- Bintrim, Rebecca (Class of 2008)(BS Biology and Hispanic Studies): I'm in the process of applying to graduate school for Latin American Studies and planning on going to Brazil in January for six months. (Updated 2010)
- Davis, Martha (Class of 1996)(BA Spanish) I received my Ph.D. in Spanish literature from Catholic University this May. I am working as an assistant professor of Spanish at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. I hope to join you at Homecoming another year. (Updated 2010)
- Hispanic Studies: Anne Foster (Class of 2011) teaches English in Spain through the Cultural Ambassadors ProgramEvery year, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain offers the opportunity to teach English in different educational scenarios throughout Spain. College graduates, seniors and juniors can apply for the very competitive Cultural Ambassadors Program for North American Language and Culture Assistants in Spain in November /December (dates vary) for the following academic year.
During late spring of 2011, Anne Foster (Hispanic Studies & History '11) was delighted to find out she had been selected by the Program to teach English in a High School in Madrid during year 2011-12. She describes her experience as follows:
"In four years in the Hispanic Studies program I focused heavily on issues and research in the Americas. My freshman seminar was Mapping Cuba with Professor Stock followed by Mexican Cinema with Professor Buck. The closest I came to taking a class on Spain was my senior seminar with Professor Terukina in which we discussed Spain as a colonial power, but even so it was more of a class on philosophy and colonialism than Spanish culture.
"So when I heard about the Spain Cultural Ambassadors Program through Professor Buck I was unsure if it was quite what I was looking for. On one hand I thought it would be a great opportunity to travel to a new country and a new continent. At the same time I thought—I know so little about Spain! My hopes of travel and employment trumped my doubts and I added the Cultural Ambassadors application to the whirlwind of applications I was working on in the spring of 2011.
"The application process was a little daunting. To apply I had to submit documents such as a notarized copy of an FBI background check. Obtaining some of the documents meant navigating a maze of bureaucracy but it was for my own good. The Spanish Embassy required me to submit these documents so that when I went through the process of obtaining my visa, I would be ready to go. A few months later, the program offered me a placement at a school in Madrid, and I had to proceed to the visa application. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that I already had all the necessary documents for the application.
"But navigating the application and visa process were small feats compared to actually teaching. The Cultural Ambassadors Program explained the guidelines and roles of the foreign teaching assistants in Spanish schools. However, the specific duties of the assistant depend on the needs of his or her school. Some assistants work one on one with students or small groups, some work alongside Spanish teachers. I, however, found myself instructing classes of ten to twenty high school students on my own. The first month made me rethink my ideas about teaching and social responsibility. And gave me a new appreciation of every teacher I ever had growing up. "A recurring theme of my job and travels in Spain was that of defining the Spanish nation as well as trying to define America. My students were often eager to hear about the United States and they asked me open-ended questions such as, Does everyone get a car when they turn 16? Is everyone fat? What’s prom like? They were just as eager to share with me their concepts of Spain: Spain is party. Spain is lazy. Some of them said. Every time the class discussion turned to the country comparison game I couldn’t help but remember my Introduction to Hispanic Studies class in which we studied the concepts of imagined communities and nations. The very concepts were playing out right in front of me as Spanish high schoolers and me, a young American, tried to describe entire countries with a mere few adjectives…lazy, rich, independent, extroverted. But as we discussed in Intro to Hispanic Studies, these imagined national personas are nothing more than that: imagined. Instead of encouraging these national stereotypes in the classroom, I looked instead for the things that my students and I had in common. Music was a common class discussion. I discovered that my students and I shared a fondness of Queen and ABBA, which are ironically neither American nor Spanish bands. Another popular class activity was the “phrase of the day”; I would share an English phrase and the students would try to find a similar phrase in Spanish. For example, one day I chose the phrase, I’m fed up. And my students shared with me a Spanish phrase that expresses the same idea—hasta las narices (literally, up to the nose). "I realized after a few months of teaching that, even though I didn’t have much hard knowledge on Spain before I arrived, I had been well educated in the ways of critical thinking. My studies focused on Latin America, but Hispanic Studies as a concentration taught me how to question and critique my own country and to look beyond the façade of the nation-state. In the end these qualities prepared me for work abroad not only in Spanish speaking countries, but anywhere in the world. While at W&M, Anne received the Howard M. Fraser Award in Hispanic Studies. This award recognizes the graduating Hispanic Studies major who has made significant achievements in the area of research and service related to the field of Hispanic Studies.
Anne Foster ('11) received the Howard M Fraser Award in Hispanic Studies.
- Hispanic Studies: Eleonora Figliuoli (Class of 2012): Critical Thinking and Graduate StudiesAfter interning at the Library of Congress during last summer, this fall Eleonora Figliuoli (History & Hispanic Studies, '12) started her graduate studies in Hispanic Studies at the University of Virginia. In the following lines, Eleonora reflects upon her experience at W&M, and the critical thinking skills she acquired through the Hispanic Studies program; skills she considers crucial for success in graduate school.
"My experience at William & Mary helped greatly in preparing me for the work I am currently engaged in at The University of Virginia, both as a graduate student and as a graduate teaching assistant. More broadly, my studies at William & Mary helped hone the critical thinking skills necessary for life in graduate school. I graduated from college as an independent thinker. Throughout my time as a student at William & Mary, I perfected listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, and I am now able to call upon those skills and strategies when necessary in the graduate classroom. Similarly, I come out of my undergraduate institution feeling prepared with knowledge of foundational concepts in my field of specialization, and the ability to form a concise and well-developed argument.
"Specifically, the topics presented in my Hispanic Studies coursework at William & Mary have proven of great relevance for my graduate studies at UVA. For instance, in my freshman seminar at William & Mary, and in an upper level seminar later on in my undergraduate career, I studied the literature of the Spanish Civil War, and particularly of Carmen Martín Gaite. This semester, I am reencountering these same works in a broader-themed course on contemporary Spanish literature. The sequence of courses I took at William & Mary also exposed me to an introduction to reading medieval Spanish, which few of my colleagues can boast, and which I am required to do on a regular basis in a course on the History of the Language. "Moreover, though I was never formally trained to teach undergraduate students at William & Mary, there I discussed teaching Hispanic culture in a senior seminar on colonial Latin American literature. This knowledge gave me not only introductory knowledge of the canon of colonial Latin American literature, but also of a few important topics in foreign language pedagogy. "Lastly, when the time will come to prepare for comprehensive exams, or write articles in my seminar courses, my confidence is boosted knowing that the research skills I gained at William & Mary allow me to reflect independently on the lectures or texts that I listen to or read, and on my own written and spoken work in order to constantly challenge my preexisting assumptions and form new paradigms. In my duties as a teaching assistant, I try to facilitate the development of the same learning skills and strategies in my students, so the knowledge I gained comes full circle. At W&M, Eleonora received the R. Merritt Cox Fellowship in Hispanic Studies, awarded to the graduating student with an outstanding level of academic excellence in the field of Hispanic Studies, and who will pursue a graduate degree in the field in Hispanic Studies. This award was established in memory of Professor R. Merritt Cox, a well-known 18th century scholar in Spanish Studies and a highly esteemed colleague in W&M's Department of Modern Languages & Literatures for many years. With this award, the faculty recognize a graduating Hispanic Studies major who exhibits those qualities admired and embodied by Professor Cox: a deep appreciation and broad interest in Hispanic cultures, literatures, and the Spanish language.
Eleonora Figliuoli, who wrote an Honors Thesis on César Vallejo and Pablo Neruda from an eco-critical perspective, participated in our W&M Summer Program in Cádiz (Summer of 2011).
- Hispanic Studies: Lauren Ila Jones (Class of 2004) receives Fulbright Scholar Award for Research in UKLauren Ila Jones (BA, W&M Hispanic Studies & Sociology, 2004; PhD, UCLA Social Science and Comparative Education, 2009) was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award for the United Kingdom during 2012-2013. She will lecture and do research in the Education Department at Roehampton University in London. At Roehampton, she will work in the London Paulo Freire Institute, based in the Center for Education Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy (CEREPP). While at William & Mary, Lauren worked under the advisement of Prof. Jonathan Arries (Hispanic Studies) and Prof. Jennifer Bickham Mendez (Sociology). Since 2007, she has worked with Prof. Arries as co-instructor of the William & Mary Modern Languages and Literatures Summer Institute in Nicaragua. They plan to take the next cohort to Nicaragua in August 2013.
Lauren Ila Jones (Class of 2004)
- Howard, Martha (Class of 1996)(BA Spanish): I'm currently getting my Spanish licenciatura here at the University of Valencia. I've lived in Valencia for 12 years and would love to help any W&M students who are here and need an American contact. (Updated 2010)
- Leksa Pravdic (Class of 2012) receives Fulbright ScholarshipHispanic Studies major Leksa Pravdic ('12) is one of only nine W&M 2012 graduates to receive a prestigious Fulbright US Student Grant. During 2012-2013, Leksa will act as an English Teaching Assistant in Serbia. You can read the full featured story here. Congratulations, Leksa!
Leksa Pravdic (Class of 2012)
- Murray Hutchcroft, Laura (Class of 1991)(BA Spanish/Government): My family was recently profiled here: http://www.holycrosshealth.org/newsletters_story_pregnancy.htm (Updated 2010)
- Ovando, Julia (Class of 2002)(BA Spanish): I've opened my own solo legal practice in Arlington Virginia, focused on guardian ad litem work for children and criminal defense work (mostly court appointed) for Spanish speaking immigrants. (Updated 2010)
- Panagopoulos Basham, Nicole (Class of 1998)(BA Spanish & Government): Enjoying living in Austin, Texas with my husband Eric, my 4 year old son, Will and our black lab Jake. I'm afraid my Spanish has been limited to foreign films as of late, but we did have our son in a bilingual co-operative preschool for some time, so I had some chance to learn "kid" vocabulary I hadn't at W&M (slide, swings, etc). (Updated 2010)
- Roman-Lagunas, Patricia (Class of 2007)(BA Hispanic Studies & International Relations): I graduated from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in May '10 and was admitted to practice law in Indiana on October 15th. I work at a law firm near my home town and am currently applying to the Illinois bar so that I can be licensed in both states. I worked for a migrant farmworker legal project during law school and have already had several opportunities to use Spanish in my practice. In a few months I'll be Patricia R. Hass! (Updated 2010)
- Wichems, Desmond (Class of 1990)Immigrated to Australia in 2004. Currently working as an R & D chemist for a scientific instrumentation company. Missed homecoming this year, but had a great time last year when I attended with my wife ( class of 1989)
Departmental Newsletter for Modern Languages & Literatures at the College of William & Mary
