Program: Latin American and Iberian Studies
Director: Alberto Julián Pérez
Phone: 806 742 1562
Email: julian.perez@ttu.edu
website: www3.tltc.ttu.edu/perez
Program Mission:
Latin
American and Iberian Studies (LAIS) opens up a vast new world to the student--a
world extending six thousand miles from the southwestern United States to the
tip of South America, and also to the western-most European countries of Spain
and Portugal. These areas encompass more than twenty countries and over 400
million people. Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula have always been of
great significance to the United States. Their importance for business,
politics, diplomacy, education, and tourism is constantly increasing.
Whether the student interest lies in teaching, travel, law, graduate studies, or
international affairs, LAIS could be an important step in the right direction
for the future.
LAIS is an
interdisciplinary program that can be tailored to the interest of the individual
student. An undergraduate major or minor in Latin American and Iberian Studies
allows the student to learn about Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.
These areas of study may include anthropology, art, geography, economics,
history, political science, theatre, literature, Spanish and Portuguese cultures
and literatures. This wide variety of course work affords LAIS students an
opportunity to diversify their knowledge and interests in Spanish - and
Portuguese - speaking countries. The flexibility of the program and the variety
of courses offered permit the student to tailor a LAIS major or minor to his or
her interest and needs.
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| To keep an office space in campus to coordinate interdisciplinary work. |
| To develop the LAIS program and plan a strategy for competitive growth, in relation with other Universities. |
| To promote the Sevilla Center in Spain, and other Off-Campus programs. |
Assessments
| SCOLAS Conference March 13-16, 2002 in Morelia, Mexico. Dr. A. J. Perez, LAIS Director, is the President of the Southwest Council of Latin American Studies for 2001-2002 and organized and presided the Conference of the Council in Mexico. It was attended by 100 American scholars and 200 Mexican scholars. |
| Conference on Religious Art at TTU, organized with Religious Studies, in the framework of the Vatican Exhibit, on September 6, 2002. |
| Conference on Spanish Poetry and Music Composition at TTU, organized with the School of Music, on September 28, 2002. |
| Conference on Pre Columbian Art History at TTU, Spring 2002, with Art History, under the Direction of Professor Carolyn Tate. |
| Comparative Literature Conference: our program helped to sponsor this year conference, dedicated to Francophone Literature and Exile. |
| The Sarmiento Institute of Sociology and History of the South West of the United States was founded at Texas Tech. It is a chapter of the Argentinean Institute promoting the works of the writer D. F. Sarmiento. Dr. A. J. Perez is the President, Dr. Harley Oberhelman, Vice-President, Dr. Jeff Mosher, Treasurer, Jaime Quinteros, Secretary. |
| Information about the Texas Tech Off-Campus programs is included in our website. |
| Student Assistant- the student assistant works at our office 6-10 hours a week, maintaining the web site, writing letters and documents. Kate Jeffrey worked during the Fall and Devon Derby during the Spring. Kate Jeffrey will be returning next Fall. |
| Program Development Student Assistant – a Senior student and LAIS Major, Jerrod Jones, will fill this position in 2002-3. He will conduct research for program development, help faculty to apply for grants, and look for opportunities for fund raising. |
| New Permanent Office – the Chair of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, Dr. Pete Christiansen, assigned a permanent office, 252 FL to the program. We equipped the office with a computer, printer and scanner. |
Goal II: To
encourage interdisciplinary discussion and expand the intellectual horizon of
inquiry of TTU students
Strategy
| To invite outstanding lecturers from other Universities and Institutes of higher learning. |
| To incorporate new learning tools to our program. |
Assessment
| A Faculty committee of three members was established to plan guest speakers for the coming year. |
| Cycle of Lectures 2001-2002: The following speakers presented their research: Dr. Joan Supplee, History, Baylor University, “Bad Women and Good Women in Latin America”; Dr. Bill Stein, Anthropology, TTU, “Food and Fetish in Peru”; Drs. Pat and Robert Drolet, Texas A&M, Anthropology, “Doing Research in Central America”; Dr. Gonzalo Navajas, University of California, Irvine, Spanish, “Spanish Contemporary Novel”; Dr. Florence Babb, University of Iowa, Anthropology, “Women in Nicaragua”; Professor Sergio Martin, Universidad Austral, Argentina, Business, “Political Crisis in Argentina”; Dr. Lee Daniels, Texas Christian University, Spanish, “Imaginary Cities in Latin American Literature”; Dr. Gail Platt, South Plain College, Education, “Education of Hispanic Minorities in the South Plain”. Lecturers were sponsored by LAIS in association with several other programs and departments – Anthropology, Business, CMLL, Women Studies. |
| Movie critic Celeste Avendaño from Argentina contributes weekly to our movie review section in Spanish, posted in the web. |
Goal III: To promote
understanding of Hispanic issues in campus and in the Lubbock community
Strategy
| To cooperate with students and local organizations that work with the Hispanics. |
Assessment
| LAIS sponsors Cefiro, a graduate Spanish students organization. They organized their Third Graduate Conference in April on Post Modern Discourses. |
| LAIS students participate in Rotaract, a student organization sponsored by Rotary International. They participate in community welfare that benefits the Hispanics. Dr. A. Julian Perez is the Faculty advisor for Rotaract. |
Goal IV: To maintain an
innovative and challenging course offering, reflecting interdisciplinary
interests.
Strategy
| To extend the amount of courses of LAIS taught by the program every year. |
| To revise the program curriculum to reflect new professional developments. |
| To collaborate with the Honors college. |
·
Courses: The Departments
contributing with LAIS (Spanish, Portuguese, History, Anthropology, etc.)
offered more than twenty courses every semester. Besides LAIS offered their own
courses:
* Courses, Fall, 2001: 2 sections of LAIS 2300 and 1 section of LAIS 4300
* Courses Spring 2002: 2 section of LAIS 2300 and 1 section of LAIS 4300
* Course Summer 2002: A section of LAIS 2300 in EACH of the 2 summer sessions.
Summer courses are offered for the first time. We would like to continue
offering courses in the Summer, in campus and in the Hill Country, in the
future.
· Curriculum Review : We reviewed the curriculum of LAIS to insure that we have updated courses and classes so that they are appropriate for the goals of our program. A review committee introduced changes into the undergraduate Minor and Major, and the graduate Minor.
·
To support attractive
teaching materials: We maintain and upgrade our own video collection for our
faculty to use in their courses. This year, we purchased new movies
dealing with Latin America and Spain. The video collection will be
maintained by the Language Lab in the future, to facilitate circulation.
Goal V. To promote the interdisciplinary professional development of our
faculty.
Strategy
| To help our faculty to travel to conferences to present papers and carry out their research. |
| To have adequate communication and consultation with the faculty. |
Assessment
| We continue our support of traveling to conferences for the faculty who contribute with the program. |
| We had several faculty meetings and maintained the faculty informed of the activities of the Program. |
| Committees were formed for curriculum revision, and invitation of lecturers and support of conferences. |
| We
invited our own faculty to present their research in the cycle of LAIS
lectures. |
Goal VI. To contribute with new ideas to the scholarly community
and project an accurate image of our ideas.
Strategies
| Update website with future plans of LAIS |
| Bulletin and memos with upcoming events |
| Brochure to inform prospective students |
Assessment
| LAIS Web Site Facelift: LAIS now has a new look. The entire web site dedicated to Latin American and Iberian studies was recreated making it more accessible and informative. The web site helps to inform students and faculty about the activities of the program. Currently, the web site contains a list of LAIS faculty members, courses, course descriptions, a basic overview of the LAIS program, and an on-line version of the Latin American and Iberian Studies Program bulletins. We have added links to various Latin American studies programs as well as included information about the SCOLAS 2002 conference. To date the website has receive close to 1,700 visits. As the program expands, all activities and events will also be posted on the web site. The address for the web site is www3.tltc.ttu.edu/perez. |
| Bulletin:
LAIS has continued with publishing the bulletin. Instead of using reams of
paper to distribute the bulletin, LAIS has used technology. The bulletin is
posted on our website. Changes are made everyday as new information becomes
available. This way faculty and students will know the latest LAIS news as
it happens instead of waiting for a new issue of the bulletin to be printed.
We plan to continue making the bulletin available on our web. |
| New Brochure: A new brochure has been published. The brochure reflects changes in the requirements for an LAIS major and minor. The brochure also includes updated information for prospective students. We plan to make these brochures available for incoming freshman as well as current students. |