As part of the Real

Translation Project a

group of SML students of

Spanish went to Colom-

bia to serve as interpret-

ers for a group of UK law-

yers attending the Caravan

of Human rights ,that takes

place every two years in

Bogota. The caravan seeks

to commit the Colombian

government to protecting

and respecting the work of

Human Rights lawyers.

We are very proud and

excited to announce that

members of SPLAS

have been awarded two

important research

grants. Congratulations!

(See relevant notes below).

Staff news Nuria

Lopez, in charge of Busi-

ness Spanish, left Newcas-

tle to live in Denmark. We

were sad to see her leave, but

we are very happy to have Jo-

sep Cru as our new teach-

ing fellow in charge of Busi-

ness Spanish. Congratula-

tions!

A very warm welcome to

our new Catalan instructor

Francina Payeras.. Ben-

vinguda!

Victoria Rios and Tomás

Cubillas, will join the Spanish

teaching team. Encantados!

Professor Jens Hentschke

will be on research leave in

semester 1 and professor Ian

Mackenzie in semester 2..

Our News

September 2014 Volume 1, Issue 2

Spanish in Newcastle

Spanish, Portugue-

se and Latin Ameri-

can Studies is a li-

vely and dynamic

section with 15 lec-

turers committed

to working with

you in the develop-

ment of your lan-

guage and acade-

mic skills in order

to explore the di-

verse cultures and

societies of Spain,

Portugal and Latin

America.

Iberian Languages

were ranked num-

ber 5 in the United

Kingdom according

to the Times Good

University Guide

2014.

Real Translation Project students

at the British Embassy in Bogota

Buenos Aires, Lima and Santiago

have been the most popular Year

Abroad destinations in Latin

America for students of Spanish.

We are now developing a range

of options that satisfy students´

preferences, outline our expecta-

tions of what a significant experi-

ence this can be, and meet the

university health and safety con-

cerns.

Five important universities are in

our list of agreements under way.

Two in Buenos Aires (University

of Buenos Aires and University

General Sarmiento), two in Lima

(Universidad Católica and Universidad del

Pacífico) and one in Santiago (Universidad

de Chile).

We have also identified a group top

quality language schools in Lima, Buenos

Aires and Santiago for students of three

languages willing to go to Latin America

for periods shorter than one semester.

Regarding internships and teaching assis-

tantships there are a few options in the

three countries that may satisfy the inter-

ests of a wide range of students. See the

Year Abroad booklet for Latin America

for more detailed information.

Options for your Year Abroad in Latin America

We have also

identified a group

of language

schools in Lima,

Buenos Aires and

Santiago for

students of three

languages willing

to go to Latin

America for

periods shorter

than one semester

2

Spanish in Newcastle

Here comes ¡Vamos! 2015

Our yearly celebration of

Spanish and Portuguese

speaking coultures was a re-

sounding success this year.

Make sure you get involved in

2015!

www.vamosfestival.com

After the Ministry of Educa-

tion decided that the cur-

rent A-Level in Modern

Languages was “not fit for

purpose” the A-level Con-

tent Advisory Board

(ALCAB) was formed, with

the mission of providing

advice on how to create an

A-Level that prepared stu-

dents not just for the world

of work but also for higher

study at university level.

Our own Professor Ian

Mackenzie was appointed

to this new task force, as

the lead advisor on Spanish.

ALCAB very quickly identi-

fied two fundamental prob-

lems with the existing A-

Level. First, it demands very

little from students in terms

of using the target language

spontaneously; in other

words, the exam in large

part allows for students to

prepare beforehand by

learning specific vocabulary

or even trying out and prac-

tising the sentences they

will be deploying in the ex-

am. Secondly, the current A

-Level is somewhat lacking

in cultural content that is

specific to the countries

where the target language

is spoken. With regard to

this last point, the members

of ALCAB were quite sur-

prised to discover how

“hollowed out”, the modern

A-Level syllabuses have be-

come of everything other

than purely language based

content.

After some months of

work, ALCAB published a

report setting out its vision

of a new A-Level in modern

languages. Although the

proposed reforms were not

particularly radical, they

were immediately attacked

by vested interests. The

world of examining, with its

exam boards that compete

under the watchful eye of a

state regulator, is a rather

inflexible one, and bringing

about change is not easy.

Consequently, those who

fear that the A-Level is

“going to get harder” can

probably relax. On the oth-

er hand, you never know…

Manuel’s research deals

with areas of Popular Cul-

ture and the analysis of the

impact of new technologies

in media. He has carried out

research stays at the univer-

sities of Virginia (USA), Par-

is 12 (France) and Geneva

(Switzerland). He has pub-

lished the book Frank Zappa

en el Infierno. El rock como

movilización para la disidencia

(2006) and Madrid: visiones

cinematográficas de los años

1950 a los años 2000, Paris:

Atlande (2014). He also

We are very happy to wel-

come Dr. Manuel de la

Fuente Soler in semester 1.

Manuel is Assistant Profes-

sor of Media Studies at the

University of Valencia

(Spain). He will be collabo-

rating with SML in two

modules: SPA4006: Spectres

of the Past: Memory in

Contemporary Spanish Cul-

ture and SPA4005: Cultura

Popular en Latinoamérica y

España. His lectures will

focus on Spanish cinema,

popular culture and crisis.

The reform of the Modern Languages A-Level

Welcome to Dr. Manuel de la Fuente Soler

The A-level

Content Advisory

Board (ALCAB)

was formed with

the mission of

providing advice as

to how create an A

-Level that

prepared students

not just for the

world of work but

also for higher

study at university

level.

3

Volume 1, Issue 2

Dr. Manuel de la Fuente Soler

coordinates the University of

Valencia team participating in

the EU funded research project

Cultural Narratives of Crisis and

Renewal led by Newcastle Uni-

versity.

School of Modern Languages

Old Library Building

Newcastle University

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 7RU

Phone: +44191 2087441

E-mail:

Patricia.Oliart@ncl.ac.uk

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has awarded Professor Rosaleen

Howard a research grant of £200,000 for her project “Translating Cultures and the Leg-

islated Mediation of Indigenous Rights in Peru”. Rosaleen will work with a team of spe-

cialists from Heriot Watt University and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and

two Peruvian Project Partners (the Ministry of Culture and a community development

NGO). The project will examine issues of cross-cultural interaction between the state

and the indigenous populations of the Andean and Amazonian regions of Peru, where

some 46 Amerindian languages are spoken in addition to the majority language, Spanish.

The Peruvian Constitution of 1993 decreed that the State should provide interpreters in

formal settings, where speakers of Spanish and speakers of languages such as Quechua,

Aymara, Asháninka, Shipibo and Awajún, encounter each other and experience commu-

nication difficulties. However, only in 2011 was a law on language rights passed to enable

the constitutional decree to be implemented. Under this law, the Ministry of Culture is

now providing interpreting and translation training for indigenous people who are bilin-

gual in Spanish and their mother tongues. Rosaleen and her team will observe the train-

ing courses, talk to trainers and the trainees and seek to follow the newly accredited

interpreters in work situations, to see how interpretation is conducted in practices. The

research will address the question: to what extent is translation and interpreting in con-

texts of mediation between state and indigenous populations, while allowing sustainable

economic development to take place in conditions satisfactory to all sides? Fieldwork

will take place from October 2014 to June 2016. A project symposium will be held in

Newcastle in 2016, in collaboration with the Translation and Interpreting Section of the

SML.

Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies

“Cultural narratives of Crisis and Recovery”

Jorge Catala and Patricia Oliart have been awarded funding for the project, 'Cultural Narratives of Crisis

and Renewal' through the Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE) programme. This is one of the

Marie Skłodowska-Curie schemes, funded by the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

The project involves 8 institutions in the EU and Latin America, and will run over 48 months with an

overall budget of 1,044,000.00 euros. Philippa Page, Nick Morgan, Josep Cru and Felix Lossio are

members of the research team. The objective of the “Cultural Narratives of Crisis and Renewal” project

is to examine cultural production and cultural practices in periods of societal crisis at the turn-of the 20th

Century on both sides of the Atlantic. The project aims to address the scarcity of research on cultural

narratives elaborated around conjunctures of crisis and renewal, from the 1970s transition to

neoliberalism in Latin America, to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis in Spain. The programme will

bring together researchers specializing in Hispanic and Latin American cultures from 4 universities in

Europe (Newcastle University (UNEW), Amsterdam University (UVA), Universitat de València (UV) and

Universitat de Lleida (UDL)) and 4 universities in Latin America (Universidad Austral de Chile (UACH),

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC: Argentina), and

Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero (UNTREF: Argentina)).

“Translating Cultures and the Legislated Mediation of

Indigenous Rights in Peru”

4

At an Interpreter Training event, Rosaleen

Howard, Lima July 2014