At this year’s Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
convention in Washington, D.C., Professor of Spanish Maria DiFrancesco
(modern languages and literatures, NeMLA Past-President) presented a
seminar paper entitled, "El Fantasma de Gaudí and Radical Democracy in
Barcelona."
The paper employs both spatial and gender theory in an
exploration of the graphic novel El Fantasma de Gaudí. DiFrancesco
studies Barcelona’s public and open spaces to examine the continued
economic and social displacements of vulnerable populations in the
wake of both 15-M (the Indignados/Occupy movement) and Catalan
nationalism.
In the areas of pedagogy and professionalization, DiFrancesco also
participated in two roundtable discussions: "Post-colonial and
Post-gender Foreign Languages Today," part of a session entitled
"NeMLA at 50: Looking Back and Looking Forward in Foreign Language
Education;" and “Transnational Written Linkages” (co-presented with
DiFrancesco’s mentee, Dr. Java Singh, who holds both a PhD in Hispanic
literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University and an MBA from IIM
Ahmedabad), part of a session entitled, "NeMLA's Publishing Mentorship
Program: A Look Back on our First Year."
DiFrancesco also chaired a roundtable, “My First NeMLA,” a session
whose purpose was to have current and past NeMLA Executive Board
members discuss how their earliest participation in NeMLA impacted not
only their later service to the organization, but their identities as
teacher-scholars in their respective areas of expertise.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20190329080225315