Scholars to explore Hispanic studies

José Luis Venegas, an assistant professor of Romance languages at Wake Forest, and José María Rodríguez, an associate professor of Romance studies at Duke University, organized the conference.

The event will focus on the exchange of ideas between students and researchers interested in Latin-American and Spanish culture, literature and history.

José Luis Venegas

“We decided to convene this symposium to explore the term ‘transatlantic’ and what it means within the field of Hispanic studies,” said Venegas. “In recent years a growing number of scholars have shown a strong interest in the circulation of intellectual, political and cultural influences between the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean, but few have considered what theories and methodologies inform the study of that circulation.”

All sessions of the conference will be held in the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Auditorium 404. The conference is free and open to the public. The majority of the conference will be conducted in English, although some papers will be in Spanish.

“We hope that this symposium will not only be the culmination of an intellectual process, but also a new beginning – or an alternative path – for the dynamic and constantly mutating field of Hispanic studies,” Venegas said.

The symposium also is sponsored by Wake Forest’s Humanities Institute.