The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies
Announcements
"Portuguese Encounters" buffet at the Campus Club
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Campus Club West Wing Dining RoomThe menu for this buffet takes us around the Portuguese-speaking world and tastefully demonstrates how Portugal and its former colonies influenced each other's culinary traditions.
01/27/10Spring 2010 graduate courses with Prof. Amy Kaminsky
Professor Amy Kaminsky is a professor of Global Studies and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, and she is also a member of the graduate faculty of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. She specializes in Latin American literature and film, and she teaches and writes about them in relation to theories of sexuality, gender, race, and nation. Her teaching style is informal, and she encourages independent, courageous thinking. If you'd like to read an article she wrote about one of the movies we'll be discussing, click on this link: Garage Olimpo
12/15/09For Professor René Jara, who knew that books were about life, by Anya Achtenberg
A former student remembers our colleague René Jara
11/06/09Announcing Colloquium series and Conference on "Exhuming Bodies, Producing Knowledge: Collective Memory, Justice and Restitution in Contemporary Spain"
Exhuming Bodies, Producing Knowledge: Collective Memory, Justice and Restitution in Contemporary Spain
This Colloquium Series and International Conference will explore the role that the recent exhumations of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War and subsequent dictatorship have had in the emergence of the movement for the "recovery of historical memory" in Spain. At the beginning of the 21st century, over 30,000 bodies were still interred in mass graves throughout the country. Subsequently, the emergence of civic associations, created by ordinary citizens to undertake exhumations of these graves, has had an enormous impact on Spanish society. In part, the media impact of the exhumations has led to pressure to pass the "Law of Historical Memory" by the Spanish Congress in October 2007, a significant, if insufficient, step towards confronting the legacy of the war and dictatorship in contemporary Spanish society. We will analyze the multiple and complex relations between bodies and knowledge that arise in such exhumations and discuss their political, social, cultural and legal significance, in Spain and in other post-authoritarian or post-conflict settings.
For further information and updates to the Schedule of events, click here.All colloquiums from 3:30 - 5:00 in room 614 Social Science Building
October 30, 2009
Colloquium Topic: Cries and Whispers: Exhuming and Narrating Defeat in Spain Today by Francisco FerrándizDecember 11, 2009
Colloquium Topic: TBAJanuary 29, 2010
Colloquium Topic: TBAFebruary 26, 2010
Colloquium Topic: TBAMarch 26, 2010
Colloquium Topic: TBAApril 23-24, 2010 Room 101, University International Center
International Conference*Please read scheduled readings in advance of colloquium.
Conference and colloquiums are open to interested faculty, graduate students, and K-14 teachers.
This event is part of the Body and Knowing Symposium of the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota.
Sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, and the European Studies Consortium at the University of Minnesota, as well as the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Culture and US Universities.
10/14/09Graduate student milestones
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies extends its warmest congratulations to all graduate students who successfully completed exams this academic year!
05/15/09Chris Clark receives U of MN's President's Award for Outsanding Service!
Congratulations to Christopher Clark, our wonderful Folwell Hall building maintenance staff person, who has been awarded the University of Minnesota President's Award for Outstanding Service! This award recognizes exceptional service to the University, its schools, colleges, departments and service units by faculty and staff.
05/11/09
"This award recognizes exceptional service to the University, its schools, colleges, departments and service units by any active or retired member of the faculty or staff. Such service must have gone well beyond the regular duties of a faculty or a staff member, and demonstrate unusual commitment to the University community."
All of us in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies are thrilled on behalf of Chris Clark, and thank him for his part in making Folwell Hall the winner of this year's "Beautiful Building" award in Facililties Management as well. Thank you, Chris!Congratulations! Selmer Birkelo Scholarship for 2009-2010 awarded to two Spanish Studies majors
We would like to extend our warm congratulations to two of our department’s undergraduate students who were awarded the Selmer Birkelo Scholarship for 2009-2010. These students are Chelsey Rosetter (Spanish Studies major) and Elizabeth Troolin (Spanish Studies and Political Science double major). They were two of only fourteen students in CLA to receive this award! !Enhorabuena!
04/25/09
Founded in the 1960s, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, is widely recognized as a pioneer in the study of language, literature and, more broadly, cultural expressions from interdisciplinary perspectives grounded in socio-historical consciousness and political urgency. We offer B.A. degrees in Spanish and in Spanish and Portuguese; M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures, Hispanic Linguistics, and Lusophone Literatures and Cultures. Our faculty have strengths in the colonial, postcolonial and globalization triad; gender and sexuality studies; memory and witnessing; human rights; and border cultures. In Linguistics, our strengths are in the study of language in its context(s) with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to language contact, phonology, pragmatics, second language acquisition, sociolinguistics and syntax. At present we are undergoing an exciting moment of renovation and growth, and are looking forward to further enhancing both undergraduate and graduate learning experiences through a series of presentations, lectures, films, workshops, and opportunities for professional development and for community outreach.
The department also has strong institutional ties with important research communities across campus such as the Institute for Advanced Study, European Studies Consortium, CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition), Center for Medieval Studies, and ICGC (Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change).