Global Spanish Initiative Launches with April Event Series

A new interdisciplinary initiative highlighting the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ role as a global leader in Spanish-language research and cultural work launched in April with a series of faculty and alumni events. 

Aspiring to establish Arts & Sciences as the world’s preeminent research center for the study of Hispanophone cultures, the Global Spanish Initiative was introduced April 9–11 with debut events that drew appearances from the Mexican and Spanish ambassadors to the United States,  as well as representatives from one of the University of Virginia’s cultural partners, Spain’s Instituto Cervantes.  

Arts & Sciences officially launched the initiative on April 10 with a Rotunda Dome Rome symposium featuring presentations by A&S faculty members Tatiana Flores (Art History), Paulina Ochoa (Politics), Allison Bigelow (Spanish), Ricardo Padrón (Spanish), Jenn Bair (Sociology) and Federico Cuatlacuatl (Art). The faculty showcase provided the audience — which included Spain’s ambassador to the United States, Ángeles Moreno Bau — an overview of the research, teaching and creative work being pursued across the varied disciplines of Arts & Sciences. 

“This is a day that many colleagues in this room have been anticipating or dreaming about for a long time,” Arts & Sciences Dean Christa Acampora said in her introductory remarks at the April 10 symposium. “It's more than just the beginning of a new program or initiative. It's a celebration of a longstanding relationship with the Spanish-speaking world grounded in shared values, common intellectual pursuits and a vibrant history of cultural exchange.” 

The previous day, following a talk given by Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States, sponsored by the UVA Center for Politics as part of its Ambassador Series, Acampora and the Global Spanish Initiative’s advisory committee hosted a luncheon for Barragán. Global Spanish director and professor of Spanish Sam Amago opened the luncheon with a brief discussion of the  Initiative’s benchmark ambitions. 

“Global Spanish is a new paradigm for interdisciplinary research at UVA,” Amago said. “It reaches beyond the geographical confines of traditional areas of studies to include all those places where Spanish is or has been spoken across the Americas, Spain, Europe, the Philippines, North Africa, Equatorial Guinea and beyond. 

“It treats this ample linguistic and cultural space as a series of contact zones attending not only to Spanish-speaking inhabitants but also to the many non-Spanish speakers found in all of those areas, including the many, many indigenous languages, Portuguese, English and other languages.” 

The third kickoff event, co-sponsored with UVA Lifetime Learning, featured a Newcomb Hall Theatre presentation on the Global Spanish Initiative for UVA alumni who returned to Grounds for an April 11 Juntos Latin Alumni event. Juntos is made up of alumni across generations that represent the voices, experiences, and interests of the UVA Hispanic and Latinx alumni community.  

The Global Spanish Initiative’s launch follows the signing of two institutional agreements the previous academic year between the University of Virginia, Spain’s Instituto Cervantes and Mexico’s Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas. These partnerships offer new opportunities for research, engagement, creative work and teaching at UVA through research support, grant opportunities, cultural programming, publication of bilingual creative writing and new instructional language programs for students.  

The Global Spanish Initiative’s schedule of public events continues next academic year with “Fuego Eterno: Soberanías Visuales,” an art exhibition featuring the works of artists and scholars from Mexico, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Bolivia, the Philippines, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea. The wide-ranging exhibition is scheduled to debut Aug. 29 and run through Oct. 10.

You can learn more about the Global Spanish Initiative here.