Nicolás Sánchez-Rodríguez, recent Romance Studies Ph.D graduate has been named to the Princeton Society of Fellows for Fall 2021. The Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts seeks to support innovative interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship and teaching in the humanities and humanities-related social sciences. Each year, the Society chooses a new cohort of postdoctoral Cotsen fellows, who are appointed for three-year terms to conduct research and to teach in a home department, frequently also a… read more about Nicolás Sánchez-Rodríguez to Join Princeton Society of Fellows »
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Please join Romance Studies in congratulating Samar Miled for receiving the highest honors in the American Journal of French Studies 2020 national writing competition in French! Samar received 20th place for her poem, "Je ne l'ai pas choisie" in response to the prompt, "Why did you start learning French?" Her playful and elegant description of her relationship with the French language secured her top honors: "Je ne l’ai pas choisie. C’est elle qui m’a saisie" (I… read more about Samar Miled receives highest honors from American Journal of French Studies »
Laurent Dubois, professor of Romance Studies, was quoted in a U.S. News & World Report story about the legacy of late Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona. "I think partly there is this sense that writers and football players kind of embody the soul of nations and the Latin American continent in a way that no-one else does, certainly not political leaders," Dubois said. read more about Maradona Mourning Shows Again Latin America's Devotion to Sport and Arts »
Associate Professor of Romance Studies, Dr. Lamonte Aidoo has been awarded the Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award for his book, Slavery Unseen: Sex, Power, and Violence in Brazilian History. The prize is to be awarded to an author whose contribution to Caribbean thought is through the medium of the novel, poetry, theater, or cinema. His extraordinary book examines sexual violence as a technology of enslavement in Brazil and its impact on Brazilian society—… read more about Lamonte Aidoo Receives Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award »
One important thing that hasn’t changed in a semester of the pandemic is the arrival of new faculty members. They come with new ideas, research problems and classes. Their importance in sustaining existing strengths and guiding Duke toward new areas of excellence can’t be underestimated. “We welcome and celebrate our new faculty this year in the most unusual ways and circumstances, but with no less enthusiasm,” says Duke Provost Sally Kornbluth. “We have selected these faculty, and they have chosen to join us, to be a part… read more about Meet Duke's new faculty of 2020 »
Virginie A. Duzer is a scholar of late nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century French literature, art and culture. She received her Ph.D. in Romance Studies from Duke in 2008. Currently, Duzer is Associate Professor at Pomona College where she also serves as the Chair of the Romance Languages and Literatures Department. Her research deals with the relation between texts, images and aesthetics in avant-garde movements. She is author of L’Impressionnisme littéraire (Presses… read more about Alumni Profiles Series: Virginie A. Duzer »
The Purpose Project at Duke has announced the inaugural cohort of the Race and the Professions Fellowship, a year-long program that will explore the challenges of racial inequities and the work of antiracism in the professions, the broader community, and the world. More than 200 graduate and professional students applied to the fellowship. The 28 fellows represent eight schools, eight Trinity departments, and three interdisciplinary programs,… read more about Ofelia Lopez Named a Race and the Professions Fellow with the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke »
Adriana Méndez Rodenas is a scholar of Latin American literature. Born in Havana, she received her master’s degree in Romance Studies from Duke and her Ph.D. in Romance Studies from Cornell. Dr. Méndez Rodenas has authored groundbreaking work on Cuban anti-slavery narrative and nineteenth-century travel writing. Her books include Severo Sarduy: el neobarroco de la transgresión (1983); Gender and Nationalism in Colonial Cuba: The Travels of Santa Cruz y Montalvo, Condesa… read more about Alumni Profiles Series: Adriana Méndez Rodenas »
Wellness is an underappreciated aspect of academic performance, often overlooked in the never-ending deluge of experiments, readings, papers, and exams in the lives of graduate and postdoctoral researchers. Maintaining optimal physical and mental health is important; when wellness is neglected, mental wellbeing can suffer, and performance often follows. Mental health concerns continue to see a gradual rise among graduate students. A recent working paper by Harvard economists showed that a graduate student is… read more about Unity in Diversity: Leading through a Crisis »
August 26, 2020 Amanda Suhey received her Ph.D. in Romance Studies in 2016, with a focus on Latin American culture and visual studies. Her doctoral research sparked interests that took her on an unexpected career trajectory, eventually leading to her current role as Senior Analyst of Marketing Analytics at AbbVie, a research-driven pharmaceutical company. Fluent in Spanish and data-driven research skills, Dr. Suhey has charted a career path that allows her to tell stories… read more about Alumni Profiles Series: Amanda Suhey »
No matter what you’re studying, there’s no escaping the role of language. It’s just how humans communicate. Yet, there is a generation of students whose experience with language classes consists almost entirely of conversations about a single subject: travel. “Language used to be taught in a contextual vacuum,” explained Deb Reisinger, an associate professor of the practice of Romance Studies. “When adults think back on learning a language, they often recall memorized dialogues, role plays or skits where they dressed up as… read more about A Practical Way to Learn a Language, and a New Perspective »
https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2020/06/26/putting-the-global-back-into-global-pandemic-part-6/ https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2020/07/10/putting-the-global-back-into-global-pandemic-part-7/ read more about Putting the ‘Global’ Back Into Global Pandemic, Part 6 & 7 »
By the time Summer Session I started on May 13, Duke’s educators had already been at work for weeks. Before a class can be taught, it must be planned. There are readings to select, assignments to create, questions to prepare, schedules to set. And this year, there was an additional challenge: the professors, instructors and Ph.D. students tasked with teaching undergraduates had to adapt their classes for a completely remote term, thanks to the impacts of COVID-19. There was also more demand than ever. With stay-at-home… read more about 3 Summer Courses Show What Goes Into Planning a Duke Class »
Most often, when graduate students talk about “the academic job market,” what we really mean is the “U.S. academic job market.” But what about the academic job market in the United Kingdom or the countries of the European Union? What challenges and opportunities might be encountered by a Duke Ph.D. looking for a career on the other side of the Atlantic? With generous support from The Graduate School’s Professional Development Grant, Romance Studies Ph.D. candidates Anna Tybinko and Elia Romera-Figueroa… read more about Discovering Possibilities for a Mobile, Multi-Lingual Academic Career »
Duke Ph.D. candidates Lea Greenberg (German Studies), Bill Sharman (History), and Anna Tybinko (Romance Studies) have received the prestigious Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellowship for the 2020-2021 academic year. A total of 64 fellowships were awarded out of more than 1,000 applicants. The fellowship, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, provides a $35,000 stipend and up to $8,000 in research funds and university fees to advanced graduate students in their final year of… read more about 3 Receive Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships for 2020-2021 »
Congratulations to Romance Studies Ph.D. candidate, Anna Tybinko, who was awarded the 2020 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship for her dissertation project, “Urban Borderlands: African Writers in Precarious Spain, 1985-2008.” The fellowship provides a stipend, research funds and a faculty-led academic job market seminar to further prepare fellows for their postgraduate careers. This program is made possible by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. More information… read more about Anna Tybinko Awarded the 2020 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship »
Congratulations to Dr. Nicolás Sanchez (Duke Ph.D. 2020), who has been awarded a one-year residential postdoctoral fellowship at the Pembroke Center at Brown University. The topic of this year's Pembroke Seminar is "Narrating Debt" and candidates were selected on the basis of their scholarly potential and the relevance of their work to this research theme. Last year, Nicolás was also the recipient of the ACLS Mellon Award. Congratulations, Nicolás! read more about Dr. Nicolás Sanchez Awarded Residential Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Pembroke Center at Brown University »
Congratulations to the following student award winners from Duke University units in 2020. African & African American Studies John Hope Franklin Award for Academic Excellence: Elizabeth DuBard Grantland Karla FC Holloway Award for University Service: Beza Gebremariam Mary McLeod Bethune Writing Award: Jenna Clayborn Walter C. Burford Award for Community Service: Kayla Lynn Corredera-Wells Art, Art History & Visual Studies… read more about Student Honors and Laurels for 2020 »
Duke University has awarded distinguished professorships to 29 faculty members from eight Duke colleges and schools. While the annual University Distinguished Professors dinner will be postponed until social gathering restrictions are lifted, Provost Sally Kornbluth is ready to congratulate this year’s recipients now. “I am thrilled to honor this wonderful cohort of scholars, teachers, and members of the Duke community,” Kornbluth said. “Becoming a distinguished professor at Duke is a great achievement, and one that is… read more about Duke Awards 29 University Distinguished Professorships »
In 2011, at the unveiling of a highway marker honoring Pauli Murray — the lawyer, priest, civil rights advocate, and Durham native — Helen Solterer began a literary journey through time and place. It was there that Solterer, a professor of Romance Studies, first learned of Murray’s poetry. Solterer was particularly struck by Murray’s 1944 poem “Dark Testament,” calling it Murray’s “freedom song” about “the curse of lynching in North Carolina.” It’s a stunning work of literature in its own right, and Solterer also heard a… read more about Duke Guggenheim Fellow Asks What Makes Literature Feel Timely »
Looking for ways to maintain your mental and physical health in the time of coronavirus and social distancing? You could try some no-equipment workouts. Or visit a virtual museum. Or take some free online courses. Those are just a few of the wellness resources you will find from Wellness4Researchers, a social media campaign run by three Duke graduate students—Shreyas Hegde, Courtney Johnson, and Filippo Screpanti—and postdoctoral fellow Daniel Luo. The quartet created the campaign as their team project for the Emerging… read more about Graduate Students Turn Leadership Project into a Timely Wellness Resource for Students »
Arts and Cultural Citizenship is spearheaded by Prof. Anne-Gaëlle Saliot and aims to understand the crucial role of arts in weaving a more inclusive social fabric on both sides of the Atlantic. Through customized internships, performances, collaborative projects and research programs, the Initiative is exploring the ways in which art theory, practice, and administration shape notions of belonging and negotiation of cultural spaces and challenge the idea of "citizen" as being a singular and… read more about The Arts and Cultural Citizenship Initiative is launching a Bass Connection »
An exhibit at Duke's Fredric Jameson Gallery focuses on Central American representation and was spurred by an idea from Claudia Milian, who leads Duke's Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South. The story behind this exhibit is spotlighted in Remezcla. read more about ‘Connected Diaspora’ Exhibition Aims to Boost Central American Representation in the US Art World »
Professor Helen Solterer explores the process of opening family archives long kept under wraps in University College Dublin. The Irish Times featured her piece on the Curran collection, Lucia Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce, and the open-ended histories of those people who make the work of writers, painters, and dancers possible. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/l-for-lucia-joyce-and-her-lettrines-opening-ucd-s-curran-collection-1.4157871 read more about Professor Helen Solterer and Franco-Irish Joycean Connections »
Cristina Garcia Ayala, a student in French and Italian, surveys Duke students to discover how Brexit, taking effect on Jan. 31, registers on them. The date for Brexit, Duke students now note, has been set for January 31st, 2020, exactly 3 months after the previous date of Oct. 31, 2019. The European Union has announced this third extension of the deadline, on top of the two already agreed-upon. This has been attributed in large part to the continuous stalemates in British parliament and the severe lack of… read more about Romance Studies student chronicles the Brexit effect »
Deborah Reisinger, Romance Studies professor and director of Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum at Duke, discusses students using a second language in their studies. Read the full article in the Washington Post. read more about What happens when college students discuss lab work in Spanish, philosophy in Chinese or opera in Italian? »
The exploration the public lives of the “first ladies” of America’s Christian evangelical megachurches and an intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life in Appalachia are among the new noteworthy books by Duke authors this fall. Many of the books, including new editions of previous titles, can be found on the "Duke Authors" display shelves near the circulation desk in Perkins Library. Some are available as e-books for quick download. Most can also be purchased through the Gothic Bookshop. [Duke Today will… read more about Fall Books: Clean Hands, Aging Brains, Evangelical Women and Other Great Reads »
Fall 2020 Update: New sessions in this Mellon Seminar Series will occur October 8, 15 and 19. Details and links to register are included below. A seminar series focused on language discrimination in fragile and precarious communities proposed by faculty in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke has attracted key funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The project has been designated a Sawyer Seminar Series and awarded a grant of $225,000 over two years. Institutions… read more about Seminar Series to Raise Awareness of Language Discrimination »
Emily Nagler, class of 2019 and student of Global Health, Public Policy, and Spanish was awarded the highly selective Princeton in Latin America Fellowship to work a full year at the Women Justice Initiative in Guatemala. Emily will be in charge of developing effective narratives to communicate the mission and impact of the organization both in English and Spanish for their constituencies in Guatemala and internationally. Emily will help develop teams and grant proposals on Global Health using the Applied… read more about Duke Student, Emily Nagler Awarded Princeton Fellowship »