COPLACuba
From Walter Zakahi, provost, and Glenn Geiser-Getz, associate provost:
You may know that this past summer the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, of which Keene State College is a member, announced an opportunity for 20 faculty members from COPLAC institutions to travel and study in Cuba. We solicited and reviewed applications locally during the late summer and sent two faculty nominations forward to be considered in the final round of the competition.
We are tremendously proud to announce that both of our nominees have been selected by COPLAC and awarded this great honor! Dr. Lisa DiGiovanni and Dr. Jo Beth Mullens will be visiting Havana in December through this distinctive program. The selection of your colleagues is a significant achievement both for the specific faculty members involved and for Keene State College as a whole.
According to the award announcement, “COPLACuba is a faculty development program designed in collaboration with and sponsored by the Instituto Cubano de Investigación Cultural Juan Marinello. The program is intended to introduce COPLAC faculty members from multiple disciplines to contemporary issues in Cuban society. … The program is designed for COPLAC faculty members who have an interest in developing research ties with Cuban scholars and/or participating in a later COPLAC-institution study abroad program.”
Lisa DiGiovanni (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor of Spanish who teaches courses that integrate language, culture, literature, and film. She hopes to dialogue with other participants and with Cubans regarding the broader domain of collective memory in Cuba and the meaning of the revolutionary past in the current transitional moment.
Jo Beth Mullens (Ph.D.) is a Professor of Geography who teaches courses related to environmental geography and resource management. She looks forward to examining how Cuba manages its natural resources with a special emphasis on water.
Both faculty members look forward to building ties in Cuba that may generate additional research and study abroad opportunities for Keene State students and faculty. Please congratulate your colleagues for their achievement!
