走出教室：与当地社区合作
西班牙裔研究项目努力强调课堂内接受的培训与校园外世界之间的联系。 This includes providing novice and intermediate language students (as well as advanced students and HISP majors) with appropriate opportunities to meaningfully use their linguistic and cultural skills with the local community beyond the classroom walls.
As part of her on-going research projects, Assistant Teaching Professor Catherine Brix, a specialist in Community-Based Learning, has designed unique opportunities for students to contribute to the community at large. In Fall 2023 onward, Hispanic Studies students have participated in a community art project entitled “(A)bordando Comunidad” that focused on arpilleras (burlap): a textile-based dynamic form of cultural and political expression originally used by women to denounce human rights violations and symbolically resist the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and that nowadays can be used as means of solidarity and community-building. In Fall 2024, Hispanic Studies students happily volunteered to join a blossoming reading program whereby they shared indigenous Chilean folk tales with students (preK-6) at the Charles City Elementary School. This activity is part of a larger project that included a faculty-mentored research component in which Hispanic Studies major Fiona Hodges (‘24) collaborated with Prof. Brix to translate said narratives from Spanish to English.
Besides fostering a sense of accomplishment among Hispanic Studies students of all proficiency levels, these meaningful activities also allow them to contribute to the well-being of the community at large. They also help students understand the pivotal role that the linguistic and cultural skills they acquire in the classroom can play in their growth as global citizens. Prof. Brix’s community-based projects and her partnership with CCES were initially developed during her tenure of a Faculty Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching (2022-2023) offered by W&M’s Studio for Teaching and Learning Initiatives (STLI). Her projects have been funded by multiple sources, including a Community-Engaged Faculty Accelerator grant awarded by W&M’s Presidential Council of Community Partnership and the Charles Center.
Prof. Brix directs the Hispanic Studies undergraduate Teaching Assistant internship program. She also serves as liaison to the multiple W&M programs in La Plata, Argentina (semester program, winter program, summer intern fellowships).
