A Message from the Graduate Chair
It is an immense pleasure to begin a term as RLL Graduate Chair, although sadly as my term began, our long-term and well-loved Graduate Coordinator, Desiree Laurencelle, left our department for a position as Academic Program Manager in the School of Public Health. We consequently began the Fall term a little understaffed, and with many new issues to wrap our heads around, including the details of the brand-new GEO contract and a computer system outage during the first week of school. Thanks to our incredible office staff, including several temporary visitors, we made it through, and we were thrilled to welcome our new Graduate Coordinator, Sofia Bento, at the beginning of November.
This semester we also welcomed our largest cohort of graduate students in recent years, consisting of seven students in Spanish and one in French. They join 43 other students for a current total of 51 students in the program, representing an impressively wide range of research interests, including ecology in early modern Spain, graphic novels about French immigrant experience, the intersection of science and political philosophy in Mexico and Peru, Afro-Italian aesthetics, Latinx young adult fiction, and disability, trauma, and memory studies, among many others.
In October, the department hosted the 23rd Charles F. Fraker Graduate Student Conference, the first one since 2019. It was beautifully organized, well-attended, and appreciated by all. Eduardo Cadava gave an extraordinary keynote speech titled Walter Benjamin’s Mesoamerican Dreams, as well as a workshop on his recent book Paper Graveyards.
It is an immense pleasure to begin a term as RLL Graduate Chair, although sadly as my term began, our long-term and well-loved Graduate Coordinator, Desiree Laurencelle, left our department for a position as Academic Program Manager in the School of Public Health. We consequently began the Fall term a little understaffed, and with many new issues to wrap our heads around, including the details of the brand-new GEO contract and a computer system outage during the first week of school. Thanks to our incredible office staff, including several temporary visitors, we made it through, and we were thrilled to welcome our new Graduate Coordinator, Sofia Bento, at the beginning of November.
This semester we also welcomed our largest cohort of graduate students in recent years, consisting of seven students in Spanish and one in French. They join 43 other students for a current total of 51 students in the program, representing an impressively wide range of research interests, including ecology in early modern Spain, graphic novels about French immigrant experience, the intersection of science and political philosophy in Mexico and Peru, Afro-Italian aesthetics, Latinx young adult fiction, and disability, trauma, and memory studies, among many others.
In October, the department hosted the 23rd Charles F. Fraker Graduate Student Conference, the first one since 2019. It was beautifully organized, well-attended, and appreciated by all. Eduardo Cadava gave an extraordinary keynote speech titled Walter Benjamin’s Mesoamerican Dreams, as well as a workshop on his recent book Paper Graveyards.
RLL graduate students have been very active this past year organizing the October 6th and 7th 2023 Charles F. Fraker Graduate Conference “Dis/continuities: Unsettling Memory and Time”. Dr. Eduardo Cadava from Princeton University delivered the keynote lecture, "Walter Benjamin's Mesoamerican Dreams." Dr. Cadava also held the workshop, "Paper Graveyards".
The biannual Charles F. Fraker Conference is organized by doctoral students in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan in honor of Professor Emeritus of Spanish Charles F. Fraker. Professor Fraker joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 1965, was promoted to associate professor in 1968, professor in 1977, and served in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures as a teacher and scholar. He was a devoted mentor to both undergraduate and graduate students, introducing them to medieval Spanish literature.
Originally a venue for graduate students of Hispanic Studies to meet and discuss the subjects of their research, the Charles F. Fraker Graduate Conference has grown to include the work of students of many other fields and disciplines. In previous years, the Charles F. Fraker Conference has featured intellectuals such as Jacques Lezra, Alberto Moreiras, Jacques Rancière, Bill Brown, Michael Taussig, WJT Mitchell, and Robert T. Tally Jr. as keynote speakers.
Participants enjoyed panels with presentations from graduate students from within the University of Michigan as well as from other institutions across the country and beyond, including UC Berkeley, Binghamton University, Boston University, University of Chile, University of Florida, Fort Hays State University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Houston, University of Illinois Chicago, John Hopkins University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, The Ohio State University, Princeton University, UC Riverside, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For more information about the Charles F. Fraker Conference, please visit their website.
RLL graduate students have been very active this past year organizing the October 6th and 7th 2023 Charles F. Fraker Graduate Conference “Dis/continuities: Unsettling Memory and Time”. Dr. Eduardo Cadava from Princeton University delivered the keynote lecture, "Walter Benjamin's Mesoamerican Dreams." Dr. Cadava also held the workshop, "Paper Graveyards".
The biannual Charles F. Fraker Conference is organized by doctoral students in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan in honor of Professor Emeritus of Spanish Charles F. Fraker. Professor Fraker joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 1965, was promoted to associate professor in 1968, professor in 1977, and served in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures as a teacher and scholar. He was a devoted mentor to both undergraduate and graduate students, introducing them to medieval Spanish literature.
Originally a venue for graduate students of Hispanic Studies to meet and discuss the subjects of their research, the Charles F. Fraker Graduate Conference has grown to include the work of students of many other fields and disciplines. In previous years, the Charles F. Fraker Conference has featured intellectuals such as Jacques Lezra, Alberto Moreiras, Jacques Rancière, Bill Brown, Michael Taussig, WJT Mitchell, and Robert T. Tally Jr. as keynote speakers.
Participants enjoyed panels with presentations from graduate students from within the University of Michigan as well as from other institutions across the country and beyond, including UC Berkeley, Binghamton University, Boston University, University of Chile, University of Florida, Fort Hays State University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Houston, University of Illinois Chicago, John Hopkins University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, The Ohio State University, Princeton University, UC Riverside, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For more information about the Charles F. Fraker Conference, please visit their website.
