September 26, 2005
Distinguished Latino Scholar Ilan Stavans to lecture on Spanglish at Clark University
WORCESTER, MA- It is heard on the street, in classrooms, on television and on the radio. It is spoken by members of the middle, upper-middle, and upper classes. What is it? It’s Spanglish, a newly emerging language currently being used by millions of Latinos in the United States.
Professor Ilan Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College at Amherst College, will deliver “Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language,” on Wednesday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Clark University’s Traina Center for the Arts, Razzo Hall.
Stavans will discusss Spanglish as a language and a cultural phenomenon. He will focus on what qualifies it as a language, what its future holds, what its development says about American culture, and whether or not it is a threat to standard English or Spanish.
The New York Times has referred to Stavans as the “czar of Latino culture in the United States.” Most of his research focuses on Latino culture as a whole, but particularly on the experience of Latinos in Massachusetts. His work aims to engage the public in understanding the unique challenges and opportunities posed by the fusion of two distinct cultures. Stavans examines Spanglish as one of the primary products of this fusion, and focuses on language as “an instrument of democratic cohesion.”
Stavans has been instrumental in drawing attention to the important role that minorities, especially Latinos, play in public life and civic affairs, through his lectures, his writings, his appearances on radio and television, and his teaching, scholarship and research on Hispanics and Jews in Massachusetts.
His controversial book “Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language” (HarperCollins Rayo 2003) has been at the heart of a heated debate in the Hispanic world. The volume received the Latino Hall of Fame award in 2004 for best reference book.
Stavans is also the author of “The Hispanic Condition;” “On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language;” “The Essential Ilan Stavans;” and “The One-Handed Pianist and Other Stories.” He is the editor of “The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories” and “The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays.” He has been a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee and the recipient of the Latino Literature Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He received the Presidential Medal of Honor from Chile, and a 2004 Emmy Award nomination for his PBS-WGBH television series, “La Plaza: Conversations with Ilan Stavans.”
Stavans earned his masters in Philosophy and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has been at Amherst College since 1993, and has also taught at Bennington College, Oberlin College, and Columbia University. He was a research fellow at the University of London from 1998 to 1999.
This lecture is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, Clark’s Communication and Culture Program, and the departments of Foreign Languages and Literature and English. For more information please call (508) 793-7479.
Angela M. Bazydlo
Associate Director of Media Relations
Clark University
Worcester, Mass.
phone: 508-793-7635
www.clarku.edu
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