Spanish@UTA

SPANISH@UTA Fall 2007, vol. 1, no. 1

Table of Contents

1. Editor’s Column, Fall 2007
2. Fall 2007 News Roundup: Sociedad Hispánica Back; Spanish Honor Society; Professor Wins Important Poetry Prize; Graduate Workshop
3. The Spanish Section of Modern Languages Welcomes Two New Faculty Members: Dr. Sonja Watson and Dr. Amy Austin
4. Broadening Perspectives: Business Spanish Courses at UTA Go Online
5. Getting to Know…Dr. Susan González-Baker, Director of the Center of Mexican American Studies at UT Arlington
6. The Sensational Fall Events and Activities of Delta Beta Kappa Spanish Honor Society
7. Meet our Adjunct Professors: Natalie Wagener, Supervisor of Spanish 1-4
8. Meet our Adjunct Professors: Dórica Rosado, Spanish for Heritage Speakers and Delta Beta Kappa
9. The Way We Were: Our Spanish Websites 10 Years Ago
10. UTA Student Andrew Gooding Teaches English in Spain
11. Let’s Meet Our Graduate Students: J.D. Stutler
12. Let’s Meet our Graduate Students: Catherine Ortiz
13. Study Abroad First Person: Neal Etzler on his Summer in Valladolid, Spain
14. Study Abroad First Person: “My Life in Cuernavaca, Mexico” by Sherry Brouillard

Welcome to the newsletter of the Spanish Section of the Department of Modern Languages at UTA! We’re excited about this our first issue and hope that this publication will continue to thrive in semesters to come. A publication like this is necessary because there are so many stories to tell about our excellent instructors, adjuncts, tenure-stream faculty and students.

There are a few different ways you can read this newsletter. You can just scroll down and see all articles arranged by date, you can use the categories tags on the column to your right or you can use the above table of contents, which has links to all articles in the first issue.

If you are looking for basic information about our Spanish program, please follow the UTA Spanish Home link on your right, under the heading blogroll.

SPANISH@UTA welcomes the contributions and help of any and all members of our community. If you have a story you want to tell or an event or group to publicize, please let us know. We also welcome comments on our stories. Just press on the comment tab on the bottom of any story and leave us your thoughts. Your comment will not appear immediately because we will screen them for spam.

–Editors (Dr. Amy Austin and Dr. Chris Conway)

Lear Dobbins-Moreno promotes La Sociedad Hispánica

Dr. Ignacio Ruiz-Pérez is the new faculty advisor for La Sociedad Hispánica. He has started a Sociedad website, and is planning a Day of the Dead activity as well as a film series. Students who want to share experiences, network, and get to know their professors more, are encouraged to participate in the Sociedad Hispánica.

Dórica Rosado is the advisor of the the Spanish Honor Society, Delta Betta Kappa. This group has been very active for almost three semesters. They have had many events, some fund-raisers and excellent field trips. The Society recently started a Facebook Group, and interested students should contact Ms. Rosado about joining the group.

The students enrolled in Dr. Conway’s SP3312 Internet class this fall had a very interesting experience. They were “phished.” Someone impersonating Dr. Conway sent emails to all enrolled students asking them for their NetIds and Passwords. Students are reminded that they are never to share this private information. No faculty member will ever ask them for it, or should.

On Monday October 15, the Department of Modern Languages hosted an informational meeting about its M.A. program. The event was a big success– many undergraduates came to find out about the challenging but rewarding experience of getting a Master’s in Spanish. Students who may be interested in getting a Master’s in Modern Languages with a focus in Spanish should talk to their professors and to Dr. Aimee Israel-Pelletier (the Departmental Graduate Advisor.)

The tenure-stream Spanish faculty are almost finished with the new M.A. reading list. The faculty are also developing a long-term rotation of graduate courses. This will be a great help to our graduate students.

Dr. Ignacio Ruiz-Pérez recently won another national poetry prize in Mexico, the Salvador Gallardo Dávalos Prize, which has resulted in the publication of his second book of poems in Mexico, Deslizamientos. Dr. Ruiz-Pérez is one of contemporary Mexico’s most talented rising poets and the Spanish section celebrates his achievements as a poet. He is the recipient of the national Alí Chumacero Prize (2000), the Premio Nacional de Poesía “José Gorostiza” (2004), and Premio Regional de Poesía “Rodulfo Figueroa” (2005). His poems are presently being translated into English and will soon be published by a University Press. Congratulations!

Dejanira Castillejos, a Spanish Major who wants to get her Master’s in Spanish, spent the summer working with Dr. Conway in the UTA Ronald McNair Program. Her research project was on the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, Modernismo and Gender. Students interested in graduate school are strongly encouraged to find out about the support that the Ronald McNair program at UTA can provide. Students get a monetary stipend and spend the summer taking seminars with faculty members and advisors and working with a specific mentor in their academic field. See bar on the right for a link to the McNair Program.

Spanish majors are encouraged to apply for the Litsey Scholarship. Go to Spanish homepage for more information.

The Telemundo Internship has been put temporarily on hold. We hope to have it back on track by Spring 2008.

The Spanish section of the Department of Modern Languages is delighted to introduce its two new additions to the tenure-stream faculty: Dr. Sonja Watson and Dr. Amy Austin.–Editors.

My name is Dr. Sonja Stephenson Watson and I am a new Assistant Professor of Spanish. I received my Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Tennessee in 2005 and mostly recently I completed a two-year Postdoctoral fellowship in Washington University in Saint Louis where I researched and taught Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Hispanic literature. Currently, I am working on a book-length project, The Cultural Politics of Race in Afro-Panamanian Discourse which traces the development of literary blackness in Panama from the nineteenth century to the present. Next semester I will be teaching two courses, the undergraduate course, SPAN 4313 Literatura y Cultura Afro-Caribeña Hispánica and the graduate course, SPAN 5313 La Diáspora Negra y la literatura Afro-Caribeña Hispánica. In both of these course we will be studying the literature, history, and culture of Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Panama. I look forward to meeting you in the future. Please stop by my office in Hammond Hall to discuss Afro-Hispanic literature!

Hi everybody, I am Dr. Amy Austin, one of the new Assistant Professors in the Spanish section. Since earning my Ph.D. at Emory University in Atlanta in 2007, I have spent the last 3 years in upstate New York as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Union College. My area of expertise is medieval and early modern peninsular literature, and I am currently working on a book-length project on the literary representations of convivencia (the interactions and inherent conflicts between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in medieval Iberia). This coming Spring I am excited to be teaching two literature courses in my area of specialization: Short Stories and Tall Tales of Medieval and Early Modern Spain (SPAN 4310) and Telling Stories and the Art of Medieval and Early Modern Fables (SPAN 5310). In these courses, we will read both moralizing and profane tales of love, sin, murder, miracles, and salvation from the 13th through the 17th century. I am looking forward to seeing all of you either in class or in the hallways. Please feel free to stop by my office and introduce yourself!

Broadening Perspectives: Business Spanish Courses at UTA Go Online
by José Tamez, adjunct professor of Spanish

The Spanish Section’s Business Spanish courses are experiencing exceptional growth. International Business Spanish Students who select Spanish as their language of focus are required to take two Spanish courses: Span4334 Culture and Globalization in the Hispanic World and Span4335 Business Spanish. Due to increased enrollment and the need for flexibility in course scheduling, Dr. Chris Conway and I secured University support to work with the Center for Distance Education at UTA to develop these courses as online courses. We had a fruitful summer working with Matt Crosslin, one of the only designers at the Center for Distance Education who is comfortable working with the Moodle Course Management System. Unlike WebCT, Moodle is a free Learning Management System for hosting online courses.

In the Fall, we launched the online version of Span4335 Business Spanish. In this course, students learn business terminology in Spanish and study cultural phenomena that affect how business is carried out in Spanish-speaking countries. This course is vital for anyone who desires to improve communication by expanding their Spanish lexicon and, when space is available, is open to Spanish majors.

Even more exciting is that Span4334 Culture and Globalization of the Hispanic World will transition online in Spring 2008. The flavor of this culture class is quite different because it touches on broader topics like history, politics and the economy. It makes students more sensitive in dealing with Hispanic businesswomen and men. A few components of this creative, online odyssey are: transcript interviews with business professionals, audio and video lectures, and group projects that connect students to the international business community.

Moreover, Americas 21, the Business Spanish Online News Magazine, was conceived in the Fall of 2007 as an integral part of Span4334 Culture and Economic Globalization in the Hispanic World. It is a resource that allows the global community to read about current events affecting the Spanish-speaking world through articles and news summaries written by UTA students enrolled in Span4334. Through Americas 21, students become informed, work together, and contribute to educating the general public.

Dr. Conway and I have been driven to make the Business Spanish courses exciting, rigorous and inspiring. While there may be some growing pains as we launch these new, online courses, preliminary feedback has been positive, and all teaching is always a work-in-progress. In closing, I’d like to say that we are also excited about creating more opportunities for non-International Business Spanish Majors to take SP4334 Culture and Globalization in the Hispanic World. Dr. Conway will be teaching an extra section of the course in the Spring semester to cover student demand among non-IBSP majors. Students are reminded, however, that internet classes, and in particular these internet classes, are very challenging. Our courses require a high level of command of Spanish.

It’s important that our Spanish students be familiar with faculty at UT Arlington that work in the field of Latin American, Spanish and Latino Studies. In that spirit, we asked Dr. Susan González Baker, the Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at UT Arlington to introduce herself to our community. –Editors.

Hi Spanish students at UTA! My current research areas include Mexican migration to the United States, gender and ethnicity in U.S. labor markets, social and economic inequality, and public policy. I teach Introduction to Sociology (the introductory course in the Sociology program), Demography (an upcoming course in population studies in the Sociology program-Spring 09), and Mexican American Studies (an interdisciplinary course on The Latina Experience that covers everything from cultural concepts of femininity and machismo, to Latina health and education issues, to Latinas in the arts). CMAS sponsors a great deal of student programming, and oversees an academic minor in Mexican American Studies.

In my own research on Mexican immigration to the United States, I’ve focused on public policy options to cope with undocumented immigration and on undocumented immigrants in U.S. labor markets. I’ve also done research on the demographic profiles of poverty and homelessness in the United States, with particular attention to race/ethnic profiles of the homeless population and the interactions between the homeless and various public and private agencies. Some of my publications include a monograph on U.S. immigration policy entitled The Cautious Welcome, published by the Urban Institute Press, a textbook on race/ethnic relations entitled Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, published by Allyn and Bacon, and such scholarly articles as “Criminality and Homeless Men: An Empirical Assessment” and “The Myth of Pervasive Mental Illness among the Homeless” appearing in Social Problems, “Implementing the U.S. Legalization Program: The Influence of Immigrant Communities and Local Agencies on Immigration Policy Reform” and “The Amnesty Aftermath: Current Policy Issues Stemming from the Legalization Programs of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act” appearing in International Migration Review, “Gender, Ethnicity, and Homelessness: Accounting for Demographic Diversity on the Streets” in American Behavioral Scientist, and “Explaining the Surge in Citizenship Applications in the 1990s: Lawful Permanent Residents in Texas” and “From Latin American Immigrant to Hispanic Citizen: The Role of Social Capital in Seeking U.S. Citizenship” appearing in Social Science Quarterly.

Strictly at the professional level, my career has been incredibly rewarding. But it’s been more than that. I was raised in a family with a strong ambition toward education and respect for education, especially among those like my grandparents, who never had the opportunity to study beyond elementary school. It pains and angers me greatly when Latinos are described as having “less commitment” to education than other racial or ethnic groups. It simply isn’t true. At the Center for Mexican American Studies, we see the determination of Latino students to honor their culture, make their families proud, and devote themselves to their own academic excellence. We see it every day. Our coursework is often the first opportunity that students have to study their own culture and contributions to the world from a scholarly point of view. We encourage you to visit our center, join one of the many student organizations we sponsor, get involved in our student programming, and, of course, be a part of the Latino scholarly world through our courses!

In the past year, the Spanish Section of Modern Languages has seen the appearance of Delta Beta Kappa: La Asociación Honoraria de Español, a group that is advised by Prof. Dórica Rosado, and which has been hosting some wonderful events and excursions. DBK has a Facebook page on the UTA network and will soon have a page on the Spanish Section Webpage. The group meets every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month at noon in Trimble Hall 218. Recently, Prof. Rosado let us know about the group’s recent activities. We hope that DBK members will send us photographs of some of these exciting activities. –Editors.

• On September 12th we had our first successful meeting. Students expressed their interest in having a Spanish Honor Society. They suggested to have festivals, cultural events, debates, field trips, guest speakers and hispanic films.
• On October 3rd , Dr. A. Raymond Elliott, our Department Chair, was our first guest speaker. He gave us information about the Department of Modern Languages Study Abroad programs and Graduate Studies.
• On October 10th, we had our first Bake Sale!!! Thanks to your support the event was atotal success. Students enjoyed the experience and are planning to have another one soon.
• On October 17th, in the general meeting, all the students that worked in the sale were awarded with a mini-radio and headphones. T-shirts are coming!!!!
• On October 27th, was our first Field Trip to Univision. As part of our Career information goal, the students had the opportunity to see a presentation of Univision- international level, national, and local level operations. They gave us all Univision baseball caps!
• These week we are going to offer our support to the Sociedad Hispánica and their Día de los Muertos activity and we will coordinate the T-shirt design contest.
• On November 26th will be our last general meeting of the semester. Is going to be a cultural event, with food, music and a dance from a bolivian folklore dance group we will announce the t-shirt design winner.

There are more activities to come! To join us contact Prof. Rosado-Davis at drosado@uta.edu.

Hi Spanish students at UTA! My name is Natalie S. Wagener. I’m an adjunct in the Spanish Section of Modern Languages and Supervisor of Lower-Level Spanish. I oversee all aspects of Spanish I-IV—that means scheduling and assigning classes, dealing with student concerns, and making adjustments to the program as needed. I’m originally from Brooklyn and Long Island, N.Y. My first language is Russian. I started studying Spanish in junior high and continued studying Russian at St. Sergius Academy in Manhattan.After two years in the Army, I attended Florida State University before moving to Texas. I worked for ten years as a data processing manager for a Dallas company before entering UTA. I’ve also studied in Mexico. I usually teach four to five classes of lower-level Spanish each semester. In the summer I teach a full intensive – a class which allows students to complete all their lower-level language credits in two 5-week sessions.

I think teaching Spanish at UTA is the best job in the world because I get to be present as students develop their ability to express themselves in a language whose importance is growing daily.

My name is Dórica Isabelle Rosado-Davis. I’m from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I received a B.A. in Secondary Education from the University of Puerto Rico, graduating Cum Laude in 1990. Worked in the use of the recreation as an educational resource in schools and government programs for few years. Then in 1993, the best thing happened to me, I won a scholarship to study abroad at WLRA International Centre of Excellence (WICE) at Leeuwarden, The Netherlands where I received a diploma in advanced studies in Leisure Education (M.A. equivalent) and a B.A. in International Leisure Studies from Christelijke Hogeschool Noord-Nederland. I had the amazing opportunity to do my internship in El Conquistador Beach Resort in Puerto Rico, coordinating the children program.

After the internship I moved to College Station, Texas, where I worked as a Kindergarten teacher for the BISD while coordinating their Bilingual Education Program. Then I decided to do a M.A. in Modern Languages and Spanish Linguistics from Texas A & M University. I studied at night while working full time during the day. I received a certification as an Early Childhood Language Intervention Coordinator and after my graduation from Texas A & M in College Station, I went to St. Petersburg, Russia to work for the Anglo-American School (U.S. Consulate), teaching Spanish and English as a Second Language.

A year later I was invited to work in Texas A & M University as a lecturer. At the same time I helped to coordinate the Spanish Program for St. Joseph’s Catholic High School. In 2001 I was hired by the University of Texas at Arlington as an instructor of lower-level Spanish courses and in 2002 was promoted to Adjunct Professor. In 2003 I was selected to be an Honorary member of the Golden Key Honor Society.

Some webpages are forever, thanks to “The Wayback Machine“, a project that is trying to archive billions of webpages for posterity. Recently, I decided to go down memory lane and find out if our old Spanish section websites had been captured by the project. I was happy to see our earliest faculty pages up, including this 1999 page with photos and bios of the Spanish faculty. As you can see, the list of professors is quite different than the one we have today. Dating back to 1998, we find Dr. Matthew Wyszynski’s SPAN4334 Culture of Business Website and an article that we reprinted from The Shorthorn about a visit to the campus by a talented Cuban poet, Raúl Mesa.

The earliest captures of the Department of Modern Languages (then called “Foreign” Languages) date to 1996. The Language Acquisition Center was in charge of the Department webpages at first but then, starting in 1999, individual faculty members began developing section webpages. I am proud to say that I was the first Spanish webmaster back in those days, and later Dr. Pablo Pastrana took over that responsibility. In terms of Spanish course webpages designed by UTA faculty, the first ones to appear in 1997 were my SPAN 3312 Latin American Culture page, and two courses prepared by Dr. Matthew Wyszynski: SPAN3318 Selected Readings and SPAN 4334 Culture of business.