On Race, Colonialism, and Falling Monuments in Spain and the US, By Professor Akiko Tsuchiya

On June 4, 2020, the governor of Virginia ordered the removal of Richmond’s monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee, amidst demonstrations across the country against police brutality and systemic racism. His announcement provided a renewed momentum, among racial justice activists, to demand the elimination of all public symbols of white supremacy. Other cities across the nation soon followed suit, ordering the dismantling of Confederate statues, even as protesters, in many places, took the lead in toppling these monuments.

Juan Manuel Ramírez Velázquez Wins Research Fellowship at the University of Tulsa

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures congratulates Hispanic Studies graduate student Juan Manuel Ramírez Velázquez on winning a 2020-2021 Short-Time research fellowship at the Helmerich Center for American Research at the University of Tulsa.

Hispanic Studies PhD Student Emma Merrigan Awarded Two Fellowships for Summer and Fall 2020

Fourth-year Hispanic Studies graduate student Emma Merrigan has received both a Divided City Graduate Summer Research Fellowship and a Graduate Student Fellowship in residence at the Washington University Center for the Humanities, for the Summer and Fall 2020 semesters, respectively. 

A Statement on the Value of the Humanities in Times of Crisis

The chairs and directors of Humanities departments and programs at Washington University in St. Louis have prepared a statement on the value of the humanities in times of crisis. In times of severe challenges, it is crucial that we avail ourselves of the invaluable resources that humanities scholarship and education offer. The full statement has now been posted on our departmental blog.

New RLL blog!

Check out our new departmental blog for updates on COVID-19 and other topics. It's a great way to connect with faculty over the summer: https://sites.wustl.edu/rllwustl/home/

Professor William Acree wins LASA 2020 Best Book Award

It is our distinct pleasure to announce that a jury composed by Agnes Lugo-Ortiz (University of Chicago), Shelley Garrigan (NC State University), and Michel Gobat (University of Pittsburgh) have selected two wonderful new monographs to receive the LASA 2020-BEST BOOK AWARD IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Professor Rebecca Messbarger Interviewed by CNN: Here's how Italians 'quaranteamed' 700 years ago

How was social distance observed (if at all) during previous pandemics? Turns out there's quite a precedent not just for staying away for your neighbors, but also for the idea of "quaranteaming" you might have heard about. CNN talked to Rebecca Messbarger, a professor of Italian and founding director of the Medical Humanities program at Washington University in St. Louis about social distancing from the Black Plague until now. The parts about the different ways people deal with distance still ring true.

RLL Alumnus Gonzalo Aguiar earns prestigious NEH fellowship

RLL alumnus Gonzalo Aguiar of SUNY Oswego’s department of modern languages and literatures has earned a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar Fellowship for his book project,"Tropes of Violent Inequality: Brazilian Crime Fiction in a Post-Neoliberal Age."

Professor Ignacio Infante Publishes a Translation of Vicente Huidobro's Temblor del cielo

Please join the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures in congratulating Professor Ignacio Infante on the publication of his new book, a groundbreaking translation of Vicente Huidobro’s Temblor del cielo, available now.

Professor Michael Sherberg Offers Some Coronavirus Lessons From Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece, the “Decameron,” is set on the outskirts of Florence in 1348. His protagonists have retreated to the countryside in the wake of the Black Death, which is decimating their city both mortally and socially. The book offers important lessons as we confront the global threat of Coronavirus.

Professor Rebecca Messbarger Explains What A 14th-Century Italian Novel Teaches Us About Social Distancing

When a plague swept 14th-century Florence, killing more than half the city’s population, wealthy Italians turned to social distancing. One small group’s retreat from a stricken city to a deserted villa became the backdrop for the classic novel “The Decameron.” That novel is just one of the texts Rebecca Messbarger teaches in her Disease, Madness and Death Italian Style course at Washington University. But it has sudden resonance, she says — and relevance she never anticipated when she began teaching it a year ago.

Academe’s Shameful Neglect of Spanish, By Professor Ignacio Sánchez Prado

Researchers and students engaging with the U.S.’s second-largest language are ignored in our universities — and in ‘The Chronicle’

Changing Narratives: WU Professor Ignacio Sánchez Prado Named Library of Congress Kluge Chair

Sitting down in his office lined with thousands of books and a new Keurig, Professor Ignacio Sánchez Prado, who teaches Mexican cinema, literature and culture at Washington University, divulged his life’s story, his work over the years which culminated in his appointment to the Kluge Chair at the Library of Congress.

Prof. Rebecca Messbarger's New Course Explores Seven Centuries of Dealing With Death in Italy

In her course “Disease, Madness, and Death Italian Style,” Rebecca Messbarger, professor of ltalian and founding director of the Medical Humanities Program at Washington University, takes students through seven centuries of Italian culture, beginning with The Decameron and the plague of 1348.

Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in the Humanities Ignacio Sánchez Prado responds to 'American Dirt' in Washington Post article

‘American Dirt’ gets Mexico very wrong. It’s the latest in a long trend.

A War With Words: How Spain’s Women Lobbied Against Slavery in Cuba

Interview with Faculty Fellow Akiko Tsuchiya

Professor Harriet Stone publishes new book, Crowning Glories: Netherlandish Realism and the French Imagination during the Reign of Louis XIV

Please join us in congratulating Professor of French Harriet Stone on the publication of her new book, Crowning Glories: Netherlandish Realism and the French Imagination during the Reign of Louis XIV.

Prof. Sánchez Prado Installed as Jarvis Thurston & Mona Van Duyn Professor in the Humanities

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures congratulates Professor Ignacio Sánchez Prado on his recent installation as the Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in the Humanities.

Publication of Staging Frontiers by Professor William Acree.

Swashbuckling tales of valiant gauchos roaming Argentina and Uruguay were nineteenth-century bestsellers. But when these stories jumped from the page to the circus stage and beyond, their cultural, economic, and political influence revolutionized popular culture and daily life.

New book from Almenara Press co-edited by Professor Elzbieta Sklodowska

Elzbieta Sklodowska has co-edited with Mabel Cuesta (University of Houston) Lecturas atentas. Una visita desde la ficción y la crítica a veinte narradoras cubanas contemporáneas, which showcases narrative works of contemporary Cuban women authors, both on the island and in the diaspora, accompanied by in-depth critical readings of these texts.

Professor Rebecca Messbarger’s The Lady Anatomist Goes International!

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures congratulates Professor of Italian Rebecca Messbarger on the upcoming film based on her book, The Lady Anatomist, which will premiere in Germany on November 3, 2019. The Lady Anatomist details the life of Anna Morandi, one of the most acclaimed anatomical sculptors of the Enlightenment. 

Faculty publication: Unsettling Colonialism: Gender and Race in the Nineteenth-Century Global Hispanic World, by Akiko Tsuchiya

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures congratulates Professor of Spanish Akiko Tsuchiya on the publication of her new book, Unsettling Colonialism: Gender and Race in the Nineteenth-Century Global Hispanic World, by SUNY Press.

Prof. Akiko Tsuchiya Awarded the NEH Summer Stipend

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures congratulates Professor of Spanish Akiko Tsuchiya, the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend for her project, “Spanish Women of Letters in the Nineteenth-century Antislavery Movement: Transnational Networks and Exchanges.”

Sigma Delta Pi inducts five new members

The Sigma Delta Pi chapter Beta Omega Initiation Ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 1, and was a real success.

Olin Acquires a Valuable Resource for French Studies

Thanks to the extensive efforts of Professor Seth Graebner, Daria Carson-Dussan, and Cassie Brand, Olin Library has recently purchased the Pascal Pia Collection of French literature. Named after the pseudonym of poet and literary critic Pierre Durand (1903-1979), this major collection of rare works includes 1000 items in French literature and criticism published between 1800 and 1977 and acquired by Pia. The collection includes, among other works, a significant amount of unique Surrealist ephemera.

Billy Acree receives the GSS Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award

Professor William (Billy) Acree received the Graduate Student Senate’s 2019 Outstanding Faculty Mentor award. The GSS Outstanding Faculty & Staff Awards are given out annually to recognize faculty and staff members who “make significant contributions to the graduate student experience.”

Senior Lecturer Promotions (French, Italian, and Spanish)

Lecturers from each language section of our department—Erika Conti (Italian), Rebeca Fromm Ayoroa (Spanish), and Vincent Jouane (French)—have all been promoted to Senior Lecturers after many years of outstanding teaching at Washington University.

Congratulations to Javier García-Liendo

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures congratulates Javier García-Liendo on his promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure.

Two RLL Graduate Students Instrumental in Forming Advocacy Group

The department recognizes two of our graduate students, Francesca Dennstedt and Emma Merrigan who, along with Erika Rodriguez from Comparative Literature, formed The Association of Gender Minority and Women Graduate Students.

Publication of Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France. Machines, Madness, Metaphor, by Professor Julie Singer

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures congratulates Associate Professor of French Julie Singer on the publication of her book, Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France. Machines, Madness, Metaphor.

Literatura en los Siglos XIX y XX, Antonio Saborit, Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado y Jorge Ortega (coordinadores)