fans who had come out to see his New Wave film À Bout de Souffle, which 11

was playing in his honor that hot summer night. When he addressed the Parisians, the crowd stood up and went crazy screaming “Je t’aime, Bebel, Bebel”. He was very gracious and appreciative. He said very little because he was still recovering from his illness. He looked fine, and I did not notice any physical changes. He just looked so happy to be among his fans. That night was a glorious night for him. To his right stood Bertrand Delanoe, much beloved mayor of Paris. He was one of the best mayors Paris ever had. He is famous for opening “Paris – Beach” on the Bank of the Seine River so that the Parisians could experience the joys of a summer day at the beach in the heart of Paris. Mayor Delanoe also introduced the program “Velib”, the bicycle rental system which became trendy in big cities all over the world. Mayor Delanoe enjoyed visibility and he walked out of City Hall that night to thank the Parisians for having elected him, but also to be seen with his best friend Bebel. Mayor Delanoe and Jean Paul Belmondo were good friends, with common roots in North Africa, one from Tunisia, the other one from Algerian parents. The outdoor film festival takes place every summer in Paris in the big parcs. This time it was taking place in the Esplanade of the Parc de l’Hôtel de Ville, which is a monumental administrative building, City Hall, Rue de Rivoli, au Marais. The south side esplanade of l’Hôtel de Ville is almost as big as half of a football field. It is a meticulously designed parc surrounded with flowers like irises and lilies. bushes and trees. Most of the fans had to sit on the floor, but my knowledge of the parc’s plan allowed me to get the closest bench to the dais, after all that was my childhood playground. Being an international superstar who brought so much joy in people’s heart, Jean Paul Belmondo will be missed by the whole world. So, as we bid adieu to this gentle giant, we will think of him with gratefulness for having given us so much joy and so much of himself throughout his lifetime. We will surely miss Jean Paul Belmondo and we will remember him fondly with love and affection for the artistic excellence in the numerous roles he played.

Welcoming new members of the RLL community

Lynne Murray and David Kohanim at their wedding day in April this year, and their newborn baby Ethan Thomas Kohanim 12

Student Achievements Undergraduate Student Research Day The following student-scholars, majoring or minoring in Spanish and in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, have presented their research work at the Hofstra Undergraduate Research Day on December 10, 2021: Alex Attilli “Activismo, indigenismo, y el papel de las mujeres maya en el desarrollo de la paz y los derechos humanos en Guatemala” Isabela Herrera “The Great Puerto Rican Migration: Political, Social, and Economic Motivations of Immigration from Puerto Rico to the United States (1940s-1950s)” Irene Leary “Activismo en Chile: El violador fuiste, eres y serás tú” Rebecca Murphy “La representación de la infancia en la memoria de las dictaduras en el Cono Sur” Paul Woldt “Los productos migratorios de la política neoliberal latinoamericana”

Honors Societies In Spring 2021, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures recognized student excellence and achievement with the induction into the French, Italian, and Spanish Honor Societies during a virtual ceremony. All students inducted into the societies are majoring or minoring in the department and successfully maintained a high GPA in the content area.

Gamma Kappa Alpha Italian Honor Society 2021 Inductees Natalie Denver Ailish Egan Francesca Filiberti Aden Khan Gabriella Polito Walton Schmidt

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Pi Delta Phi French Honor Society 2021 Inductees Morriah Johnson Audra Nemirow Kevin Ontaneda Kaylyn Policastri Gabrielle Prusko Olivia Wisse Sigma Delta Pi Spanish Honor Society 2021 Inductees Sonika Attri Mathias Bien Brittany Johnson Jason Lieberman Venessa Lozado Erin McCall Olivia Tu Monika Waszczuk Victoria Wetmore

Featuring Students in the RLL Department Tatiana Grasmann interviews Olivia Wisse about the RLL Tutoring Program When did you start learning French?

I started learning French when I was in the first grade! We had a language elective in our elementary school twice a week. I fell in love with language learning and from there I just kept going. I took French throughout Middle and all four years of High School. When I came to Hofstra, I knew I had to keep studying it, which is why I decided to become a minor. Later on, I transitioned into adding French as a double major. It worked out perfectly with my credits!

What do you like the most about speaking French?

What I like most about the language is how unique it is compared to the other Romance languages! Most of the words in French are not pronounced phonetically or sounded out completely like they would be in English or Italian, for example. I also weirdly love learning how to conjugate verbs, it’s like a fun and challenging puzzle that is so rewarding once you finally figure it out. But other than that, I also really loved learning about French cultural movements, history, and art: Surrealism and Existentialist philosophy are two of my favorite subjects that I find endlessly fascinating.

How long have you been tutoring French at Hofstra?

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I only started tutoring at the beginning of this semester! I wish I would have started sooner!

What made you decide to want to tutor students at Hofstra?

I was actually recommended to the Undergraduate Tutorial Program by one of my French professors. I was overjoyed to find out about the opportunity and honored to be recommended! I used to tutor a bit in High School, and I have some experience with teaching special needs children, so the position just felt like a perfect fit with my past work experiences and my field of study!

What do you like most about tutoring students at Hofstra?

I love helping others succeed and discover their confidence. Especially in subject areas that may trouble them. It is awesome to help a fellow student finally get the grade they wanted, understand something they were struggling with, or become more confidence in their abilities. I also love getting to develop a rapport with students who return to tutor with me. It is always great to meet new people on campus! All the students I’ve tutored have been super lovely and grateful for my help. It is such a rewarding job!

What kind of things do you do to help students who are studying French?

I always like to get the student talking first to me about what they feel they have a strong handle on, and what they are struggling with. We work together to identify what specifically has been confusing to them in their class, and where they want to direct their attention for extra practice and supplemental explanations. Sometimes it helps students to explain out loud themselves to me. For some students, just practicing specific subjects over and over, and showing them that they know more than they think, is hugely beneficial to their confidence in class. For others, we take things slower. I help them with reading their textbook, I help them develop useful study skills, we play vocabulary games on the board! I adapt to the unique needs of everyone who schedules with me. In a nutshell, my strategy is to explain to students how I myself understand the material and from there push them to come to their own ways of learning and connecting with it!

Tatiana Grasmann interviews Melanie Varvarande about tutoring French When did you start learning French?

I grew up speaking both Spanish and French, so I speak both at native level.

What do you like most about speaking French?

Being able to communicate while traveling or make connections with French speakers here in US. It is something special the moment you realize someone speaks your language.

How long have you been tutoring French at Hofstra?

Only since this semester, since Fall 2021, and I wish I had started sooner.

What made you decide to want to tutor students at Hofstra?

The idea had been in my mind for a while, but I only took the step when one of my professors suggested I should do it.

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What do you like most about tutoring students at Hofstra?

My favorite part is when students make the connection between the items that form the subject they are learning. It is that moment when what I am explaining clicks and you can see it in their eyes and their smile.

What kind of things do you do to help students who are studying French?

I relate the verbs and situations we use to their own lives. I ask them about things they like doing or eating, to be able to identify themselves within the subject learned. I also suggest them to listen to videos in French and to repeat what their hear over and over.

Alumni News Kori Gordon (Class of 2018) I graduated with a Major in Economics and a Minor in Spanish. I have been fortunate enough to use both fields, and I now teach Economics at the High School level, but also serve as the ESL teacher. I service students from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras and Puerto Rico who speak Spanish as their first language and are now learning English. Who would have thought that my Spanish Minor would have come in so handy? I DID! I absolutely love working with my Latinx population and I have learned so much more Spanish since working with them. Additionally, I am also putting my Spanish skills to use by teaching English for Business Purposes with a building restoration company. The adult learners are all Spanish-speakers who serve as supers for buildings across the five boroughs. Life has definitely been a rollercoaster since graduating from Hofstra. However, it has been fulfilling to know that I have been able to put those things I learned to use in the real world. My very best to the Hofstra RLL family!

Robin Deering (Class of 2019) I just recently started a new position as a program advisor with IES abroad. I am working specifically in the internships department, advising students for Paris, Milan, and Rome, as well as our new virtual program.

Hayley Levine (Class of 2019 and Class of 2021) I graduated from Hofstra in 2019 with my BA degree in Early Childhood/Childhood Education and Spanish. I continued onto graduate school at Hofstra and graduated in May 2021 with my Master of Science in Education degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I am currently working as a 3K (Preschool) teacher in a public school in the Bronx.

I have been able to use the training and education that I received at Hofstra every day of my professional career while teaching here, and I use my knowledge of Spanish to communicate and connect with both parents and students on a daily basis.

Ellary Mischel (Class of 2020) Since graduating from Hofstra in August 2020 with a double major in Spanish and Psychology and a Minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, I have been enrolled in the Master’s of 16

Teaching of Arts Program at Stony Brook University, with a specialization in for Foreign Languages, specifically Spanish. During my senior year at Hofstra, I was able to complete to semester-long research projects, one on “The Relationship between Puerto Ricans and non-native Spanish Speakers: How can it improve?”, and another one on “The representation of childhood in films from the dictatorship era in Latin America”. These projects helped me pave the way towards graduate school. I am going to be graduating with my MA in June 2022, with my certification to teach grades 7 to 12, along with an extension for Elementary School, grades K through 6. My professional goal is to become a Spanish Teacher, either in Middle School or in High School, and possibly working as an Adjunct professor at a university. I am also considering pursuing a PhD in Second Language Acquisition. I have been working as a Teacher's Assistant at Ivy League Day School since September 2021 and my favorite part of the job is helping the students with their Chinese and Spanish classes! I have also been doing freelance tutoring for both Spanish and English. Tutoring was the final stepping-stone in realizing my excitement for teaching foreign languages. I would one day like to get certified to be able to teach Russian, one of the languages in my family.

Jenny Maldonado (Class of 2020) I graduated in May 2020 with a triple major in Spanish, Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Education. During my senior year at Hofstra, I was honored with the Academic Excellence Award in LACS, which I received in October 2019. After studying abroad in Costa Rica in January of 2020, I participated in a Latin American and Caribbean Studies Seminar where I conducted a semester-long research project on the migration of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica, and which I entitled “Costa Rica: Pura Vida, For Whom?”. Since my graduation in May last year, I have started a position as a High School Spanish Teacher in Nassau County, New York. This is my second year at this job. I have also presented my work at the Long Island Language Teachers Annual conference twice, and I have been invited to publish in the Journal of the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers (NYSAFLT), to share my expertise and advice with fellow teachers. Finally, I am earning my Master’s degree in TESOL at Queens College. All my professors at Hofstra truly helped me pave my way to success after graduation.

Tiffany Martino (Class of 2018, Class of 2020) Hofstra University Class of 2018 (B.A. in Italian and English) and Hofstra University Class of 2020 (M.A. in Public Relations, Advertising, and Communication). Tiffany spent most of her time at Hofstra in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, as a student and as both an undergraduate and graduate assistant. She served as the President of Hofstra’s Cultural Italian American Organization for three years and was the first Hofstra student to represent the university nationally at the National Italian American Foundation Gala in Washington DC. She is currently pursuing her second M.A. in Higher Education Administration from Stony Brook University. Following the completion of her second Master’s, Tiffany will continue her studies as an Ed.D. Candidate. Her desire to work in Higher Education manifested when she began working at Hofstra. She currently works at Adelphi University as an Assistant Director in The Division of Student Affairs, serves on the Campus Events Task Force, and is the primary advisor for the commuter student population. Along with the help of her students, she is working towards developing an Italian club at the university. In September 2021, she got engaged in front of Cinderella Castle and is currently planning her Disney Fairy Tale Wedding which will take place at The Walt Disney World Resort in 2023. Tiffany is forever thankful for the friendships 17

that she built during her time in RLL and for the wonderful memories that she has shared with the admirable faculty of the department.

Alex Attilli (Class of 2022) She is a senior Political Science major with minors in both Spanish and Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS). She has worked as a research assistant for Dr. Benita Sampedro where she began writing her capstone project on Central American migration that she hopes to send out for publication. Alex currently works as an office assistant in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and as a Peer Teacher for Dr. Sampedro. She is also a Fellow at the Center for Civic Engagement and is heavily involved in Hofstra's UNICEF Club and the pre-law fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta. Her research interests include access to counsel in removal hearings, Central American migration, transnational violence, and human rights. In December this year, she was accepted to the Law School Program at the University of New Hampshire, and she hopes to continue working with these topics in Law School next fall.

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Selection of upcoming courses in Spring 2022

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@December 2021 RLL Newsletter prepared by Lynne Murray, Tatiana Grasmann, Alex Attilli, Pepa Anastasio and Benita Sampedro Vizcaya.

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