Tag Archives: Hispanic Studies Faculty

College of Charleston’s Chapter of National Collegiate Hispanic Society Wins National Award

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For the 8th time since 2011, the College of Charleston’s Nu Zeta Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, has been selected as an Honor Chapter for its noteworthy activities during the academic year.  Of the 625 chapters nationwide, the Executive Committee selects 12-15 Honor Chapters yearly for this prestigious distinction.  In July 2019, the College of Charleston was one of only 16 institutions to receive this honor for activities realized during the 2018-19 academic year, during which time Drs. Susan Divine and Carmen Grace served as chapter advisers, and Adriana Velasquez (’19) as student chapter president.

Dr. Christina García’s Essay Published in _Cuban Studies_

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Professor Christina García’s article “Baroque Revolutionaries, Communist Fags, and Risky Friendships: Reading the Politics of Friendship in Fresa y chocolate” has been published in Volume 47, 2019 issue of Cuban Studies.

Professor Hanahan Conducts Workshop in Seattle, WA

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On March 1, 2019, Professor Devon Hanahan conducted a four-hour workshop entitled “Connecting with Generation C in the Language Classroom” with faculty from the University of Washington and Everett Community College in Seattle.

Dr. Raúl Carrillo Arciniega Inducted into Sigma Delta Pi’s Order of José Martí

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On April 12, 2019 during the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society’s reception at the 72nd Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, Professor Raúl Carrillo Arciniega was inducted in the Order of José Martí, one of the Society’s highest honors. Dr. Carrillo Arciniega’s exceptional contributions to Hispanism earned him this international distinction.

HISP Faculty Focus, April 2019: Dr. Luci Moreira

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Photo credit: Daniel Delgado

After obtaining her B.A. in Portuguese from the Universidade Estadual de Maringá in Brazil, Dr. Luci Moreira went on to earn her M.A. in Linguistics from the Universidade Fedederal de Pernambuco, completed doctoral coursework in Portuguese at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and then she earned her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign here in the U.S.

Since joining the College of Charleston in 2000, Professor Moreira has taught a myriad of courses for the Portuguese, Spanish, International Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Linguistics programs.  She also pioneered the online offering of Portuguese language in the spring of 2019, and she is co-author of  the Portuguese language textbook Ponto de Encontro, which has enjoyed widespread adoption across the U.S.

In addition to her constant work with the Portuguese program, Dr. Moreira has also collaborated in various projects both locally and nationally, to include co-founding the Department of Hispanic Studies’ newsletter HispaNews in 2001, and her ongoing role as Editor of the Portuguese Newsletter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.  Also in 2001, she initiated the department’s Portuguese Club, Bate-Papo Conversation Table, and the Portuguese Peer-Teacher program, which she still oversees today.  In the fall of 2017, she was also instrumental with the launch of her department’s newest program: the Portuguese and Brazilian Studies Minor.

With her colleague and loyal companion Jose, she has directed 11 study abroad programs in Brazil.  During these memorable trips to the Amazon,  students remember sleeping on a boat in hammocks, swimming with dolphins, visiting and dancing with indigenous groups, and snorkeling with baby sharks and green turtles in coral reefs of paradisiac Fernando de Noronha.

In Professor Moreira’s own words:

I chose to study Portuguese when I was 17 years old and it has always been my passion. I have always taught Portuguese, and I don’t see myself in a different profession or field. I am a firm believer that both language and culture can be taught at any level, and that they complement each other. I could not be happier than when the minor in Portuguese was established. This was not a work done alone, and started from writing petitions, committee proposals; a great deal of merit is due to the support of the Department Chair. This minor is the legacy that will be passed to the future.

Each year students from diverse backgrounds and expectations come to study Portuguese. We never repeat things because we don’t duplicate human souls and hearts. Whoever chooses the teaching career never does exactly the same thing and is always invigorated with the energy and the dreams of the most important ones—the students—those who inspire us. It is a good feeling to see the fruits of our labor in what we do.

Stay tuned for May 2019’s feature…

Dr. Del Mastro’s Essay Appears in _Hispania_

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Professor Mark P. Del Mastro’s essay “Sigma Delta Pi and the AATSP: A Shared Century of Leadership and Collaboration” has been published in the March 2019 issue of Hispania. This “Special Note” connects to Dr. Del Mastro’s ongoing research for his book Sigma Delta Pi: Rediscovering a Century (1919-2019) that will be published by Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs in 2020.

HispaCasts: Episode 3, Dr. Raúl Carrillo Arciniega

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Click the link below to hear the 3rd episode of HispaCasts created in collaboration with Mike Overholt from the Teaching and Learning Team.

Episode 3 – Dr. Raúl Carrillo Arciniega – March 2019

Mark P. Del Mastro, Chair of Hispanic Studies, interviews Dr. Raúl Carrillo Arciniega, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, to discuss Professor Carrillo’s views and experiences as an accomplished novelist, poet and literary critic.

HISP Faculty Focus, January 2019: Dr. Félix Vásquez

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Dr. Félix Vásquez

Following his undergraduate degree in accounting from the Universidad Particular Ricardo Palma in Lima, Perú, Professor Vásquez continued his education in the U.S. with an M.A. in Spanish from Winthrop University, and a Ph.D. in Colonial and 19th-Century Spanish American Literature from the University of Kentucky. He taught at both the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Georgia before joining the College of Charleston’s Department of Hispanic Studies in 2001.  Beyond courses ranging from elementary Spanish language through Early Colonial Spanish-American Texts, Dr. Vásquez regularly teaches the department’s business for Spanish curriculum that forms the foundation for the Business Language Minor in Spanish program that he started in 2011, and which is currently the department’s fastest growing minor.

Also a passionate advocate of the study abroad experience, Professor Vásquez is an 8-time director for the College of Charleston’s various programs in Chile, Cuba, Peru and Spain. Currently he is founding co-director of a new summer study-abroad program in Trujillo, Spain and in cooperation with the School of Business.  This new, one-month interdisciplinary program will launch in June 2019 with courses in management, intermediate and advanced Spanish language as well as an introduction to Spanish for business.

Underscoring the teacher-scholar model, Dr. Vásquez also manages to showcase his work in the classroom through his scholarly activity, to include multiple conference presentations in both national and international venues as well as related publications, to include his recent book chapter “Case-Based Pedagogy to Develop World-Readiness Skill for Business” published with SabioBooks, LLC in 2018 in the edition Transferable Skills for the 21st Century: Preparing Students for the Workplace through World Languages for Specific Purposes.

In Professor Vásquez’s own words:

My goals as a foreign language educator are to foster my students’ cultural and linguistic awareness and help them gain communicative competencies in Spanish. In my Spanish for Business courses, the objective is to prepare students for successful communication in the Hispanic commercial world by building on their existing knowledge, developing their skills in practical, real-world uses of oral and written Spanish, and emphasizing the importance of cultural practices in doing business in Spanish-speaking countries and with Hispanics in the United States.

The Department of Hispanic Studies congratulates Dr. Félix Vásquez for his substantial contributions to his students, his department and the College, and for being selected for our January 2019 “Hispanic Studies Faculty Focus.”

Stay tuned for February 2019’s feature…