A Message from the Graduate Chair
We have enjoyed another busy and productive year in the graduate program. As always, we are most proud of the successes of our graduate students.
In recent months, three students defended their dissertations. Students were active in organizing reading groups and different events, and published translations, essays, book reviews and newspaper articles in top-tier venues.
RLL students were also very successful at securing funding: in addition to three One-term and six Humanities Research Fellowships awarded by our department, they received an Institute for the Humanities Fellowship, a Predoctoral Fellowship, and an additional student received a Professional Development Grant. Three of them were honored with the competitive Alfredo D. & Luz Maria P. Gutierrez Dissertation Award, the Margaret Ayers Host Award, and a Rackham International Student Fellowship. Additionally, six students received Rackham Graduate Student Research Grants. For this summer, two students were awarded Rackham Language Training Grants, one received a Rackham Public Scholarship Grant, and two more students will be IRWG fellows for the spring/summer. Finally, one of our students was admitted to the Institut d'Avignon through Bryn Mawr College, a six-week intensive summer program in advanced French and Francophone studies, and in Theater studies, for undergraduate and graduate students.
In a very difficult year in which jobs were scarce, our students were offered teaching positions in institutions such as Pennsylvania State University, Carleton College, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Fort Hays State University, as well as prestigious postdoctoral fellowships (University of Pennsylvania).
It is inspiring to see our students achieve this level of success!
We have enjoyed another busy and productive year in the graduate program. As always, we are most proud of the successes of our graduate students.
In recent months, three students defended their dissertations. Students were active in organizing reading groups and different events, and published translations, essays, book reviews and newspaper articles in top-tier venues.
RLL students were also very successful at securing funding: in addition to three One-term and six Humanities Research Fellowships awarded by our department, they received an Institute for the Humanities Fellowship, a Predoctoral Fellowship, and an additional student received a Professional Development Grant. Three of them were honored with the competitive Alfredo D. & Luz Maria P. Gutierrez Dissertation Award, the Margaret Ayers Host Award, and a Rackham International Student Fellowship. Additionally, six students received Rackham Graduate Student Research Grants. For this summer, two students were awarded Rackham Language Training Grants, one received a Rackham Public Scholarship Grant, and two more students will be IRWG fellows for the spring/summer. Finally, one of our students was admitted to the Institut d'Avignon through Bryn Mawr College, a six-week intensive summer program in advanced French and Francophone studies, and in Theater studies, for undergraduate and graduate students.
In a very difficult year in which jobs were scarce, our students were offered teaching positions in institutions such as Pennsylvania State University, Carleton College, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Fort Hays State University, as well as prestigious postdoctoral fellowships (University of Pennsylvania).
It is inspiring to see our students achieve this level of success!
Congratulations to the 2023 Ph.D. Recipients!
Claudio Salvador Aguayo Bórquez's (Spanish Ph.D. '23) Fear of Masses and Right-Wing Imagination: Reactionary Hermeneutics, Conservatism and Mass Psychologies in the Southern Cone develops a genealogical approach to right-wing thinkers in the Southern Cone, with special emphasis on Chile, from the reactionary and conservative influences of Spanish and European authors, to the current debates regarding neoliberalism and its crisis. Through a rigorous combination of archival research and theoretical approach, informed by political philosophy, historiography, Marxism, and Psychoanalysis, Claudio is able to complicate the standard narrative about neoliberalism by showing the deep current of conservative thought that actually made possible the implementation of neoliberal policies in the region.
Claudio Salvador Aguayo Bórquez's (Spanish Ph.D. '23) Fear of Masses and Right-Wing Imagination: Reactionary Hermeneutics, Conservatism and Mass Psychologies in the Southern Cone develops a genealogical approach to right-wing thinkers in the Southern Cone, with special emphasis on Chile, from the reactionary and conservative influences of Spanish and European authors, to the current debates regarding neoliberalism and its crisis. Through a rigorous combination of archive research and theoretical approach, informed by political philosophy, historiography, Marxism, and Psychoanalysis, Claudio is able to complicate the standard narrative about neoliberalism by showing the deep current of conservative thought that actually made possible the implementation of neoliberal policies in the region.
Félix Zamora Gómez's (Spanish Ph.D. '23) Foundational Landscapes: Regimes of Visuality and the Construction of New Narratives of History and Heritage in 20th-Century Spain will make a fundamental contribution to the field of Iberian cultural studies and visual arts. This dissertation examines photography, film, art exhibitions and national pavilions organized during both the Francoist period (1939-1975) and the transition to democracy in order to revise the cultural history of this period through the lenses of a new narrative based of what he conceptualizes as a new regime of historicity. The originality of this project lies in the fact that he is using not only a very innovative visual art archive but, most importantly, a visual genealogy to examine in depth the ways in which the Spanish State during the dictatorship and the transition to democracy has created and implemented symbolic narratives designed to fortify its legitimacy and cultural hegemony in the specific context of Spain’s imperial-colonial past, the 25 years of peace (1964), and the new future that opens up with the transition to democracy.
Félix Zamora Gómez's (Spanish Ph.D. '23) Foundational Landscapes: Regimes of Visuality and the Construction of New Narratives of History and Heritage in 20th-Century Spain will make a fundamental contribution to the field of Iberian cultural studies and visual arts. This dissertation examines photography, film, art exhibitions and national pavilions organized during both the Francoist period (1939-1975) and the Transition to democracy in order to revise the cultural history of this period through the lenses of a new narrative based of what he conceptualizes as a new regime of historicity. The originality of this project lies in the fact that he is using not only a very innovative visual art archive but, most importantly, a visual genealogy to examine in depth the ways in which the Spanish State during the dictatorship and the transition to democracy has created and implemented symbolic narratives designed to fortify its legitimacy and cultural hegemony in the specific context of Spain’s imperial-colonial past, the 25 years of peace (1964), and the new future that opens up with the transition to democracy.
Anthony Revelle's (French Ph.D. '23) Sharing Flesh: Carnivorism and Commensality in Medieval French Literature examines representations of flesh and its cultural status in French literary texts from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. Sharing Flesh evokes both the carnal condition shared by humans and animals and the ritual of eating flesh, which plays a central role in forging social relationships and instituting hierarchies along racial, gender, class, and species lines. Articulated through a series of astute close readings of medieval texts, and drawing on a range of works in phenomenology, animal studies, and perspectivism, Anthony offers an utterly original theory of the flesh.
Anthony Revelle's (French Ph.D. '23) Sharing Flesh: Carnivorism and Commensality in Medieval French Literature examines representations of flesh and its cultural status in French literary texts from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. Sharing Flesh evokes both the carnal condition shared by humans and animals and the ritual of eating flesh, which plays a central role in forging social relationships and instituting hierarchies along racial, gender, class, and species lines. Articulated through a series of astute close readings of medieval texts, and drawing on a range of works in phenomenology, animal studies, and perspectivism, Anthony offers an utterly and original theory of the flesh.
Jess Allen's (French Ph.D. '23) “Constellating Bodies, Conduct, and Social Roles: The Interplay Between Language Standardization and Gender Essentialization in Early Modern France” covers a wide sweep of materials from the Grands Rhétoriqueurs to Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy’s late seventeenth-century fairy tales. Jess argues that debates over the French Language (in which outmoded and contested usages increasingly became characterized as “feminine") shifted perception from functional to essentialized gender. She demonstrates, against many recent readings, that d’Aulnoy’s fairy tales popularized this new, more rigid conception of womanhood that went beyond dress, skin, and even procreative roles. The richness of the dissertation inspired a lively and fascinating conversation during the defense.
Jess Allen's (French Ph.D. '23) “Constellating Bodies, Conduct, and Social Roles: The Interplay Between Language Standardization and Gender Essentialization in Early Modern France” covers a wide sweep of materials from the Grands Rhétoriqueurs to Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy’s late seventeenth-century fairy tales. Jess argues that debates over the French Language (in which outmoded and contested usages increasingly became characterized as “feminine") shifted perception from functional to essentialized gender. She demonstrates, against many recent readings, that d’Aulnoy’s fairy tales popularized this new, more rigid conception of womanhood that went beyond dress, skin, and even procreative roles. The richness of the dissertation inspired a lively and fascinating conversation during the defense.
Graduate Awards & Fellowships
Anna Brotman-Krass is a recipient of this year's Program in Public Scholarship Grants from Rackham for her project “Theatrical Activist Performance into Film: Migrant Domestic Laborers & Care Workers in Spain". Drawing on their research, these students work with community partner organizations to produce a public good—from strong local community impact, to state- and national-level political change.
Marisol Fila has been accepted by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University as a visiting fellow for the full 2023-2024 academic year. Marisol will pursue independent research in affiliation with the Program in African and African American Studies. She will also be collaborating with the ALARI (Afro-Latin American Research Institute), discussing her work with its students and scholars, and will continue to work with Professor Paulina Alberto.
Ana Guimarães recieved a Rackham International Student Fellowship. Recipients of this prestigious fellowship have shown outstanding academic performance.
Anna Brotman-Krass is a recipient of this year's Program in Public Scholarship Grants from Rackham for her project “Theatrical Activist Performance into Film: Migrant Domestic Laborers & Care Workers in Spain". Drawing on their research, these students work with community partner organizations to produce a public good—from strong local community impact, to state- and national-level political change.
Steven Kurtz received the Rackham Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. The Outstanding GSI Award honors GSIs who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication and excellence as teachers.
Qian “Mauro” Liu will be a Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Matías Larramendi-Salvat received the Rackham International Research Award (RIRA). Additionally, he will publish a peer reviewed paper in the peer reviewed journal "Universum". The title of the paper is Washington Cucurto, o el neoliberalismo plebeyo del emprendedor barroco [Washington Cucurto, or the plebeian neoliberalism of the baroque entrepreneur].
Steven Kurtz received the Rackham Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. The Outstanding GSI Award honors GSIs who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication and excellence as teachers.
Qian “Mauro” Liu will be a Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Maria Laura Martinelli received the Margaret Ayers Host Award. This prestigious award is presented to graduate students who "demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement, a sense of social responsibility, and an interest in the success of women in the academic community."
Raquel Vieira Parrine Sant'Ana received the Alfredo D. & Luz Maria P. Gutierrez Dissertation Award for Graduate students. This award supports graduate students with multidisciplinary, innovative research.
Raquel also received an Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) graduate student research award for her project titled “"They Didn't See Her Running With Her Red Lips On Fire:" Politics and Desire in Leonilson's Visual Art”
Laura Pensa has been awarded an extremely competitive Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship. Laura’s dissertation is titled The Invention of the Chaco: Writing of Histories for an Insurgent Space.
Matías Larramendi-Salvat received the Rackham International Research Award (RIRA). Additionally, he will publish a peer reviewed paper in the peer reviewed journal "Universum". The title of the paper is Washington Cucurto, o el neoliberalismo plebeyo del emprendedor barroco [Washington Cucurto, or the plebeian neoliberalism of the baroque entrepreneur].
Matías Larramendi-Salvat received the Rackham International Research Award (RIRA). Additionally, he will publish a peer reviewed paper in the peer reviewed journal "Universum". The title of the paper is Washington Cucurto, o el neoliberalismo plebeyo del emprendedor barroco [Washington Cucurto, or the plebeian neoliberalism of the baroque entrepreneur].
Qian “Mauro” Liu will be a Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Maria Laura Martinelli received the Margaret Ayers Host Award. This prestigious award is presented to graduate students who "demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement, a sense of social responsibility, and an interest in the success of women in the academic community."
Garima Singh Panwar co-authored a chapter titled “Global South aesthetics of anxiety: (Un)rooted cosmopolitanisms in Castellanos Moya’s El sueño del retorno and Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” in the book volume Migrating Minds. Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism. In March, this volume was awarded the 2023 René Wellek Prize for the Best Essay Collection by the American Comparative Literature Association.
Garima Singh Panwar co-authored a chapter titled “Global South aesthetics of anxiety: (Un)rooted cosmopolitanisms in Castellanos Moya’s El sueño del retorno and Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” in the book volume Migrating Minds. Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism. In March, this volume was awarded the 2023 René Wellek Prize for the Best Essay Collection by the American Comparative Literature Association.
Qian “Mauro” Liu will be a Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Matías Larramendi-Salvat received the Rackham International Research Award (RIRA). Additionally, he will publish a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Universum. The title of the paper is "Washington Cucurto, o el neoliberalismo plebeyo del emprendedor barroco" [Washington Cucurto, or the plebeian neoliberalism of the baroque entrepreneur].
Raquel Vieira Parrine Sant'Ana received the Alfredo D. & Luz María P. Gutiérrez Dissertation Award for Graduate students. This award supports graduate students with multidisciplinary, innovative research.
Raquel also received an Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) graduate student research award for her project titled “"They Didn't See Her Running With Her Red Lips On Fire:" Politics and Desire in Leonilson's Visual Art”.
Garima Singh Panwar co-authored a chapter titled “Global South aesthetics of anxiety: (Un)rooted cosmopolitanisms in Castellanos Moya’s El sueño del retorno and Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” in the Migrating Minds. Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism. In March, this volume was awarded the 2023 René Wellek Prize for the Best Essay Collection by the American Comparative Literature Association.
Garima Singh Panwar co-authored a chapter titled “Global South aesthetics of anxiety: (Un)rooted cosmopolitanisms in Castellanos Moya’s El sueño del retorno and Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” in the book volume Migrating Minds. Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism. In March, this volume was awarded the 2023 René Wellek Prize for the Best Essay Collection by the American Comparative Literature Association.
Garima Singh Panwar co-authored a chapter titled “Global South aesthetics of anxiety: (Un)rooted cosmopolitanisms in Castellanos Moya’s El sueño del retorno and Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” in the book volume Migrating Minds. Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism. In March, this volume was awarded the 2023 René Wellek Prize for the Best Essay Collection by the American Comparative Literature Association.
Ana Guimarães recieved a Rackham International Student Fellowship
Gala Patenkovic was admitted to the Institut d'Avignon through Bryn Mawr College.
Laura Pensa has been awarded an extremely competitive Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship. Laura’s dissertation is titled The Invention of the Chaco: Writing of Histories for an Insurgent Space.
Gala Patenkovic was admitted to the Institut d'Avignon through Bryn Mawr College.
Fernando Valcheff García received a Rackham Research Grant as well as a second Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies' Tinker Field Research Grant for Graduate Students for a project titled "Shaking Premises: Literary Practice, Institutional (ex)changes, and the Role of Cultural Agents in Contemporary Argentina"
Elizabeth Walz received an Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) graduate student research award for her project titled “Regional Insubordination and Productive Disruption: Critical Feminist Contributions to Cultural Resistance in Peninsular and Caribbean Literature”.
Michigan Housing Honored Instructors 2022-2023
We would like to recognize the nominated RLL Graduate Students for their excellence! Here is the full list of nominees.
"Since 2018, Michigan Housing has provided residential students an opportunity to honor the instructors who make a positive impact on their collegiate journey at the University of Michigan. Michigan Housing is excited to continue to celebrate the incredible faculty and instructors that inspire our students each and every day."
Tessa Oliviera
Juan Diego Ponce de León Zapata
Raquel Vieira Parrine Sant'Ana received the Alfredo D. & Luz Maria P. Gutierrez Dissertation Award for Graduate students. This award supports graduate students with multidisciplinary, innovative research.
Raquel also received an Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) graduate student research award for her project titled “"They Didn't See Her Running With Her Red Lips On Fire:" Politics and Desire in Leonilson's Visual Art”
Elizabeth Walz received an IRWG graduate student research award for her project titled
“Regional Insubordination and Productive Disruption: Critical Feminist Contributions to Cultural Resistance in Peninsular and Caribbean Literature”
Ana Guimarães recieved a Rackham International Student Fellowship
Michigan Housing Honored Instructors 2022-2023
We would like to recognize the nominated RLL Graduate Students for their excellence! Here is the full list of nominees.
"Since 2018, Michigan Housing has provided residential students an opportunity to honor the instructors who make a positive impact on their collegiate journey at the University of Michigan. Michigan Housing is excited to continue to celebrate the incredible faculty and instructors that inspire our students each and every day."
Tessa Oliviera
Juan Diego Ponce de León Zapata
Graduate Publications
Qian “Mauro” Liu will be a Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Qian “Mauro” Liu recently completed a translation of John Henderson's Florence Under Siege: Surviving Plague in an Early Modern City (Yale University Press, 2019) from English/Italian to Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese version, which is forthcoming in 2023, also features Qian’s critical reflection on epidemics, public health, and urban space in light of Covid-19. This remarkable and interdisciplinary study combines micro history, urban studies, and medical humanities.
Qian “Mauro” Liu recently completed a translation of John Henderson's Florence Under Siege: Surviving Plague in an Early Modern City (Yale University Press, 2019) from English/Italian to Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese version, which is forthcoming in 2023, also features Qian’s critical reflection on epidemics, public health, and urban space in light of Covid-19. This remarkable and interdisciplinary study combines micro history, urban studies, and medical humanities.
Qian “Mauro” Liu will be a Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Alejo Stark recently published three articles.
Anomalous Alliances: Spinoza and Abolition was published in Deleuze and Guattari Studies.
Science and Struggle: On the Althusserianism of Mauricio Malamud was published in Décalages: A Journal of Althusser Studies.
Lastly, Marx, ciencia de la contingencia was published in Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas.
Alejo Stark recently published three articles.
Anomalous Alliances: Spinoza and Abolition was published in Deleuze and Guattari Studies.
Science and Struggle: On the Althusserianism of Mauricio Malamud was published in Décalages: A Journal of Althusser Studies.
Lastly, Marx, ciencia de la contingencia was published in Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas.
Fernando Valcheff García recently published an interview with Cecilia Secreto, a literary critic and novelist in the Argentine newspaper, La Capital: Mar del Plata.
Fernando Valcheff García recently published an interview with Cecilia Secreto, a literary critic and novelist in the Argentine newspaper, La Capital: Mar del Plata.
Fernando Valcheff García recently published an interview with Cecilia Secreto, a literary critic and novelist in the Argentine newspaper, La Capital: Mar del Plata.
Qian “Mauro” Liu recently completed a translation of John Henderson's Florence Under Siege: Surviving Plague in an Early Modern City (Yale University Press, 2019) from English/Italian to Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese version, which is forthcoming in 2023, also features Qian’s critical reflection on epidemics, public health, and urban space in light of Covid-19. This remarkable and interdisciplinary study combines micro history, urban studies, and medical humanities.
Qian “Mauro” Liu recently completed a translation of John Henderson's Florence Under Siege: Surviving Plague in an Early Modern City (Yale University Press, 2019) from English/Italian to Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese version, which is forthcoming in 2023, also features Qian’s critical reflection on epidemics, public health, and urban space in light of Covid-19. This remarkable and interdisciplinary study combines micro history, urban studies, and medical humanities.
Graduate Placements
Claudio Salvador Aguayo Bórquez is joining Fort Hays State University as an Assistant professor in the fall.
Priscila Calatayud Fernández will join the faculty of Penn State University as a Teaching Professor of Spanish starting Fall 2023.
Priscila Calatayud Fernández will join the faculty of Penn State University as a Teaching Professor of Spanish starting Fall 2023.
Amanda Ndaw will join the faculty of Manchester Community College in Connecticut as a Tenure-Track Instructor of Spanish.
Amanda Ndaw will join the faculty of Manchester Community College in Connecticut as a Tenure-Track Instructor of Spanish.
Martín Ruiz-Mendoza will join the University of Missouri-Columbia as Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish starting Fall 2023.
Amanda Ndaw will join the faculty of Manchester Community College in Connecticut as a Tenure-Track Instructor of Spanish.
Anthony Revelle has been offered a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Carleton College.
Martín Ruiz-Mendoza will join the University of Missouri-Columbia as Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish starting Fall 2023.
Every gift to RLL makes a difference.
Your generosity enables RLL students to successfully become global citizens in a world that increasingly requires the skills and knowledge to connect with people from different cultures and traditions.
From collaborative film projects like Anna's, research abroad to conference presentations, course development to guest lectures by leading scholars, your support brings the world to our students and our students to the world. To learn more about how your contribution can help, please visit our giving page.
Every gift to RLL makes a difference.
Your generosity enables RLL students to successfully become global citizens in a world that increasingly requires the skills and knowledge to connect with people from different cultures and traditions.
From collaborative film projects like Anna's, research abroad to conference presentations, course development to guest lectures by leading scholars, your support brings the world to our students and our students to the world. To learn more about how your contribution can help, please visit our giving page.
