Dr. Sarah Misemer Publishes Book on Trains and Nostalgia in the River Plate

Sarah M. Misemer, associate professor in the Department of Hispanic Studies, has recently published her book, Moving Forward, Looking Back: Trains, Literature, and the Arts in the River Plate (Bucknell University Press, 2010). Professor Misemer was an Internal Faculty Fellow in the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research from 2005-2006. The Internal Faculty Fellowship allowed her to “begin working on this project in a serious manner.”

Misemer’s main area of research is contemporary Hispanic theater and performance, with a focus on Argentine and Uruguayan drama.

In Moving Forward, Looking Back: Trains Literature, and the Arts in the River Plate, Professor Misemer examines images of trains and nostalgia in the River Plate. She argues the train in regional literature and film is a modern anachronistic indicator of the national identity of the River Plate. Through text, film, and historical accounts, Misemer traces the importance of the train, marking key moments in Argentine and Uruguayan history from 1854 to the present. She shows that the train is not only an icon of the nineteenth-century’s Naturalist movement, but is a powerful contemporary metaphor used to communicate the cultural values of the region.

The Glasscock Center annually offers four Internal Faculty Fellowships which include a $1,000 research bursary, a one-course teaching release in the spring semester of the fellowship year, and an office in the Glasscock Center for the fellowship year. The next deadline for applications for Internal Faculty Fellowships is 3 March 2011. To learn more about the Glasscock Center Internal Faculty Fellowship or apply online, please visit the website.

Recent Publications Supported by Awards from the Glasscock Center

Almeida, Paul and Hank Johnston eds. Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization, and Transnational Networks. Lanham, M.A.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Blanton, Carlos K. “George I. Sanchez, Ideology, and Whiteness in the Making of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, 1930-1960.” The Journal of Southern History. 72 (2006): 569-604.

Brooks, Douglas A., ed. Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England. Ashgate Publishing, 2005.

Burkart, Patrick and Tom McCourt. Digital Music Wars: Ownership and Control of the Celestial Jukebox. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006.

Dunning, Chester and Caryl Emerson, Sergei Fomichev, Lidiia Lotman, and Antony Wood. The Uncensored Boris Godunov: The case for Pushkin’s Original Comedy, with Annotated Text and Translation. Madison: U of Wisconsin Press, 2006.

Ellis, Elisabeth. “Citizenship and Property Rights: A New Look at Social Contract Theory.” The Journal of Politics, 68.3 (August 2006): 544-555.

Halevi, Leor. Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society. Forthcoming from Columbia UP.

Hoagwood, Terence and Kathryn Ledbetter. “Colour’d Shadows”: Contexts in Publishing, Printing, and Reading Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers.” New York: Palgrave/Macmilan, 2005.

Phillipy, Patricia. Painting Women: Cosmetics, Canvases and Early Modern Culture. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2005.

Vallone, Lynne. Disciplines of Virtue: Girls’ Culture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century. New Haven: Yale UP, 2005.

von Vacano, Diego A. The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and the Making of Aesthetic Political Power. Lanham, M.D.: Lexington Books. Forthcoming November 2006.