New Date for Mazak’s “Negotiating ‘el difícil’” Presentation

Dr. Cathy Mazak’s presentation, “Negotiating ‘el difícil’: English Language Acquisition in Rural Puerto Rico” formerly scheduled on September 22, 2008, and subsequently cancelled due to inclement weather, has been rescheduled for Monday, October 6, 2008 (from 6:45-7:45 p.m. in Chardón Room 318). CEP hours will be credited for attendees and we will serve light refreshments. Please share this information with your students and encourage them to attend.

L³ Workshop on Tuesday September 30, 2008

UPR Graduate School Visit on Tues. September 30, 2008

Reading Rock in Puerto Rico

Graduate MA Candidate in English Education and INGL 3202 instructor, Karrieann Soto Vega, invites you and your students to attend a series of Reading Rock in PR workshops emphasizing the use of rock as a resource in literature-based composition courses. For her MAEE thesis research, Ms. Soto Vega is exploring the possibilities of incorporating rock music and videos as texts in the undergraduate classroom and in fostering literacy practices more generally.  This series will offer a unique opportunity for the academic community to engage with local artists involved with the production of rock music in Puerto Rico. The three-part series will involve presentations by two rock groups, Octavo Día (on October 6th) and Blindfold Drive (on October 10th), as well as the formal discussion and partial viewing of a recent documentary, La escena, about the punk scene in Puerto Rico with guest speaker and documentary producer Prof. Guillermo Gómez Álvarez (on October 8th). Each of the workshops will take place in the Anfiteatro Figueroa Chapel from 3:30-4:30. Feel free to distribute this flyer.

Introducing the 3103/3104 Course Blog for Faculty and TAs!

Dr. Mary E. Sefranek, Course Coordinator for INGL 3103 and 3104, invites you to peruse the new 3103/3104 Course Coordination weblog for Faculty and TAs. She welcomes your comments and suggestions, and hopes it will prove to be a useful resource for new instructors as well as those who have been teaching the course for a number of years.

Seeking Research Assistant

Dr. Mary E. Sefranek will be conducting interviews in the upcoming week (Tuesday, September 30th) for an undergraduate or graduate research assistant to support the activities related to the National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation Grant, Sowing and Cultivating Local 21st Century Literacies in Rural Puerto Rico. This is a jornal (minimum wage) position without tuition credits, but nevertheless offers a unique opportunity for students to engage in a  year-long research project with a faculty member and gain invaluable experience conducting research in the public school system of Puerto Rico. Please share this flyer with interested students and encourage them contact Dr. Sefranek for further information and/or to schedule an interview at their earliest convenience.

Active in Puerto Rican Studies

Our Department says “presente” at PRSA!

Six faculty members and two graduate students from the English Department will be presenting at the 8th Puerto Rican Studies Association (PRSA) Conference, titled “Cartographies of Identities: Puerto Rico(ans) in the 21^st Century.” The interdisciplinary encuentro will take place at the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, October 1-4.

Here’s a preview of what we will present:

English faculty members Catherine Mazak, Rosita Rivera and Nancy Vicente will join Teresita Santiago (Penn State) and Jorge Schmidt (Social Sciences, UPRM) on a panel titled Teaching and Learning English on Contested Ground: Language, Identity and Education in Puerto Rico. (10/3 @ 10:15 a.m.)

English faculty member Liz Dayton and Hispanic Studies faculty member Doris Martínez will present a paper titled Communities in Contact: Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in the Geographical Spaces of New York City and Puerto Rico. (10/3 @ 2:45 p.m.)

English faculty member Jocelyn A. Géliga Vargas and MAEE students Irmaris Rosas and Fabiola Barrera will join Luis Daniel Cruz (undergrad, Social Sciences, UPRM), Carlos Delgado, Tania Delgado and Alfredo González (all Aguadilla community leaders) and Héctor Bermúdez (Museo de la Mujer y el Hombre Negro de Puerto Rico) on a roundtable discussion titled Historia oral afropuertorriqueña: una misión y una visión (Afro-Puerto Rican Oral History: A Mission and a Vision). (10/3 @ 4:30 p.m.)

English faculty member Mary Sefranek will present a paper titled The Production of Digital Narratives in Rural Puerto Rico: Technological Panoramas, Prospects and Im/Possibilities in English Education. (10/4 @ 2:45 p.m.)

For more information about the conference and to view the voluminous conference program, go to: http://www.puertorican-studies.org/

Join us on October 8, 2008

engl 6006 guest speaker series

8 October 2008

Research in Action

Democratizing Knowledge at UPRM

Dr. Rima Brusi

Department of Social Sciences

Center for Applied Social Research

UPR-Mayagüez

CHARDÓN 318 @ 6:30 p.m.

ABSTRACT:

Our work is framed by an action research tradition, and uses qualitative and quantitative data. We seek to better understand the connection between low socio-economic status (SES) and access to higher education, specifically at UPRM, in order to generate multiple research and action-oriented projects.

This presentation provides an overview of our research and outreach activities, explores the combined use of qualitative and quantitative data from various disciplines, presents some results of our work in progress, and discusses some of the methodological implications of our model.

INFORMATION: Contact Jocelyn A. Géliga Vargas (787-832-4040 ext. 3096/3064;  jgeliga at uprm.edu)

L³ Society September Newsletter

The first edition of the L³ Society’s September 2008 Newletter is hot off the presses!

This newsletter, created by and for students is focused on the study of language, literature, and linguistics.

The L³ Society’s editors in chief are Adriana I. Caraballo and Angel Matos Caro.

In this edition, the writers for the Lx newsletter include Kimberly Santiago Vega and Wilmary Rivera Flores. The writers for the Literature newsletter are Marshley Márquez, Alexandra Morales, Larrisa I. Ramos, and Odette M. Ortiz.

Links to the newsletters may be found below.
Congratulations to our students for their innovative intellectual endeavors!

Lit Newsletter Sept 08
Lx and Language Newsletter Sept 08

Dr. Cathy Mazak Presents “Negotiating ‘el difícil’: English Language Acquisition in Rural Puerto Rico”

You are cordially invited to attend Dr. Cathy Mazak’s presentation of her recently published article, “Negotiating ‘el difícil’: Uses of English Text in a Rural Puerto Rican Community” in the Centro journal for Puerto Rican Studies. This presentation will take place as a component of Dr. Mary Sefranek’s INGL 6020 (Second Language Acquisition) course in Chardón 118 on Monday, September 22, 2008 from 6:45-7:45 p.m. All attendees will receive one hour of professional development (CEP) credit. For further information or to access the article, send an email to marysefranek@hotmail.com. Please feel free to distribute this flyer among your students.

mazak-presentation1