Ines Rivera to Speak on Dominican-American Poetry and Identity

The Humanities Center is happy to announce the eighth talk in its Fall 2022 Lecture Series on Ethnic Studies on Monday, Nov. 14, from 12:45 p.m. – 2 p.m. in the Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies. The talk is free and open to the university community.

Ines Rivera, assistant professor of English (A&S), will give a talk called “Dominican-American Poetry and Identity Formation” where she aims to help shift the conversation surrounding Dominican-American literary studies away from an emphasis on novels (currently the dominant focus of scholars) toward Dominican-American poetry. Focusing on how Dominican-American poets underscore a relationship to language (Spanish/English) and its role in identity formation, she will speak to how the notion of identity relates to broader questions of what it means to be American, who is included and represented in the American nation, and the ways we might expand the concept of “America” to better reflect a diverse majority.

The Ethnic Studies Lecture Series is possible due to the Cardin Grant, funding received from the A&S dean’s office. The series features talks by nine UHart professors in the humanities whose research and teaching focus on racialized ethnic groups in the U.S.

For more information on the series, contact Nicholas Ealy, director of the Humanities Center: ealy@hartford.edu