Five Spanish Program Students Accepted at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research

By: Chelsey Jaipersaud | Published by March 5, 2021. 

 

Women’s History month is off to a great start at Kean University with the success of five women from the Spanish Program who recently had their research accepted at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR).

Students Rosa Huanchi, Maria Kukla, Dolores Quezada, Daniela Riascos and Valerie Sanabria will present their research at the virtual conference that will be held on April 12-14, 2021. This gathering of student scholars will welcome presenters from all institutions of higher education.

“It is hard to describe how it feels, I guess I’m still daydreaming,” senior Maria Kukla said.

According to the NCUR official website the council on undergraduate research seeks to support and promote high quality mentored undergraduate research, scholarship and creative inquiry.

“I decided to honor Luiza Valenzuela’s work because she was brave enough to expose herself when writing these stories, she transformed women into powerful individuals, more powerful than men themselves inside her magic world,” Kukla said. 

Kukla took two stories, written by the same author, Luisa Valenzuela and wrote a comparison of them. One was based on women’s roles in a macho society in Latin America and another which described the abuse of power during the dictatorship in Argentina.

“As an Argentinian citizen myself, I grew up hearing the elders remembering the killings and the terror our citizens went through during the dictatorship period, which affected students especially,” Kukla said. 

The process of putting together their work not only took time and effort, but patience and dedication to assemble a piece of work powerful enough to move people. These women did just that on top of their outside responsibilities.

“Once the first draft is finished, it needs to be read, proofread, and changed over and over again,” Kukla said. 

According to World Languages-Spanish Coordinator Dr. Gregory Shepherd, beyond the NCUR conference in April, all five students will be submitting their written work for publication in the conference proceedings.

“I’m proud that Kean students are being recognized nationally at NCUR for their research and specifically I admire these five students, who have worked hard to develop solid writing and analytical skills,”Shepherd said.

Listed below are the accepted students and their project titles.

• Rosa Huanchi: Metamorphosis in “La Muñeca Menor” by Ferré and “Dos Palabras” by Allende: Negligence, Mistrust and Abuse of a Patriarchal Society
• Maria Kukla: Luisa Valenzuela’s “Si esto es la vida, yo soy caperucita roja” and “Aquí pasan cosas raras”: Abuse of power and the role of women in society 
• Dolores Quezada: El Che” Before and After.
• Daniela Riascos: Macho Mentality and the Subaltern Subject in Eva Luna
• Valerie Sanabria: The Story of a Beautiful and Rich Culture and Territory: Victim of Imperialism illustrated by Latin American Artists

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