Scholars in the SCW in the USA research project recover and research the diversity of working class and exile literature that has not been adequately preserved or disseminated. Specifically, the project considers texts that have been forgotten, denied access to a wider public, or prohibited. Within a transnational and multilingual analytical framework, we examine texts that responded to local and global concerns. We examine a wide array of authors, genres, and cultural and political responses.
This research project provides paid and unpaid research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as independent scholars. Dr. Montse Feu is the project director. We are a happy team.
Montse Feu (M. Montserrat Feu López) teaches Spanish and Latinx Studies at the Department of World Languages and Cultures. Dr. Feu recovers the literary history of the Spanish Civil War exile in the United States, US Hispanic periodicals, and migration and exile literature at large. With her students, she has examined and translated such recovered texts. Dr. Feu is the co-advisor of the Spanish M.A. and advisor of Latinx student organizations. She serves in the CHSS Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Dr. Feu has presented her research at academic conferences and her articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and publishers in the United States and in Spain. Her article “The U.S. Hispanic Flapper: Pelonas and Flapperismo in Spanish-language Newspapers 1920-1929” won the Research Society for American Periodicals Prize (2015). She is the author of Correspondencia personal y política de un anarcosindicalista exiliado: Jesús González Malo (1943-1965) (Universidad de Cantabria, 2016) and co-editor with Christopher Castañeda of Writing Revolution: Hispanic Anarchism in the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2019). Her manuscript, Fighting Fascist Spain, examines the antifascist activism and culture of workers and anarchists (University of Illinois Press, 2020). She is board member for the Recovering the U. S. Hispanic Literary Heritage and for the Research Society for American Periodicals. She is a fellow of the Cohort #2 of the Texas Academic Leadership Academy (TALA).
She was recently awarded the 2019 Western Social Science Association Outstanding Emerging Scholar. The Western Social Science Association annually chooses 3 junior faculty members who have been active in their disciplines for less than six years. The awards recognize cutting edge research and substantial contributions to the social sciences, and the strong promise of future contributions.
She earned her Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from the University of Houston with a graduate certificate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She earned a graduate certificate in Fascism from the Cornell School of Criticism and Theory, and in Language Teaching Pedagogy from the Universitat de Barcelona. She has taught Spanish, Gender Studies, and Humanities courses in Hood College, University of Houston, UH-Downtown, and was a research assistant at the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Project. She can be reached at mmf017@shsu.edu.
Research Assistant Dec. 2017 Fall 2018
My name is Sarah Janine Wagner. I am currently a second-year student at SHSU. I was originally studying Nursing, but I am now studying Communications with a minor in Sociology. For my career, I would like to become a public speaker and speak out against discrimination of various minorities, specifically racial, gender, and sexual orientation minorities. I am also interested in journalism, PR, acting and comedy. In my spare time, I enjoy writing for The Odyssey, working out at the gym, reading, writing my own comedic monologues and participating in the SSA organization at SHSU. I would also like to become bilingual-fluent in English and Spanish in the future, and being a research assistant will help me achieve this goal. I enjoy translating documents as it is a great opportunity to expand my Spanish vocabulary, help me gain experience for my career and enjoy a nice laugh every now and then as most of the documents are quite hilarious!
Research Assistant Summer-Fall 2018
Alexa Reyna is majoring in English Literature and minoring in Biology. "I have made the Dean's and President's List for the past year. I have always had a deep passion for English literature ever since I can remember, as well as science. I am currently planning on presenting one of my literary essays on a panel at the Conference of the Society for Comparative Literature and the Arts in the Woodlands during October of 2018. Expanding my knowledge of literature by translating Spanish texts is something that I believe I will greatly benefit from and highly enjoy! I am currently set to graduate in the Fall of 2018."
Research Assistant- Fall 2018
Jenny Puente de Patlan is currently a Spanish MA graduate student and an active member of the Bridge ASPIRE leadership programat SHSU. She is a foreign language lab coordinator at Lone Star College. She holds a minor in accounting, a B.A. in Marketing with a concentration in Graphic Design at Universidad La Concordia, Mexico. She received an Honorable Mention in the thesis for the social marketing campaign entitled: “d’ vecinos.” Her Hispanic heritage and the experience studying and working abroad give her the opportunity to develop multicultural skills.
Research Assistant- Summer 2017/ Spring 2018/ Summer 2018
Blanca Tovar (Blanca Patricia Tovar Frias) is from México. She is retired from a Mexican Government Institution. She has studied the bachelor and Master Degree in Pedagogy in the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM). Her Master’s Thesis “Resistencia Educativa hacía el Proyecto Institucional de Secundaria: Una Mirada de los estudiantes de la Secundaria Técnica N° 24,” has been published by Editorial Académica Española.
Since August 2012 she has lived in Texas. She attended Sam Houston State University where she was awarded by the Academic Success Center Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society Writing in the Disciplines Program “Excellence in Writing” in April 2015 and 2016. She is also member of Sigma Delta Pi, National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society since November 2015. In May 2017, she earned a Master of Arts in Spanish at SHSU.
Research Assistant Dec. 2017-Summer 2018
Cesar Cantu is majoring in Biology and double minoring in Forensic Science and Spanish. He aspires to work in the field of forensics after graduation in Spring 2019 or continuing his education at SHSU as graduate student mastering in Forensic Science. He is a Smith-Hutson Scholar and is a member of the Honors College at Sam Houston. He is the President of the Latinx Club and a member in both J.C. Stallings Chemical Society and Society of Forensic Science. In Spring 2018 he began as a teaching assistant in the Chemistry Department and has participated in research in the field of forensics in Spring 2017.
As a native of Brownsville, TX (a border city of the U.S. and Mexico), Cesar grew up speaking Spanish and English fluently and raised in a Mexican-American household. His experiences with the Mexican culture and knowledge from his upbringing has made recovering Aurelio Pego's work even more interesting and exciting.
Research Assistant - Summer 2018
Tara Marshall is a SHSU graduate with a B.A. in Spanish and a minor in Mass Communications. She has received several honors including being a Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges Award Recipient and graduating Suma Cum Lade. She has also published several pieces for the Houstonian Newspaper. She plans on continuing her studies in language, and teaching foreign languages abroad.
Research Assistant Spring-Summer 2018
Claudia Oviedo is from Bogotá, Colombia and is majoring in Spanish and her minor in Secondary Education. She desires to work with High School students after graduating in Spring of 2019. While working with the students, she will continue her education enrolling in a master’s degree in counseling, to be better prepared to work closely with the Hispanic community and students. She will encourage them into higher education. Her loves the poetry of Rafael de Pombo and will present about his work in the 2018 SHSU Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Research Assistant Fall 2017
Rachael Varner is currently majoring in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Multiplatform Journalism. Her interest in writing began at age eight and she has honed her skills through academic, journalistic, and personal platforms, including writing for a weekly series in SHSU's The Houstonian. In February, she was inducted into the Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society and accepted into the Elliot T. Bowers College in July. Rachael is on track to graduate in Spring 2020.
