Graduate students

Dr. Ricardo Padrón holds a PhD in Romance Languages from Harvard University. He is currently Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Virginia. He is interested in the literature and culture of the early modern Hispanic world, particularly in the various expressions of the Hispanic imperial imagination. His first book, The Spacious Word: Cartography, Literature and Empire in Early Modern Spain, was published in 2004 by the University of Chicago Press. His current work focuses on Spanish interest in Pacific and Asia in the wake of the Encounter with the Americas in relation to the emergence of globalism during the early modern period. He has also published on the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, Fernando de Herrera, and Luis de Góngora, as well as on the mapping of imaginary worlds throughout the modern period.

Students in Prof. Harrison’s seminar “Guaman Poma” are reading “Tracking Space,” a chapter from Ricardo Padrón’s The Spacious Word. For a PDF, send a request to reglee@umd.edu.

Please join us. These two writers are coming to Maryland and will talk on their current projects.
Please feel free to announce and pass around the information.

Looking forward to see you all,

El cielo por asalto: Reinaldo Arenas y la Revolución como literatura

Laura Maccioni, University of Maryland at College Park

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is pleased to announce that Cristina Burneo has been awarded a Snouffer
Dissertation Fellowship for 2010-2011!  She will receive a 9.5 month stipend for the year, in addition to ten tuition remission credits per semester.

Her dissertation is titled, “Voyage towards Meaning:  Biographical Reconstruction and Bilingual Poetry in Four Andean Poets,” and is directed by Prof. Jorge Aguilar Mora.

Also, Prof. Sandra Cypess (Chair of Spanish, SLLC) should be acknowledged for presenting  our candidates in her letter of support that was sent to the Snouffer Committee for selection.

Felicitaciones, Cristina!!  Please direct an email to Cristina at
cburneo@umd.edu to extend your congratulations.

8^th Annual SLLC Graduate Student Forum

Space and Transculturality; April 8-9, 2010

Each time I undertake to paint a picture, I have the sensation of leaping into space. I never know whether I shall fall on my feet.” Picasso may have simply been trying to paint a picture, but his statement exemplifies the metaphysical connection between space and the endeavor of expression. Space, as evidenced by its charm over architects, artists, writers, and scientists alike, is a concept that profoundly intrigues us, the examination of which is fundamental to an understanding of ourselves.

Space can be an emptiness, or it can be room to grow. “The space between” can be a communal place where ideas meld, but it can also be a gap, a breach in understanding. This conference seeks to explore the question of space and its representations within the context of transculturality in language and literature. How does space, from its geographical to metaphorical manifestations, affect the flow and transfer of ideas between cultures? What are the differences between physical and mental spaces among cultures? What consequences arise from the imposition of one culture on the space of another? We think of barriers as marking a boundary within a space, but in what ways does space itself create boundaries? How is space compartmentalized by different cultures? Do certain gaps between cultures defy exchange?

The graduate students of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland cordially invite students from all disciplines to submit papers that analyze possible reflection on and interpretation of “Space and Transculturality.” Topics include but are not limited to:

• The relationship between space and borders (both physical and metaphorical)
• Representations of space in literature
• The conceptualization of space from a linguistic perspective
• Socio-cultural approaches to the question of space
• Colonialism and post-colonialism
• Terrorism in today’s world literature
• Geographical space
• Emptiness
• Visual representations of space
• Borders, boundaries, and walls
• Definitions of space

Abstracts are encouraged from all fields and papers should be in English. Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words by January 15, 2010 to umdsllcconf2010@gmail.com.