Joanne Britland: Advancing Iberian and Latin American Studies
Joanne Britland delivered a keynote lecture at the University of South Florida’s film festival, “Música, Sound, Espacios: A Latin American and Spanish Film Series.” She co-edited a special Hispania issue on Iberian comics (October 2025), which includes her article, “‘The Infinite Classroom’: Preparing Students for the Real World in Comics Courses.” She organized two online guest lectures for SPS—Anita Savo (Boston University), “Multilingual Iberia,” and Tony Pasero O’Malley (Providence College), on contemporary Hispanic microtheater—and in November gave an invited talk on contemporary comics studies at Baylor University.
Link: https://news.ufl.edu/2025/07/comics-community/
Elizabeth Ginway and Enrique Muñoz Matas publish translation of Gabriela Rábago Palafox
On October 31, 2025, University of Tampa Press published “The Voice of Blood,” co-translated by M. Elizabeth Ginway and SPS graduate Enrique Muñoz Matas. Early coverage highlighted the collection’s intensity and stylistic range, and an author–translator interview was recorded for release. A small on-campus book launch is under discussion.
Link to book: https://utampapress.org/product/the-voice-of-blood-by-gabriela-rabago-palafox
Link to review: https://compulsivereader.com/2025/09/22/a-review-of-the-voice-of-blood-by-gabriela-rabago-palafox/
Paola Hincapié and Ariadna Tenorio to publish chapter on Rivera Garza at FIL Guadalajara
We are pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of “Contra la potencia lesiva del derecho: Rivera Garza y la crítica a la patologización estatal de los cuerpos femeninos,” by Paola Hincapié and Ariadna Tenorio, in Contar con el lenguaje. Ensayos críticos sobre la obra de Cristina Rivera Garza. The volume will be presented this December at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL Guadalajara). Congratulations to both!
Antonio Sajid López presents on digital humanities and reads from new novel
On Wednesday, November 5 (2:30 p.m.), Antonio Sajid López presented at the Latin American & Caribbean Digital Humanities Symposium at the University of Puerto Rico–Río Piedras (San Juan). His talk highlighted sustained work from Spanish in the Community, a 12-year collaboration that has recorded 100+ thematic interviews with Hispanic immigrants in Florida. Earlier in the fall, López read from his novel “La sombra púrpura del cielo roto” at The Lynx in Gainesville on Saturday, September 6, alongside poet Nemir Matos-Cintrón, and continued the book tour in San Juan on November 8 at Casa Norberto (Plaza Las Américas) with his editor, Eïrïk Durändal Stormcrow, editorial director of Gnomo.
Innovation spotlight: Crystal Marull honored by UF Innovate
On October 29, Crystal Marull was recognized at the UF Innovate Standing Innovation Award ceremony for disclosure and licensing of her “Three Pillar Model” for online Spanish courses. She received a commemorative glass for disclosure (T19664) and a UF INN0V8R license plate for an exclusive license (A21257), underscoring the model’s impact on online language pedagogy.
On screen, across borders: María José Noriega and Vyky Saiz spotlighted at the Latino Film Festival
On Thursday, September 19 (5:30–8:00 p.m.) at Blount Auditorium in Downtown Santa Fe, the Latino Film Festival hosted “Four Shorts: Conversations with Young Filmmakers.” The evening featured a trailer and four short films, followed by a lively discussion—moderated by Dr. Ginway—on craft and community. Directors María José Noriega (Gainesville-based, Mexico) and Vyky Saiz (USA) spoke about editing, music, timelines and scripts, and reflected on resonant themes: coming out, family relationships, grief, migration and the search for acceptance and belonging. Saiz, who leads Voices of the 100, also announced that Noriega is this year’s $5,000 grant recipient.
Program
• Trailer: Apukunapa Kutimuyñi (El regreso de los dioses) — Omar Vallejos (Peru), an anime-inflected meditation on Andean deities.
• Shorts: El arte de hacer lo simple, complicado — María José Noriega (Mexico); Rodrigo Branquias — Andrés Guevara (Colombia); Recall — Vyky Saiz (USA); Año sabático — David David (Colombia).
“Multilingual Iberia”: Anita Savo delivers SPS Zoom lecture
On Friday, September 12 (10:40–11:30 a.m.), Anita Savo (Boston University) delivered a Spanish-language talk, “Multilingual Iberia,” on cross-cultural exchange among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in medieval Iberia. Attendees discussed a short packet of readings—one poem in Arabic, one in Hebrew, and a Castilian selection from “Libro de buen amor”—with originals and translations. The event was open to SPS and related units, and faculty encouraged students and colleagues to attend.
Doctoral milestone: Hannah Treadway recognized for research and leadership
Doctoral candidate Hannah Treadway received a Dissertation Grant from the journal “Language Learning” to support her research and was selected as the Junior Member of the Executive Committee for the Human Sentence Processing Society (HSP), the largest U.S. society dedicated to sentence processing and psycholinguistics.
Paola Uparela and María Victoria Muñoz inducted into Sigma Xi
Congratulations to Paola Uparela and María Victoria Muñoz, who were recently inducted into Sigma Xi, the international scientific honor society founded at Cornell University in 1886 to promote excellence and collaboration in scientific research. Membership in Sigma Xi recognizes outstanding contributions to research and scholarship across disciplines, reflecting both professors’ commitment to advancing knowledge through innovative and rigorous inquiry.
Jennifer Wooten and María Laura Mecías highlight SPS leadership at the FFLA Conference
In October 2025, faculty and graduate students from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies showcased UF’s leadership in language education at the Florida Foreign Language Association (FFLA) Conference in Gainesville. Organized by Jennifer Wooten and María Laura Mecías, the event featured presentations by Jennifer Wooten, Gillian Lord, Diego Pascual y Cabo, María Laura Mecías and Crystal Marull. SPS volunteers—including Matthew Skolar, María Fernanda Colón, María de la Cruz Mora, Dairen Zamora Carvajal, Vicky Muñoz, Alex Menager and Sonia San Juan—also contributed to the conference’s success. Their participation reflected SPS’s commitment to innovation, collaboration and community in world language teaching.
Jennifer Wooten receives 2025 AI Teaching Integration Award
Jennifer Wooten, in collaboration with Laura Jervis from the CITT, received the 2025 AI Teaching Integration Award for their innovative work embedding AI-driven learning experiences into the online sections of SPN 1130 and SPN 1131 for residential students. This initiative highlights their leadership in enhancing Spanish language instruction through emerging technologies and interactive digital pedagogy.
