Barbara Fuchs, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and of English; and Victoria Mateu, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and of linguistics; each received a Global Research Award, which is meant to advance globally engaged research and contribute to inclusive excellence. The research awards include seed grants of up to $20,000 and global research grants of up to $50,000.
Barbara Fuchs
Spanish and Portuguese, English
Project: Clásicos Americanos: Connecting Hispanic Theater across the Hemisphere
Under Fuchs’ direction, UCLA’s Diversifying the Classics will partner with Karina Galperín of the Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Argentina and Gabriela Villanueva of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México to explore how Hispanic classical theater has been received across Latin America, in different periods and under specific local conditions. Through collaborations with Argentine theatermakers, the collaborators will delve into the ways these histories shape contemporary adaptations of comedia and new dramaturgies. The project will commission new productions, convene scholars for symposia at each institution and result in a comparative edited volume.
Victoria Mateu
Spanish and Portuguese, Linguistics
Project: Spanish Language Acquisition in Children: A Transnational Research Collaboration
Children have the right to use their own language, but most of what we know about language development is based on monolingual English-learning children. Through a partnership with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mateu will investigate Spanish language acquisition.
Although Spanish is the second most-spoken language worldwide — and in the U.S. — scholars know little about how children learn the language. Likewise, although there are more bilinguals in the world than monolinguals, bilingual development remains poorly understood. Through this collaboration, the researchers will address critical gaps in how monolingual and bilingual children learn Spanish.
Read the full article here: https://humanities.ucla.edu/news/inaugural-winners-global-grants/