MLL Faculty Present Research at MIFLC

Nine Members of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures presented their research at the 66th Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. October 13-15, 2016.

David Bost, Ron Friis, Angélica Lozano-Alonso, and Maria Rippon drew on their many years of  experience in the Furman classroom as part of a round table discussion about innovative approaches to teaching literature in Spanish.

French professor Marianne Bessy shared perspectives on her popular Freshman Seminar which deals with the image of French women in American self-help literature; and first-year French professor Nathan Brown gave a talk on the Canadian thriller “Bon Cop, Bad Cop.”

Bryan Betancur’s presentation analyzed the male gaze in Spanish Siglo de Oro (Spanish Golden Age) writer María de Zayas; and Lourdes Manyé studied the role of memory in a novel by contemporary Spanish novelist Manuel Rivas.

Jeremy Cass shared part of his ongoing research about Chilean novelist Alberto Fuguet, and, in his role as editor of the MIFLC Review, participated in a round table discussion on the state of academic publishing.

In attendance were others with Furman connections. Former Language House Assistant and current Ph.D. candidate Adriana Rivera Vargas of the University of Kentucky read a paper about Mexican writer Jordi Soler. Mahan Ellison ’03 of Bridgewater College in Virginia and Harrison Meadows ’08 of the University of Tennessee also gave talks on Spanish literature.

Ellison and Meadows are just two of the many MLL alumni that have gone on to earn graduate degrees and secured tenure-track teaching positions in the foreign languages and literatures.

The Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference is a major annual regional meeting that is regularly held at Furman. MIFLC will return to campus in 2020 and will be presided over by Marianne Bessy.

— Submitted by Ron Friis, Acting Chair, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures