Students at the salt mines in Germany

This past summer, thirteen trips from various departments inside the College of Arts and Sciences participated in a cross-cultural experience.  Dr. Jeffrey Sargent co-led the third annual Psychology trip to Europe with Dr. Heather Quagliana.  Twenty-nine students visited Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and were able to see the salt mines of Germany, visit Freud’s office, and attend a lecture at the Carl Jung Institute.  The Italy trip, led by Dr. Matthew Sims and Professor John Simmons, took twenty-two students to Rome, Orvieto, Florence, Venice, and Milan to study Renaissance art, Baroque Italy, and Ancient Rome.

Dr. Donna Summerlin led nine students on the American Ethnic Studies trip which focused on the ethnic diversity of the South, including African American history and the Civil Rights movement.  The Modern Europe trip, led by Dr. Steve Swindle and Dr. Jeff Golden, took twenty-four students to Brussels, Paris, Munich, Salzburg, and Budapest to study Humanities and Political Science; while there they were able to see NATO, the Eagle’s Nest, Dachau, and many museums.

Students at a grill in Hiroshima

Dr. Trevor Milliron and Dr. Robert Fisher led another psychology trip to Japan; twenty-five students traveled for eleven days to Tokyo, Osaka, and Hiroshima, along with some trips into the countryside.  Twenty-five students participated in the Argentina Spanish Institute trip led by Dr. Alexander Steffanell and Professor Carmen Guerrero to Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires.  There, they visited museums and held a language café at the Universidad de la Empresa.

On these trips, students are able to experience life outside of Lee University, as well as become more acquainted with their professors.  Beth Thompson, Director of the Global Perspectives program says, “What better academic pursuit is there than having a student learn hands-on the meaning of their own Christian values and how those relate to another cultural perspective.  As faith based educators we have an ethical responsibility to teach our students there are other ways of knowing and thinking.”

Alexander Steffanell recently discovered that his article about Jeronima  Nava y Saavedra, a female mystic writer from the Colonial Spanish American period.  The article was published in the Latin American Women Writers Encyclopedia (Eds. Maria Claudia Andre and Eva Paulino) in 2008.  

The article centers around the “spiritual autobiography,” Autobiografia de una monja venerable, of Nava y Saavedra, a nun in the Convent of Poor Clares in Bogota, Columbia, who lived  from 1669-1727.  Oftentimes, being part of a convent was the only way for a woman’s voice to be heard, and Nava y Saavedra’s autobiography joins the ranks of other Spanish American female mystics’ works.  

Steffanell points out that Jeronima del Espiritu Santo “employs rhetorical and discoursive strategies as she reveals her desires, dreams, and inner conflicts.”  These are presented as discussions between herself and her confessor, and contain elements of an imaginary world laden with eroticism and explorations of her sexual identity.

Posted by Amber Mear

Alexander Steffanell recently published an article in the Romance Quarterly, a scholarly journal from the University of Kentucky Foreign Languages department.  The article is entitled, “Violencia sexual y la construccion del otro: el caso de la madre Castillo, una mistica del Nuevo Reino de Granada.”  Steffanell presented the article as a paper (a chapter from his dissertation) at a conference at the University of Kentucky in the spring semester of 2008 as part of a memorial panel for his advisor.  Steffanell’s advisor died unexpectedly in the summer of 2006, and Steffanell was his last doctoral student to graduate.

Dr. Steffanell also recently returned from a week-long trip to Argentina, where the director of the Church of God seminary in Buenos Aires invited him to teach an intensive course on thesis writing. He was also able to make contacts for the cross-cultural trip to Argentina that he hopes to organize for the summer.

Posted by Amber Mear

“My paternal grandfather and two of my aunts are the only survivors of the Spanish Civil War in my family,” said Lee University professor Sara Ortega in her opening speech. “The others are gone, and may they rest in peace.”

“Their voices have been silenced forever, but their message is still heard today. We will carry on their message of hope, love, freedom, and democracy. We will tell their stories to our children and the children of our children, and to you, Lee University, tonight.”

In preparation for Hispanic Heritage month in September and October, The Lee University Spanish Honor Society, Sigma Delta Pi, and the Diversity Council, headed by Ortega, jointly honored the 69th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War on Thursday, April 10, in the Edna Minor Conference Hall.

The theme of the meeting involved honoring the victims of Fascism in the Spanish Civil war. Sara Ortega opened the event with a commentary on the Spanish Civil War and her personal experiences of its aftereffects:

“Referring to the Spanish Civil war, Antoni Doménech wrote ‘No other even has ever moved so deeply and so durably the international democratic public opinion of the 20th century than the persistent resistance of the Spanish people.’”

“These are the historical facts. For me, however, History is a mosaic of stories. I have seen it. I have held its hand and walked next to it. I have spoken to it and listened to it. I have touched and embraced it.”

Guest speakers included Marcos Ortega, a specialist in Contemporary Spanish History, who provided an introduction to the historical and political context of the era. Reverend Alberto Ortega, the father of professor Sara Ortega, gave his personal testimony as a member of an anti-fascist maquis family who were persecuted and tortured by dictator Franco and finally fled Spain in the 1950s. This was his first time speaking publicly about his experiences:

“I want to be honest with you. This movie is called Broken Silence, and I will break the silence…We were Spaniards without country, without rights, without anything…This pain will not be over, it will keep going…so many people are suffering, until Jesus comes back…So I share with you my broken silence.”

At the meeting the highly acclaimed movie Silencio Roto, “Broken Silence,” by accomplished director Montoxo Armendariz was shown and discussed between students and a panel of professors and teachers. Issues raised included the vision and role of women, psychological and emotional survivor traumas, sociological and anthropological perspectives, and cinematography.