We are delighted to present a series of outstanding achievements from within the University of Florida’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. These accomplishments, spanning various academic fields and areas of expertise, underscore the department’s commitment to excellence and its valuable contributions to our academic community.
Jennifer Wooten Honored with CLAS Teaching Award
Jennifer Wooten has been recognized with a CLAS Teaching Award this year, highlighting her exceptional commitment and contributions to education. For more details, visit the college’s announcement: CLAS Teaching and Advising Award Winners.
Emily Hind Recognized for Upcoming Publication and Teaching Excellence
We are excited to announce that our colleague Emily Hind is featured in the latest issue of Weekly Humanities Agenda as the recipient of a publication subvention from the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. This award supports the publication of her book Dude Lit: Mexican Men Writing and Performing Competence, 1955-2012, forthcoming with Bonilla Artigas in 2025. Additionally, Emily Hind and Katerie Gladdys have been awarded the Elizabeth Wood Dunlevie Honors Term Professorship for their innovative Quest class on plants and oil for the 2024-2025 academic year, highlighting their commitment to academic excellence and innovation. Congratulations, Emily!
Crystal Marull Receives FDLA Award
Crystal Marull has been honored with the 2023 Florida Distance Learning Association (FDLA) award for innovation in distance learning within higher education. Her contributions to online learning excellence have been recognized, marking a significant achievement in her career.
María Laura Mecías Receives Prestigious UF Calvin A. VanderWerf Award
In a noteworthy achievement, María Laura Mecías has been honored with the Calvin A. VanderWerf Award, recognizing her outstanding academic excellence and contributions at the University of Florida.
Hannah Treadway Celebrated with UF’s Graduate Student Teaching Award
Hannah Treadway’s dedication to education and her exceptional teaching skills have been recognized with the Graduate Student Teaching Award at the University of Florida, marking a significant milestone in her academic career.
María Victoria Muñoz Awarded Graduate Research Grant and Summer Residency
We are delighted to celebrate María Victoria Muñoz’s recent accolades. She has been selected for the summer residency at the National Humanities Center’s program, “Becoming a Modern Scholar,” by the Graduate Advisory Committee of the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. Additionally, María Victoria has been awarded the prestigious 2024 Graduate Research Grant from Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society. This grant will support her archival research in Argentina this upcoming summer, providing her with access to invaluable resources for her project. Congratulations on your achievements, Vicky!
Paola Uparela Wins Prestigious Hispanic Essay Award
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Paola Uparela, a renowned specialist in Colonial Studies, has been honored with the Klaus D. Vervuert Hispanic Essay Award for her forthcoming publication, “Colonial Invaginations: Gaze, Genitality, and (de)generation in the Early Modernity.” Set to be released in Madrid/Frankfurt in 2024, her work has garnered recognition from prestigious organizations including the Cervantes Institute, Iberoamericana Vervuert, the International Association of Hispanists (AIH), and several others.
Gabi Puscama’s Research Article Accepted for Publication
Congratulations are in order for Gabi Puscama, whose Humanities Scholarship Enhancement research project led to the acceptance of her paper for publication in the journal Languages. Her study, titled “Semantic network development in L2 Spanish and its impact on processing skills: A multisession eye-tracking study,” explores significant linguistic advancements.
Quinn Hansen’s Quest Course on Soccer Culture
Quinn Hansen’s engaging Quest course on the culture of soccer is spotlighted in LearningWell magazine. This course has not only captivated students but also showcased the dynamic and diverse ways soccer intersects with society. For more insights, read the feature here: UF Quest Hits Its Stride.
Antonio Sajid Lopez Pioneers Quest 2 Course in Spanish
We are proud to announce that Antonio Sajid Lopez has successfully gained approval for a groundbreaking Quest 2 course in Spanish, marking the first Quest 2 level course to be taught in Spanish starting this August. Building on the success of the Quest 1 course Comida y Conflicto, the Spanish department continues to draw students eager to fulfill this requirement in a language they are passionate about. The course, titled How do fictions shape reality?, dives into 20th and 21st-century Latin American pop culture (television, film, music, and visual arts) alongside a range of texts, both written and visual. It aims to identify, describe, and explain critical questions about the extent of human fictions and their impact on reality.
Enrique Muñoz Mantas Accepts Position at University of North Dakota
We extend our congratulations to Enrique Muñoz Mantas, who has accepted a Teaching Assistant Professor position at the University of North Dakota.
Analiz Faife Casas and Joshua Higdon Complete January Passport to Great Teaching
Congratulations to Analiz Faife Casas and Joshua Higdon for completing the January Passport to Great Teaching in the respective categories of Global Teaching and Learning and Principles of Inclusive Teaching.
Double Triumph for Greity Gonzalez: Lands New Role and Shines at Recent Conference
Greity Gonzalez delivered a compelling presentation at MALAS, titled “Persistencia e inversión de valores en el filme También la lluvia: la misma causa ideológica en 500 años de opresión.” Her analysis delves into the ideological shifts and continuities within the film También la lluvia, offering a nuanced view of resistance and solidarity in the context of Bolivia’s Water War.
Greity has also accepted a position as a lecturer at Spelman College. Congratulations on this significant achievement!
Daniela Núñez de Álvarez Stransky Secures Rothman Doctoral Fellowship
Congratulations to Daniela Núñez de Álvarez Stransky, who has been awarded the Rothman Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities from the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. Her project, “Using Social Network Analysis to Examine Dynamic Changes in Returnees’ Spanish Grammar,” promises to advance our understanding of linguistic shifts in Spanish grammar among returnees. Well done, Daniela!