Grad Student Testimonials

I am a PhD student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. I grew up in Glendale, California but moved to Waco, Texas to attend Baylor University with a double major in Spanish and Journalism. During my undergraduate studies, I worked as an editor and writer for the university newspaper and volunteered as an English instructor working mostly with Spanish speaking immigrants in the community. When I studied abroad during my undergrad at the Saint Louis University Madrid campus, my interest in feminism and Iberian studies collided for the first time. The emergence of feminist literature in Spain has captured my curiosity as it inherently reacts against the metanarratives of the Franco regime. More recently, this fascination has come to encompass study of memory and the passing down of knowledge between women and across matriarchal lines. 

I primarily decided to return to Southern California because the UCI Department of Spanish and Portuguese has allowed me to pursue my interdisciplinary interests. UCI offers the option of having an emphasis for graduate students in the School of Humanities. In my case, the Graduate Feminist Emphasis has given me the oppotunity to enrich my research by taking classes outside the Spanish Department and then apply it to my research. One of my favorite things about the emphasis courses is interacting with graduate students from disciplines all across campus. I also appreciate that UCI offers opportunities for professional development both for the traditional tenure track as well as alternative careers through programs such as the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation and Humanities Out There. At UCI, I’ve also been able to grow as a teacher since students take pedagogy and teaching methodology courses in preparation for being a TA in the department. When I’m not studying and teaching, I enjoy cooking, hiking around Irvine, and reading at the beach.

I am a Mexican international student. I was born on the northeastern gulf coast in a port town named Tampico, which means “place of water dogs or otters” in the Tének language. I received my BA in Communication from Universidad Iberoamericana in México City. Then spent a little over a decade working in both the private and public sectors as a media and public relations consultant, concurrently with a writing career as a poet. After that, I decided to continue my formal education by applying to the MFA in Cross-genre and Hybrid Writing at the University of California, San Diego. After acquiring my degree, many questions about the intersection between race, sexuality, and writing were left unanswered. This motivated me to pursue a doctoral degree. 

I decided to apply to UCI because I had heard of other students who had similar interests to me and who had successfully completed their research in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese. I realized that I had to pursue research that would be meaningful to my country and the communities I belong to as a writer and as a queer person, so I decided to focus on issues of gender and sexuality in contemporary writing by Indigenous authors from México. The Department holds one of the most prestigious and long-standing Mexican Studies academic conferences in the United States, so it was clearly a good match for finding supportive mentors aligned with my transdisciplinary interests. After living in San Diego, I wanted to stay in Southern California, so the decision to apply to UC Irvine, close to the beautiful Orange County coast, came naturally. 

I am writing my dissertation, which focuses on issues of race, gender, and sexuality in contemporary writing by women and sexually variant authors from the Binnizá Nation (Isthmus Zapotecs). When I’m not writing or researching, you can find me riding my bike across the multiple scenic trails in Irvine, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach or swimming in Crystal Cove.

Last millennium I graduated with a BA in Spanish Translation and Interpretation (BYU, 2000) and immediately began working as a translator for "the government." Ten years, three kids, a mortgage and a minivan later I returned to academia, terminally. I received an MA in Hispanic Literatures from BYU in 2012; my master's thesis explored translator subjectivity in three novels of prehistoric Spain.

One of the things that drew me to UC Irvine was that the wide array of emphases included Translation Studies. Since enrolling in 2012 I have studied and presented on contemporary novels and film (Latin-Amerian and Peninsular), poetry (Latin-American vanguard and Spanish surrealist), philosophy and critical theory, and translation studies.  I have taught beginning and intermediate Spanish, with the option in coming years to teach Spanish for heritage speakers. I have also had the opportunity to team-teach courses on Spanglish in the US and 20th Century Peninsular literature and film.

Most importantly, the faculty and administration of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese have given me the flexibility I need as a husband and father. They understand that the demands on my time are different from those of a "typical" graduate student. I've been able to participate in my children's activities, to go with them to the pool or the beach,  without jeopardizing my academic timetable. Those with similar concerns can email me (wfcarr@uci.edu) with specific questions.

I am a PhD student at UC Irvine in the Dept. of Spanish & Portuguese. My research is focused primarily on colonial Latin America. In particular, I am interested in the employment of the Western literary practices to document Amerindian spoken language, writing, and other forms of record keeping. I completed my undergraduate studies at UC Irvine, and return for PhD work after obtaining an MA in Latin American Studies at UCLA. The main reasons behind my decision to return to Irvine were the good relationship with faculty advisors, the excellent intellectual environment of the university, especially in terms of visiting scholars, active working groups and extensive professionalization resources, and the university’s investment in diversity. In the last years, I have participated in various capacities as part of the Diverse Educational Community & Doctoral Experience (DECADE) group at UC Irvine, which addresses issues of equity both at the level of graduate education and for junior faculty. Finally, living in Irvine allows me to indulge in my hobbies: cooking, competitive swimming, and hanging out with my cat. I welcomes questions about the graduate program at UC Irvine and can be reached via email: mdelalto (at) uci.edu.

I received my BA from Georgetown University, with a major in Spanish language and linguistics, and a minor in Portuguese. Following graduation I worked several years as a paralegal, translating and interpreting for Spanish-speaking asylum seekers in New York City. While pursuing my MA and PhD at UC Irvine, I completed the emphasis in Visual Studies and took an array of courses in Spanish and Latin American Poetry, Narrative, Film, as well as courses in Anthropology, Critical Theory, and Second Language Teaching Methodology. I have had the opportunity to teach Spanish language courses at the beginning and intermediate level. My dissertation explores the intersection of photography and text from Argentina, Chile and Mexico, examining chronicles, literary journals, and novels. I received a Humanities Commons Research Travel Grant to conduct research in Argentina and Chile during summer of 2015. UC Irvine, as a young institution, lacks calcified departmental divides, leading to a collegiality and constant intellectual sharing across sub-disciplines of the humanities. It is common to take courses with students from Comparative Literature, Visual Studies, and Culture and Theory, and the constant guest lectures by renowned scholars, as well as frequent symposia and conferences, have all provided a rich environment in which to learn and share. UC Irvine has an idyllic campus and a vibrant graduate student community living in situ, which amply fulfills the lifestyle piece of the graduate student experience.