In response to the crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and limitations on travel and visas, and in an attempt to support younger scholars who are facing precarity because of this crisis, the advisory committee of the KJCC revised this year’s nomination of its Chairs as a call for applications for Postdoctoral Fellows for Spring 2021. The Andrés Bello Chair and the King Juan Carlos Chair will resume September 2021.

Diego Baena, King Juan Carlos I of Spain Postdoctoral Fellow

The Spring 2021 King Juan Carlos Postdoctoral Fellowship, awarded to a distinguished junior scholar whose research focuses on Spain and the Iberian, has been granted to Diego Baena. His first event, entitled “Plagues and Pharmacology in Historical and Literary Perspective: A Conversation with Santiago Alba Rico” will take place online February 11 at 2:00pm EST (in Spanish).

Photo by Holden Blanco

The Spring 2021 Andrés Bello Postdoctoral Fellowship, awarded to a distinguished junior scholar whose research focuses on Latin America, with a particular emphasis on either transatlantic or transpacific studies, has been granted to Sebastián Figueroa. His public lecture, entitled “Toxic Agriculture: Transgenic seeds, Pesticides, and Monoculture in Contemporary Fiction from Latin America,” will take place online May 6 at 2:00pm EST (in English).

In addition to their public lectures, each fellow will also organize a live streamed round table discussion on a topic related to their research. Both will also hold workshops with graduate students from NYU’s Department on Spanish and Portuguese on professional development. For more information about them, their research, and their planned events, please see the KJCC website.

This semester the KJCC also launches a new initiative: Scholar-in-Residence. Complementing the Artist-in-Residence program which the Center also launched earlier this year, each year the KJCC will choose a scholar who works on areas of diversity, minoritized languages, and underrepresented disciplines within the fields of Peninsular and Transatlantic Studies to be supported with an honorarium and the opportunity to organize a public lecture or event at the KJCC. This year’s Scholar-in-Residence is internationally recognized scholar, translator, and cultural organizer Mary Ann Newman, whose work in support of the Catalan language and culture has impacted generations of students and scholars in NYC and beyond. For more information about her scholarship and initiatives this semester, please see the KJCC website.