HUGO M. VIERA

Lecturer
B.A. University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. Yale University

I teach Spanish at the Elementary and Intermediate levels. I conduct my classes with a student-centered approach, enabling students to communicate in a variety of real-life tasks, such as debates, role plays, letter writing, etc. After having learned mostly to talk about the "self" in SPN 112, students in my 220 course will make a cognitive leap into different realms of the Hispanic world. The course materials have been tailored to help the students acquire and develop the skills to discuss and write about more complex topics such as feminism, globalization, technology, etc.

While my doctoral work was in Latin American literature, I am particularly interested in the literatures and cultures of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Southern Cone region: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. In my dissertation, "El mundo alucinante: droga y modernidad en la literatura hispanoamericana del siglo XX" (2000), I explored how the drug experience represents an index of modernity in 20-century Spanish American literature. I have recently published an article, "El cuerpo del silencio: héroes populares en la obra de Augusto Roa Bastos (1953-60)," in which I analyze silence as a space of resistance for subaltern subjects and the demarcation of such space through "writing in the body," or body markings.

Phone: 413-585-3437
Building: Dewey Hall 7
E-mail:hviera@email.smith.edu