Bethzaida Fernández awarded Community-Engaged Scholarship Collaborative Fellows Program

Romance Studies Senior Lecturer, Bethzaida Fernández was awarded a Fellowship as part of the Community-Engaged Scholarship Collaborative from the Duke Office of Durham and Community Affairs. Community-engaged scholarship involves partnerships between the community and university addressing issues of shared importance and demonstrating mutual benefit.

Fernández applied for the program to support the Raíces, Rutas y Ritmos project in collaboration with her Service-Learning course Spanish 313 “Latino Lives and Experiences in NC” with Professor Miguel Rojas Sotelo and Rafael A. Osuba. Fernández’s students in Spanish 313 have interviewed different artists, all immigrants from Latin America. The funding will support the interactions between the artists and the students as well as two concerts during this academic year.

The first concert of the year took place November 12 on Duke’s East Campus. The concert featured seven music genres from across Latin America; all celebrating the “roots, routes, and rhythms of Latin American migrants in North Carolina”. Students from Spanish 313 “Bridging Cultures, Latino Lives, and Experiences in NC” served as MCs presenting the knowledge gained during the semester. A second concert will take place later in the Spring 2023 in downtown Durham. Stay tuned for details!