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QUICK HITS!
-Se acaba de publicar este fabuloso número (156) de Revista TURIA, con su sección monográfica (coordinada por Marta Pérez Carbonell) sobre la inimitable Rosa Montero. Mi aportación se titula “Rosa Montero y sus múltiples retratos de mujeres”. Ha sido un honor poder contribuir a esta gran celebración de Rosa Montero y su obra. Muchas gracias a la Profesora Pérez Carbonell por incluirme en el proyecto.
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-En octubre de 2025, tuve el honor de dar una ponencia sobre los usos del silencio en Usos amorosos de la postguerra española de Carmen Martín Gaite. Este congreso (“Carmen Martín Gaite, mujer de letras”), organizado por José Teruel y María Isabel Toro Pascua, reunió a especialistas en la obra de esta icónica autora, cuyo centenario ha sido este año, en el lugar de su nacimiento y juventud. Aquí tenéis más información: https://carmenmartingaite.es/mujer-de-letras/.
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-Humanidades Públicas en Acción, an international Public Humanities research group, was in full action in Bilbao in early July. This fully inter- and cross-disciplinary group includes performers, plastic artists, professors, poets, translators, lawyers, medical students and doctors, farmers, and more. The general goal is to think through transforming damaging systems in collaborative settings and formats. Thanks to Txelu Balboa and ColaBoraBora for hosting the group and co-moderating the work process.
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In case you’d like to contribute, check this out: I’m now one of the editors of the Modern and Contemporary Spain volume for The Literary Encyclopedia. If you’re a specialist in these areas and you’re interested in writing on favorite authors and themes, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Thanks!
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-Esteemed Professor Dr. Itzíar López Guil, Nina Kaderk, and Chiara Licci of the University of Zurich brought together a roster of Martín Gaite scholars in early May for a day-long conference to celebrate the centennial of this iconic author’s birth. Check out the gorgeous poster (above), along with a link to the conference program. I presented on metaliterary doubling in Martín Gaite’s 1992 novel Nubosidad variable.
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-In April, 2025, I got to reunite with ALCES folks as we addressed epistemic justice and the Public Humanities at the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference (KFLC). It was a fantastic experience. We’ll also host a small conference in Bilbao, Spain, in early July (2025) to formalize our Public Humanities research group and firm up collaborations among artists/creators, community activists, students, and professors. We’re hitting the busy stretch–in a good way.
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– (Isn’t this poster so beautiful?) I was really honored to be invited to present on Carmen Martín Gaite at New York City’s Feria Internacional del Libro at Borough of Manhattan Community College on October 9, 2024. I got to present alongside: esteemed CMG scholar José Teruel; my CMG co-editor, Professor Debra Ochoa of Trinity University-San Antonio; and Directora General del Libro María José Gálvez Salvador. https://filnyc.org/. My talk focused on Martín Gaite’s novel for all ages, Caperucita en Manhattan (1990).
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-I had the good fortune of presenting at the AHH conference in Tarragona in June–an academic paper on Edurne Portela’s Mejor la ausencia, and a poetry reading organized by Zheyla Henriksen.
-I’m also extremely grateful to have caught up with friends and colleagues at the Jornadas de ALCESXXI in Santiago de Compostela in July. Palmar Álvarez-Blanco, Steven L. Torres, and I are working with an outstanding group on a seminar on the public humanities.
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-Palmar Álvarez-Blanco’s beautiful and original Pequeño tratado de amistad (La Vorágine, 2023) was featured at the Lila de Lilith bookstore reading on July 15, 2024, in Santiago de Compostela. Along with several other contributors, I read from my essay.
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-It was an honor and a pleasure to present at Madrid’s Instituto Cervantes in February (2024) and at Virginia Military Institute this past March (2024). The first event was all about the late and always great Carmen Laforet, and the second was an inspiring session designed to have a conversation with VMI’s women about their collective work.
-Instituto Cervantes de Madrid: Round table presentation (Professor José Teruel, Professor Rocío Rojas-Marcos, Professor Ellen Mayock, Editor Christina Linares), “Carmen Laforet y la amistad,” on the Correspondencia inédita (1957-1987) de Carmen Laforet y Emilio Sanz de Soto (Renacimiento, 2023; edición de José Teruel). February 26, 2024.
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Asociación de Literatura y Cine Españoles Siglo XXI (ALCESXXI):
Miembro desde el principio; grupo motor; comité organizador para las jornadas; comité científico para la Revista de ALCESXXI
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Co-edited volume with Professor Debra Ochoa: Carmen Martín Gaite (1925-2000): Conversing Across the Genres in Carmen Martín Gaite’s Poetry, Short Stories, and Theatrical Works.
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University-Based Public/Civic Engagement:
-W&L’s English for Speakers of Other Languages, Founder and Director (2001-2023)
-W&L’s Pluma Creative Writing Magazine in Spanish, Founder and Director (2013-2023)
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Community Work:
–50 Ways Rockbridge: Co-Founder and board member
–Rockbridge NAACP: General member
–Rockbridge NAACP’s Irma Thompson Educators of Color Program: Board member and Co-Chair
Ellen Mayock 