Aisha Cort Takes Her Expertise Off Campus to Present at NYC Conference
Spanish teacher Aisha Cort was invited to serve as a presenter and panelist at the “Afro-Latin@s Now!: Strategies for Visibility and Action” conference in New York City last weekend.
Spanish teacher Aisha Cort was invited to serve as a presenter and panelist at the “Afro-Latin@s Now!: Strategies for Visibility and Action” conference in New York City last weekend.
The three-day transnational conference is the first of its kind to concentrate on Black Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Its aim is to foster discussion and mutual understanding among various ethnic backgrounds.
Cort has experience presenting her work at several conferences, but “Afro-Latin@s Now!” is one of only two conferences she has attended that focus specifically on Afro-Latino themes.
“It really was a groundbreaking and historical event,” said Cort, who served on a panel titled “Current Transnational Research: Afro-Latin@ Historical & Cultural Flow” alongside four other panelists.
Cort also spoke about her own research in a presentation called “Black Cuban, Black American: Reading Afro-Latino Identities.” During her talk, she compared her personal experience as an Afro-Latina with memoirs of other Afro-Latinos, and later focused on the ways Afro-Cuban artists negotiated race and art with the constraints of the Cuban Revolution in the 1970s and 1990s. Cort successfully defended her dissertation on this topic, titled “Negrometraje, Literature and Race in Revolutionary Cuba,” in November of 2010 and received her Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from Emory University.
“The vibe of the entire conference was very collaborative and encouraging, as well as energizing,” she said. “Everyone was working toward the same goal: strategizing ways to bring visibility and recognition to the Afro-Latin@ community in the U.S. and worldwide.”
Cort says continuing her own learning outside Rivers allows her to bring a fresh perspective into the classroom.
“For me, learning is a lifelong process,” she said. “You don’t become a teacher to just settle with what you know; you’re always hungry for knowledge.”
This type of hunger is what Cort hopes to instill in her students, from beginning Spanish speakers to those who are more advanced.
“Whether it’s an eagerness to learn more about the specific topic of Spanish language or Latino culture, I hope something will be sparked in them,” she said.
Visit the following links for more on faculty expertise:
Tom Olverson's Recent Blog Post: Practice What You Teach
Video: Living the Music: Teaching Jazz at Rivers
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The three-day transnational conference is the first of its kind to concentrate on Black Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Its aim is to foster discussion and mutual understanding among various ethnic backgrounds.
Cort has experience presenting her work at several conferences, but “Afro-Latin@s Now!” is one of only two conferences she has attended that focus specifically on Afro-Latino themes.
“It really was a groundbreaking and historical event,” said Cort, who served on a panel titled “Current Transnational Research: Afro-Latin@ Historical & Cultural Flow” alongside four other panelists.
Cort also spoke about her own research in a presentation called “Black Cuban, Black American: Reading Afro-Latino Identities.” During her talk, she compared her personal experience as an Afro-Latina with memoirs of other Afro-Latinos, and later focused on the ways Afro-Cuban artists negotiated race and art with the constraints of the Cuban Revolution in the 1970s and 1990s. Cort successfully defended her dissertation on this topic, titled “Negrometraje, Literature and Race in Revolutionary Cuba,” in November of 2010 and received her Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from Emory University.
“The vibe of the entire conference was very collaborative and encouraging, as well as energizing,” she said. “Everyone was working toward the same goal: strategizing ways to bring visibility and recognition to the Afro-Latin@ community in the U.S. and worldwide.”
Cort says continuing her own learning outside Rivers allows her to bring a fresh perspective into the classroom.
“For me, learning is a lifelong process,” she said. “You don’t become a teacher to just settle with what you know; you’re always hungry for knowledge.”
This type of hunger is what Cort hopes to instill in her students, from beginning Spanish speakers to those who are more advanced.
“Whether it’s an eagerness to learn more about the specific topic of Spanish language or Latino culture, I hope something will be sparked in them,” she said.
Visit the following links for more on faculty expertise:
Tom Olverson's Recent Blog Post: Practice What You Teach
Video: Living the Music: Teaching Jazz at Rivers
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