RLL NewsRLL NewsThe Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida

Issue no. 7, Spring 2002

J Killer & X Moors, Editors / G C Nichols, General Editor

In this Issue

Department News and Announcements ............................................................2J. Wayne Conner Memorial Fund .....................................................................3Alfonsina Lorenzi Memorial Scholarship Fund ..................................................3RLL Foundation Fund 2000 ...............................................................................3Alumni/ae News ................................................................................................4New & Newest Faculty ......................................................................................5RLL Study Abroad Programs ............................................................................6RLL Staff ...........................................................................................................6From the Undergraduate Coordinators..............................................................7From the Graduate Coordinators ......................................................................8Sigma Delta Pi (Hispanic Honor Society) .........................................................8“A Rio Diary” by Libby Ginway ........................................................................10RLL Faculty News ...........................................................................................10

Dear alumni and friends of RLL,This Newsletter should reach you

early in 2002, and so I take this oppor-tunity to send you warmest wishes, onbehalf of faculty, staff and students inRomance Languages, for a peacefulyear in 2002.

This year has been difficult at theUniversity of Florida. The ghastlyevents of September 11 cast a pall overthe campus that reminded longtimersof the student murders of 1990. Teach-ers and students may have beenequally shaken, but helping the under-graduates to cope was of primary con-cern in the department. Because lan-guage classes are never larger than25, RLL faculty and TAs are often theonly teachers at UF who know a givenstudent’s name, and thus we felt a par-ticular responsibility to offer our stu-dents whatever help we could.

The recession deepened after Sep-tember, and tourist income plummeted;recent cuts in education funding havebeen substantial. We had hoped to hirefour new professors this year, but bud-get cuts prompted a hiring freeze, andwe will have to get by with our currentfaculty. This gives us an extra year todote on three newly-arrived assistantprofessors: Rori Bloom, Gillian Lord,and Andrew Lynch. Dr. Lord joins

Theresa Antes and Joaquim Camps inour applied linguistics group; with threespecialists on hand, RLL is well on theway to becoming as a center of excel-lence in this highly sought-after field.

Higher education has been dramati-cally restructured in Florida since lastwe spoke. Each university now has aBoard of Trustees, while the state-levelBoard of Regents has been abolished.It isn’t entirely clear how this changewill affect UF, but we are at last in thecompetent hands of a “permanent”rather than interim higher administra-tion. This includes a new Dean of Lib-eral Arts and Science, Neil Sullivan,who has been a great supporter of thehumanities.

Last year RLL reaped the first fruitsof changes made in our PhD programsduring my first year as Chair, designedto streamline the path to the degree.We had the largest number of PhDgraduates in our history: six in Span-ish, and one in French. MA graduateswere at record levels as well: eleven inSpanish, six in French. Sixteen newgraduate students entered in Fall 01 (12in Spanish, 4 in French), including onePresidential and two Alumni Scholars.Majors are holding steady in French(72), Spanish (124) and Portuguese(6), but Spanish minors have skyrock-

eted (c. 240).Our studyabroad pro-grams in Rio,Rome andP r o v e n c ehad a bannersummer in2001, and weinaugurateda new pro-gram in Se-ville. In Sum-mer 2002, wewill add another in Santander (Spain).

It’s gratifying to report the great suc-cess achieved by our innovative For-eign Languages Across the Curriculum(FLAC) program, started with a USDepartment of Education grant in 1995(see article elsewhere in Newsletter).We can’t keep up with student demandfor the courses! The Warrington Col-lege of Business, the Center for LatinAmerican Studies, and the nascentEuropean Studies Program have allmade RLL’s FLAC courses a corner-stone of recent grant proposals.

Let me applaud a few more standoutachievements by RLL faculty: ShifraArmon’s successful bid for tenure andpromotion to Associate Professor;Carol Murphy’s receipt of the PalmesAcadémiques from the French govern-ment, for significant contributions to thediffusion of French culture; DavidPharies’ direction and edition of a newversion of the University of ChicagoSpanish-English dictionary; my electionas President of the Association of De-partments of Foreign Languages (anorganization affiliated with the ModernLanguage Association); ReynaldoJiménez’s conclusion of a highly suc-cessful three-year term as Chief Fac-ulty Reader for the Spanish AdvancedPlacement Exam; the publication of

Continued on page 15

RLL News

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Terry McCoy and Carmen Cañete);“Mexican Cultural Icons” (Dr. EfraínBarradas and José Ignacio González);“World Music Ensemble: Jacaré Bra-zil” (Dr. Larry Crook and Dr. LibbyGinway); “Business and Economics inLatin America” (Dr. Doug Waldo andDiana Serrano); “Spain and the Euro-pean Union” (Dr. Leann Brown andMaría Guerrero); “U.S.-Latin AmericanCultural Relations” (Dr. AlejandraBronfman and Dr. Greg Moreland).

New Course: SPN 2440, “Interme-diate Spanish for Business”

Dr. GregMoreland, RLL’sLiaison with theCenter for Inter-national Busi-ness Educationand Research(CIBER), devel-oped andt a u g h t — w i t hCIBER fund-ing—a newcourse aimed at

expanding the department’s presencein the growing field of languages forthe professions. SPN 2440 made itsdebut in Summer A, 2001. Ten stu-dents enrolled in this successful initialsection. Summer 2002 will see it be-ing offered as part of the department’snew Study Abroad Program inSantander, Spain.

The Teaching Support GroupOrganized by Spanish lecturer Kathy

Dwyer-Navajas, is an on-going forumfor discussing ideological, method-ological and institutional issues relatedto teaching. For many of us the class-room is a place of dynamic transfor-mation where people form a provi-sional community that fosters or hin-ders learning in many different ways.Both students and teachers strive (ordon’t), both encounter obstacles, bothdevelop their resources and discovertheir limits for overcoming those ob-stacles. The classroom is a place ofhard intellectual and emotional work,because every person in the roombrings his/her own history, experience,and expectations to that encounter, and

FRENCHThe UF French Club is a student or-

ganization whose mission is to pro-mote a friendly atmosphere wheremembers can share their interests infrancophone culture, while they im-prove their French language skills.Meetings are held twice a month. Ad-ditional information, as well as a sched-ule of planned events, is available atthe club website: http://plaza.ufl.edu/rodolfo

HAITIAN CREOLEThe Haitian Creole section is doing

well here at UF. Last fall we had anenrollment of 80 students in the 4 sec-tions being taught, and I was obligedto turn away 15 more students whowanted to begin study of the language.We hope to have a TA next year toteach more sections. I hope, in the nearfuture, to teach a class of 3230 in Hai-tian Literature or History or Culture.Jean Gilles, gilles@rll.ufl.edu.

PORTUGUESEThe past fall term saw healthy en-

rollments in Brazilian Drama and Luso-Brazilian Culture. We have a new Bra-zilian teaching assistant, PatriciaBelchior , who is teaching our introduc-tory classes. Pedro Werneck , avideographer from Rio de Janeiro, hasrecently completed a 15-min. video andCD ROM to publicize the Rio program,which had 42 participants for 2001.

SPANISHForeign Languages Across the

Curriculum (FLAC)RLL continues to collaborate with

other departments in offering FLACcourses. Workshops are held eachsummer to facilitate the preparation ofcourses for the upcoming academicyear. This past summer RLL’s FLACCoordinator, Dr. Greg Moreland, waspleased to work with colleagues in Eco-nomics, History, Latin American Stud-ies, Music, and Political Science as wellas Graduate Teaching Assistants inSpanish. They produced FLACcourses in the following areas: “LatinAmerican Business Environment” (Dr.

DEPARTMENT NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

they don’t always coincide. It is a placeof risk-taking, insight, and exhilarationand also of fear, frustration, and resis-tance; a place of striving and of strife,of opening to learning and of shuttingdown.

In addition to teaching what we per-ceive to be the content of the course,the way we conduct our classes andshape those fleeting communities re-flects our different views about thekinds of community we believe in andprovides a model for the uses of power.This happens whether we do it con-sciously or unconsciously. Our studentsmove on from our classes havinglearned not only another language, butalso how to relate to others, how to usepower, how to cope with success andfailure, how to listen, how to deal withdifferences.

The Teaching Support Group cur-rently meets informally once a monthto discuss in a thoughtful and inten-tional way these issues of what we aredoing in the classroom.

We try to be especially attentive tothose who are beginning to teach, andwelcome requests to address certaintopics. For example in our first meet-ing we talked about how to be creativein the classroom, how to move awayfrom and then back to the textbook in apedagogically sound way that moti-vates students with different learningstyles.

The topic of the second meeting washow to respond to aggression, resis-tance or bad attitudes in the classroom:those resistant silences, those racist/homophobic/sexist/ nationalist/etccomments, rudeness and other disci-pline problems—basically those emo-tionally charged moments when it’ssometimes difficult to respond in themost effective way. In the third meet-ing we discussed the many roles of theteacher with her/his students: instruc-tor, facilitator, police, authority, walkingdictionary, buddy, shrink, center of at-tention, dominatrix, mentor, model, etc.

The Teaching Support Group wel-comes new teachers from all the dif-ferent languages. Because the Meth-odology class for new teaching assis-

Spring 20023

We are proud to announce the creation of a memorial fund in honor of Pro-fessor J. Wayne Conner, the founding chair (1962-1980) of the Department ofRomance Languages & Literatures, who passed away on December 10, 2000.We most gratefully acknowledge the fund’s promising start thanks to a gener-ous contribution of $25,000 by Mrs. Aileen Conner.

The purpose of this fund is to provide initially a $1,000 J. Wayne ConnerFellowship as a one-year supplemental grant to an incoming French graduatestudent selected by the faculty of the French section. Each year, a new Frenchgraduate student shall be the recipient of this fellowship.

We appeal to our colleagues, alumni and alumnae, especially those whostudied and worked with Dr. Conner, to contribute to this fund, to help us main-tain it and gradually allow us to increase the number of recipients who, eventu-ally, may include undergraduate students. To make a contribution, please de-tach the stub at the end of this newsletter and mail it in with your check. Pleasemake your check payable to “The University of Florida Foundation,” and note“J.Wayne Conner Memorial Fund # 8517” on the left hand bottom of your check.

Thank you for your generosity.

The “Alfonsina Lorenzi Memorial ScholarshipFund” is accepting a donation in memory of agraduate student in Spanish from Italy. Ms.Lorenzi passed away in 1999 after a battle withcancer. She was very vibrant and interested inhow mass communication, especially television,influenced contemporary Latin American litera-ture. The scholarship awards a graduate student,who shares her zeal, with a cash prize. To makea contribution, please detach the stub at the endof this newsletter and mail it in with your check.Please make your check payable to “The Uni-versity of Florida Foundation,” and note “AlfonsinaLorenzi Memorial Fund # 6049” on the left handbottom of your check.

Thank you for your generosity.

ALFONSINA LORENZI MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND

J. WAYNE CONNER MEMORIAL FUND

We are immensely grateful to the fol-lowing individuals and companies,whose generous donations have en-abled us to fund small Scholarships,hold “major days” for chats with ourmajors, have receptions for visitingspeakers, and endow prizes for excel-lence at the graduate and undergradu-ate level. Thanks for helping us to bewhat we are!

Donations for 10/2000 to 2/2001

Gator Textbooks, Inc.Mr. Brian E. Adams

Dr. F. Daniel Althoff, Jr.Mr. Gregg B. ArumDr. William C. CalinDr. Joaquim Camps

Mrs. Aileen G. ConnerMs. Nicole T. de VenogeMr. Jose A. Fernandez

Dr. Raymond Gay-CrosierMr. Antonio C. Gil

Mr. Jere T. GrooverMr. Eddy A. HernandezMr. Gerald G. LangfordThe McGraw-Hill Cos.

Dr. Ruthmarie H. MitschMrs. Mary Morrisard-Larkin

Ms. Kelly A. MossDr. Sylvia S. Newman

Dr. Geraldine C. NicholsMr. Oscar A. Otero

Sister Eugena PoulinMr. Jorge H. RamonDr. Roch C. Smith

Ms. Katheryn Lee Wright

RLL F OUNDATION FUND 2000

tants only lasts one semester, ourSpring meetings will be more frequent.We plan to meet twice a month, withone meeting continuing along thisphilosophical line and the other meet-ing being more practical, for examplehow to stay in the target language infirst and second year language classes.

Mesa de EspañolAs the new academic coordinator of

the Spanish Table, I warmly welcomeall students and UF academic mem-bers who would like to spend more timespeaking Spanish. We are still meet-

ing at theSwamp everyW e d n e s d a yfrom 6:00pm to8:00pm. Youcan drop by orleave wheneveryou wish. Wethink of it as anopportunity forpeople wishingto practice theirspoken Spanish in a relaxed social set-ting. We do not grade exams or do our

homework there, but instead we sim-ply chat the evening away in the com-pany of like-minded people! It is a timeto get together and converse in Span-ish about everything and anything. Soplease, feel free to come visit us andmeet others who are keen on learningand practicing this wonderful language.Esther Valls, valls@rll.ufl.edu.

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ALUMNI/AE NEWS

FRENCHJoe Johnson (Ph.D. 1999) taught for

a year as a Visiting Assistant Profes-sor of French and Spanish at GeorgiaSouthwestern State University where,after a national search, he has beenrehired in a tenure track position. Hecontinues to publish translations ofFrench graphic novels, including therecent edition of Proust’s A la recher-che du temps perdu. He recently hadan article on Manon Lescaut acceptedfor publication in Vol. 31 of Studies onEighteenth Century Culture.

Lauren Oken (M.A. 2001) is a Finan-cial Solutions Administrator at HNCSoftware Inc. in San Diego, Califor-nia. She provides administrative sup-port, manages group goals, and is re-sponsible for the creation of and up-dating of the website for the Implemen-tation Services, Risk Analytics group.

Aneesha Pretto (B.A. 2001) re-ceived a Fullbright Grant to studyspeech pathology at the Free Univer-sity of Brussels, Belgium. She is cur-rently taking courses there and doingresearch on issues related to the bilin-gual education of deaf children.

Kristen Warner (B.A. 1988) hastaught French and Spanish in Floridafor 10 years. She was President of theFlorida Foreign Language Associationin 1999-2000 as well as President ofthe Palm Beach County Foreign Lan-guage Teachers’ Association. In 1995she was awarded the Embassy ofSpain Scholarship for study in Sala-manca at the University of Salamancaand the Florida France Institute Schol-arship for study at the University of theAntilles in Martinique in 1996. She wasalso the recipient of the AATF scholar-ship for study at the University ofMontreal in 1997. Kristen has writtenlanguage-testing materials for Heinleand Heinle publishers and has workedas a consultant and teacher trainer. Sheis on a two-year professional leave ofabsence from her current position inPalm Beach County while she is work-ing as the Teacher in Residence at Edu-cational Testing Service in Princeton,NJ to develop the National Board Cer-tification assessment for World Lan-

guages other than English. (The certi-fication will be available this fall) Inaddition to this work at ETS, she is cur-rently writing her dissertation on Pro-fessional development experiences ofNational Board candidates in Florida atFlorida Atlantic University in BocaRaton. kwarner@ets.org

SPANISHGregory A. Clemons (Ph.D. 1996)

recently was granted tenure and pro-moted to Associate Professor. Greg ison the faculty at Mars Hill College nearAsheville, North Carolina. In the springof 2002, Greg and another colleaguewill take students to Chiapas, Mexico,for a week-long study tour. This will beGreg´s fifth trip with students toChiapas! Greg will present a paper atthis year´s MLA convention in NewOrleans. His topic is a comparison ofSpanish-language education for adultsat two-year and four-year schools. Inthe fall of 2001, Greg presented a pa-per at the annual meeting of the For-eign Language Assoc. of North Caro-lina. His talk was a presentation ofcurrent statistics about Hispanics in theUSA North Carolina as well as teach-ing strategies for heritage languagespeakers/learners in the K-12 class-room. Greg´s partner, Jim Johnson,also a UF grad, is currently a casemanager at a home for at-risk youth inAsheville.

Krzysztof Kulawik (Ph.D. 2000)and Marcela Hurtado (Ph. D. 2000)Thanks for the interest in our where-abouts! Both Marcela and I graduatedfrom UF as Doctors of Philosophy lastsummer semester. We are currentlyworking (very hard) as Assistant Pro-fessors at Central Michigan University(19.000 students), situated in a towncalled Mount Pleasant in the middle ofthe lower peninsula of Michigan. It trulystands up to its name: it is an enchant-ing area and an interesting part of theState of Michigan, especially for naturelovers. We are about 3 hours fromDetroit and 5 hours’ drive from Chi-cago. It’s getting colder by the day.

We teach Spanish at the undergradu-ate levels and at the senior level, I teach

Spanish American Literature, Marcelateaches Spanish Linguistics (currentlyphonetics). For next year we are sched-uled to teach graduate courses. We arehappy to be working together, each onein his/her own field. Our Department iscalled Foreign Languages and Litera-tures, and we feel very well here so far.

As an additional piece of information,I will say that I attended and presenteda paper titled “The Economy of theWord: Latin American Economy andthe Aesthetics of the Baroque” at thebiannual Latin American Studies Asso-ciation (LASA) Conference, held thispast September 5-8, just days beforethe deadly attack on that city. Also thispast April my article “Sarduy’s Pajarosde la Playa and the Deconstruction ofthe American Paradise” was publishedin the Journal Tinta: Technological Dis-course, published by the University ofCalifornia - Santa Barbara (December2000 issue).

Both Marcela and I hope to stay inCentral Michigan for at least a fewyears, possibly for longer since we areon tenure track jobs. We also hope tostay in touch with our friends and col-leagues in RLL in Florida! Please sendour warmest regards to everybody, es-pecially to Susana Braylan, Prof. Alás-Brun, and Dr. Nichols and please passon our e-mail address to Terry Lopez,whom we also greet warmly (as wellas all the other staff in the office!)

Our address is: 301 W. BroomfieldSt. Apt 202 / Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858 /Tel: (989) 774 6837 / (989) 774 3536 /E-mail: k.kulawik@cmich.edu;m.hurtado@cmich.edu

Kyrenia (Kitty) Tages-Labrador re-cently got her M.A. in Gifted Educationand Secondary Spanish from BelmontUniversity, TN. Kitty moved to St. Pe-tersburg, FL, where she is teaching atGibbs High School, Pinellas County.

Catherine Osborne (M.A. 1999) Igraduated with Chris in Spanish Litera-ture. Currently I am a Visiting Instruc-tor at George Mason University inFairfax Virginia. I principally teach in-termediate grammar and languagecourses, plus a course in Latin Ameri-

Continued on page 9

Spring 20025

NEW & NEWEST FACULTY

Montserrat Alás-Brun , AssistantProfessor of Spanish (Ph.D., Univer-sity of Virginia, 1992).

Her bookDe la co-media deldisparate alteatro delabsurdo fo-cuses onp o s t w a rcomedy inSpain andthe Theaterof the Ab-surd. Shehas also published several studies oncontemporary Spanish playwrights andLatin American novelists. Her currentresearch deals with the construction ofnational identity in the propaganda lit-erature of the 30’s and 40’s in Spain,the representations of racial othernessin contemporary Spanish literature,theater, and pop culture, and the ef-fects of censorship in the performingarts during Franco’s regime in Spain.

Andrew Lynch , Assistant Professorof Spanish ( Ph.D., University of Min-nesota, 1999).

His disser-tation fo-cused onSpanish-En-glish lan-guage useand variationamong Cu-ban immi-grant fami-lies in Miami.His special-izations areHispanic lin-

guistics, sociolinguistics and appliedlinguistics. Prior to coming to UF, hespent two years directing the Spanishfor Heritage Speakers program at Uni-versity of Miami. Lynch’s current re-search deals with Spanish-English bi-lingualism in the US.

Rori Bloom , Assistant Professor ofFrench (PhD., New York University,2001)

Originally from Baltimore, she did her

undergradu-ate work atWashingtonUniversity inSt.Louis andher graduatework at NYU.She hasspent severalyears inF r a n c e ,teaching highschool English in Poitiers and study-ing in Caen and in Paris where shecompleted her M.A. She spent last yearin Paris on a Chateaubriand Fellowshipcompleting research for her newly de-fended dissertation on l’Abbé Prévost.The theme of this work is the emer-gence of the modern author. In her the-sis, Dr. Bloom also explores the liter-ary relationship between England andFrance in this period, particularly as itaffects the development of the genreof the newspaper. She is very inter-ested in the relationship between jour-nalism and fiction and plans to continueresearch in that area.

Gillian Lord , Assistant Professor ofSpanish (PhD, Penn State University,2001).

Her areasof special-ization aresecond lan-guage acqui-sition (SLA)and acquisi-tion of sec-ond lan-guage pho-netics andphonology.Lord isteaching inthe RLL department and the Programin Linguistics, as well as directing theprogram for second-year Spanish stu-dents. Her current research focuses onacquisition of Spanish sound patternsby native English speakers, the effectsof study in abroad on SLA, and the useof technology in foreign language edu-cation.

Theresa Antes , Assistant Professorof French (Ph.D., Cornell University,1993)

A spe-cialist inFrench lin-g u i s t i c sand appliedlinguistics( s e c o n dlanguageacquisitionand peda-gogy), shewas em-ployed atWayne State University in Detroit, MIbefore moving to the University ofFlorida. Her current research projectsinclude examining the development oflearners’ reading skills in a second lan-guage, as well as students’ acquisitionof morphological features of French.She is the Coordinator of the first-yearFrench program, and will be teachingfor both the department of romance lan-guages and literatures and the programin linguistics.

Mary Watt , Assistant Professor ofItalian, (Ph.D., University of Toronto,1998)

W a t tcame to UFfrom SUNYB u f f a l o ,where shewas a visit-ing assis-tant profes-sor. Watt isinterestedin the crosstemporaryoverlap ofculture, ico-

nography and semiotics in medievaland modern literature. She teachescourses in Italian grammar and cinemaas well as cross-disciplinary coursesfocusing on the role of Rome in Italianliterature, art, and architecture. She isresearching the relationship betweenthe iconography of the cross, the cru-sades, and pilgrimage in Dante’s Di-vine Comedy.

RLL News

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RLL STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS

From left to right Ann Elton (ProgramAssistant), Terry Lopez (Graduate Sec-retary), Obed Santana (Office Assis-tant), and Sue Ollmann (Office Man-ager).

There have been several changes inthe staff this year. Obed Santana hasreplaced Donna Rivera who took a parttime position with the College of Jour-nalism. Ann Elton, who comes fromthe Department of Astronomy, has re-placed Jeremy Anderson. Jeremy hastaken a job with Coastal Dental.Veronica Foreacre took a position withLinguistics and Academic Spoken En-glish in August. We have just nowbeen allowed to hire her replacement.Tania Fleming will be joining us at theend of March. She comes from SantaFe Community College.

Provence, FranceDr. Gayle Zachmann, Director of the

UF in Provence Programs in France,is pleased to report that this innova-tive interdisciplinary program has nowbrought well over 100 students and 8different UF faculty members to Eu-rope. With two separate campuses,one in Avignon and the other in Aix-en-Provence, the UF in Provence Pro-gram, offered an array of multidis-ciplinary courses - between 16 and 20annually - to students coming from 32different majors and 7 colleges cam-pus wide. In addition to an outstand-ing academic program, the programhighlights immersion in a rich culturalenvironment. UF in Provence coin-cides with the Avignon theater festival,and an international festival at Aix. Stu-dents are lodged with French hostfamilies and participate in a numberof cultural activities. This year, studentshad the privilege of having ProfessorGeorge Diller, teaching a site-specificProvençal Literature course, and Pro-fessor Donald Ault, teaching an inno-vative cultural studies course on Com-ics and French Culture, as well as avariety of excursions to Arles,Marseille, St. Tropez, and Les Baux,among others.

As in the summer of 2000, UF inProvence concluded with 100% of ourstudents and our faculty saying thatthey would recommend the program.

Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThe Summer Program in Rio de

Janeiro in 2000 experienced excep-tional growth and resounding suc-cesses with Prof. Ginway at the helm.The 2001 Program, directed by Prof.Perrone, again attracted the largest-ever contingent of student clientele,both local (UF major/minors, Title VIgrad students) and national (from suchschools as Harvard, Hopkins, Duke,and Chicago). The business option ofthe Rio Program completed its secondyear. Most importantly, UF celebratedthe twentieth anniversary of the pro-gram at IBEU (Instituto Brasil EstadosUnidos). In March, program directorsfrom Rio came to UF for a three-day

tour, culminating with a reception inDauer Hall at which a commemorativeplaque was presented. A similarplaque was given to Prof. Perrone inRio at a special event in honor of thelandmark year. The UF observancewas the initiative of Prof. Terry Mc Coyof the Center for Latin American Stud-ies.

Rome, ItalyMichael Paden directed the “2001

Roman Odyssey” Study Abroad Pro-gram which attracted 42 students fromUF and one from out of state. The Pro-gram was a great success and thecourses complemented the roman set-ting. Luca Caminati taught a courseon Italian Cinema and

Sherrie Nunn taught the beginningItalian class. Next summer’s programis already fully subscribed.

Seville, SpainRLL inaugurated new Summer Pro-

gram in Seville. Thirty-four UF studentssuccessfully completed the first “UF inSeville” Summer Program during Sum-mer A of 2001 (May 15-June 25). Fourupper division courses were offered inSeville, of which students could selecttwo. Three students were able to

graduate after Summer A with majorsor minors in Spanish. Students livedwith carefully selected host families inSeville. Excursions to Madrid, Toledo,Córdoba, Granada, Cáceres, andMérida enriched the program. Daytrips and activities included horsebackriding on the beach at Mataslascañas,bowling, “sevillanas” (dance) classes,going out as a group for “tapas,”“intercambios” with students at theUniversity of Seville, a day-trip to thebeach at Cádiz and a farewell party.The program was administered inSeville by International Studies Abroad(ISA), which offered students a cen-trally located site with a lending library,travel resource center, and Internet ac-cess. Classes were held at the recentlyopened Instituto Mester, housed in aconverted Andalusian mansion. Class-rooms, which wrapped around an at-tractively renovated central atrium,were appointed with chandeliers, art-work, parquet floors, grillwork balco-nies and shuttered windows. Lastsummer, Dr. Armon contributed toRLL’s new 6 week-summer study pro-gram in Seville. Dr. Armon’s coursewas entitled “Women in Early ModernSeville.” Shifra Armon is spending theacademic year 2001-2002 in Spain.

RLL STAFF

Spring 20027

FRENCHA number of catalysts contributed to

the success of the undergraduateFrench program and growing interestin French culture. Our annual Octoberreception for actual and prospectiveFrench majors and minors attractedover 100 participants. Equally encour-aging is the continued strong interestin the UF in Provence programs(Avignon and Aix-en-Provence),spurred by the enthusiasm of return-ing students (see report elsewhere inNewsletter). A one-week film festivalwhich brought recent French films to acommercial theater in Gainesville at-tracted a large public, including manystudents. Its generous sponsor, Mr.François Ravidat, brought along sev-eral directors whose presentations andworkshops raised interest in the con-temporary French film industry and re-lated cultural topics.

In 2000-2001, 17 undergraduageFrench majors received their degrees,1 with High Honors after successfulcompletion of an honors thesis, 8 withHonors, and 3 with a Certificat deBaccalauréat Supérieur (BacSup):Remedios Arguello, Priscilla Chapman(BacSup), Sofia Dangond, KathleenDonovan (Honors, BacSup), JennyDuret (High Honors; thesis director: Dr.Bernadette Cailler), Aimee Fletcher(Honors), Jessica Furman, ArceliaDesiree Lomer, Jessica Lutz, BenjaminMcClure (Honors), Janice Perez Oferal(Honors), Karen Olaciregui, AneeshaPretto (Hauptman Medal, Honors),Maryanne L. Purcell (Honors), CherylRockliff (Honors, BacSup), Ellen RuthSchuster (Honors), Guerline Thomas.In addition, 13 students graduated witha French minor. The number of newmajors follows last year’s pattern,peaking in January. As of September,60 students are seeking a French ma-jor or double/dual major and 63 stu-dents are minoring. As before, the mostsignificant quantitative and qualitativegrowth is among the group of dual anddouble majors.

Each spring, the French section of-fers two sets of special tests for quali-fied students. Three seniors success-

fully passed the written and oral examsleading to the Certificat de BaccalauréatSupérieur: Priscilla Chapman (MentionBien), Kathleen Donovan (MentionBien), and Cheryl Rockliff (MentionBien). Six students passed the test re-quired for the Certificat Pratique deFrançais Commercial Économiquesponsored by the Chambre de Com-merce de Paris and administered byJuanita Casagrande: Nicole Demers,Christine Finch, Alexander Hurd (Men-tion Bien), Desiree Lomer (MentionBien), Peter Oddo, AndrimboaraRandrianjasolo (Mention Bien). At theimpressive annual award ceremony inApril, a host of students were recog-nized for their various achievements.Dictionaries for academic excellencewere received by Kristin Auman andClaudia Cornett. To study in Avignon,College of Liberal Arts and SciencesStudy Abroad Fellowships were pre-sented to Marie Bros, Laura Rowe,Aneke Victoria, James Andrews,Mayoanna Basse, and Grant King. TinaFaris was honored with the College’sAnnual Scholarship Award (HighestDistinction), while Nathalie Domondreceived an Anderson Scholarship (Dis-tinction). Aneesha Pretto and CherylRockliff were induced to the Phi BetaKappa National Honors Society. Finally,Aneesha Pretto was also the recipientof the Michael Hauptmann Medal hon-oring sustained excellence as an un-dergraduate major. Dr. Raymond Gay-Crosier.

SPANISHDr. Greg Moreland is in his second

semester as Undergraduate Coordina-tor. He is pleased to report, based ondata provided by the Academic Advis-ing Center and in-class surveys, thatenrollment in Spanish is flourishing.The number of Majors has increasedsignificantly; the number of Minors hasjumped even more dramatically.

Growing enrollment in Spanishclasses has been accompanied by asignificant increase in the number ofstudents interested in studying abroad.The UF in Seville program was a re-sounding success in Summer 2001,

and Seville 2002 promises to be equallybeneficial and enjoyable for UF stu-dents and faculty (Dr. Montserrat Alás-Brun will teach there this summer). Thesecond phase in our Chair’s plan toimprove study abroad offerings inSpanish debuts in Summer 2002, witha new program in Santander, Spain(Professor Kathy Dwyer-Navajas andgraduate student Christina Welch-Alvarez will teach classes in San-tander). The Seville program offerscourses at the 3000- and 4000-levels,while Santander is designed for stu-dents at the 2000-level. Our next phasewill be UF in Guanajuato (Mexico), ten-tatively scheduled for Summer 2003,with courses at the 3000-level.

The Spanish Section graduated thefollowing number of students during2001-2002: Fall 2001, 8 Majors and 8Minors; Spring 2002, 23 Majors and 29Minors. Many of these young men andwomen graduated with Honors. Par-ticularly noteworthy are the cases ofMary Will (Thesis, Highest Honors) andCandice Whyte (Thesis, High Honors).

At the Spring 2001 UndergraduateAwards Ceremony, the following indi-viduals earned special recognition:Sarah Keithley and Steve Schaef (Dic-tionaries for Academic Excellence inSpanish at the Intermediate Level);Alejandro Burgos, Jairo Rojas, Chris-tina Silva, Reena Staunko, QuyenNguyen and Amber Schmale (CLASStudy Abroad Fellowships through theUF International Center to RLL Majorsand Minors); Matthew D. Hill, KimberlyA. Davis and Benjamin P. Tyner (CLASScholars and Scholarship Winners,High Distinction); Alejandro Burgos,Helena K. Sznurkowski, Timothy J.Runyon and Joshua R. Kneidl (CLASScholars and Scholarship Winners,Distinction); Matthew D. Hill and QuyenNguyen (University Scholars Program);Jennifer Bulat, Milena Jarvis, Brad Pittsand Rosa Rodríguez (Sigma Delta Pi,New Members); Stacey Kelly, Mary Willand Stephanie Litka (Phi Beta Kappa,National Honor Society); VirginiaCasanova (Michael Hauptman Medalfor Academic Excellence by Graduat-ing Majors in Romance Languages).

FROM THE UNDERGRADUATE COORDINATORS

RLL News

8

FROM THE GRADUATE COORDINATORS

FRENCHDuring the

academic year2000-2001, wereceived inquir-ies about ourgraduate pro-gram from thirty-four students.Seven new stu-dents were ad-mitted to our M.A.Program and three requested deferredadmission. Over the past year, threestudents completed their Masters de-gree in French: Rochelle Soffer, LucieViakinnou-Brinson, and Lauren Oken.Giovanna Summerfield has been ex-ceptionally active during the past year.She has given three papers, has pub-lished two articles, a review, and atranslation of Vivant Denon, Point deLendemain for the University Press ofAmerica. The UF Humanities Councilawarded her, for 2001-2002, a Humani-ties Center Task Force Fellowship.Thanks to her initiative and organiza-tional energy, we established a UFchapter of the National French HonorSociety. In April, seven graduate stu-dents were initiated into the Society:Rachel Hart, Heather Howell, DanieleBuchler, Giovanna Summerfield (Presi-dent), Lucie Viakinnou-Brinson, DanaMartin, and Suzanne Lindley. Dr.George T. Diller, Interim Graduate Co-ordinator 2000-2001.

SPANISHWe welcomed thirteen new graduate

students this year, with diverse back-grounds, interests, and goals. Six seekthe MA and seven the Ph.D., with ninein literature and four in linguistics. Theyjoin us from all parts of the U.S., Ar-

gentina, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Spain,and Venezuela. Two won Alumni Fel-lowships and one a Presidential Fel-lowship in recognition of outstandingacademic promise. We have grownto an all-time high of thirty-six gradu-ate students, the result of several fun-damental changes introduced in theprogram since 1995.

First, a new tracking system helpsstudents better manage their time anddefine objectives, providing close ad-vising on course work, examinationsand thesis/dissertation proposal writ-ing. Students progress at a definedpace, opening up spaces for new stu-dents. In 2001-02, eleven studentspassed their Comps and obtained theMA, while seven obtained the Ph.D.

Second, new faculty have enhancedour graduateprogram and itsreputation, in-cluding our lat-est additions: Dr.Montserrat Alás-Brun (Spanishcontemporaryliterature), Dr.Gillian Lord(Spanish Ap-plied Linguis-tics), and Dr. Andrew Lynch (SpanishSociolinguistics). Over the past twoyears, visiting professors also enrichedour offerings: Dr. María Luisa Freyreand Dr. Lucía Golluscio (Historical andTheoretical Spanish Linguistics, Spring2001); Dr. Alicia Genovese (Contem-porary Spanish American literature,Fall 2001), and Dr. Olympia González(Medieval and Early Modern Spanishliterature, Spring 2002).

Finally, the Spanish graduate pro-gram has been modified to fit currentacademic needs. Seminars and

courses restricted to graduate studentsnow account for 75% of our graduatestudents’ classes. The qualifying ex-amination was redesigned to serve asthe initial step toward writing the dis-sertation proposal. Other improve-ments include lighter teaching loads,higher stipends, more and better fel-lowships, and a support for academictravel. There are two new scholarshipsfor graduate students to spend sixweeks in Spain, and a new summerprogram in Santander will allow agraduate student to teach abroad. Togive our Ph.D. candidates a competi-tive edge in the job market, we encour-age them to teach courses beyond theelementary level: second- and third-year language, literature and culturecourses, as well as FLAC (Foreign Lan-guages Across the Curriculum) sec-tions. We provide intensive advisementfor them throughout the job search pro-cess. The six Ph.D. graduates whosought tenure-track positions for the2001-02 AY were successful in theirsearch (see boxes). Dr. A. Avellaneda.

Spanish M.A. Degrees, May2001

Ana CorbalánValentina Devescovi

Tania FisherKaren JonesAlvaro Leiva

Nidza MarichalKarina Miller

Javier OmeñacaErica Oshier

Sigma Delta Pi (Hispanic Honor Society) is open to outstanding students of the Spanish language and Hispanicliterature. One of the signal benefits of membership is eligibility for a summer scholarship from the national office ofSigma Delta Pi for study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. Three members of the Beta Rho chapter have appliedfor scholarships for the summer of 2002. We are anxiously awaiting the results of the competition!

We are pleased to list initiates into the chapter: Nidza Marichal, Soniya Keskar, Vanessa Bueno, Dea Papajorgji,Stephanie Cancho, Reena Staunko (from Fall 2001) and Amy Hammerand, Alfredo Sosa-Velasco, Adam Cohen, LizaGalindo, Violeta Lorenzo, Elisabeth Espinosa, Leslie Adams, Alicia Gier (Spring 2002).

SIGMA DELTA PI (HISPANIC HONOR SOCIETY)

Spring 20029

Ph.D. Students Who Obtained Tenure-Track Positions, 2001-02Guido Arze, Spring Hill College, Alabama

Maritza Bell-Corrales, Georgia Southern UniversityFrancisco Bustamante, SUNY CortlandLiliana Dorado, Texas A&M Kingsville

Marcela Hurtado, Central Michigan UniversityKrisztof Kulawik, Central Michigan University

can Literature. However my positionincludes developing a Heritage Speak-ers curriculum for the 2002-2003 schoolyear.

Hilda López-Laval (Ph.D. 1993) isfull professor of Spanish and Humani-ties at Chadron State College, Ne-braska. She spent her sabbatical inSpain last semester and, extremelyhappy and full of new ideas, came backto her office with 3 boxes of mail, morethan 1,000 e mails to answer and asemester to start. Instead of writing allthe news she decided to send regardsto her classmates, friends and profes-sors, in special to Dr. Avellaneda andDr. Nichols. E-mails are welcomehlaval@csc.edu

María Cami-Vela (Ph.D. 1995) hasjust published her second book,Mujeres detrás de la cámara: Entrevis-tas con cineastas españolas de ladécada de los 90, Madrid: Ocho yMedio, 2001. She is also participatingin the production of a documentaryvideo about abused women, under thedirection of Isabel Coixet in Barcelona.In addition, Cami-Vela is producing her

own documentary for the University ofNorth Carolina TV station, about theLatino Community in Wilmington. Ona personal note, María has become thegrandmother of a beautiful girl, AnaMaría.

Mark R. Cox (Ph.D. 1995): My wife,Silvia, and I had our second son, Jer-emy Alexander, on October 3.Olderbrother Michael, who just turned three,is very happy with his little brother. Ihave received tenure and promotion atPresbyterian College. This year I willhave given papers at AATSP, LASA,and Brown University; I am writingseven articles for a two-volume studyon contemporary Peruvian narrative tobe published in Italy next year. I con-tinue as web master for the Perú Sec-tion of LASA (www.presby.edu/lasaperu), am organizing a South Caro-lina Latin American Studies conference(www.presby.edu/sccis), and hope tospend one or two semesters in Perunext year working on my book on Pe-ruvian narrative about the period of po-litical violence in the 1980s and 1990s.mkcox@mail.prtcnet.com

Liliana Dorado (Ph.D. 2001) is As-

sistant Professor of Spanish at theUniversity of Texas A&M in Kingsville.Although a small department, it offersan M.A. and will soon have a Ph.D. pro-gram in conjunction with several Texasstate universities, using distance learn-ing and other innovative methods. I amable to create my own courses, and ampreparing one on fiction and film aboutthe Spanish Civil War. Last October,invited by the Island Council of LasPalmas and Tenerife, I went to the Ca-nary Islands to participate in the“Jornadas Mercedes Pinto.” There Ilectured about Pinto, a Canary writerwho lived in Uruguay during the 1920s.The Island Council published Pinto’sfirst three books, and I will direct thevolume convering her writings in Uru-guay. I am working on other projectson Galician literature and literaturewriten in jail by Civil War Republicans,the subject of my thesis. As you cansee, I have not had the time to getbored. I live in Corpus Christi, and myemail address is kfld000@tamuk.edu.Greetings to everybody, and you knowwhere to find me if you need me.

Continued from page 4

New Spanish Graduate Students, August 2001Dania Abreu (M.A., Literature)

Rayito Calderón (M.A., Linguistics)Miguel De Feo (Ph.D., Literature)

Erica Fischer-Dorantes (Ph.D., Linguistics)Amy Hammerand (M.A., Literature)

Kandace Halladay (Ph.D., Literature)Karen Jones (Ph.D., Literature)

Sarah Kraemer (M.A. Linguistics)Carlos Lafuente (Ph.D., Literature)

Kathleen McCarter (M.A., Linguistics)Aixa Said Mohand (Ph.D., Linguistics)

Megan Smoker (Ph.D., Literature)Alfredo Sosa-Velasco (Ph.D., Literature)

Karina Vázquez (M.A., Literature)

Al filo de la rueda(Ericka Ghersi)

El afilador llamaA las puertas falsas.

Su zampoña sopla y dejaUna melodía fúnebre. Quien la escuche,

Sentirá frío en los huesos, calorDe pena

Y angustia en el recuerdo.

Calor de triste angustia que obliga aSacar un cuchillo y llamar

Al afilador

Toca el laminado filoToca el dolor del laminado

Filo,Toca el instante de dolorPor el laminado filo. Toca

Tu dolor y tu instante:

Pena y angustia que soplaLa zampoña del afilador.

RLL News

10

FRENCHTheresa Antes was invited to or-

ganize a panel on Second LanguageAcquisition at the Kentucky ForeignLanguage Conference in April. Shealso presented a paper entit led“Tracking the Morphological Devel-opment of Interlanguage in Frenchas a Second Language.” In June,she received a RLL mini-grant for fur-ther research involving nominal, ad-jectival, and verbal morphologicaldevelopment in French as a secondlanguage. She was invited to con-tribute a chapter on pedagogical ap-plications to the teaching of litera-ture for a forthcoming MLA volumeentitled “Pedagogical Strategies forprograms in Nineteenth & TwentiethCentury French Studies: DynamicDialogue.” The volume will be out in

2002.Read Baker was on sabbatical

leave in 2000-2001. She ispreparing abook tentativelyentitled An In-tellectual Biog-raphy of RobertChal le. Thisspring she pub-lished an article“Shif t ing Cul-tural Tides in

Robert Challe’s Journal d’un voyagefaix aux Indes Orientales (1690-1691)” in a special issue of TheSouth Atlantic Review whose overalltitle is: “Being Global. From the En-lightenment to the Age of Informa-tion.” In late April, she attended the

annual meeting of the American So-ciety for Eighteenth-Century Studies.At this meeting, a special sessionwas devoted to Challe and attendedby several outstanding French andBelgian specialists of Challe. Pro-fessor Baker’s contribution was: “AnEver-Receding God: Deist Apol-ogetics and Absolutism in RobertChalle’s Difficultés sur la religionproposées au Père Malebranche.”

Rori Bloom presented a paperentitled “Une Teinture anglaise: TheEnglish Esthetic in Prévost’s Pour etcontre” at the annual conference ofthe American Society for Eighteenth-century Studies in New Orleans lastApril. Her paper will soon be pub-lished in a volume of essays onAnglo-French cultural exchanges ofthe period . At the MLA Meeting in

RLL F ACULTY NEWS

“A R IO DIARY” BY LIBBY GINWAY

The SettingRio is in a breathtakingly beautiful

natural setting, a rare combination ofmountains that rise out of the ocean,coupled with beaches and bays. Thehotel where I stayed in the year 2000was only a block from the Copacabanabeach, which I see from my hotel win-dow. The rooftop bar afforded a 360-degree view of ocean, beach andmountains. I never tire of jogging orwalking along the beachfront in themorning, looking at the mountains, theocean, the imposing buildings and ho-tels, and the morning exercisers andsun worshippers.

When in Rio, I love taking the busaround the city, to enjoy the view ofSugar Loaf Mountain, and to experi-ence the wild way the bus drivers racearound the “aterro,” an express zonebetween Copacabana and the down-town area of Rio. On my regularagenda are trips to the nineteenth-cen-tury plaza of Cinelândia downtown, andthe Botanical Garden, which wasfounded by Dom João VI, the King ofPortugal, who came to Brazil with thePortuguese Court in 1808, fleeing Na-poleon. A trip by trolley up hills to thehistoric neighborhood of Santa Teresaaffords another view of the Rio of old.

In 1998, I accompanied about 12 stu-dents on a trip to historic downtown Rio,in order for them to get to know thestreets and neighborhoods mentionedby Brazil’s most famous nineteenth-century author, Machado de Assis,whose works we had studied the pre-vious semester.

The ProgramWhile I directed the Rio program,

1998 and 2000, it nearly doubled insize, from 22 to 40 students. Two-thirdsto three-quarters to of the students arefrom universities other than the Univer-sity of Florida. Part of my job was tokeep the program running smoothlyand to make sure that students felt thattheir needs were being taken care of.The year 2000 was also the first yearof the Rio business program, directedby Dr. Terry McCoy, which had sevenstudents. Before classes started, TerryMcCoy and I met with students a hotelrestaurant as a way for them to get toknow each another before being di-vided into classes, which meet everymorning for three hours. I also hadthem sign up to eat lunch with me ingroups of six to eight. In addition tomeeting with them at the morning cof-fee break every day, I also observedclasses, attended the lecture series

that is part of their curriculum and wenton the excursions planned for studentsby the staff of IBEU, the language cen-ter where the program takes place.

ExcursionsI first accompanied students to a

beautiful turn-of-the-century restaurantin Rio, with high ceilings and gilt-edgedmirrors, where we enjoyed the typicalBrazilian Saturday afternoon meal of“feijoada.” The next weekend we wenton the day-long excursion to Petrópolis,to see the summer palace of the Bra-zilian Emperor Dom Pedro II.

A group of students invited me to goto the world’s largest soccer stadium,Maracanã, to see a game between Bra-zil and Uruguay. It was quite an expe-rience, with large crowds and trafficjams, even though once we were in-side, the stadium seemed quite empty.One student accompanied me to an artexhibit, and another to the National Li-brary. Overall, the group of forty wereactive in planning their fun, going tosamba schools, dancing to “forró” mu-sic until all hours of the night, and or-ganizing their own activities, trips andexcursions for the weekends, all in ad-dition to their regular coursework.

Spring 200211

December, she presented “TheCauses Célèbres of the Pour etContre: Celebrity and Judgement inthe Journalism of l’abbé Prévost.”She was the keynote speaker for theFestival Français at the P.K. YongeSchool in Gainesville. Currently sheis very much enjoying teaching theFrench Senior Seminar class on“Masquerade in the 17th and 18th cen-turies.”

Sylvie Blum-Reid (Romance Lan-guages and Literatures with affiliationwith Film and media Studies andAsian Studies) chaired LaurenOken’s M.A. thesis, “Masculinity inCrisis: The Buddy Films of BertrandBlier” (April 2001). Dr. Blum-Reidspent three-weeks during the sum-mer in Vietnam as part of the CIEEinternational development seminarand, while there, initiated institutionalcontacts between Vietnamese Uni-versi t ies and the Universi ty ofFlorida. Her article on recent Frenchcinema appears in the latest issue ofIRIS, Revue de théorie de l’image etdu son. For the second year, she willchair a special PAMLA session spon-sored by “Women in French” on theTheme of Travel. She will also con-tribute a paper on Michel Ragon atSanta Clara University in November2001. She also served as a consult-ant for the Canadian Journal of FilmStudies.

Bernadette Cailler organized andchaired a panel on “The Interlingual,Intertextual, Intersemiotic CreativeCircle (Maghreb Literature and Cin-ema)” for the 2001 Meeting of the Af-rican Literature Association, in Rich-mond, Virginia, April 4-8. She alsoorganized and chaired a panel on“Tunisia in non-Tunisian Literatures— 2: one year after Sousse”, for the2001 Meeting of the Conseil Interna-tional d’Etudes Francophones inPortland, Maine, May 27-June 3. Herown paper was titled: “De Virgile àGlissant: quels rêves, quel lesCarthage? [Narration et Symbolique- la Ville, la Femme.].” In Novem-ber, she will present a paper at the4th International Conference on Car-ibbean Literature, in Fort-de France,

Martinique, November 7-9. Her pa-per is titled: “Du Musée de Carthageau poème de Glissant: Scipion, Baal,et la flamme du brasier [Narration etSymbolique - le Barbare, le Divin].”By the end of 2001, she will have pre-sented three papers related to a cur-rent project on “Carthage” for whichshe received CLAS Enhancementfunds in Summer 2000. The ENTRENOUS series which she has orga-nized and administered since Fall1997 is entering its 5th AY. Speakersfor Spring 2001 were MontserratAlas-Brun, Jean-Elie Gilles, andSylvie-Blum-Reid. In Fall 2001, theENTRE NOUS community (“RLL andFRIENDS”) is welcoming DonaldRosenberg, Mary Watt, BarbaraPetrosky, and Luca Caminati.

William Calin completed his ten-ure as a Florida Foundation Re-search Professor and spent summer2001 at the Scottish National Libraryin Edinburgh, doing preliminary re-search for his next extended project,“The French Tradition and the Litera-ture of Medieval and Early ModernScotland.” Minority Literatures andModernism: Scots, Breton, andOccitan, 1920-1990, University ofToronto Press, 400 pp., hardcoverand paperback, came out in January.Dr. Calin gave papers in California(UC Davis), Michigan, New York(SUNY Buffalo), and an invited lec-ture at the University of Georgia intheir “Story of French” series spon-sored by the Center of Humanities:“Textes médiévaux, approchesmodernes.” Finally, he organized aColloquium at UF in April on the Lan-guages and Literatures of thePyrenees: “Barcelona, Bilbao, Bor-deaux: Resituating the Periphery,”which concluded with his presenta-tion, “Robert Lafont Writes the FirstOccitan ‘New Novel’: La Festa (2vols.).” Dr. Calin was elected to theuniversity-wide UF Graduate Coun-cil and chaired the search commit-tee which recruited RLL’s newest ap-pointment in French, Dr. Rori Bloom.

George Diller has served as in-terim Graduate Advisor for Frenchand as Coordinator of the French

Faculty of the department during thepast academic year. In addition to hisregular classes, he gave a reward-ing course entitled “Modern FrenchProse of Provençal inspiration” forthe UF in Provence program atAvignon, France. This course offeredstudents the occasion to study au-thors less well read within our regu-lar French curriculum, includingAlphonse Daudet, Henri Bosco,Marcel Pagnol, and Jean Giono. Pro-fessor Diller is pleased to report thatthe Parisian publisher Hachette haspublished his edition of Froissart,Chroniques, in the “LettresGothiques” series, directed by MichelZink of the Collège de France.

Raymond Gay-Crosier com-pleted twoprojects: a bookon AlbertCamus’s TheStranger, anextensive étatprésent of morethan half a cen-tury of researchon this novel (tobe publ ishedthis fall by Gale

Research); and volume 19 of theCamus series published by theLettres Modernes (Paris). The latteris mainly devoted to L’Homme révolté/ The Rebel to commemorate the 50th

anniversary of the publication of thismajor philosophical essay. In thesame spirit, he organized a specialsession on this work to be held atthe annual meeting of the South At-lantic Modern Language Associationin Atlanta, November 9-11. To date,the critical bibliography that he main-tains on the internet has attractedover 20,000 visitors. Other editorialactivities include his continuation asassistant review editor of The FrenchReview and general editor of the ArsInterpretandi series (P. Lang, NewYork). For the next five years, his at-tention will be centered on signifi-cant contributions to each of the newfour-volume Pléiade (Gallimard) edi-tion of the complete works of AlbertCamus.

RLL News

12

Carol Murphy was invited topresent a paper, “Jean Paulhan etJean Fautrier: re-présenter le réel,”at the Institute for Romance Studiesat the University of London on May4, 2001. The day-long symposium onJean Paulhan featured speakersfrom England, France, Switzerland,and Scotland. On May 28, in theState Capitol, she attended the sign-ing of a Memorandum of Understand-ing between the government ofFrance and the state of Florida whichwill facilitate faculty and student ex-changes between France and Floridaand provide scholarships for study inFrance. On July 14, she was namedChevalier dans l’ordre des PalmesAcadémiques by the French Minis-ter of Education, M. Jack Lang, forher efforts to promote French lan-guage, culture and the arts in the U.S.Her article, “Reassessing Marguer-ite Duras” will appear in Twentieth-Century French Studies and anotherarticle, “Unheard Memories in JulienGracq’s Le Roi Cophétua” is beingconsidered by Romance LanguageNotes. She continues as AssociateDean for Academic Affairs in theCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciencesand pursues research in her nextbook project about the encounter ofauthor-editor Jean Paulhan and art-ist Jean Fautri.

Gayle Zachmann had an activeyear teaching French Civilization,

Realism, Contemporary Culture andGrammar and Composition. She co-Chaired the Graduate Awards andPlacement committee, was co-Chairof Graduate studies, and a UF Sen-ate Steering Committee member.She spent the summer of 2001 direct-ing the UF in Provence program fromthe Avignon site, where she taught a6-credit Intensive IntermediateFrench course. This year, Dr.Zachmann’s book Frameworks forMallarmé, was given editorial boardapproval by the State University ofNew York Press (SUNY). Her article“Frameworks for Mallarme’s Photo-Graphics” appeared in L’Espri tCreateur; her article on Mallarmé andDance, “Offensive Moves inMallarmé: Dancing with Des Astres”appeared with Rodopi; and her article“Overseas Engagements: The Pres-ence and the Futures of StudyAbroad,” was accepted for a bookentitled, Pedagogical Strategies forPrograms in Nineteenth & TwentiethCentury French Studies: DynamicDialogue, to appear with the ModernLanguage Association.

ITALIANLuca Caminati , having reached “il

mezzo di cammin di sua vita,” de-fends his Ph.D. dissertation in Italianat the University of Wisconsin-Madi-son in the month of December2001. In the past year he published

“Esotismo, parole, immagini. Pasoliniin India” in the Italian journal NuovaProsa, “Oltre la Via Emilia e ritorno”in a volume edited by Franco Nasi(La Via Emil ia. Boca Raton:Bordighera, 2000), and ”InterrogatingReality: Pasolini’s Experimental Eth-nography in Appunti per un filmsull’India” in the most recent issue ofthe Romance Languages Annual. Hepresented at the Twelfth AnnualPurdue University Conference onRomance Languages, Literatures &Film in October 2000, at the ItalianCultural Studies Conference October2001, and as an invited speaker atthe Conference on the Via Emilia or-ganized by the Istituto Italiano diCultura in Chicago in May 2000. Healso took part in the Carnevale Car-nival Symposium organized by Pro-fessor Mary Watt, delivering an in-troduct ion to Fel l ini ’s classic Ivitelloni. In the past academic yearLuca Caminati has taught far toomany students the “dolce suono” ofthe Italian language, and the intrica-cies of cultural analysis of “weird”Italian films to the happy bunch thatfollowed him in Rome this past June.

Mary Watt had a busy time lastyear. In February she headed up theorganization of the Department’sCarnevale Carnival Symposium.Later in the spring she headed up theorganization of the UndergraduateAwards Ceremony. This fall shehelped to organize the MEMS Sym-posium on Universality. Since Janu-ary she has traveled to Chicago,Kalamazoo, Vancouver, Canada andBoca Raton to present conferencepapers. She spent the summer con-ducting research for her book, thanksto a generous Humanities Scholar-ship Enhancement award. She pre-sented her findings during a recentEntre Nous talk organized by Profes-sor Cailler. In August, Dr. Watt pub-lished “The Reception of Dante in theTim of Cosimo I” in a volume on thecultural Politics of Cosimo I publishedby Ashgate Books. In September shecompleted work on “Eleonora’s Wed-ding” which will be published thisspring. She is currently faculty advi-

Dean Neil Sullivan; Dr. Délia Mata-Ciampoli, Cultural Attaché of the FrenchConsulate; and Professor Carol Murphy, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Spring 200213

sor to the Viva Italia student organi-zation. And in her spare time, shehas been running . . . She will race inthe Jacksonville Marathon in Decem-ber.

PORTUGUESELibby Ginway recently finished

book manu-script to besent toBucknell Uni-versity Press:Brazilian Sci-ence Fiction:Cultural Mythsand Nation-hood in theLand of theFuture. She

also received RLL grant for summer2001 for proposal based on the con-cepts of ecofeminism, “The BrazilianAmazon Region as Woman,” and hada accepted for SAMLA Conference,Nov. 2001: “The Cyborg as RacialOther: Continuity and Change inBrazilian Science Fiction.” She alsospoke on Brazilian carnaval as aroundtable participant for the Car-nival/Carnevale Symposium Feb.28, 2001, met with external evalua-tor Dr. John Lipski to discuss the pro-gram in Rio de Janeiro and the Por-tuguese program for the Title VI LatinAmerican Studies Center grant,March 1, and accompanied Title VIspeaker Carmen Tesser, who spokeon “Reading as a Productive Skill:Literature in the Context of the Stan-dards for Learning Foreign Lan-guages in the 21st Century” April 2,2001.

Charles A. Perrone enjoyed a ban-ner year in research and publication.He co-edited the volume BrazilianPopular Music and Globalization(Gainesville: University Press ofFlorida), contributing three seg-ments. Alongwith with co-editorChristopher Dunn of Tulane Univer-sity, co-editors’ web sites). Perronealso saw the publication of the Span-ish edition of his book Masters hegave a long interview in the leadingBrazilian daily O Estado de São

Paulo (still on line at the Contempo-rary Brazilian Song: MPB 1965-1985 (Austin: University of TexasPress, 1989), with rights for Italy andPortugal also having been sold. Inthe last year, Perrone also publishedarticles in the inaugural issue ofLinha de pesquisa [Rio de Janeiro],Studies in Latin American PopularCulture, a volume of refereed pro-ceedings in Brazil, and a GarlandPress collection on the recently de-ceased celebri ty Jorge Amado.Perrone gave several invited lec-tures last Spring: “Self and City inPaulicéia Desvairada.” a memoriallecture at Brown University; “Chicletecom Banana: Brazilian Popular Mu-sic and Globalization,” at the Centerfor Portuguese Studies and Cultureof theUniversity of Massachusetts;the second inaugural lecture of thenew Center for Latin American Stud-ies at the University of Miami, and“Insularity and Outreach: Contem-porary Brazil ian Lyric in Trans-american Perspective,” at BrazilWeek, University of Texas, Austin,where he also was part of a paneldiscussion on the films Orfeu negroand Orfeu. Recent conference pa-pers are “Critical Projections andReceptions of Paulicéia Desvairada,”MACHL, University of Kansas, and“Bebop, Triphop, Kaos, Chaos: In-ternationalization in the Origins,Pract ices, and Deployments ofTropicalism” at the InternationalCouncil for the Study of TraditionalMusic in Rio de Janeiro. After thisevent Perrone continued his summerresearch on “transamerican poet-ics” in São Paulo.

SPANISHLast semester, Montserrat Alás-

Brun presented papers at the AATSPand SAMLA Conferences, and waselected chair of a session for the nextSAMLA Conference. She conductedresearch in Spain in the summer,thanks to a Humanities ScholarshipEnhancement Award, and submittedtwo book chapters that have alreadybeen accepted for publication. Nextsummer she will direct the Program

Abroad in Seville, Spain. Last aca-demic year, Prof. Alás-Brun pre-sented a paper at the SAMLA Con-ference, where she also chaired twosessions. She also published an ar-ticle and a book chapter. Prof. Alás-Brun was also a member of threenational committees of Sigma DeltaPi and the Hispanic Association forthe Humanities. Finally, she gave twopresentations at UF, one as part ofthe Entre Nous series, and a secondat the Pyrenees Colloquium.

Shifra Armon , Associate Profes-sor of Spanish, is spending 2001-2002 on research leave in Spain.She received a grant from the Pro-gram for Cultural Cooperation be-tween the Spanish Ministry of Edu-cation, Culture and Sports and UnitedStates Universities to investigatecourtly interactions in the writings ofBaltasar Gracián. In December 2001,Rowman and Littlefield published Dr.Armon’s first book, Picking Wedlock:Women and the Courtship Novel inSpain. In December 2001, Dr. Armondelivered a paper at the Modern Lan-guages Association Conference en-titled “Money: The Phantom Lady ofCalderón de la Barca’s La damaduende.” In May 2002, Dr. Armonwill travel to Hungary to present theresults of her investigations onGracián at the Third Congress onHispanic Poetry in Europe and theAmericas. Last summer, Dr. Armoncontributed to RLL’s new six-weeksummer study program in Seville.Her course was entitled “Women inEarly Modern Seville.”

Andrés Avellaneda , Professor ofSpanish American literature andGraduate Coordinator-Spanish, hadtwo articles published in 2001-2002“Clase media y lecturala construcciónde los sentidos,” in Roberto Arlt. Lossiete locos. Los lanzallamas, editedby Mario Goloboff (Paris: Associa-tion Archives de la Littérature Latino-Americaine, des Caraibes etAfricaine du XX siècle-ALLCA XX.Colección Archivos 44); and “Argen-tina,” in Censorship: An InternationalEncyclopedia, edited by Derek Jones(Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Lon-

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don). Two other articles by Dr.Avellaneda will be published in 2002“Evita: cuerpo y cadáver de laliteratura,” in Evita: mito y represen-taciones, edited by Marysa Navarro(to be published by Vergara Editor:Madrid-Buenos Aires); and “Bioymirando al sudeste,” for theFeschri f f ten. Internat ional lesKolloquium zu Ehren von Adolfo BioyCasares (to be published by Vervuertat Frankfurt am Main, Germany, andthe University of Leipzig). Two doc-toral students successfully defendedtheir dissertations directed by Dr.Avellaneda Martha Cuba-Cronkleton(“Identidades mestizasuna apro-ximación a la obra de Edgardo RiveraMartínez, Laura Riesco y ZeinZorr i l la”); and Chris Kulawik(“Travestismo linguístico: el enmas-caramiento de la identidad sexual enla narrativa neobarroca de SeveroSarduy, Diamela Eltit, Hilda Hilst yOsvaldo Lamborghini”). Also, KarinaMiller successfully defended her M.A.thesis directed by Dr. Avellaneda(“Juan Rodolfo Wilcockla identidaddel caos”).

Efraín Barradas has been invitedto join the Vis-iting Committeeof the Depart-ment of Print,Drawings andPhotographs,Boston Mu-seum of FineArts, due to hisexpertise in thef ield of Lat inAmerican Art.This committee

advises the department on theguidelines for making acquisitions,and other pertinent matters. Prof.Barradas has been an avid collectorof Latin American Graphics over theyears, and a steady donor of LatinAmerican and American art works tothe Museum Collection of Graphics,one of the largest in the USA and theworld.

Álvaro Félix Bolaños edited withGustavo Verdesio Colonialism Pastand Present: Reading and Writing

about Colo-nial Lat inA m e r i c a nTexts Today(Albany, NewYork: StateUniversity ofNew YorkP r e s s ,2002). He also publ ished“Hispanismo, literatura coloniallatinoamericana y la tarea de loscríticos.” Cuadernos de literatura(Pontificia Universidad Javeriana,Bogotá, Colombia). 6, 12 (2000-2001): 12-41. Prof. Bolaños will alsocontribute with a seminar, to be heldon April 5, 12 and 19, 2002, to thefollowing program: “Teachers asScholars at the University of Florida,”a collaborative effort including: Cen-ter for Precollegiate Education Train-ing, College of Liberal Arts and Sci-ences, Area Center for Education En-hancement, and sponsored by theWoodrow Wilson Foundation. Thetitle of his seminar is: “Spanish Con-quest and Colonization in the Class-room: (Un) told Stories about the En-counter of America and Europe forAcademic Consumption.”

Joaquim Camps presented thepaper “Aspectual distinctions inSpanish: The early stages of oral pro-duction” at the 4th Hispanic Linguis-tics Symposium, in Bloomington, In-diana, in November 2000. In March2001 he gave an invited paper at theUniversity of South Carolina, entitled“Processing form and meaning in theinput: Pronominal reference in Span-ish as a foreign language.” In Octo-ber 2001 he presented the paper“The analysis of oral self-correctionas a window into the development ofpast time reference” at the 4th Con-ference on the Acquisition of Span-ish and Portuguese. His article “Pret-erit and imperfect in Spanish: Theearly stages of development” (2000)appeared in Spanish Applied Lin-guistics at the Turn of the Millennium,edited by Ron Leow & Cristina Sanz.His co-edited volume (with CarolineWiltshire) Romance Syntax, Seman-tics and L2 Acquisition will soon be

published by John Benjamins.Gillian Lord presented a paper

entitled “Second Language StressProduction: Rules, Analogy or Lexi-cal Storage?” at the 4th Conferenceon the Acquisition of Spanish andPortuguese, held last October at theUniversity of Illinois. In November,Prof. Lord went to the ACTFL Meet-ing in Washington D.C. There, shegave two workshops, one on the useof target-language video segments inthe language classroom and anotheron incorporating different technolo-gies into our language classrooms.In April, she will present a paper atthe Linguistic Symposium on Ro-mance Languages about the use ofanalogy as a tool in acquiring sec-ond language pronunciation. Prof.Lord and Prof. Andrew Lynch re-ceived an Online Content Develop-ment grant through OIR and will usethat money to create a multi-mediaproject on Spanish Phonetics andLanguage Variation. This project willpresent variations of Spanish from aphonological, morphological and syn-tactic viewpoint, and discuss issuesof dialectal variation and discoursefactors as well. Additionally, Prof.Lord has received a College Schol-arship Enhancement grant to con-tinue her research into second lan-guage speech patterns this summer.

Greg Moreland developed andtaught a new course, “IntermediateSpanish for Business” (SPN 2440),in Summer A, 2001. He participatedin “Language and Culture for Inter-national Business: A Workshop forForeign Language Educators,” at theUniversity of Memphis, February2001. In July 2001 he attended a two-week Spanish Language Faculty De-velopment Program (in BusinessSpanish), sponsored by the FloridaInternational University CIBER, at theUniversidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.

Geraldine Nichols returned tochairing in May, grateful to ReynaldoJiménez for his fine job as ActingChair. While on leave, she devel-oped her research on the represen-tation of reproductive issues in twen-tieth-century Spanish literature. She

Spring 200215

delivered four papers on the topic,including one at the MLA Convention,one for a conference at Harvard, andone a keynote address. As a mem-ber of the Executive Committee ofthe Association of Departments ofForeign Languages (ADFL), she par-ticipated in the summer seminar forlanguage chairs at fabled MiddleburyCollege, serving as Co-Director ofthe New Chair Workshop, and deliv-ering a plenary lecture: “Apples, Or-anges and Rewards in the Multilin-gual Department.” She was recentlyelected President of the ADFL for2002-03. Prof. Nichols published twoarticles last year. “Spanish and theMultilingual Department: Ways toUse the Rising Tide” appeared in theADFL Bulletin and was then selectedfor reprinting in the MLA’s Profession2000. “Una vuelta a los orígenes,”published simultaneously in Spanishand in Catalan by Destino, was partof a collection of essays on writerCarme Riera (Visiting Professor inRLL in Spring 97).

Sherrie Nunn spent last academicyear (2000-2001) on sabbatical inItaly where she studied Italian lan-guage, culture, and history. In Mayand June, she taught Beginning Ital-ian I in the University of Florida’sSummer Study in Rome program.Current ly, Sherr ie teaches andserves as supervisor for BeginningSpanish II classes. She is also thefaculty advisor for Sigma Delta Pi.

David Pharies has maintained avery busy re-s e a r c hschedule overthe past twoyears. Dur-ing the aca-demic year2 0 0 0 - 2 0 0 1 ,Dr. Pharieshad the op-portunity towrite the greater part of the entriesfor his Diccionario etimológico de lossufi jos españoles (y de otroselementos finales) thanks to a re-search fellowship from the NationalEndowment for the Humanities.

Work continued on the project in theensuing months and the manuscriptis now complete and in press at theEditorial Gredos of Madrid. At thesame time Dr. Pharies was workingwith a team of lexicographers at theUniversity of Florida (Irene Moyna,Gary Baker, Erica Fischer-Dorantes)to prepare a new edition of the Uni-versity of Chicago Spanish Dictio-nary. The team is currently engaged(together with Sonia Wohlmuth) incopy editing toward a firm publica-tion date of July 15, 2002. The totalUF budget for the work was over$171,000.

Mercedes Rivas , (Ph.D. from theUniversity of Seville) was a visitingprofessor in Romance Languagesand Literatures during the fall semes-ter. Previously, Prof. Rivas was apostdoctoral fellow at Ohio State Uni-versity and the Consejo Superior deInvestigaciones Científicas in Seville,and also taught at the University ofSalamanca. She is the author of animportant book related to 19th cen-tury Cuban anti-slavery narrative,and has also written several articleson various Latin American subjects(the “Spanish chronicles” of JoséMartí, Adolfo Bioy Casares’s Plan deevasión and Dormir al sol, GabrielGarcía Márquez’s El amor en lostiempos del colera). In addition, shehas prepared a volume about a 17thcentury Cuban epic poem, Espejo depaciencia. While in Gainesville Prof.Rivas taught a course on 20th cen-tury Spanish American fiction. Her re-search focused on 19th century Cu-ban literature, especially on the fa-mous author Gertrudis Gómez deAvellaneda.

Olympia B. González (Ph.D.,Spanish and Comparative Literature,Cornell University), Associate Pro-fessor of Spanish at Loyola Univer-sity in Chicago, is at UF as VisitingProfessor of Spanish for the SpringSemester of 2002. She also holds aBA in Psychology from the Univer-sity of Miami and another one in Pen-insular Spanish Literature fromFlorida International University. Herinterests at the present time encom-

pass the GoldenAge (she was thesecretary of theSociety for Re-naissance andBaroque His-panic Poetry forseven years),ContemporaryCuban Poetry,and contempo-rary Spanishfilm. Among her publications are avolume of Cuban short stories forstudents of Spanish, and numerousarticles on the contemporary Span-ish novelist Muñoz Molina, Larra’stheater criticism, and Golden Agepoets such as Pedro Soto de Rojas,Gabriel Bocángel and AntonioHurtado de Mendoza. She alsoauthored a book on the Spanish ba-roque poet Pedro Soto de Rojas, afollower of Góngora.

new books by Shifra Armon, FélixBolaños, William Calin, JoaquimCamps, George Diller and RaymondGay-Crosier; receipt of the newly cre-ated SPPP Awards (for excellence inrank) by Andrés Avellaneda, WilliamCalin, Raymond Gay-Crosier,Geraldine Nichols, and David Pharies.

Before signing off, very specialthanks to Reynaldo Jiménez for his fineleadership as Acting Chair last year;to Mrs. Ayleen Conner, for establish-ing a scholarship in French, in honorof her late husband Wayne Conner,Chair of RLL for many years; to GayleZachmann, who raises scholarshipfunds year after year to help studentsstudy in France; to Bernadette Caillerfor her inspiration in directing thedepartment’s research colloquim, En-tre Nous; and to Kathy Dwyer-Navajas,for organizing an exciting new discus-sion series for RLL faculty and TAs onteaching issues.

We always look forward to hearingfrom you and catching up on yournews: please keep us in your loop!

Sincerely,Geraldine C. Nichols

Continued from page 1

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