UW-Madison Department of Spanish and Portuguese November '24 Newsletter by UWMadisonSpanPort

I N C O M I N G G R A D U A T E S T U D E N T S

EVENTS

Fall

Guest Speakers

STUDENT NEWS

Highlights

Conferences

FACULTY NEWS

Sarli Mercado

Awards

Events

Publications

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Will Risley was a passionate reader of Spanish literature and shared this passion throughout Van Hise’s classrooms, as well as its corridors. He could talk endlessly about the works of the nineteenth-century writer Benito Pérez Galdós and the novels of the Spanish Civil War. Among these, his favorite was Réquiem por un campesino español by Ramón Sender. Will was a friendly and supportive mentor to his younger colleagues in the Modern Peninsular section, and his gregarious nature enriched the social life of our entire department. A joyful conversationalist, everyone who knew him fondly remembers him standing at his or a colleague’s office door, joking and laughing. Time seemed to pass so quickly, and his retirement came as a surprise to many of us. He seemed so young! He expressed a desire to spend more time with his family, and he did, while still finding time to stay connected with his former colleagues and friends, sharing readings, and offering heartfelt congratulations as we advanced in our careers. We will miss him deeply and will forever remember his generous, convivial spirit and the warm, engaging way he made us all feel at home in our department.

With a shared passion for language, culture, and learning, we ’ re looking forward to an exciting and productive year ahead. Together, we will continue to create a dynamic environment for academic and personal growth. Here’s to an amazing year filled with opportunities to learn and grow!

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese recently hosted an inspiring "Welcome Meeting," bringing together faculty, staff, returning students, and new graduate students. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our aspirations for the year ahead and celebrate the strong sense of community that makes our department so special.

Faculty, staff, students, and friends of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon of food, music, and conversation, celebrating the strong sense of community that makes our department so special.

Please join us in congratulating our three PhD graduates!

We also had three students pass their prelims!

Sara Rodriguez Enrique Larrea Quiroz

Avery Puskas

Denise Oyuki Castillo

Brandon Goodale

Ruth Llana Fernandez

UW-Madison represented at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. October 17-19 in Omaha, Nebraska

Brandon and Carlos, of course, received their doctorates in Spanish Linguistics from UW-Madison. Dr. Simonsen received both his bachelors and his masters in Spanish from UW-Madison. This might be fun to include because of all of the ties to our department and HLS being such a prestigious conference in our field. Everyone in the picture was also accepted for a presentation.

Avery and Emily, current graduate students, presented "Exposure, Motivation, Context of Learning and L2 Spanish Rhotic Development", which is a project that we have been working on with Dr. Rao. Kiley, another of our current graduates, presented "Analyzing the gap in mood choice of L1 and advanced L2 Spanish speakers with expressions of emotion in the past tense".

From left to right: Dr. Brandon Goodale, Dr. Carlos Rojas, Kiley Specht, Avery Puskas, Dr. Russell Simonsen, Emily Koshollek

Congratulations to Sarli Mercado on becoming a Full Teaching Professor!

Congratulations

The Fulbright Specialist Program connects highly qualified US academics and professionals with institutions abroad to share expertise, strengthen partnerships, and gain international experience. Specialists are selected for their knowledge and ability to contribute to projects in over 150 countries. Professor Rao will work on a project at Central University of Rajasthan in India, aiming to foster knowledge exchange and establish partnerships through educational and training activities in Anthropology.

Each year, over 400 US experts, like Professor Rao, participate in the program, which promotes academic and professional collaboration between US and foreign institutions. Congratulations, Rajiv, and enjoy this exceptional academic experience!

Congratulations

The Department of Spanish & Portuguese would like to congratulate Professor Paola Hernández, who has been selected as the incoming Editor of Latin American Theatre Review (LATR), one of the most prestigious journals in the field of Theatre. The LATR is an internationally-known academic journal in the field of Latin American and Latiné theatre and performance studies. Widely known and utilized by scholars across the world, LATR is by all accounts the premiere US-based journal in the field that publishes in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. This is a remarkable achievement and a testament to Professor Hernández’s outstanding contributions to the discipline.

Welcome

The Department of Spanish & Portuguese would like to welcome William J. Morgan as the new Director of the Spanish Language Program. Will is a language education specialist with an emphasis on curriculum design, teacher training, and mixedmethods research. He joins us with more than 11 years of experience facilitating enriching learning experiences in domestic and international contexts.

New

Translations

Professor Ksenija Bilbija spent her summer working on four new translations translations (Spanish to Serbian). Check them out at the links below!

Pilar Quintana La perra

José Donoso Tres Novelitas Burguesas

Buntovnice s Razlogom (Rebels with a Cause: Anthology of New Spanish American Women’s Writing)

Luisa Valenzuela, Cambio de armas

On September 23rd, faculty member Kata Beilin presented Maya Land: Listening to the Bees at Yale University. She also participated in a Seminar on Human Rights with the focus on Posthumanities at the University of Minneapolis on October 9th where she gave a talk titled "Posthumanismo Decolonial: Hacia los modelos mayas de ser y saber,”. At this event Kata was able to meet two alumni of our department, Oscar Perez, now dean of humanities in Skidmore College, and Natalie Belisle, now Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Guillermina De Ferrari gave a talk on Cuban art and the politics of hospitality at Brown University. She also participated in the presentations of two books: Esther Whitfield’s A New No Man’s Land: Writing at Art and Guantanamo, at Brown University, and Emily Maguire’s Tropical Time Machines: Science Fiction in the Contemporary Spanish Caribbean, at Northwestern University.

Professor Rubén Medina has had a very busy semester!

June 23, he gave a book presentation of Darío Galicia's The Science of Sadness , which he translated into English with Lázaro B. Medina. The presentation was held in Mexico City at the Palace of Fine Arts. This event began the week-long activities of the LGBTIQ+ community in Mexico City.

September 28, Rubén gave a poetry reading at the National Museum of Mexican Art for the closing of the ECOS Chicago Latine Poetry Festival.

October 12, he presented a bilingual poetry reading in Las Vegas at the Winchester Cultural Center.