Lígia Bezerra is an Assistant Professor at Spelman College, where she is the director of the Portuguese program. She has a PhD in Portuguese with a minor in Culture Studies from Indiana University, an MA in Portuguese from the University of New Mexico, an MA in Linguistics from the Federal University of Ceará, and a BA in Letras with a double major in Portuguese and English from the Federal University of Ceará as well. Her research focuses on contemporary Latin American literature and culture, consumer culture, and everyday life.

Congratulations to our graduate student teaching assistants recognized with the Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards! https://ovpi.uga.edu/news/graduate-teaching-assistants-recognized

A specialist in Second-Language Acquisition, Dr. Magnan served as the Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Language Institute and was Editor of the Modern Language Journal for fourteen years.  She has taught courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels in college teaching methods, second language studies, French language, and topics in French immigration.  She has also received the honor of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Professor Valis will read exceprts of her novella, The Labor of Longing (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2014), which was a Finalist for the Prize Americana for Prose and a Finalist in the Novella and Regional Fiction categories of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

This talk draws new attention to Álvaro Retana, an immensely popular figure in Spain’s pre-Civil War period, who wrote racy, erotic novels. A reappraisal of his literary career illuminates the broader cultural context of Spanish society of the early twentieth century. Professor Valis is the author of The Culture of Cursilería: Bad Taste, Kitsch and Class in Modern Spain (Duke University Press), which won the Modern Language Association’s 2003 Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize, the highest award for a book in the foreign languages.

President Morehead has approved the promotions of Professor Timothy Gupton from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure, and of Professor Elizabeth Wright from tenured Associate Professor to Full Professor.  Please join us in congratulating them on reaching these milestones in their professional development!

Please join the Department of Romance Languages graduate students in an interdisciplinary conference beginning with an opening talk by Dr. Ernesto Silva from Kennesaw State University on "From Latin America with Love: Embracing Latinidad as Educational Experience" and continuing all day Saturday. Click here to see the full conference program.

Dr. Betina Kaplan will discuss the organization of service and experiental learning programs.

Annie Wendel and Jonathan Baillehache will discuss online teaching and the use of instructional technologies in the classroom.