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BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES
FALL 2015 NEWSLETTER
Kicks Off Hispanic Heritage Month,
November 2nd
A Mexican Altar de los Muertos was created by Modern
Languages Department Professors Paquita Suárez-Coalla
and Alicia Perdomo and is currently on display in the
MLD office, Room S601.
!
Exciting news! We have a NEW MAJOR in Modern Languages
with specializations in French, Spanish and Italian.
MLD Faculty Publications
Professor Margaret Carson’s translation of the essay “There
Are No Recipes for the Foods of the Future” by the Cuban writer
Antonio José Ponte appeared in e-misférica 12.1, Spring 2015
http://www.hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/emisferica-121caribbean-rasanblaj/ponte Her translation of the essay “Simple
Language, Name” by Sergio Chejfec was published in the Summer
2015 issue of Asymptote Journal http://www.asymptotejournal.com/
nonfiction/sergio-chejfec-simple-language-name/
Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya published “Variations of
‘Frida’: Graciela Iturbide, Mario Bellatin, and La Chica Boom”
in Technology, Literature, and Digital Culture in Latin America:
Mediatized Sensibilities in a Globalized Era. Eds. Matthew Bush
and Tania Gentic (London: Routledge, 2016) and “Re-pensar la
memoria fotográfica. Desplazamientos e irrupciones del retrato
fotográfico durante la dictadura militar en Chile” in Des/
Memorias Hemisféricas, Eds. Adriana López Labourdette, Silvia
Spitta, and Valeria Wagner (Barcelona: Linkgua Ediciones, 2015).
She also published two essays: “Chile desde adentro. Notas sobre
fotografía, memoria e historia” in Atlas Imaginarios Visuales:
Revista de Fotografía e Imagen www.atlasiv.cl/post/chile-desdeadentro-notas-sobre-fotografia; and “The Eloquent T-Shirt,” an
invited contribution for the Collaborative Project In the Dark
Room: Cold War Visual Legacies in the Americas, coordinated by
Professors Thy Phu and Andrea Noble http://inthedarkroom.org/
projects/cold-war-visual-legacies#post-the-eloquent-t-shirt
Professor Sophie Marínez’s article “Alegorías de una
hermandad atormentada: construcciones alternas de Haití en la
literatura dominicana contemporánea” is forthcoming in
"Quisqueya is my lakay": Challenging de-nationalization, waving
the national identity, Special Issue on the Haitian-Dominican
Conflict. Memorias. Revista Digital de Historia y Arqueología
desde el Caribe (February 2016) and “Mito y feminismo en Marassá
y la Nada de Alanna Lockward” has been accepted by Revista
Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos and will be published in 2016.
In addition, she was invited to contribute the chapter titled
“The Quisqueya Diaspora: The Emergence of Latina/o Literature
from Hispaniola” for the The Cambridge History of Latina/o
Literature, slated for publication in 2017. Her translation into
French of the poem “La Marilyn Monroe de Santo Domingo” by
acclaimed Dominican poet Frank Baez was published in K1N, a
peer-review journal in literary translation at the University of
Ottawa www.k1nlitra.ca/k1n/article.php?i=MTI0&i2=MTI
Professor Alister Ramírez Márquez
published a new book of short stories
entitled Los vendedores: cuentos de reportero
(Ala de Mosca Press). Los vendedores is
narrated by a correspondent who is employed
by a French news agency in Paris, and
interviews salespeople all over the world.
Some of the stories are based on real
interviews, the daily news from newspapers,
internet, tweets and other social media. The
line between reality and fiction becomes
blurry, and the reader learns that unexpected
events might take place at any time. It is a
compelling combination of two talents: the
ability to sell and the skill of relating the experiences. The
book is sold on www.amazon.com.
Professor Marilyn Rivera published the
article “A propósito de la Nación y Julia
de Burgos” in El Post Antillano 18 Jul
2015. Her book chapter contribution, “El
patriarcado y la figura del padre en los
cuentos de Luis Negrón y Ricardo Santana
Ortiz” is forthcoming in the book entitled
El género en la producción cultural
latinoamericana y del Caribe, edited by the
Grupo de Investigación Literaria del Caribe
(GILKARÍ) of Universidad del Atlántico in
Barranquilla, Colombia. Rivera presented
her book Masculinidades y transgresiones en
la obra de Mayra Santos Febres at the 9th
Annual Hispanic/Latino Book Fair on October
11th in Jackson Heights, Queens. Also, she
participated in the Local author night! of
La Casa Azul Bookstore on October 17th.
Professor Lisa Sarti's article Authorship and the Profitable
Adaptation: How Gennaro Righelli and Vittorio de Sica
reworked ‘Il viaggio’ was published in the UK journal Pirandello
Studies (35:2015, 75-91)
A review of the book Primera Dios, yo la alivio. Testimonio de
las parteras salvadoreñas de Ciudad Barrios (New York: Campana,
2011), co-edited by Professor Paquita Suárez Coalla and
Lorenzo Amaya was published at Kóot. Revista de museología 6
Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador (Año 5, sept. 2015):
135-142. The review “El legado de Lorenzo Amaya en Nueva York,”
by Carmen Molina Tamaca, was an homage to Lorenzo Amaya who
passed away on August 2015. Antón García made a book review
about Literatura con acento (New York: Campana, 2014) a
compilation of essays by different writers about their own
creative process also edited by Professor Suárez Coalla. Her own
essay “La carpeta azul”, was also included in the anthology. The
review, Ente l’aquí y l’allá appeared in the cultural section of
the newspaper La Nueva España.
Professor Kristina Varade published the article “Dressing
the ‘Fesipora’: Changes in Irish Dance Costume in the New
Millennium” in New Hibernia Review, 19 (no. 3): 58-75 Professor Alejandro Varderi’s recent publications include De
lo sublime a lo grotesco. Kitsch y cultura popular en el mundo
hispánico www.devenir.es/index.php/catalogodevenir/devenir-elotro/2121-de-lo-sublime-a-lo-grotesco; “Ana Rossetti y la otra
España literaria (I-II)” ViceVersa, May 25 and
June 8 www.viceversa-mag.com/author/alejandrovarderi/; “Álex de la Iglesia y el otro cine
español,” May 2015 www.cinecritic.biz; “Luis
Zapata y la normalización de la diferencia (III)” ViceVersa, June 22 and July 6; Julio
Galán en la frontera de la mexicanidad (I-II)”
ViceVersa, July 20 and August 3; “A los
sesenta años de Marcelino, pan y vino”
ViceVersa, August 17; “Pablo Larraín y su
trilogía de la memoria,” August 2015
www.cinecritic.biz; “Nuria Amat en la memoria
viajera de Barcelona” ViceVersa, August 31;
“La contemporaneidad en conflicto sobre la
escena” Artez. Revista de las artes escénicas
N 206 (Sept. Oct. 2015): 96-99; “Paseo” (excerpt from a novel in
Spanish), ViceVersa September 27; “Enclave. Desde Nueva York
hacia el mundo hispánico,” ViceVersa, October 12; “Temporada
para suicidios de Manuel Adrián López,” ViceVersa, October 26;
“Narrativa gay venezolana. El otro lugar de la escritura,”
ViceVersa, November 9. In June,he published the fourth issue of
Enclave (www.enclave.commons.gc.cuny.edu). Enclave is now
accepting collaborations for the fifth issue to be published in
2016.
MLD Faculty Presentations
Professor Margaret Carson was a discussant during the event
“José Watanabe’s Antígona” at the CUNY Graduate Center, November
20, 2015. She presented “Literary Awards and Grants for
Translation at the PEN American Center’” during the American
Literary Translators Association “Translation and Traffic”
conference held in Tucson, AZ from October 28- 31, 2015. During
the same conference she also co-moderated the panel, “Where Are
the Women in Translation?” She also moderated the panel “Women
in Translation” during the New Literature from Europe festival,
November 8, 2015.
Professor Patrizia Comello Perry co-presented a paper with
Prof. Elda Buonanno Foley entitled “Fostering Cultural Diversity
in the Global World Though Contemporary Cinema” at the
conference New Directions in The Humanities (Vancouver, June
17-19, 2015). She also organized and chaired a session entitled
“Teaching Languages and Culture Through Film” at the Pacific
Ancient and Modern Language Conference (PAMLA), held in
Portland, Oregon (Nov. 6, 2015).
Thanks to a PSC CUNY Research Award, Professor Peter
Consenstein was able to accept an invitation to speak at the
conference “Georges Perec: Nouvelles approaches,” held at the
Centre Culturel International de Cerisy, in Cerisy, France from
July 13-20, 2015. His paper was entitled “L'identité juive de
Georges Perec.”
Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya was invited by The Ph.D.
Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and
Languages, CUNY Graduate Center to give a lecture entitled
“Depth of Field: Photographic Practices in Chile,
1973-1998” (November 6). She was also invited to participate in
the 3° Coloquio Fotografía y Discursos Disciplinarios.
Fotografía contemporánea en Latinoamérica, organized by
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Red de
Investigación de la Imagen Fotográfica and held in Santiago,
Chile, on October 20-21). She presented “Spic Ecdysis (2014) de
Xandra Ibarra: mudas de la performance, desplazamientos de la
fotografía.” She also presented “Chile from within, 25 years
after,” at Translating Memory and Remembrance across the
Disciplines, an Interdisciplinary Conference organized by SUNY
New Paltz (October 9-8). During the summer, she participated in
the NYU Faculty Resource Network as a Scholar-In-Residence.
Professor Sophie Maríñez presented “Seeking my Sibling: Myth
and Fraternité in Alanna Lockward’s Marassá y la Nada” at the
Haitian Studies Association 27th Annual Conference, held in
Montréal, Canada (October 22-24, 2015). She was also invited to
read a selection of poems from Sel Noir by Edouard Glissant, at
the opening of the conference Salt & Sugar/ Salt or Sugar?
organized by the Ph.D. Program in French, The Graduate Center,
CUNY (October 29, 2015). As to her own poetry, she was invited
to read it at the IX Feria del Libro Dominicano, Gregorio
Luperón High School, New York, (September 26, 2015); The
Americas Poetry Festival of New York, presented by the Division
of Interdisciplinary Studies at Center for Worker Education of
the City College of New York (October 15-16, 2015); and the
Hispanic Heritage Month at BMCC (November 13, 2015). She was a
guest panelist in Black Lives Matter: The Haitian-Dominican
Human Rights Crisis, a panel organized by the Centro de Estudios
Puertorriqueños, Hunter College (November 18, 2015).
Professor Tom Means spoke at the American Association of
Teachers of Italian (AATI) conference in Siena, Italy on June
23, 2015. He gave two talks: as a panelist, “Writing Creative
Endings to Movies or Short Stories in Italian;” and, as a
founding editor to a new peer-reviewed journal “Teaching Italian
Language and Culture Annual (TILCA).” On October 23, 2015,
Professor Means spoke at Montclair State University’s Symposium,
“Teaching Italian.” He gave two talks: As a panelist, “Students
at Play: Transforming Learning in the Italian Curriculum;” as a
teacher trainer, “Task-Based Instruction as a Framework for
Language Play.”
Professor Kristina Varade was an invited speaker at NYU's
Wasserman Center: "Faculty Job Search Panel for Humanities and
Social Sciences.” She also co-presented a workshop for BMCC TRAC
(Transfer Review and Academic Connection) students: “Mastering
Your Application.”
On September 25, Professor Alejandro Varderi presented the
book Temporada para suicidios by Cuban writer Manuel Adrián
López in Rio III Gallery, Manhattan. On October 24, Professor
Varderi was the subject of the interview “America sigue
involucionando.” in El Universal newspaper from Caracas
(Venezuela) http://www.eluniversal.com/arte-y-entretenimiento/
151024/alejandro-varderi-america-sigue-involucionando
Other Events and Activities by MLD Faculty
Professors Margaret Carson and
Ángeles Donoso Macaya co-organized a
workshop for students led by Chilean
artist Francisca Benítez during Hispanic
Heritage Month. The event was entitled
“Los idiomas del cuerpo” (Languages of the
Body) and took place on November 24.
Professors Patrizia Comello Perry, Tom Means, Lisa
Sarti, and Kristina Varade organized the Italian Heritage
Month that was held on October 16 in the Richard Harris Terrace.
Professors Means and Varade also gave a presentation in CETLS
for the faculty book club on Italo Svevo’s “Zeno’s Conscience.”
Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya used ELIC funds to take her
WI SPN 210 class to The New York Botanical Garden to see the
exhibition Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life on October 30.
Professors Evelin Gamarra and Marilyn Rivera organized the
film screening of El color de la guayaba and a talk with
Director Luis Caballero. The activity took place at Richard
Harris Terrace on November 17 during the Hispanic Heritage Month
at BMCC.
Professor Ainoa Íñigo was the coordinator of the Study Abroad
Program in Spain. She took a group of thirteen BMCC students to
Oviedo, Asturias from July 4 to August 3. As part of the
activities of the Hispanic Heritage Month at BMCC, Professor
Íñigo sponsored an event with Mexican artist and journalist
Rocío Duque, who presented The Business of Killing, a graphic
novel on feminicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The event took
place on November 12.
Professor Sophie Maríñez is currently editing the fourth
issue of the French student literary magazine Echos du ToutMonde, dedicated to the role of the French language in our
lives. The issue will also include a special section on Paris,
in response to the November 13 events.
Professor Nidia Pullés-Linares will use ELIC funds to take
her students to see the play “En el tiempo de las mariposas,”
based on the homonymous novel by Julia Alvarez, at the Teatro
Repertorio Español, on December 6.
Professor Silvia Roig used ELIC funds to take her students on
a field trip to the Hispanic Society of America.
At the Centro Español de Manhattan, Professors Paquita
Suárez-Coalla and Ainoa Íñigo, Vicepresident and Member of
the Latino Artists Round Table (LART) association, co-sponsored
the event Recordando a Ana Mendieta en el 30 aniversario de su
muerte/ Remembering Ana Mendieta in the 30th Anniversary of her
Death an homage to the Cuban American performance artist,
sculptor and painter Ana Mendieta who died at the age of 35 on
September 1985. This event will be duplicated at BMCC during the
spring semester. Professors Suárez-Coalla and Íñigo took 50
students to this conference.
As part of the activities of the Hispanic Heritage Month at
BMCC, Professor Suárez-Coalla also coordinated or co-sponsored
the following events: for the Opening Ceremony of the Hispanic
Heritage Month on Nov. 4, the student’s poetry reading honoring
the Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda; on Nov. 9, the event “New York: A
Space to Create in Spanish,” a Literary Reading and Discussion
with the writers Diana Pennel (New York) and Nadia Villafuerte
(Chiapas, México); on Nov. 13, the event “Reading Social
Awareness through Poetry” as part of the conference Sustainable
Struggles. Five different poets were invited: Carlos Aguasaco
(Colombia), Margarita Drago (Argentina), Sophie Maríñez (FranceDominican Republic), Juana Ramos (El Salvador) and the BMCC
student Diana Muñoz (México).
The course Creative Writing in Spanish created by Professor
Suárez-Coalla and approved by the Curriculum Committee, will be
teach for the first time in the Spring Semester of 2016.
Awards and Recognition
Professors Ángeles Donoso Macaya and Kristina Varade were
awarded the CUNY Center for the Humanities Williams Stewart
Travel Grant.
Professor Sophie Maríñez was accepted in the 2015-2016 CUNY
Faculty Fellowship Publication Program to work on her book
project “The Marassa Dynamics Between Haiti and the Dominican
Republic”.
Professor Silvia Roig was the recipient of the Premio de
Monografia Victoria Urbano 2015, awarded by the Asociación
Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica.