With the help of a grant from the Carolina and Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Rebeca Olmedo, an assistant professor of Spanish, spent the summer doing research for a new course offered by the Department of Foreign Languages: “Gender, Race and Religion in Latin America.”
Through the close reading of primary texts and the analytical viewing of visual cultural products, students enrolled in SPN 372 will a acquire intercultural competence as they develop an understanding of the cultural diversity of Hispanic America.
Teaching the class in Spanish, Olmedo embraces the philosophy of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages which states, “Language and communication are at the heart of the human experience. The United States must educate students who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad.”
A Latin American specialist, Olmedo has conducted research on colonial life in Peru. This spring she and student Laura Weber traveled to Cuzco to present papers at the Congreso Internacional de Literatura Hispánica.
Weber presented the results of her senior thesis research, “Bananos y hombres de Carmen Lyra: la crítica sociopolítica de la United Fruit Company en Costa Rica.”