On March 23, Vanderbilt Professor of Spanish, Portuguese, and Comparative Literature Earl Fitz spoke as part of the Willson Research Seminar "Identity in the Americas." Dr. Fitz is a pioneer both of and in the field of Inter-American Studies. He was hosted by Dr. Frans Weiser from Comparative Literature, and the talk was made possible by support from Comparative Literature and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute.

This 2-day conference brings together scholars working in the field of multiculturalism, especially the immigrant narratives of Italian-, Jewish-, and Indian American literatures. For the conference program and information on the invited speakers, click on the following link: Multicultural Fictions Conference Program.

The State of the Art Conference is sponsored by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Provost. The grant is given for interaction between national and international scholars to work with UGA faculty and students. The conference is additionally run with the generous support of Comparative Literature, German and Slavic Literature, English, Romance Languages, the Willson Center, the Graduate School, OVPR, Franklin College Dean's Office, the Office of International Education, and the Center for Italian-American Studies of the University of Macerate (Italy).

For more information, contact Dr. Dorothy Figueira at figueira@uga.edu. 

Dr. Earl Fitz, Professor of Portuguese, Spanish, and Comparative Literature at Vanderbilt University, will give a lecture on March 23 as part of the Faculty Research Seminar Series about Identity in the Americas. The event is organized by Frans Weiser from Comparative Literature, and Dr. Fitz's visit is supported through the assistance of the Willson Center for the Humanities, Comparative Literature, and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute.

All are welcome. For more information, contact Club President Rio Watson at  riowatsn@uga.edu or Vice President Megan Spriggs at megan.spriggs25@uga.edu.

 

The search committee seeks a candidate able to teach Swahili courses at all levels (first, second, third year) and participate in a full range of activities to grow the Kiswahili program on the University of Georgia Athens campus.

For more information on the position and application, click here.

Dr. O'Neiil's new book 'Famine Irish and the American Racial State' is now available. This interdisciplinary, transnational work uses an array of cultural artifacts, including novels, plays, songs, cartoons, government reports, laws, sermons, memoirs, and how-to manuals, to make its case. It challenges the claim that the Irish "became white" in the United States, showing that the claim fails to take into full account the legal position of the Irish in the nineteenth-century US state – a state that deemed the Irish "white" upon arrival.

The application deadline has been extended to January 27.

We have received a number of applications but still have room for more. Click here to access the application form.

Viet Thanh Nguyen's February 13 visit is supported by the Department of Comparative Literature and is part of the Global Georgia Initiative from the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts. The prestigious lecture honors Dr. Betty Jean Craige, Professor Emerita and former director of the Willson Center.

Viet Thanh Nguyen is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for his 2015 novel The Sympathizer. His follow-up, 2016’s Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, was shortlisted for a National Book Award in nonfiction. A collection of short stories, The Refugees, will be published in February 2017.

Born in Ban Me Thuot, Viet Nam in 1971, Nguyen and his family came to the United States as refugees in 1975. He earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley before accepting a teaching position at the University of Southern California, where he is now the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity.

Other honors for The Sympathizer include the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, and the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award from the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association. His first book, Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America, was published in 2002.

Additionally, Vietnam/War/Memory/Justice: A Conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen will be held at 4 p.m. February 14 in the Larry Walker Room on the 4th floor of Dean Rusk Hall. Joining him will be Tiana S. Mykkeltvedt, a Georgia Law alumna and partner at the Atlanta law firm Bondurant Mixson & Elmore who was flown out of  Vietnam as an orphan in April 1975, and Rusk Center Director Diane Marie Amann, Associate Dean for International Programs and Initiatives and Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law at Georgia Law, who also serves as the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Special Advisor on Children in & Affected by Armed Conflict.

Dr. Haun Saussy, Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago, and former president of the American Comparative Literature Association, presented new research at the University of Georgia on September 15. The event was organized by Dr. Yuanfei Wang from Comparative Literature and was supported through the Willson Center's Distinguished Lecture Series support.