On September 26, Dr. Elena Foulis, director of the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women at Case Western Reserve University, presented two talks at UMD. In the first, Building Bridges: Midwestern Latina/o Digital Narratives, she spoke about her project collecting oral histories in Ohio to give a glimpse of the Latina/o experience in the Midwest region. She shared several of the video narratives she has collected and explored questions such as how to reach out to underrepresented groups and how to collect and archive oral histories in this digital age. In the second, Crossing Borders: Service-Learning and Liberal Arts Majors, Dr. Foulis discussed the difference between service-learning and other forms of experiential learning such as volunteer service, internships and community outreach. She emphasized the importance of reciprocity in the relationship between students and community partners in developing effective and responsible service-learning programs. This event was organized by Latin American Studies professor Jennifer Gómez MenjÃvar and sponsored by the UMD College of Liberal Arts, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, The Multicultural Center, The Women’s Resource and Action Center, and the Strategic Enrollment Management Subcommittee.
Pictured above: Dr. Elena Foulis (left) poses with UMD Hispanic Studies students Olga Acuna and Weiqing (Vicky) Huang.