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Virtual Exhibit Highlights "Latina Authors Project"

Elmira, NY (05/04/2020) — Recently a group of Elmira College students enrolled in the "Contemporary Latina Literature" course created an exhibit titled, "Latina Authors Project." The project was led by EC Media Artist, Jan Kather, and Associate Professor of Spanish & Hispanic Studies, Dr. Lauren Shaw. The project combines the study of notable Latina authors and the creative talent from students who portrayed them through art.

"One of my favorite courses, among the many offerings in Hispanic Studies at EC, is Contemporary Latina Literature, which features different literary genres written originally in English, concerned with the Latinx experience, and expressed from the female point of view," said Shaw. "The course features works by Julia Álvarez, Gloria Anzaldúa, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Judith Ortiz Cofer and Ana Mendéndez. Since the literature is written in English, students can take the course for English credit and complete all their work in English. Because the topic is pertinent to Hispanic Studies, students who can write in Spanish, do so, and get credit in Spanish. Hence, the bilingual nature of what you are about to see."

"In the 2020 Winter Term some of my students in the course and some students who study art at EC participated in what came to be the "Latina Authors Project." Jan Kather organized art students interested in drawing portraits of "our authors" and some of my students wrote blurbs on each author/work we studied. The final result are visual representations of six Latina authors based on photographs of them and bilingual descriptions of who they are through their writing".

"We meant to exhibit the project on campus in the Gannett-Tripp Library at the beginning of Spring Term, but bigger things took over," said Shaw. "Undeterred, we created this virtual exhibit instead.This is an example to the EC community and beyond what our students are capable of achieving, even in times of great challenge." Students involved with the project include Alex Taylor '23, Jenna Cowder '22, Kristen Tull '22, Max Lundin '22, Amayia Giscombe '23, Lucy Shemo '21, Kate Gibson '20, and Timothy Cooper '22.

For more information on the "Latina Authors Project" and to view the online exhibit, click here.