The Hispanists National Conference 2013

(Originally posted 1 April 2013)

This time last week I was eating pheasant in a dining hall that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in Harry Potter – that’s what you get when Oxford University play host to the AHGBI conference!

The AHGBI (Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland) annual conference brings together those working on any Spanish or Portuguese speaking country from all levels, with graduate students right up to top professors. It’s therefore the best chance both to learn about new developments in the field and to do some serious networking.

This was my first AHGBI conference and I’m glad to say I made the most of it, spending 37 hours over two and a half days attending presentations, making mountains of notes, asking questions, meeting new people, catching up with friends from previous conferences, and eating lots of very posh food. The great thing about the conference is how it brings together scholars from so many different aspects of our very large field: I attended papers on everything from dubbing in Spanish films to feminist translation practices. While I obviously love the topic of my own research, a PhD can feel very limited at times, so it’s great to connect to so many other fascinating topics. I also enjoyed the many unexpected topics that popped up in presentations, from Edward the sparkly vampire in Twilight to time travel, Broadway musicals to Fifty Shades of Grey!

On the final day of the conference, it was time for my own panel on ‘Canonicity and Marginalised Literature in Latin America’ (looking at literature from countries often ignored by academia), which had been almost a year in the making. Although one of the participants didn’t turn up, and it was too early for a particularly numerous audience, the panel went really well. My fellow presenters gave us all lots of food for thought and there was a very lively discussion after. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this area of research will go next.

English Language Centre - Social Programme Comes To An End

Time has flown by and the Summer Social Programme has come to an end. My attempt to write weekly updates failed, mainly due to having to complete and hand in my dissertation, and then being so busy with the students that there was no time for anything else. Here's a potted version of our last few weeks.

Relief!

Live Jazz @ Green Park Brasserie
We like to take the students to a range of music through the summer. We had folk earlier in the summer, so it was time for some jazz, courtesy of local singer James Lambeth. I loved his jazz version of The Smiths' Bigmouth Strikes Again. As the rest of the Green Park Brasserie was taken over by a Swedish birthday party, we also learnt their birthday song. It's a lot longer than ours (this video is a shortened version).

Ja má hon leva! means 'Yes, long may she live' - change the hon to han for a man. It was nice to see that unlike the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and apparently even Chinese (according to the students with us), they haven't taken the same tune.

Dinner @ Brasserie Blanc
The next day, I was paid to go for a three course meal at Raymond Blanc's new chain restaurant. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it! Although one student expressed her disappointment that Raymond himself wasn't cooking for us (I tried to explain that one would have to pay hundreds for that privilege), the food was very tasty, and I maintain that eating is an important part of British social life that they need to get involved with.

Last Night of the Proms
As the summer drew to a close, it was time for a final burst of excessive patriotism, with the Last Night of the Proms. We waved flags and taught the students to link arms to Auld Lang Syne. It's a good job none of our students are from former colonies though, as singing about the glorious expansion of Britain as other countries fall to our might probably wouldn't have gone down so well!

Day Trips
First there was Stonehenge and Salisbury. Once again I wished there weren't so many tourists at Stonehenge, so I could pretend to be Tess. Then there was A Taste of Wales, which was the best day trip of the summer and therefore deserves its own blog post. Finally, we rounded the summer off with a trip to Oxford, where the students' literary fantasies were all focused on Harry Potter, while fellow Student Helper Kerrianne was far more excited about Alice in Wonderland.

At Christchurch

Harry's dining room

Final party
It all ended with a huge party, combining just about everything from the summer: music, food, party games (Giant Jenga went down well ;-] ), and lots of Union Jacks. A wonderful way to end an amazing summer :D

Thanks to our brilliant photographer, Louis Lai!

Thanks to all the students and of course the other Student Helpers for making it such an unforgettable summer!