Recent News

Associate Professor of Spanish and Catalan Studies Colleeen Culleton was honored with the UB President Emeritus and Mrs Meyerson Award for Distinguished  Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring at the Sixteenth Annual Celebration of Faculty and Staff Academic Excellence held on October 31, 2019.

Congratulations are due to RLL Distinguished Professor of French and Melodia E. Jones Chair Jean-Jacques Thomas, whose recent book, Perec en Amérique, has just been extensively reviewed in the September 2019 issue of Acta Fabula, the prestigious webzine for information on French and Francophone literature and art.

Professor of Spanish Elizabeth Scarlett has accepted a three-year appointment to the MLA's  Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize Selection Committee. Since 1989 this prize has been awarded annually for an outstanding book in English or Spanish in the field of Latin American and Spanish literatures and cultures. The committee may review as many as thirty-five to forty-five books as part of the selection process.  We congratulate Professor Scarlett on her achievement!

On Dec. 6, 2019, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures fêted Prof. Jorge Guitart on the occasion of his retirement after more than 40 years of work at the University at Buffalo.

Professor Jean-Jacques Thomas’ new book Oulipo: Chroniques des années héroïques was published in May 2019 by the New Orleans: Presses du Nouveau Monde (pp. 510). It is an in-depth historical study of the latest French avant-garde movement, Oulipo, from its modest origins in the early 1960s to its current controversial dominating intellectual status. It is available on line at Jean-Jacques Thomas’ author page at Amazon.com  or at barnesandnoble.com.

The department celebrated the achievements of the graduating class of 2019 with a ceremony and brunch on May 17, 2019. Alumna Abigail LaPlaca, 2015 summa cum laude Spanish BA graduate, was invited commencement speaker.