James A. Parr Elected as President of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
By My Nguyen, Student Intern of CHASS College of Computing

James A. Parr, Professor of Hispanic Studies, has just been elected president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese for 2007-2008.  The AATSP is interested in supporting various projects and publications for primary, secondary, and university teachers, professors, and administrators as well as other professionals who support Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian languages and cultures.

He has also just completed a term as president of the Cervantes Society of America.  The Cervantes Society of America is an organization with a program that gives out grants to conferences that are dedicated to the study of Cervantes’ work.  A grant of up to $1,000 will be considered annually, as seed money to be matched by the sponsoring institutions.  The conferences, that the Society does decide to sponsor has to be open to the public and be on the call for nation-wide papers.  The organizers are required to be a member of the Cervantes Society, or else interested applicants are to submit a request to the Cervantes Society President.  Decisions for the awards are made at the annual meeting at the Executive Council of the Society in December.

Three of Parr’s former students have published a homage volume for him, "Critical Reflections: Essays on Spanish Golden Age Literature in Honor of James A. Parr," edited by Amy R. Williamsen and Barbara Simerka, with the assistance of Shannon Polchow (Bucknell UP, 2006).  The homage is a collection of essays on 16th and 17th century Spanish literature, written by literary scholars who have been influenced by the criticism and teaching of James A. Parr.  Topics include the Don Quixote of Cervantes, the theater of Lope de Vega, and the influence of Roman poet Ovid and English playwright Christopher Marlowe on golden age Spanish literature.