News
Graduation Announcement
Graduation
The Graduation Ceremony for the Department of Spanish, Italian & Portuguese will follow the Lawn Ceremony on Saturday, May 20 at 1:30 p.m. The ceremony will be in the Culbreth Theatre (Drama Building), located at 109 Culbreth Road. (This is also the inclement weather location.)
Ceremonial scrolls will be awarded to students in the Spanish Graduate Program, along with majors in the Italian Studies Program, the Latin American Studies Program and the Spanish Undergraduate Program.
Additional information about the ceremony:
- Length of Time: The ceremony will last no more than an hour.
- Arrival Time: Graduates should plan to arrive by 1:00 p.m.
- Number of Tickets: Each graduate will receive up to five tickets. Additional tickets may be available after May 12th.
- Your Diploma: Diplomas will be mailed within 6 weeks of Final Exercises. Diplomas will be mailed to the identified ‘Diploma Mailing Address’ in SIS. Degree candidates should confirm their address under Personal Information in the SIS Student Center.
Link to the Office of the University Registrar: http://www.virginia.edu/registrar/diploma.html
Information about Finals Weekend can be found at: http://www.virginia.edu/majorevents/finals/
UVA Map: https://www.virginia.edu/maps
Congrats to Professor Bigelow!
Professor Allison Bigelow was invited to join the Institute of Andean Studies, an independent, non-profit organization based in Berkeley, California, which is home to the oldest peer-reviewed journal in the field, Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology. Congratulations!
Fellowships & Undergraduate Research Mini-Series 2023
The Office of Citizen Scholar Development is offering a mini-series all about fellowships and undergraduate research. Click here for more information about these opportunities!
The Colors of Change: Gender & Genocide in an Era of Rising Authoritarianism with Dr. Rula Jebreal
Rula Jebreal, a Palestinian foreign policy analyst serving on the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, with dual citizenship (Israeli and Italian), one of the most important voices on Italian politics and gender, with a constant presence on national and international television, and currently also visiting professor at The University of Miami, will give a talk at UVA in person on Thursday April 20 at 3pm in the Rotunda Multipurpose Room.
Please book your calendar since this is a once-in lifetime event! More details will come. The event is sponsored by the Centre for Global Inquiry and Innovation through the "women's voice" initiative led by Dr Giulio Celotto (Classics), Dr Giulia Paoletti (Art History) and Francesca Calamita (SIP).
Distinguished Visiting Professor Angélica Morales Sarabia "Amidst Pictures, Traces, and Cyanotypes: The Construction of Mexican Flora in Mexico's National Institute of Medicine 1889-1915"
Celebrate our students' work! Watch the 2023 World Language Lecture Series here
On Monday, March 13, undergraduate researchers Anna Brown, Jack Mills, Meghan Powers, and Elizabeth Taylor shared their work on environmental humanities, linguistic activism, and immigration as part of the Institute for World Language 2023 lecture series, organized by professor Jennifer Barlow (Spanish). You can see their work here, shared with their permission for anyone who couldn't attend live. (You may need to request permission from professor Barlow to access the recording.) Congratulations to Anna, Jack, Meghan, and Elizabeth!
Afro-Brazilian poet Salgado Maranhão and translator Alexis Levitin visit to UVA
We are honored to host Salgado Maranhão, leading Afro-Brazilian poet, and his translator, Prof. Alexis Levitin, on April 4 and 5!
You are invited to:
Politics and the Plight of the Amazon: A Conversation with Salgado Maranhão and Alexis Levitin
Tuesday 4/4 at 5 pm at the Language Commons (New Cabell Hall 298). Reception with Brazilian food follows.
Bilingual Poetry Reading by Salgado Maranhão & his English translator Alexis Levitin
Wednesday 4/5 at 5 pm in Monroe Hall 124. Followed by book sale and signing
We are thankful for the support of the Department of American Studies and the Institute of World Languages for this event.
Salgado Maranhão was born in the impoverished interior of Maranhão, in the northeast of Brazil, where he lived with his mother as an illiterate field worker till the age of fifteen. From these humble beginnings, he has risen to a position as one of the leading poets of his country and probably the leading voice representing the Afro-Brazilian experience. He won the prestigious Prêmio Jabuti in 1999 with his fourth poetry collection, Mural of Winds. In 2011, The Color of the Word won the Brazilian Academy of Letters highest poetry award. In 2014, the Brazilian PEN Club chose his collection Mapping the Tribe as best book of poetry for the year. In 2015 the Brazilian Writers Union gave him first prize, again for The Color of the Word. In 2016, he was awarded the Jabuti for his book Opera of Nos. This was his second Jabuti, an extremely rare honor. He has published three books since Opera of Nos: Avessos Avulsos (Sundry Reverses), 2016, A Sagração dos lobos (Consecration of the Wolves), 2017, A Casca Mitica (The Mythic Shell), 2019, and Pedra de Encantaria (Stone of Enchantment), 2021. In addition to seventeen books of poetry, he has written song lyrics and made recordings with some of Brazil’s leading jazz and pop musicians. His work has appeared in numerous magazines in the USA, including Bitter Oleander, BOMB, Cream City Review, Dirty Goat, Florida Review, Massachusetts Review, and Spoon River Poetry Review. On Nov. 13, 2017, Salgado received an honoris causa doctorate for his achievements in poetry from the Federal University of Piaui in Teresina, Brazil. On Nov. 13th, 2022, he received a similar honoris causa degree from the Federal University of Maranhão in Sao Luis, Maranhão. Salgado and his translator, Alexis Levitin, have presented his work bilingually at over one hundred colleges and universities throughout the USA, including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. His five books in print in the USA are:
Blood of the Sun (Milkweed Editions, 2012)
Tiger Fur (White Pine Press, 2015)
Palavora (Dialogos Books, 2019)
Mapping the Tribe (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2021)
Consecration of the Wolves (Bitter Oleander Press, 2021)
Alexis Levitin translates works from Portugal, Brazil, and Ecuador. His forty-eight books of translation include Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words, both from New Directions. In 2010, he edited Brazil: A Traveler’s Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press). Recent books from Brazil include Astrid Cabral’s Cage and Gazing Through Water and five collections by Salgado Maranhão: Blood of the Sun, Tiger Fur, Palavora, Mapping the Tribe and Consecration of the Wolves. Recent books from Portugal include The Art of Patience and Furrows of Thirst by Eugenio de Andrade, Exemplary Tales by Portugal’s leading woman writer, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, and Cattle of the Lord by Rosa Alice Branco. Recent books from Ecuador include Tobacco Dogs by Ana Minga, Destruction in the Afternoon by Santiago Vizcaíno, and Outrage by Carmen Váscones. He has been the recipient of two NEA Translation Awards and a participant in two NEH summer seminars. He was a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Oporto and Coimbra, Portugal in 1980. He was a Fulbright International Specialist teaching Shakespeare and the Translation of American Women Poets into Spanish at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 2015. IN 2018, he served again as a Fulbright Specialist, teaching Shakespeare, William Blake, and Emily Dickinson, as well as the translation of Contemporary American Women Poets into Portuguese at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. In addition, he has held translation residencies at Banff, Canada, Straelen, Germany (twice), and the Rockefeller Foundation Study Center in Bellagio, Italy.
Sigma Delta Pi Initiation
On Friday March 24th, the newest members of Sigma Delta Pi honor society were initiatied! Sigma Delta Pi is the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society. Members each must have completed three years of study of college-level Spanish, including at least three semester hours of a course in Hispanic literature or Hispanic culture and civilization at the third-year level, must have a minimal grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0- point scale in all Spanish courses taken, and must rank in the upper 35% (3.2 GPA) of his/her class. Congratulations!
2023 GERSZTEN FAMILY VISITING PROFESSOR AND INVITED SPEAKER IN GLOBAL HISTORIES & TRANSGENDER STUDIES IN THE HUMANITIES: MARCIA OCHOA
Please join us on Thursday, March 30, from 6:30-7:45 pm, in person or on Zoom, for the public lecture by this year's Gerszten Family Visiting Professor, Marcia Ochoa. A leading scholar in Latin American/Latinx Studies, queer/feminist/trans studies, and media studies, Professor Ochoa's research on beauty pagents in Venezuela has radically changed the way we think about beauty, race, gender, and performance. Click here to learn more about professor Ochoa's field-defining interdisciplinary work.
A reception will precede the talk from 5:00-6:30 pm in the lobby of Wilson. All are welcome to attend!
There will also be a seminar open to all graduate students in Wilson 142 from 3:30-5 pm.
This year's Gerszten lecture is being held in collaboration with the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures, thanks to the work of professors David Getsy (Art) and Cole Rizki (Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). Registration links are available here.
Global Histories and Transgender Studies in the Humanities
The lecture series is organized by David J. Getsy (Department of Art) and Cole Rizki (Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) as part of a 2022–23 workgroup of the Institute of the Humanities & Global Cultures at the University of Virginia. In conjunction with the lecture series, visiting scholars will also engage with students in David Getsy’s graduate seminar “Transgender Methods for Art & Performance History” (Ph.D. Program in Art and Architectural History) and Cole Rizki’s undergraduate course “Transgender Studies in the Américas” (Dept of Women, Gender, and Sexuality).
With additional support from the University of Virginia's Department of Art, the Department of Spanish Italian and Portuguese, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.
Info Session - Consortium for Less Commonly Taught Languages
Thursday, March 2, 3:30-4:30 pm in 298 NCH check out this information session about an innovative partnership that allows Duke, Vanderbilt, and UVA to offer a range of languages that are not typically available to college students in the US, including: Kreyòl (Haiti), K'iche' (Guatemala), Swahili (Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, among others), Turkish (Turkey), and Malagasy (Madagascar). Faculty presenters will give a brief overview of the language they teach, followed by an interactive Q&A. Come learn about the possibilities!
Professor Fernando Operé Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture 2023 Hispanic Keynote Speaker
Professor Fernando Operé will be speaking at the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture as the 2023 Hispanic Keynote Speaker!
"From Warriors to Soldiers: Indigenous Mission Militias and Cultures of Violence in the Río de la Plata via Guaraní Words"
Sigma Delta Pi now accepting Spring applications!
If you want to promote Spanish Literatures and Cultures, Sigma Delta Pi is for you. Zeta Zeta Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi is currently accepting membership applications. Application is due Wednesday, March 15. Membership in Sigma Delta Pi provides opportunities for national awards, grants, and scholarships, which can facilitate study-abroad programs and provide money for graduate research grants. Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, is a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of South Carolina, a member of the Association of College Honor Societies, and partners with the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and the North American Academy of the Spanish Language.
Poetry Reading with Professor Fernando Valverde
Join New Dominion Bookshop from 4:00-5:00pm for a reading with UVA professor and poet Fernando Valverde (America) and writer Wajahat Ali (Go Back to Where You Came From). This is a free in-person event, open to the public.
Visit https://ndbookshop.com/events/wajahat-ali-and-fernando-valverde/ for more information.
"La fragilità della condizione umana e la filosofia incarnata" with Professor Michela Marzano
On Thursday, February 2 at 2pm, Professor Michela Marzano of the Université Paris Cité will give a talk on "La fragilità della condizione umana e la filosofia incarnata". The lecture will be in Italian with the opportunity for the audience to ask questions in Italian or French.
Professor Allison Bigelow awarded the 2022 Philip Pauly Prize
Professor Allison Bigelow was awarded the 2022 Philip Pauly Prize for her book Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and University of North Carolina Press, 2020). This prize "is awarded for the best first book on the history of science in the Americas (broadly defined to include North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean) and written in English" (History of Science Society).
Click here for more about the award from the History of Science Society's website.
Spring 2023 Distinguished Visiting Professor Rosa Angélica Morales Sarabia
Rosa Angélica Morales Sarabia received her doctorate in history from UNAM in 2006. Since 1999 she has worked with CEIICH-UNAM (Center of Interdisciplinary Investigations in the Sciences and Humanities), collaborating on projects related to the social, political, and cultural studies of Mexico City. In 2011 she obtained the appointment of Associate Researcher focusing on the history of science. Her current research projects encompass natural history, botanical explorations, and the medical culture of women spanning from the 16th to the 19th century. She has also participated in several national and international collective research projects on medicine in the 11th and 17th centuries in New Spain. A recent collaborative project focuses on the cultural construction of ignorance (agnotology) around medicinal plants in Mexico. Her publications are numerous. In addition to book chapters and journal articles, she published her book, La consolidación de la botánica mexicana. Un viaje por la obra de José Ramírez 1879-1904, in 2015. Her teaching experience includes courses on world history and Mexico's modern history taught through the school of Political and Social Sciences at UNAM. She has also taught classes and seminars on the history of women, the history of medicine, and botany.
Professor Morales Sarabia will be teaching SPAN 4520 Crucible of Nationhood: Mexico in the 19th Century and SPAN 8550 Modern Mexican History this upcoming spring.