Join us on 9/17/08

engl 6006 guest speaker series

17 September 2008

“Flexible Like Water”:

The Bruce Lee School of Linguistic Inquiry

Dr. Shannon T. Bischoff

Department of English

UPR-Mayagüez

CHARDÓN 318 @ 6:30 p.m.

ABSTRACT: In the summers of 1927 through 1929 Gladys Reichard, at the request of Franz Boas, recorded some forty narratives of Tom Miyal and Dorothy Nicodemus, the last speakers of the Coeur d’Alene language, and edited the materials with several Coeur d’Alene community members. Unfortunately, the narratives were never fully analyzed, published, or made accessible at the time. This talk discusses recent efforts to make these materials available to the Coeur d’Alene community for revitalization purposes and to the linguistic community for research purposes. The presentation focuses on the link between revitalization efforts (a largely applied linguistic, socio-linguistic, and language policy task) and research strategies employed primarily within the following three sub-fields of linguistics: anthropological, theoretical, and computational. It also discusses a number of unexpected challenges which, in the words of Bruce Lee, require one to be “flexible like water.”

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

Invitation: OUR STUDENTS’ WORK

The English Department community (faculty, students and staff) is cordially invited to the following presentations of our students’ work:

MEDIA WRITING IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

Students enrolled in ENGL 3268: Writing for the Communications Media will present various media projects (posters, brochures, features, videos) about English Department faculty and student initiatives.

When? Wednesday, May 14 at 12:00 p.m.

Where? Chardón 318

Light refreshments will be served!

BECOMING RESEARCHERS: PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH PROPOSALS

MAEE students enrolled in ENGL 6006: Research Methods will present their original research designs, which engage in ongoing debates about such topics as: the teaching of English as a Second Language in Puerto Rico; technology, new media and (English) literacies; definitions of and challenges to the literary canon from a (post)colonial perspective; English varieties and English competencies in the classroom and beyond; pedagogical practices in the ESL classroom; multicultural and critical language education, among others.

When? Wednesday, May 14 at 6:00 p.m.

Where? Chardón 318

Light refreshments will be served!

Questions? jgeliga@uprm.edu

Testimonios AfroPuertorriqueños successfully completed its Spring “tour”!

(from J. A. Géliga Vargas)

AfroPuerto Rican Testimonies: An Oral History Project in Western Massachusetts (a.k.a. Testimonios AfroPuertorriqueños) is an ongoing research project that began in September 2006 as a collaboration between faculty members Jocelyn A. Géliga Vargas and José Irizarry, community leaders from Aguadilla and Hormigueros, and UPRM students from the English and Social Sciences departments. After 18 months of collective organization, training, research and dissemination activities, we received many invitations to present the preliminary results of our inquiry into contemporary AfroPuerto Rican identities this Spring.

On March 1, MAEE student Irmaris Rosas, community leaders Tania Delgado and Luis Soto and I presented our project at a special session of the College English Association-Caribbean Chapter Conference, held at UPR-Arecibo. On March 12, MAEE student Fabiola Barrera, community leaders Alfredo González, Tania Delgado and Brunilda Rosa and I co-presented our project in a two-hour session of the weeklong event Literacy and Community, organized the Department of English at UPR-Aguadilla. The following day Irmaris, Fabiola, Social Sciences student Luis Daniel Cruz, community leaders Brunilda Rosa and Carlos Delgado and I offered an hour-long presentation at UPR-Mayagüez in the context of the Semana de la afropuertorriqueñidad, organized by the Humanities Department’s Agenda Cultural initiative. On April 30, Irmaris, Fabiola, Luis Daniel and I joined community leaders Alfredo González, Brunilda Rosa and Luis Soto in a two-hour presentation offered at a well-attended and stimulating community forum in Aguadilla.

Our project has caught the attention of campus, regional and national media. In December 2007 it was featured in the first issue of the UPRM research publication Sin Límites and in the weekly newspaper Claridad. An op/ed column about our project, authored by Carlos Delgado, was published in El Nuevo Día on February 3, 2008; an extended and collectively written version of this article was requested by co-editors Miriam Jiménez and Juan Flores for publication in their forthcoming reader about Afrolatin@s (Duke University Press). More recently, our project was featured on the UPRM website (March 14-21, 2008), the weekly regional newspaper La Estrella (April 3, 2008), and El Nuevo Día (Revista Oeste, April 30, 2008).

My paper titled “El incierto proyecto del ‘cine nacional’ puertorriqueño ante el colonialismo y la globalización” was published in the latest edition of the journal Atenea (vol. XXVII, no. 2). At the request of the editor of the Caribbean Studies journal Sargasso, I recently submitted the article “Testimonios Afropuertorriqueños: Using Oral History to (Re)Write Race in Contemporary Puerto Rico,” co-authored by Irmaris Rosas and Tania Delgado, for a forthcoming issue on “Alternative Identities: Belonging and Resistance.”

CGS recognizes MAEE graduate Aleida Ferrer!!!!

MAEE graduate Aleida Ferrer was recognized in a recent publication by the Council of Graduate Schools (Washington, DC). Her thesis project (“The Design and Creation of a Bilingual Phonemic Awareness Test for Puerto Rico”) was the only one from Puerto Rico listed in the CGS publication Making a Difference: A Selection of Graduate Degree Holders and their Contributions to the Public Good. Congratulations to Ms. Ferrer, to the Chair of her committee, Dr. Elizabeth Dayton, and to her committee members, Drs. Eileen Blau and Billy Woodall.

Scholarship opportunity for incoming MAEE students

Continue reading »

Shakespeare Festival

Last Tuesday April 22^nd, 2008, 17 students from the Shakespeare course, INGL 4025, presented  their movies recreating different acts and scenes from several Shakespeare plays at La cueva del Tarzán. Presentations consisted of some of the plays that Prof. Kathleen Ferracane teaches in the course, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and As You Like It. Each movie was centered on the main characters of each play and their dialogues. Some groups also presented bloopers and the “making of their films.” Each group representative discussed the main points of the play before presenting the film. This festival was open to all the students of the English Department, EDSA members, and the students’ closest friends.  Thank you to all for your attendance and support.

Assessment Loop Summary

As of close of business today, April 18, the English Dept has done a fabulous job! Some other faculty are still working on projects. Below is the list of people who have completed all required paperwork & thus their papers are ready to go forward to the Assoc Dean, Mario Nunez.
 
Faculty who completed loops or workshop:
Liz Dayton
Shannon Bischoff
Ellen Pratt
Mary Sefranek
Rosa Roman
Larry Chott
Ray Knight
Betsy Morales
Gayle Griggs
Cathy Mazak
 
TAs who completed Loops or did extra work:
Wilfredo Mercado
Filimon Orozco
Karrieann Soto
Monica Ng
Stephanie Sanchez
Maria Quintero
Jessica Lauer
 
TAs and MAEE Students who have 1 hour workshop credit:
Judy Flores
Alexandra Tubens
Marien Villanueva
Giselle Munoz
Jasmine Rivera
Jennifer Matos
Nora Falvey
Robert Haithcock
Emily Aguilo
Yahaira Rivera
Jeanette Perez
Yadira Altiery
Wilmarie Cruz
 

Open Mike for ALL PERFORMERS in comedy, poetry, drama, music and visual arts.

Art Company AREITO LUNAR announces an Open Mike for ALL PERFORMERS in comedy, poetry, drama, music and visual arts. 
on Saturday 19th @ Mamita’s Restaurant in Calle Luna, San German –> 8 - 12 pm.

Shakespeare Festival

Please join us for the Shakespeare Festival!

Where: Cueva de Tarzán

When: April 22, 2008 (Tuesday)

Time: 7:00 PM

English Week: Graduate Students Share their Knowledge

On March 14, 2008 three graduate students from the English Department presented at the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla. In celebration of their English Week the UPR in Aguadilla organized a three day activity under the title: 1^st Multimedia Showcase. Continue reading »