FHIS Newsletter | Summer Issue 2025 | Project Spotlight: Reimagining Love and Freedom in RMST 201 What if love isn’t about finding someone else—but about freeing yourself? Undergraduate student Sky Ho explores themes of autonomy and emotional liberation by reimagining a dialogue between two 17th-century literary characters from the Romance World in her final project for RMST 201. | Project Spotlight: Pandemic Testimonies in SPAN 365 What does it mean to bear witness? In SPAN 365, students turned to the Latin American testimonial tradition to capture untold stories from the COVID-19 pandemic—blending personal reflection with collective memory. | Apply for Arts Co-op Explore your career options while getting paid, developing professional work experience, and building a rich network of contacts. Apply for Arts Co-op by September 18, 2025. | Dissertation: Mirta Roncagalli, PhD in Hispanic Studies Congratulations to Mirta Roncagalli on successfully defending her PhD dissertation. Titled "Neohumanismo: una propuesta de regeneración ética y sociopolítica en el ensayo español del siglo XXI (Neohumanism: A Proposal for an Ethical and Sociopolitical Regeneration in the 21st-Century Spanish Essay)," her dissertation explores how contemporary Spanish essayists rethink what it means to be human in response to today’s neoliberal and capitalist challenges. Read it in full. | FHIS Graduate Student Conference November 20-21 | This year's theme is "The Silence of Forgetting: Absence, Void, and Memory in Literature and Culture." Save the date. | Two FHIS Scholars Awarded "Best Book" by the Canadian Association of Hispanists Congratulations to Dr. María Soledad Fernández Utrera, Professor of Spanish, and Jennifer Nagtegaal, PhD Student of Hispanic Studies, for being awarded "Best Book" in their respective categories by the Canadian Association of Hispanists. This prestigious national distinction recognizes exceptional original research that makes a significant contribution to Hispanic Studies. | Michela Valmori Completes PhD on Violence, Patriarchy, and Female Agency in Italian American Literature We are thrilled to announce that Michela Valmori, Visiting Lecturer of Italian, has successfully completed a PhD in Comparative Literature at Birkbeck University, London. Her dissertation, titled “Unsafe Bodies: A Kleinian Reading of Violence and Patriarchy in Italian American Female-Authored Writing,” offers a psychoanalytical exploration of gender, trauma, and patriarchal violence in Italian American literature. | Share Your Alumni Story Complete a short Q&A about their time at UBC and their career journey since graduation. Your story can inspire current students as they imagine their own paths forward. | Alumni Events Calendar From career workshops to social gatherings, explore upcoming events designed to keep you connected with fellow UBC alumni and the wider community. | FREN_V 321 | Critical Writing Practical tools for university-level writing in French. Apply stylistic devices and rhetorical structures to form questions and arguments, analyse literary and cultural objects, and produce a variety of essay genres. | SPAN_V 221 | Introduction to Hispanic Literature This introductory course provides a foundational and comprehensive exploration of literary analysis, focusing on Spanish and Latin American short texts authored by diverse writers and addressing the major themes of Hispanic literature. | ITAL_V 101 | Beginners' Italian I Introduction to the essentials of Italian vocabulary, expressions, grammar and cultural life. Focus on listening, reading, speaking and writing skills in everyday situations in the present tense. | PORT_V 201 | Elementary Portuguese I Study the most widely spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere and the 5th most spoken native language in the world! The rich cultures of Brazil, Portugal and other Lusophone countries are incorporated in all materials used in class. | | | | |
