Dominicans in U.S. Subject of Special Journal Issue and Upcoming Conference
From the desk of
Ramona Hernández, Ph.D., Director, CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, Professor of Sociology, The City College of New York
I am pleased to share with you two significant news items, one is a first in the history of Dominicans in the United States, and the second is an exciting development with respect to the Conference on the Spanish Caribbean–and my hope that more of you will decide to join us in Santo Domingo for this Conference.
A SPECIAL ISSUE ON DOMINICAN STUDIES!
Last week, I received the most important printed volume that has crossed my desk in a long time: A special issue of the journal Camino Real devoted entirely to Dominican Studies. This is the FIRST time that a multidisciplinary academic journal has devoted an entire issue to the field. I had the honor of co-editing this volume, with my colleague Anthony Stevens-Acevedo, at the request of the publisher, Instituto Franklin of the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain, and its editor José Antonio Gurpegui, to whom we are especially grateful.
The authors selected for this volume include seasoned as well as up-and-coming scholars in the field:
Sarah Aponte provides a statistical analysis of the more than 700 doctoral dissertations published in the U.S. on Dominican-related topics since 1939; Dr. Daisy Cocco de Filippis writes about the history of the tertulias of Dominican women writers; Emilia María Durán Almarza provides a reading of Josefina Baez’s performance text “Dominicanish”; Ofelia García and Lesley Bartlettwrite about the notions of “trust” and “care” in a Dominican-run high school for newly arrived immigrant youth in Washington Heights; Sydney Hutchinsonexplores the musical influence of New York merengueros on merengue típico;Juleyka Lantingua-Williams interviews Pulitzer-prize winning writer Junot Diaz; Danny Méndez examines the racial and affective gaps in the New York memoirs of Pedro Henríquez Ureña;and Marisel Moreno writes about the Afro-Dominican identity of immigrant poets like Marianela Medrano and Sussy Santana.
The journal can be ordered by subscription from Instituto Franklin’s website:
http://www.institutofranklin.net/en/research/publications/revista-camino-real
CONFERENCE ON THE SPANISH CARIBBEAN
EXTENDED FROM TWO TO THREE DAYS,
JULY 25 -27
WE HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US!
Because of the unexpectedly large response and the quality of the submissions—close to 80 proposals were received in response to the Call for Papers—the Spanish Caribbean Conference Organizing Committee has extended the conference from two to three days, July 25 to 27. In addition, a second prestigious venue has been added for the second and third days, the Academia de la Historia Dominicana. (The opening day events and panels will be held at FUNGLODE headquarters.)
This is the first time that scholars from around the world will gather to consider and debate the proposition that the Spanish Caribbean deserves to be studied as a field in its own right. This is a bold proposition. We hope that as many of you as can will join us in Santo Domingo July 25-27 for an exciting and unprecented debate that will engage prominent academics from the U.S., the Spanish Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and other parts of the world.
This conference is open to the public free of charge but registration is required in advance of the Conference. (Although registration may be possible at the door, advanced registration will facilitate entry at the conference sites.)
