Intersectionality is at the heart of my academic training and intellectual praxis. Simply put: I’ve worked on several projects outside the realm of traditional linguistic research and am likely to add to the list! Read on to learn more about a sampling of my non-academic language work.
Language Revitalization
In 2022, I interned with Wikitongues to support their Language Revitalization Accelerator. My main responsibility was to facilitate Accelerator logistics by researching grant impact, writing blog posts, and conducting interviews with the activists. Although my role only lasted a few months, I learned a significant amount about nonprofit management and the nature of community-based revitalization projects around the world.
Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (2021-2022)
Through my lifelong studies of Spanish language, literature, art, and culture, and my time studying in Madrid, I became fascinated with how the blend of African, Roma, and European cultures in Spain mirrors the mestizaje that brands Latin America and my identity. Examining this process of belonging and “othering” in Spain offered me a fresh perspective to understand my own position as a simultaneous cultural insider and outsider to the US. Coming home from my semester abroad in March 2020 made me even more determined to find my way back, so I applied for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship and was lucky enough to begin my grant the following September. During my grant, inside and outside the classroom, I sought to explore more feelings and spaces of cultural encounter, flipping the script and putting my students at the center of the experience. These days, I’m delighted to call Spain my second home, and I owe a significant amount to this experience.
In addition to my responsibilities in the classroom, the Fulbright grant further required my involvement in community-based projects as a part of my commitment to intercultural exchange. To do this, I was engaged in two main projects. First was the Global Classrooms Model UN Program, a competition run by the Ministry of Education in Madrid. Aimed at students in 3o ESO (9th grade), my job was to design lesson plans to build student skills in debating, writing, and public speaking. Beginning in October and culminating in a mock conference in my school in December, over sixty students learned to articulate and defend stances toward the designated topic: the rights of the elderly. The top ten students from this mock conference represented our school at the citywide Global Classrooms conference in January, one team earning the superlative “Most Likely to Work at the UN.”
Seeing how much my students benefited from Global Classrooms, I decided to launch a second project preparing students for another city-wide English language debate competition targeting 4o ESO and 1o BACH (10th & 11th grade) students. One team of four students represented our school at a day-long debate held at the Universidad de Comillas in the center of Madrid.
If any of my former students from Spain reads this: hello, I’m so proud of you, and I miss you!
Read more:
Translation
I have a deep-rooted passion for poetry, and enjoy translating Spanish poetry into English. Occasionally, I take on minor translation projects to indulge in both these hobbies. One such project was translating Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni’s “Dos palabras” into English for a poetry slam at Smith College in 2018. More recently, I was the lead translator for a children’s book called ¡Muchas Gracias, Doctora Ofelia! by Jill de Villiers and Salem Sloane. The book tells the story of a kind veterinarian and her mischievous Basset hound, and is available in English and Spanish from Amazon.
Lydia Ysabel Quevedo 