Assessing the Mellon Undergraduate Hispanic Cultural Studies Research Seminar:

Spring 2008 Submitted by Silvia Tandeciarz, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies

Project Summary:

This junior-year research forum enabled a select group of students to conduct research on a topic related to memory and social justice introduced in a co-enrolled class (HS 480: Cultures of Dictatorship and HS 481: Local/Global Issues and Latin/o American Poetry); to collaborate with others in a workshop environment so as to deepen and enhance their reflection on their chosen topic; and to design and execute a creative group project in order to make their research public. Students worked in teams and in consultation with experts from the DC area, international scholars, and members of our campus community. A particularly exciting component of this program was the participation of five Argentine college students affiliated with the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria in La Plata who closely collaborated with participating William and Mary students throughout the two week forum.

I. Learning Expectations.

Students will be able to:

· Identify a research question on a topic related to memory and social justice introduced in a co-enrolled class (HS 480: Cultures of Dictatorship and HS 481: Local/Global Issues and Latin/o American Poetry).

· Deepen and enhance their reflection on their chosen topic through collaboration with others in a workshop environment.

· Design and execute a creative group project in order to make their research public.

II. Experiences.

In order to meet these learning objectives, students will:

1. Hold group meetings to identify a research question and to articulate their research plan.

2. Live together while conducting field work away from Campus. This semester, students lived at an inn during the time in DC which facilitated multiple opportunities for dialogue and exchange in an informal, extra-curricular setting. This spatial arrangement proved vital to helping students process information, share divergent perspectives, reflect on the experience, and create a community of scholars.

3. Conduct field research. In Washington DC this included visiting sites of memory, meeting with professionals in the field, and exploring areas of DC independently to pursue questions identified as central to their particular research topic.

4. Discuss experiences with students who can add different disciplinary or cultural perspectives. This Spring we had five college students from Argentina deeply engaged in issues related to the forum theme of memory and social justice who were visiting the United States for the first time. Many students repeatedly stated that this opportunity for cross-cultural dialogue represented the most enriching aspect of the program.

5. Attend special workshops led by TAs (back on the William and Mary campus) on project design. Workshops this Spring focused on writing, video production, and muralism.

6. Work independently in groups after the field work is completed to interpret findings and design dissemination format.

7. Present final projects in public forum and post to Forum website.

III. Evaluation.

· Course portfolios comprised of final project titles, group journals, student-authored critical overviews of the final projects, and final reflection pieces will be compiled as evidence of student learning. [When these are completed, faculty evaluations will provide direct assessment of what students learned.]

In Spring 2008, 3 groups self-identified around research interests. These yielded a photo essay on Washington, D.C. as a divided city; a documentary film on the links between immigration, U.S. Foreign Policy, and the formation of the DC Latino community of Chirilagua; and a mural executed in the Modern Languages seminar room reflecting on the links between education and activism as they are manifest in the William and Mary community.

· Evaluation of panel presentations which includes oral and visual criteria.

In Spring 2008, all three groups successfully presented their final projects at a final Forum meeting which included all Hispanic Studies Faculty; they also presented their projects separately in each of the co-enrolled classes.

IV. Project Implications.

Given the success of this experience, we are committed in Hispanic Studies to repeating it in the future, and are committed to refining the model in order to ensure its sustainability. with some slight modifications.

1. In Spring 2008, the forum ran as a 1-credit class, with students feeding into it from two co-enrolled classes and collaborating with students from Argentina for an intensive two-week period. In the future. I recommend the Hispanic Studies faculty share experiences in mentoring student research and compare models in order to determine the way to best integrate this into our curriculum in a sustainable way. It may be that a 3-credit course is more appropriate, that variable-credit offerings could best accommodate a variety of teaching and learning goals, and/or that the current capstone seminar and practicum requirements need to be modified to integrate this forum., we believe this should be a 3-credit course, with all participating WM students enrolled in that course. The field work conducted over Spring Break would provide participating students with an additional credit. Above all, we need to identify ways to ensure greater This would give project definition of projects, and greater coherence of research topics greater coherence, and would ensure that we have adequate structures in place to mentor students throughout the semester.

2. We will consider mMakinge the forum opportunity available to all juniors registered in the 3-credit course, but refininge the criteria for selection of student participants. Because larger groups allow typical “B” students to participate—often the group in which the most growth is seen—we may want to develop criteria thatshould place more emphasis on strength of proposed research topic and promise, and less on traditional “objective” measures like grade point averages. Ideally, roughly half of the students in a course (10-12) will be funded.

3. We will continue to work to identify the funding necessary to make this sustainable. Key components that require funding are: A) Ideally, roughly half of the students in a course (10-12) will be funded, and B) Because sharing the) experience with peers from different backgrounds has proved so vital to its success, we will seek ways to fund sustain the international component included in this first run. Funding this aspect of the program remains a serious challenge.

4. An unexpected but positive outcome is that as a result of this experience—and perhaps largely due to the participation of Argentine students with little knowledge of English—Foreign Language proficiency increases, as do cross-cultural sensitivity and understanding.

5. One last outcome worth underlining here is the desire expressed by the vast majority of participants to build on this junior experience in their senior year, and their active search for ways of doing so.

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