As it is now tradition, on April 4th the Modern Languages Department held its annual colloquium at the Richard Harris Terrace. The XX MLD Colloquium’s theme was World Cities: The Foreign and the Familiar. Scholars, architects, urban designers, artists, photographers and bloggers shared their knowledge and visions about Paris, Rabat, Rome, Havana, and Beijing. The Colloquium closed with a piano recital of Taiwanese folk songs, interpreted by professor Amber Yiu-Hsuan Liao from the Music & Art Department. Here are a few pictures of the event!

BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES

SPRING 2017 NEWSLETTER

The 4th Photography and Disciplinary Discourses Symposium

Photography, Politics, and Representation: Reframing the Documentary in the Americas

The 4th Photography and Disciplinary Discourses Symposium, held on April 20th at CUNY Graduate Center and on April 21st at BMCC, gathered scholars from different Latin American countries and US universities. Participants reflected on the interdisciplinary potentialities of documentary photography as a political, cultural, social, economic and aesthetic device throughout Latino/a Americ. The event was co-organized by BMCC Modern Languages Department Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya, Professor Magdalena Perkowska from the Ph.D. Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages at The CUNY Graduate Center, and Professors José Pablo Concha and Carla Möller from the Aesthetics Institute, Department of Philosophy at Pontificia Universidad Católica, Chile. The Embassy of Chile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chilean Council for Arts and Culture also sponsored this symposium.

The Modern Languages Department Celebrate the Graduation of the first MLD Majors

On May 3, 2017, the Modern Languages Department celebrated the first cohort of BMCC Modern Languages majors. Congratulations to Diagna Camilo, Fiona Laing, Ana Mendoza, Sayri Nataren and Carla Rivadeneira. “These five students have worked very hard on their studies,” said Modern Languages Professor Evelin Gamarra Martinez. “As a department, we feel great. They will be wonderful representatives of BMCC.” Fiona and Carla will be attending Hunter College and Diagna will be attending Lehman College with a Guttman Transfer Scholarship.

MLD Faculty Publications Professor Margaret Carson’s translation of Sergio Chejfec's Baroni: A Journey was the textual basis for a site-specific installation at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 in Kerala, India. An excerpt from the same translation has been published in The Massachusetts Review (Summer 2017 issue). Her interview with Eugene Richie and Rosanne Wasserman, the editors of John Ashbery’s “Collected French Translations," was published on February 15 and 16, 2017 in the online magazine Words Without Borders. Her interview with the book review editor, M. Bartley Siegel, was also published on Words Without Borders. Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya published “Sueño de la Razón, o la fotografía sudamericana como posibilidad” in ATLAS Imaginarios Visuales (March 2017) https://atlasiv.com/sueno-la-razon-la-fotografia-sudamericana-posibilidad/. Her article “Jamás el fuego nunca de Diamela Eltit: Imaginación crítica, persistencia y afectos,” is forthcoming in Un asombro renovado: vanguardias contemporáneas en Latinoamérica, eds. Matthew Bush and Luis H Castaneda (Editorial Iberoamericana). Her co-authored article “Dis-locar la materia, re-orientar el presente. Sobre Neltume señala el camino (2016) de Araya-Carrión,” is forthcoming in a special issue on New Materialisms in the journal Vazantes, Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC). Professor Sophie Maríñez published the peer-reviewed article “Du massacre de 1937 à la sentence 168-13: conflit fatal ou solidarité? Notes d’un parcours littéraire des rapports entre Haïti et la République Dominicaine,” in Chemins Critiques, Revue Haïtiano-Caraïbénne 6.1 (2017), edited by Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis and Franklin Midy. She also published the translation into French of Julia Alvarez’s poem “Two Countries,” in Chemins Critiques, Revue Haïtiano-Caraïbénne, edited by Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis and Franklin Midy, 6.1 (2017). Professor Silvia Roig published “La mareta dels porcs, d’Aurora Bertrana: cròniques de guerra d’un poble de l’Alta Savoia massacrat pels alemanys durant la II Guerra Mundial”. She edited and translated part of the manuscript from Spanish to Catalan and wrote the introduction. This was published in a special edition of Revista de Girona in April 2017. This edition is part of the events that several institutions and the government in Catalonia are organizing to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Aurora Bertrana and the 150th anniversary of her

father, the Catalan and well known Modernist writer Prudenci Bertrana. Professor Lisa Sarti’s co-edited book Pirandello’s Visual Philosophy: Imagination and Thought across Media was published by Fairleigh Dickinson UP (2017). Last year, she published her interview wirh Dacia Maraini on Luigi Pirandello in PSA: The Journal of The Pirandello Society of America XXIX (2016) and “A Woman on Display: Annie Vivanti’s Marion artista di caffè-concerto” in Annie Chartres Vivanti: Transnational Politics, Identity, and Culture (Eds. Sharon Wood and Erica Moretti, Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2016). She also contributed the encyclopedia entry “Luigi Pirandello: Si gira [Shoot! The Notebooks of Serafino Gubbio, Cinematograph Operator]” in The Literary Encyclopedia, Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present, edited by Jo Ann Cavallo (March 2017). Professor Sarti co-translated with M. Subialka Carlo Di Lieto’s article “Impressionismo e ‘inquieto sentire’ nell’immaginario pittorico di Luigi Pirandello” (“Impressionism and the ‘Feeling of Disquietude’ in Luigi Pirandello’s Pictorial Imaginary”). In Pirandello’s Visual Philosophy: Imagination and Thought across Media.She also wrote two book reviews, Tommasina Gabriele. Dacia Maraini's Narratives of Survival: (Re)Constructed (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2015), forthcoming with g/s/I (gender/sexuality/Italy); and Dacia Maraini. Taccuino americano (1964-2016), edited by Michelangelo La Luna (Rossano: conSenso Publishing, 2016), forthcoming with Italica. Professor Paquita Suárez-Coalla published the essays “La gramática y la vida” (Atlántica XXII. 49, March 2017) and “N’Alcordanza d’Adela Fernández” (Atlántica XXII 50, May 2017), and the short stories: “La caxa bombones” in Lliteratura. Revista lliteraria asturiana 33 (May 2017) and “Querida profesora in Escritores asturianes. Antoloxía de testos n’asturianu y gallego-asturiano (Conseyería d’Educación y Cultura. Uviéu: 2017). Professor Alejandro Varderi’s recent publications include: “Barcelona en la poesía de Marta Pessarrodona.” Viceversa, December 12, “Antoni Gaudí: A los noventa años de su muerte.” Viceversa, January 9, “Imperio Argentina: Estrella para un tiempo en conflicto (I) and (II).” Viceversa, January 30 and February 14, “Entrevista (fragmento de novela).” Viceversa, February 26, “El último beso de Manuel Puig sobre Manhattan (I) and (II).” Viceversa, March 15 and March 29, “A los ochenta años de su nacimiento: Severo Sarduy y el imaginario urbano (I) and (II).” Viceversa, April 12 and April 25, “Exilios y migraciones:

El cine español del franquismo.” Viceversa, May 9 (https://www.viceversa-mag.com/author/alejandro-varderi/), “París-Caracas” (fragmento de novela).” Opción, N. 95 (February) (http://opcion.itam.mx/?p=1769), “54 New York Film Festival: Un frente unido contra las intransigencias.” Cinecritic (January-February), “Premios Oscar 2017: Un cálculo entre la corrección y la incorrección.” Cinecritic (March-April) (http://www.cinecritic.biz), “Teatro en NY: Obras para una época de incertidumbres.” Artez N. 215 (March-April): 80-82. (http://www.revistadeteatro.com/) “Escribir en Nueva York desde Enclave.” Temporales (April 8) (http://www.revistatemporales.com).

MLD Faculty Presentations

Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya presented “Conceptos para una metodología errante: traza fotográfica, profundidad de campo, (re)orientaciones,” at the 4th Photography and Disciplinary Discourses Symposium. She will present “The Photographic Skin of Xandra Ibarra” at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Utrecht University, Netherlands (July 6-9 2017). She is also the co-organizer of the ACLA seminar “Insistence, Repetition, Difference: Insist3nc3, R3p3tition, Diff3r3nc3.” In January, Professor Donoso Macaya presented two books in Santiago, Chile: Delitos fotográficos by José Pablo Concha (Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) and the second volume of Sueño de la Razón: Fotografía Sudamericana, a compilation of the last 4 issues of the magazine. In February, she was invited to talk at the book launching of Queering the Chilean Way: Cultures of Exceptionalism and Sexual Dissidence, 1965-2015 (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016) by Carl Fischer (Assistant Professor at Fordahm University). Professor Silvia Roig presented “A Feminist Lens on Literature: Two Faculty Presentations.” At the Center for Excellence in Teaching Learning and Scholarship (CELTS) on April 25th 2017. She also presented “Impresiones viajeras sobre el Otro en un paraíso en descomposición” at the 37th Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 1st, 2017. Professor Lisa Sarti was invited to deliver a talk titled "Visual Philosophy: Pirandello and the Languages of the Image" at Princeton University on May 1, 2017. She will also deliver

the talk “L’immagine vivente: il pensiero visivo nell’opera di Luigi Pirandello” at the Symposium Pirandello oggi - Centocinquantenario della nascita (1867 - 2017), at La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy on June 27, 2017. Professor Sarti is also invited to present her co-edited book Pirandello’s Visual Philosophy: Imagination and Thought across Media at the Casa Pirandello in Rome, on June 30, 2017. Professor Valerie Thiers-Thiam presented “Survivre aux camps: Stratégies féminines” at the 48th annual NeMLA convention, held in Baltimore, Maryland on March 24, 2017. She also gave a presentation at the Global Competencies Workshop held at BMCC on April 21, 2017, titled “Effective Intercultural Communication.” Professor Kristina Varade spoke at the 2017 American Association for Italian Studies/Canadian Society for Italian Studies annual conference, held at Ohio State University from 20-22 April, 2017. Her paper, “The correspondence of Charles Lever in Italy during the Risorgimento,” was selected for review for an upcoming publication sponsored by the Canadian Society of Italian Studies. In March, she presented at the southern regional meeting of the American Association of Italian Studies. She presented the paper, “Irish ‘Exiles’ and Continental Margins: Charles Lever’s and James Joyce’s Memoirs from Trieste.” She also chaired the contemporary literature panel at the conference. Other Events and Activities by MLD Faculty Professor Margaret Carson moderated the panel "Cuerpos/Corpus fotográficos de la ausencia" during the IV Coloquio “Fotografía y Discursos Disciplinares: Reenmarcar lo documental en las Américas" held at the CUNY Graduate Center and BMCC on April 20 & 21, 2017. She co-moderated the panel "Havana: A City Frozen in Time?" during the XX Colloquium of the Modern Languages Department on April 4, 2017. She was a member of the panel of experts convened in Spring 2017 by the “New Spanish Books Translation Rights Project” to draw up a short list of books whose translation into English will be supported. She succeeded at persuading the editors at The New York Times to run an obituary on May 3, 2017 for Burton Watson, the eminent literary translator of classical Chinese and Japanese poetry. On May 11, she took her SPN210 class to the Rubin Museum for a guided tour in Spanish.

Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya took her SPN 445 class to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to see Spanish Baroque Art from the 1700s-1800s, an activity funded by the Enhancing Learning in the Classroom (ELIC) Award. As part of the activities held during Women Herstory Month, Professor Donoso Macaya coordinated the event “Uncomfortable Staging: An evening with artist Violette Bule”. Students learned how photographic education can be used as a means for social change.

Photograph taken by Violette Bule

She also co-coordinated with Professor Cheryl Fish (English) the event “Extraction, Images, Materialities: The Elemental Art of Alejandra Prieto and Marja Helander.” Also during Women Herstory Month, Professor Paquita Suárez-Coalla coordinated the event Purging the Pain, a literary reading by Lucila Consuelo Corredor, a Colombian writer and Spanish Professor at the Panamerican International High School. On April 3, 2017, Zuelica Romay, President of the Cuban Book Institute, made a presentation about her books Elogio de la Altea (Casas de las Américas Prize, 2012) and Cepos de la Memoria (Academia Cubana de la Lengua Prize, 2016) in Professor Suárez-Coalla Spanish 210 class.

Professor Silvia Roig visited Ellis Island with her SPN Hybrid 200, an activity funded by the Enhancing Learning in the Classroom (ELIC) Award. Professor Lisa Sarti is the organizer of the International Conference celebrating Luigi Pirandello at 150 titled Global Legacies – Pirandello across Centuries and Media to be held on September 16, 2017 at Hunter College, CUNY, New York City. She will deliver her speech titled “Vital Images: Metaphors and Visual thought in Luigi Pirandello’s Works.” Professor Kristina Varade received an Associate Fellowship (full tuition scholarship) in April 2017 and was asked to give a talk to graduate students on contemporary Italian and Irish fiction at the upcoming “Ireland in Italy” conference, sponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies together with Italian Studies at Notre Dame, which will be held June 16-30 2017 in Rome, Italy. Also in Italy, she will accompany students in the Field Experience to Italy summer program to Calabria in June. Professor Alejandro Varderi co-organized the following activities at the CUNY Graduate Center: “An Evening with Sudaquia Editores.” March 3, “Freedom of the Press and Censorship Today.” April 7, “Latin American Authors in Their Own Words.” May 5. (http://cunyufs.org/academy/events.html).

Awards and Recognition

Professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya is the recipient of a PSC-CUNY Trad A Research Award, to complete her book manuscript Depth of Field: Chilean Photographic Practices under Dictatorship (under contract with University Florida Press, as part of the series “Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America”). In December 2016, she became Associate Editor of Revista Kaypunku, an interdisciplinary journal of studies of art and culture (the first refereed publication in Peru focusing on Latin American art). She was also nominated candidate for election to the MLA Delegate Assembly to represent the professional interests and concerns of colleagues in her special-interest group (Community Colleges). Delegates have the opportunity not only to help determine the policies of the MLA but also to consider the general situation of the humanities in higher education. If elected, her term would run from 8 January 2018 through the close of the January 2021 convention.

Professor Sophie Maríñez received a BMCC Faculty Development Grant and a PSC-CUNY Trad B Research Award, to work on two different chapters of a monograph tentatively titled Sacred Twins: The Complex Dynamics between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The combined grants award her R/T and funds to conduct research in Haiti. Professor Lisa Sarti is the fortunate recipient of the prestigious Lauro DeBosis Fellowship in Italian Studies at Harvard University. Professor Sarti will be in residence in Cambridge during the Fall 2017 and she will work on her book project The Aesthetics of Spectatorship in Italy, 1850-1930. During her sojourn at Harvard, Professor Sarti will also present her research in a lecture and will teach one course titled Modernizing Spectatorship in Italian Culture (1850-1930). She is also the recipient of the PSC CUNY Grant- Type B for 2017-2018 and one of the two BMCC Nominees for the NEH Summer Award. Professor Paquita Suárez-Coalla received the COACH Award as one of the best Faculty Advisors at BMCC on December 2016. Professor Valerie Thiers-Thiam is recipient of a PSC-CUNY Trad A Research Award. Professor Kristina Varade was awarded both the Provost Travel Grant and the CUNY Academy Associate Professor Travel Award for conference travel and activity. In April, she was awarded a PSC CUNY TRAD “A” Cycle 48 grant for her work, “Disrupting the Canon on the Literary Margin: Charles Lever, Anglo-Irishness, and the Continent.” In addition, she was awarded the 2017 Faculty Development Grant for a new initiative, “European Arab Intersections: An Examination of Hospitality.” This grant will allow her to incorporate first person interviews from a variety of sources at CUNY and at New York University (Abu Dhabi, Glucksman Ireland House, and Casa Italiana). Kristina Varade was awarded a highly competitive international scholarship to learn Irish in the Gaeltacht, or Irish-speaking region of Waterford, Ireland (only five scholarships were awarded globally). She will attend the immersion program at Coláiste na Rinne from 12-26 August, 2017. Finally, in July, she received a full tuition scholarship to the Frank McCourt Creative Writing Summer School, held at Glucksman Ireland House NYU and sponsored by the University of Limerick.