Spanish@UTA

Dr Amy Austin

Dr. Amy Austin was accepted to participate in the National Endowment of the Humanities Summer Institute entitled “The Medieval Mediterranean and the Emergence of the West.” This four-week seminar in Barcelona will bring together scholars from across disciplines to reassess the role of medieval Europe in the emergence of the modern world. With the help of the NEH summer institute grant, she aims to enhance the archival research on her book-length project, In Other Words: Images and Spaces of Convivencia in Medieval Iberia. This is a comparative study that proposes a redefinition of the debated notion of the three-culture convivencia through an examination of how the processes of translatio in the works of Catalan author, philosopher, and theologian Ramon Llull (1232-1316?) inform the readings of canonical and peripheral texts of medieval Iberia. In October 2007, Dr. Austin presented a paper at the Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature in Madison, Wisconsin entitled “Love of Language as the Language of Love in the Libro de buen amor.”

Dr. Chris Conway

As of the end of the Spring semester of 2008, Dr. Chris Conway is stepping down as coordinator of the Spanish section. Dr. Jinny Choi will be coordinator of the Spanish program as of the Fall of 2008. But when one door closes, another opens: Dr. Conway was named co-chair of the UT Arlington One Book program. His responsibilities as faculty co-chair begin in the Summer of 2008. In conjunction with Dr. Dawn Remmers, Dr. Conway will oversee the selection of the book that all incoming first year students will read in English 1301, and design university wide programming in support of the yearly theme of the One Book program. In March Dr. Conway presented a scholarly paper titled “The Most Dangerous Dance: The Reception of the Can-Can in Nineteenth-Century Mexico” at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Romance Languages Conference.

Dr. Sonia Kania

Dr. Sonia Kania will be participating in a roundtable discussion, “Resources for Teaching the History of the Spanish Language,” at the 43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 8-11, 2008. Dr. Kania’s article “A linguistic analysis of Part 1 of the Probanza de méritos of Vicente de Zaldívar (1601-1602)” has been accepted by the Southwest Journal of Linguistics and will appear in the June 2008 issue (Vol. 27, No. 1). Her work editing the Probanza de méritos, a 134-folio document from 1600-1602 written in Mexico and New Mexico, is part of the larger Cíbola Project, which is concerned with the edition and publication of documents of the Hispanic Southwest from the 16th-18th centuries.

Dr. Alicia Rueda Acedo

Dr. Alicia Rueda Acedo is very pleased to have been awarded a Faculty Development Leave. She has decided to take the Spring of 2009 to complete a scholarly monograph entitled Crossing Borders from Non-fiction to Fiction and from Mexico to Spain: Journalism and Literature in the Writing of Elena Poniatowska and Rosa Montero. Her study examines the relationship between the journalistic and literary work of two female writers/journalists from Spain and Mexico: Elena Poniatowska and Rosa Montero. In their writings, both Montero and Poniatowska explore cultural repression, identity, politics and gender roles. In particular, both writers utilize a distinct combination of journalism and fiction to create new spaces for women’s voices and experiences to be situated prominently in their nations’ historical narratives. She analyzes Poniatowska and Montero’s works from the perspectives of both gender and genre studies. In her book, she extends the notion of genre from its literary tradition and applies it to journalistic production. Each of the chapters of her book rethinks and revises the concept of literary genres by arguing for the inclusion of journalistic genres such as the interview and the chronicle within the category of ‘literature’. She examines how Poniatowska and Montero pay homage to women that have influenced History. By means of interpreting and subverting patriarchal models, they draw attention to the ways in which women have engaged with Mexican or Spanish history.

Dr. Georgia Seminet

Dr. Georgia Seminet works in the area of Modern Latin American Literature. This academic year she has published an article in Hispania, “Positioned Between Limits and Desire: National Reality vs. National Romance in Mal de Amores,” and has had an article on teaching Latin American Literature and globalization accepted for publication in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. For the fall of 2008 and spring 2009, Dr. Seminet has been awarded a Faculty Development Leave to complete a book tentatively entitled “Insanity,Chaos and Madness as Metaphors for Globalization in Latin American Narrative.”

Dr. Sonja Watson

With the help of the Research Enhancement Program grant, during the summer of 2009 Dr. Watson will conduct research in Panama City, Panama on the role of women writers of African descent in the development of Afro-Panamanian national identity. In The Cultural Politics of Race in Afro-Panamanian Discourse, the working title of the larger project, she argues that the cultural and linguistic distinctions between Afro-Hispanics and Afro-Caribbeans and the overt national discrimination directed towards the latter, have divided the two populations among cultural and linguistic lines despite their common African heritage. More specifically, she explores the formation of Afro-Panamanian identity by examining the literature of Afro-Hispanics, Spanish-speaking blacks who came as slaves to the Isthmus, and English-speaking Afro-Caribbeans, West Indian immigrants who migrated to work on the Trans-isthmian Railroad (1850-1855) and Panama Canal (1903-1914). To date, no one has published a book-length manuscript on the development of Afro-Panamanian discourse. Her study will fill a void in the field of Hispanic, Caribbean, and Diaspora Studies.

It’s a pleasure to introduce myself to the Spanish students at UTA. I am an anthropologist whose research interests revolve around the themes of globalization, immigrant labor, Latino studies, and Mexican migration to the U.S. I teach in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS). Some of my undergraduate courses include Anthropology of Globalization, Anthropology of Migration, Latinos in the United States, Introduction to Mexican American Studies, and Capstone in Mexican American Studies, the last course that students who minor in Mexican American Studies take before graduating.

Because of my own personal trajectory and family history, and the fact I have lived in three countries –Spain, Mexico, and the US– I am particularly interested in the field of immigration studies, especially on the experiences, struggles, and political mobilization of Mexican and other Latino immigrants in the United States. My book Janitors, Street Vendors and Activists: The Lives of Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley (University of California Press, 2006), discusses why and how the industries of high-tech Silicon Valley employs undocumented immigrants, and how these workers respond to their segregation to the bottom of the social structure in this affluent region. I have been fortunate to disseminate my work about Mexican immigrants in the United States in scholarly journals and books both in the US and Mexico. I have extensively written about the structural contradictions in our society that, on the one hand, acknowledges and benefits from Mexican immigrants as hard and productive workers while, on the other hand, it creates laws that punish and make the lives of these workers and their families as harsh as possible. I have also written about how undocumented immigrants challenge these laws and seek to gain acceptance and recognition as legitimate members of a society to which they contribute with their labor. For example, recently I published the chapter “Political Mobilization and Activism Among Latinos/as in the United States” in the book Latinas/os in the United States: Changing the Face of America (Springer 2008), where I discuss the mass mobilizations in favor of the legalization of undocumented immigrants that took place across the US in the spring of 2006, and which I argue signal the emergence of a new civil rights movement on behalf of all immigrants who work and live in this country.

One of my best rewards teaching at UTA is to work with Latino students from diverse origins, cultural backgrounds, and majors. I am especially proud of contributing to the education of Latino students who are the first generation in their families going to college, and who serve as role models in their families and community. I am also happy to see the increasing interest by Latino and non-Latino students alike in learning about the history, culture, and contributions of Mexican Americans and other Latino populations in the US. At the Center for Mexican American Studies we are genuinely committed to support the educational opportunities of our Latino students. In addition, we offer a warm social environment where students can interact, socialize, and become involved with Latino student organizations in campus as well as outreach community activities. I invite you to come visit us and learn about our course offerings, the minor in Mexican American Studies, and the varied social and community activities we sponsor at the Center.

Is it hard to be retired? Judge for yourself: Dr. Elizabeth Ordoñez taking a break in Taormina, Sicily

For over 20 years, Dr. Elizabeth Ordoñez taught Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages, touching and changing lives through her passionate teaching and kind collegiality. Although Dr. Ordoñez is now retired to Colorado, where she lives with her husband Guido, her colleagues at UT Arlington remember her fondly. I am delighted to present the following, recent interview with her for her old friends and for members of the UTA community who are curious about “the way things were” in our department when Dr. Ordoñez taught with us. But first, some context:

Dr. Elizabeth Ordoñez is the author of many ground-breaking articles on Spanish women writers and the book Voices of Their Own: Contemporary Spanish Narrative by Women (1991) as well as one of the foremost authorities on ethnic women’s writing, specifically Chicana literature. Dr. Ordoñez published over 35 articles during her career, including articles that have appeared in some of the field’s most prestigious journals such as Letras Femeninas, the Journal of Spanish Studies, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, and Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea. Moreover, Professor Ordoñez has presented her research at over 50 different academic conferences and venues around the U.S. and the world. Her articles have also appeared in ground-breaking anthologies of cultural criticism that mapped out the field of gender studies in the Spanish-speaking world and the U.S., including Hernan Vidal’s Cultural and Historical Grounding for Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Feminist Literary Criticism (1989), In the Feminine Mode: Essays on Hispanic Women Writers Ed. by Noel M. Valis and Carol Maier (1990), and Chicana (W)rites on Word and Film Ed. by María Herrera-Sobek and Helena María Viramontes (1995) also contributed to her ongoing visibility as one of the leading figures in feminist and feminist ethnic literary studies.

At UTA, Dr. Ordoñez taught all levels of Spanish, as well as Chicano literature, Women’s Literature and Modern Spanish literature. For several years she served as Coordinator of the Spanish Section and also was Chair of the Department of Modern Languages.

I feel privileged to have had such a distinguished scholar and wonderful teacher as my colleague in the late 90’s. Wherever I went, when colleagues in the field met me and heard that I taught at UTA, they would often ask: “Doesn’t Elizabeth Ordoñez teach there?” Well, as far as all of us in Modern Languages are concerned, Elizabeth will always teach with us! –Christopher Conway

A Visit with Our Friend and Colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Ordoñez

1. How did you become interested in becoming a professor of Spanish?

Becoming a professor of Spanish was the result of a life-long love affair with the language, cultures, and peoples of the Spanish speaking world. I suppose it goes back to when my parents were enrolled in adult education classes in Spanish, and I went along for the ride. I picked up a small vocabulary by listening in at the back of the class and then, a few years later when I had begun my own study of Spanish in Middle School, I went on to win a trophy in identification at a regional modern language field day. Also in those days, photo journalists visited local college campuses with their travelogues, or “armchair adventures” as they were called. My parents and I were armchair adventure groupies, so I dreamt then of joining up with those beguiling story-tellers and crafters of alluring images. Those early experiences seduced me, and the rest, as they say, is history. I just kept piling on degrees in Spanish because that was what I loved doing. When a late graduate professor of mine at UCLA advised me (in words unquotable here for their lack of political correctness) that as a woman my career prospects were slim to nil, I replied, unfazed, “this is what I want to do, and even if no one hires me, I’ll do it anyway!”

2. When did you arrive at UTA, and how did you see it change over the years?

I began my career at UTA in 1979. I suppose the kindest thing to say about UTA and the Department was that both were beginning their “transitions to excellence.” As you know, UTA has evolved over the years from a modest teaching institution into an increasingly important component of the University of Texas system. When I arrived, I was part of a new generation of young scholars who expected to “publish or perish.” Unfortunately, the institution was not yet sufficiently prepared to vigorously support these goals. There was little in the way of research leaves or reduced teaching loads. Assistant professors were under pressure to “do it all.” Fortunately, with youthful energy and enthusiasm, that wasn’t so hard to do.

3. Could you give us a snapshot view of the Spanish faculty in the 1980s, and what the Spanish section was like?

In the 1980s our growing pains as a section began. I was the only junior faculty member, so sometimes I felt isolated personally and academically. But my senior colleagues were generally welcoming and kind. I worked most closely with Professors Sanchez and Studerus and came to see the three of us as a sort of pandilla who did most of the academic heavy lifting and section leadership. With Professor Viña, who was also very helpful, we loved to go out for lunch together. We did that a lot, at least until the dietary restrictions of advancing age crimped our style.

4. As a professor at UTA, what were your favorite classes to teach and why?

My favorite classes were literature courses in areas that complemented my research projects. There is hardly a greater pleasure in our field than the exhilaration of sharing emerging ideas with students and receiving their illuminating and critical insights. My work in contemporary Spanish women’s narrative, Chicano literature, nineteenth century Spanish literature, and theory all benefited from such exciting and fruitful cross-fertilization.

5. Could you share one special memory of your years at UTA?

I’m afraid I hung around UTA too long to be able to single out only one special memory. My recollections are like a collage, but what stands out in bas-relief are conversations: lively classroom discussions as well as the occasional deadbeat class hour; putting my head together with colleagues’ to develop new courses or simply to grouse about administrative pressures; conversations about literature with colleagues at the copy machine or at lunch and confessional conversations with my feminist reading group; bobbing in the ebb and flow of words around our dinner table with colleagues who became life-long friends.

Overall, I remember a rich and satisfying career at UTA in a department where I was able to “do what I wanted to do,” as I declared long ago to that faculty advisor at UCLA. In fact, as I count my blessings in this beautiful place I now call home, I’m especially glad that I spent most of my working life at UTA. In Texas, I could devote most of my energies to professional development without the distractions of ubiquitous ski slopes and hiking trails. And now I don’t have bum knees from decades of over skiing.

6. What have you been up to since leaving UTA?

Since leaving UTA in 2001, I worked as Chair of Modern Languages at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. In 2004, I left that post to become a traveler, skier, and hiker. Since the end of my “second career,” I’ve traveled in Sardinia, Ireland, Chile, Argentina, Sicily, Spain, Morocco, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. I’m presently putting the finishing touches on an itinerary to Turkey. When not planning a trip, traveling or writing about it, you can usually find me at high altitudes. On the side, I try to make myself useful with a few political, community and charitable projects.

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!

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!

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.