Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies Newsletter
Letter from the Chair
Dear Friends, Since I arrived at the University of Minnesota in 2005, I am continually impressed by the growing energy, sense of purpose, commitment, and enthusiasm that members of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies display. Working together, we are substantially enhancing the quality of the academic experience for all students. I would like to briefly share with you some of our accomplishments in the 2007-08 academic year, highlighting in particular our undergraduate program.We were able to launch several initiatives that will have a decisive and lasting impact in our department. The first, which I already mentioned in our first issue of Connecting Cultures, is to guide what we teach under "Spanish and Portuguese" by the notion that these are world languages, reflecting a diversity of histories and cultures in several parts of the world, including immigrant communities and their descendants. This calls for comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives, to which faculty are committed in their research and teaching. So as to ensure that our students are introduced as early as possible to the new broad and integrative philosophy of our department, the new undergraduate program director, Ofelia Ferrán, received a grant to re-design our Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Culture course--a team effort involving faculty, teaching staff, student representatives, and technological support staff. An even greater and unprecedented mobilization of all teachers in the department is involved in the Writing Enriched Curriculum project, for which our department was selected as model for the foreign languages to more effectively integrate writing in all courses. In addition, we have actively sought more opportunities for our students to engage with the Hispanic communities, as interns in a variety of voluntary service-learning settings where they are able to speak Spanish. Lastly, I must mention that we have undertaken the judicious evaluations of study abroad programs that our majors and minors attend, to ensure the quality of instruction, the research and writing components of upper-division courses, and the better integration of study abroad courses with our own. Students themselves actively contribute to their experiences in the department. For example, the undergraduate Spanish and Portuguese Across Cultures Organization (SPACO) has sponsored culinary classes, a salsa dance class, and conversation hours every week at a local coffee shop. We continue to grow our relationship with Casa de Español, a learning-living community of students living in Sanford Hall, thanks to Emily Smith, the student rep on Undergraduate Studies Committee. The department also sponsored a movie series, "Ciclo de Cine," hosted by graduate students for undergraduate students each month, featuring recent Latin American and Spanish films. A Cine Club was also created last spring to maintain the productive and pleasant dialogue between alumni, faculty, and teaching staff begun at our very successful alumni reunion in April 2008. What this all adds up to is a continually evolving community of students and scholars who are striving to help each other learn and experience the best that Spanish and Portuguese studies have to offer. I fully expect that by the time I write my next greeting to you we will have even more new and exciting activities and improvements under way. This is what is so fantastic about being a liberal arts department in a large, public university: we can be simultaneously global and intimate, research-driven and experiential.I welcome your involvement and input as well! Our alumni routinely share their experiences of Spanish and Portuguese in the greater world, to the benefit of our students. If you have a story to share, or would like to support the work of our students, please contact me.Con mis mejores saludos, Com as minhas melhores saudações,Ana Paula Ferreira, chairapferrei@umn.edu
02/11/09
