University Assistant
Resume:
CURRICULUM VITAE
ALAN WEST-DURAN
Associate Professor
Department of Modern Languages
Northeastern University
Boston, MA 02115
e-mail: abqsgi@r.postjobfree.com
EDUCATION:
Columbia University, School of Arts & Sciences B.A. in Economics (1975)
New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. M. Phil. (1991); Ph. D. (1993) in Latin
American and Brazilian Languages and Literatures.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Northeastern University (2005- present) Associate Professor. Literature of the Caribbean, Latin
American Literature, Latin American Culture, Latin American Film.
Northeastern University (1999- 2005) Assistant Professor. Language courses (all levels), Literature
of the Caribbean, Latin American Literature, Latin American Culture, Latin American Film.
Northern Illinois University (1998-1999) Assistant Professor. Spanish language and literature
courses. Advanced Translation.
Brown University, (1996-1998). Visiting Professor. Spanish language and Latin American literature
courses.
Babson College, (1993 to 1997). Lecturer. Intermediate and Advanced Spanish, Latin American
Literature.
Wellesley College, (1992-1993). Visiting Teaching Associate. Intermediate Spanish to undergraduates.
PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS
SCHOLARLY BOOKS
A Cuba Encyclopedia. Gale Group, MI (2011). Two Volumes Editor-in-Chief. Includes over 100 entries
on history, politics, culture, sport, cuisine, geography, as well as biographies. Wrote several
entries.
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Latino and Latina Writers. Scribner & Sons/Gale Group, NT, NY (2004). Two Volumes Editor in
Chief. Includes 55 chapters of 10, 000 word-length on writers and several thematic chapters.
Wrote introduction and thematic chapter.
African Caribbeans: A Reference Guide. Greenwood Publishing,Westport, CT, (2003). Editor of book
on the history of blacks in the Spanish, French, Dutch and English speaking Caribbean. Wrote
ntroduction and chapters on Puerto Rico, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, Jamaica, Trinidad &
Tobago.
Tropics of History: Cuba Imagined. Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT (1997).
A collection of essays on Cuban history as seen through its literary imagination.
Being Am rica. White Pine Press, NY, 1991. Co-edited book with R. Weiss. Essays by different writers
and artists on Latin American culture, art, and identity. Wrote the introduction, contributed an
essay, "Myth, Language and Politics", and translated several essays.
CREATIVE OR NON-SCHOLARLY BOOKS
El tejido de Asteri n o las m scaras del logos (2000). Ediciones Vig a, Matanzas, Cuba. A narrative
poem using Afro-Cuban, Mayan, Greek and Guaran myths.
Dar nombres a la lluvia/Finding Voices in the Rain. Ediciones Verbum, Madrid, 1995. A bilingual
collection of poetry. (Winner of 1996 Latino Literature Prize)
Jose Mart : Man of Poetry, Soldier of Freedom. Milbrook Press, CT, 1994. A biography for children of
the 19th-century Cuban patriot.
Roberto Clemente: A Baseball Legend. Milbrook Press/Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Children's literature.
Biography.
TRANSLATIONS (BOOKS)
A Nation of Women: My Opinion on the Freedoms, Rights and Duties of Women by Luisa Capetillo,
April, 2005, Arte P blico Press, Houston, TX. To English.
Cultural Residues by Nelly Richard, October, 2004, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.
To English.
Language Duel/Duelo de lenguaje by Rosario Ferr, Vintage, New York, July 2002. Co-translator and
editor. Translated to English.
Music in Cuba by Alejo Carpentier (2001), University of Minnesota Press. Translated to English.
Dream With No Name: Contemporary Cuban Fiction. Seven Stories Press, NY (1999). Juana Ponce de
Le n and Esteban R os Rivera (eds.) Translated stories by Sonia Rivera Vald s, Los venenitos
and Pablo Armando Fern ndez, El Talism n .
Francisco by Anselmo Su rez y Romero, Primary Source Media (1998), on CD-ROM. Translated the
novel to English.
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Las hermanas Ag ero by Cristina Garc a. Knopf, NY, NY, 1997. Translated to Spanish.
BOOK CHAPTERS:
Rap s Diasporic Dialogues: Cuba s Redefinition of Blackness in Dami n Fern ndez (ed.) Cuba
Transnational (2005), University Press of Florida, Gainesville, pp. 121-150.
Cuba: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (2003) Book edited by Luis Fern ndez Mart nez (Greenwood Press,
Westport, CT). Was co-editor of Literature Chapter (pp. 313-376) that included over ninety
entries. Wrote nine entries.
Ernesto Cardenal in Carlos Sol and Klaus Muller-Bergh (eds.) Latin American Writers- Supplement
I, 2002. Scribner & Sons, NY, NY, pp. 149-166.
"Inscribing the Body of Perfection, Thoughts on Sarduy's Maitreya", in Pedro Monge (ed.) Lo que no se
ha dicho, Ollantay Press, NY (1994), pp. 115-124.
"Myth, Language and Politics", in Weiss & West (eds.) Being America, White Pine Press, NY, (1991),
pp. 116-123.
Book Chapters Reprinted in Journals
El travestismo como transculturaci n en tres novelas de Severo Sarduy in Uni n A o IX, No. 32,
julio-septiembre 1998, pp. 35-46. Reprint of chapter six of Tropics of History: Cuba Imagined
(1997).
Paradigmas perdidos: la manigua del sentido in Encuentro de Cultura Cubana #4 /#5, Summer 1997.
Madrid, Spain, pp. 155-173. Reprint of chapter seven of Tropics of History: Cuba Imagined
(1997).
PUBLICATIONS: ELECTRONIC MEDIA
CD-ROMS (SCHOLARLY)
American Journey: The Hispanic-American Experience. Primary Source Media, 1995. Interactive CD-
ROM project for high-school level students that includes history, politics and culture from Pre-
Columbian times to the present. Wrote nine historico-cultural essays pertaining to Puerto
Ricans, Cubans and Dominicans. Includes primary source material (letters, historical documents,
poems, fiction), music and visual arts, photographs, video clips, etc.
Caribbean Literature: 1492-1900. Primary Source Media, 1998. Co-edited with Antonio Ben tez Rojo.
Responsible for XIX century authors from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean: selection, captions,
introductory essays. For scholars and research libraries, using many sources including the
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Obadiah Rich Collection. Includes primary source material (letters, historical documents, poems,
fiction), music and visual arts, photographs, video clips, etc.
ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
El hombre que sab a demasiado sobre Lacan, Miradas, Revista Audovisual de la Escuela
Internacional de Cine, San Antonio de los Ba os, Cuba. Posted December 15, 2007.
La Batalla de Argel: fantasmas y libertades Review-Article on Release of Criterion Collection DVD
of the Battle of Algiers in Miradas: Revista del Audiovisual #9, Escuela Internacional de Cine y
Televisi n, San Antonio de los Ba os, Cuba. Posted November 28, 2005.
David Cronenberg: la carne real, virtual y monstruosa . Article on Cronenberg s work, in Miradas:
Revista del Audiovisual #9, Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisi n, San Antonio de los
Ba os, Cuba. Posted November 28, 2005.
PUBLICATIONS: ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
REFEREED
Puerto Rican Poetry, from Aboriginal to Contemporary Times in Centro Journal, Vol. XX, Number 2,
Fall 2008, pp. 241-244. A review of Roberto M rquez anthology.
Luisa Capetillo in Translation, in Centro Journal, Vol. XIX, Number 2, Fall 2007, pp. 140-149.
Nancy Morej n: Transculturation, Translation, and Poetics of the Caribbean, in Callaloo, Volume 28,
No. 4, 2006, pp. 967-976.
Canon a la ca ona in Latino Studies, Volume Issue 1-2, Spring/Summer, 2006, pp. 140-146.
Puerto Rico: The Pleasures and Traumas of Race in Centro Journal, Volume XVII, No. 1, Hunter
College, NY, Spring 2005, pp. 47-69.
Rap s Diasporic Dialogues: Cuba s Redefintion of Blackness in Journal of Popular Music Studies,
Vol 16, No, 1, 2004, Malden, MA, pp. 4-39.
Devoraciones: sabores y saberes de la memoria en el bolero, in Studies in Latin American Popular
Culture, Volume 22, 2003, Tucson, AZ, pp. 61-72.
Transculturaci n, traducci n y saberes h bridos, in Estudios, A o 10, No. 1, Summer 2002, Caracas,
Venezuela, pp. 91-104.
Review of Juli n Orbon s En la esencia de los estilos y otros ensayos, in Latin American Musical
Review Vol. 23, #1: Spring/Summer 2002, pp. 150-154.
Cuba: m sica, anhelo y sociedad in Temas, Havana, Cuba, December, 2000, pp. 124-131.
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"The Breath of Signs: Thoughts on Opera and Film", in The Michigan Quarterly Review, Volume
XXXV, Number 1, Ann Arbor, MI, Winter 1996, pp. 219-239.
The Stone and Its Images: The Poetry of Nancy Morej n, in Studies in Twentieth Century Literature,
Volume 20, no. 1, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1996, pp. 181-205.
Cuba: Music to Live By (Even far Away), in Michigan Quarterly Review, Volume XXXIII, Number
4, Fall 1994, pp. 657-664.
My Life With Fidel Castro: A Soap Opera Without Transmitter, in Michigan Quarterly Review,
Volume XXXIII, Number 3, Summer 1994, pp. 497-510.
"Latin American Writing: Language and Spices, Resistance and Redemption", in the Agni Review, #29,
April 1989, Boston University, Boston, MA, pp. 248-265.
NON-REFEREED JOURNALS
Pan con Timba in Hopscotch, Vol. 1, #1, Fall 1998, pp. 152-159.
"Virgilio Pi era: una tica de redenci n en el fracaso." in Cr tica, Universidad Aut noma de Puebla,
M xico, octubre-noviembre, 1994, pp. 27-38.
ESSAYS
Lo afrounido jam s sera vencido: Ocha y Palo en el rap cubano, La Gaceta, Havana, julio-agosto,
2007, pp. 11-14.
Matanzas y Boston: M sica, Memoria y Desencuentro . Revista Vig a, Matanzas, Cuba, marzo 2002,
pp. 103-108.
Sophrosyne y sombra del lenguaje . in Uni n, Enero-junio, 2000, #38-39, pp. Havana, Cuba, pp. 33-35.
Sones peregrinos . Encuentro de Cultura Cubana, #2, Fall 1996, pp. 105-111.
TRANSLATIONS (JOURNALS)
Esteban Salas, an excerpt from Music in Cuba by A. Carpentier, in Review, Fall 2000. NY, NY, pp.
32-34.
Music in Cuba by Alejo Carpentier (book excerpt), in Transition, #81/82, Vol. 9, No.1, Spring 2000,
pp. 172-228.
CONFERENCES:
University of Texas-Austin 18th Colloquium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Languages and Linguistics,
November 12-14, 2009. Virgilio and Vitier: A Comparison
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Bildner Center Conference on Cuba, March 14-16, 2008. On the work of Norberto Fuentes: Dulces
Guerreros Cubanos.
LASA Conference, Montreal, Canada, September 4-8, 2007; Two Presentations: Afro-Cuban Religions
in Cuban Rap and Nancy Morej n y los muertos .
Caribbean Music and Globalization, University of Texas, Austin, February 6, 2007. Afro-Cuban
Critiques of Materialism and Globalization .
Caribbean Studies Association, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, May 29-June 5, 2006. Sacred and
Profane Space in Regla de Ocha: An Analysis of the Dilogg n .
LASA Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 16-20, 2006, Translating Luisa Capetillo .
Cartagena Film Festival/Universidad de Cartagena, Colombia. March 6-8, 2006. Three-day seminar on
Afro-Cuban Culture, focusing on Religion, Music and Rap.
CRI (Cuban Research Institute) Conference on Cuba, February 5-6, 2006 at Florida International
University. Paper Presented: Time to Say Goodbye to Caliban? .
El Caribe M ltiple, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, November 5, 2005. Roots, Rhizomes and
Mangroves: Ortiz and Ben tez-Rojo .
Caribbean Studies Association, Santo Domingo, May 30-June 4, 2005. Velocidad y representaci n: el
hip-hop cubano en el cine
MELUS Conference, Chicago, April 7-10, 2005, Canon a la ca ona: A Personal Testimony
LASA Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 10-12, 2004, Latino/a Writing and Canon Formation
Caribbean Soundscapes: A Conference on Caribbean Musics and Culture, March 12-13, 2004. Tulane
University, New Orleans. Reinterpreting Guill n in Cuban Rap .
CRI (Cuban Research Institute) Conference on Cuba, October 6-8, 2003 at Florida International
University. Paper Presented: Rap y la redefinici n de afrocuban a .
LART Conference, October 25, 2003. New York at NYU-Read and spoke about my own poetry.
LASA Conference -Dallas,Texas, March 27, 2003, Cuban Rap and the Island s Poetic Tradition
Hispanic Writers Roundtable, October 15-17, 2002, at New York University. Panel: Writing, Style,
Identity .
Hispanic Cultural Studies: The State of the Art, September 18-21, 2002, at the University of Arizona,
Tucson. Paper Title: Philosophy and Technology of the Bolero .
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CRI Conference (Cuban Resource Institute), March 2002, Miami, Florida International University.
Paper Title: Devo(ra)ciones: sabores y saberes de la memoria en el bolero cubano . Chaired
other panel of same conference: Homenaje a Dulce Mar a Loynaz .
LASA Conference (Latin American Studies Association), Washington, D.C. September, 2001, Paper
Title: Virgilio Pi era: el erotismo del poder .
CRI Conference (Cuban Resource Institute), October 21, 2000.Paper Title: Transculturation as
Philosophy: Caribbean Forms of Knowledge .
Vig a Conference, April 2000, Matanzas, Cuba. Paper Title: Traducci n y transculturaci n en la obra
de Alejo Carpentier.
LASA Conference (Latin American Studies Association) Miami, March 2000. Paper Title:
Transculturaci n y raza en Jos Luis Gonz lez y Fernando Ortiz .
1898 Revisited: Culture, Archive and Diaspora. A Bilingual Symposium on the Consequences of 1898
in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Caribbean. University of Texas-Austin, November 1998. Paper
Title: En qu piso se come el mejor ajiaco? La cultura afrocaribe a pos-1898 en Jos Luis
Gonz lez y Fernando Ortiz
Primer Encuentro Nacional de Poes a. Dominican Republic, Consejo Nacional de Cultura, November
1997. Paper Titled: Viaje por la otredad: la traducci n en la poes a de Rosario Ferr .
Northeastern Modern Languages Association Conference. Philadelphia, PA, April, 1997. Paper Title:
Translation as Practice of Listening .
Bridges to Cuba Conference, University of Michigan, November 1994. Paper Title: A Sometimes
Tormented Notion: Cuba After the Cold War .
Simposio Internacional Cincuentenario de Or genes . Casa de Las Am ricas, June 1994, Havana. Paper
Title: Virgilio Pi era: Una Etica de Redenci n en el Fracaso .
El SEVERO placer de una escritura. A Tribute to Sarduy. Hunter College, April 1994. Paper Title:
Inscribing the Body of Perfection: Adorned With Signs and Graces. Thoughts on Severo
Sarduy s Maitreya .
INVITED LECTURES:
Brown University, November 11th, 2009. Cuban Hip Hop and Afro-Cuban Religions.
Universidade Federal (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, April 28, 2009, Cuban Hip-Hop in a Global Context .
Pontifice Catolica de Porto Alegre (PUC-PA), Porto Alegre, April 30, 2009. An Analysis of Space in
the Dilogg n Reading of Cuban Santer a .
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LSU, Baton Rouge, LA, October 31, 2007. Joint talk with photographer H ctor Delgado P rez on Five
Ceremonies of Regla de Ocha .
Tulane University, New Orleans, October 30, 2007. Joint talk with photographer H ctor Delgado P rez
on Five Ceremonies of Regla de Ocha .
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, September 25, 2007. Joint talk with photographer H ctor Delgado
P rez on Five Ceremonies of Regla de Ocha which we documented with photos and video.
Tufts University, March 31, 2004. Afro-Cuban Religions and Cuban Popular Culture .
Tulane University, March 19, 2004. Rapping with the Orishas: Afro-Cuban Religions in Cuban Hip Hop
9th Havana International Hip Hop Festival, August 10-18, 2003. Cuban Rap and Redefintion of
Afrocuban a
University of Texas at Austin, March 25, 2003. Lecture Topic: Afro-Cuban poetry and Cuban Rap
New England Conservatory; November 3, 2001, Panel Discussion: Cuban Music: History, Genres, and
Identity
University of Texas at San Antonio, March 8, 2001. Transculturation and Music in the Caribbean: the
Merengue .
Harvard University, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Roundtable: Cuban Culture:
Conflicts and Debates . November 28, 2000.
La Biblioteca Nacional Jos Mart (Havana, Cuba) Los estudios caribe os: nuevas vertientes, April 24,
2000.
University of Mass at Boston & William Joiner Center: On Translation and Identity June 1999.
Wellesley College, February 1997. Afro-Cuban Music and National Identity .
Brown University, October 1996, Weyland Colloquium, Translation and Exile
Brown University, February 1996. Afro-Caribbean History and Culture.
Africa and Caribbean History (Feb. 21, 1996)
Afro-Caribbean Music (Feb. 26, 1996)
Santer a: An Afro-Cuban Religion (Feb. 28, 1996)
Miami Book Fair, November 20, 1995. Bridges Go Both Ways: the Story of El Gordo and El Flaco .
On the Bridges to Cuba project.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Border Culture and U.S. Latinos ; December 5, 1994.
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TEACHING AND ADVISING:
COURSES TAUGHT
Fall 1999
Beginning Spanish LNS 1101 20 students
Intermediate Spanish LNS 1004 20 students
Winter 2000
Caribbean Literature LNS1511 11 students Intermediate Business Spanish LNS 1182 15 students
Spring 2000
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS 1501 25 students
Latin American Literature II LNS 1315 13 students
Fall 2000
Beginning Spanish LNS 1101 23 students
Latin American Literature II LNS 1316 7 students
Winter 2001
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS 1501 32 students
Introduction to Latino/a, Latin American and Caribbean Studies INT 1121 16 students
Intermediate Spanish II LNS 1104 22 students
Spring 2001
Elementary Spanish II LNS 1102 21 students
Spanish Seminar: Gender, Music & Culture in Latin America LNS 1400 10 students Fall 2001: On Leave (in compensation for Winter 2001 and 2002 overload, as well as directing LLACS
program)
Winter 2002
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS 1501 33 students
Introduction to Latino/a, Latin American and Caribbean Studies INT 1121 18 students
Intermediate Spanish II LNS 1104 20 students
Spring 2002
Spanish Seminar: Gender, Music & Culture in Latin America LNS 1400 4 students
Caribbean Literature LNS 1511 27 students
Fall 2002
Intermediate Spanish II LNS 1104 17 students
Latin American Literature to 1900 LNS1315 9 students
Winter 2003
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS 1501 35 students
Intermediate Spanish LNS 1104 19 students
Spring 2003
Caribbean Literature LNS 1511 23 students
Intermediate Spanish LNS 1104 19 students
Fall 2003 (Change to Semester System)
Advanced Business Spanish LNS U511 16 students A la n W e s t- D u r a n c .v .
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Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS U160 39 students
Spring 2004
Latin American Literature LNS U650 20 students
Latin American Film LNS U240 43 students Fall 2004
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS U160 34 students
Caribbean Literature and Culture LNS U170 37 students
Spring 2005
Latin American Literature LNS U650 22 students
Latin American Film LNS U240 38 students
Fall 2005
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS U160 34 students
Caribbean Literature and Culture LNS U170 25 students
Spring 2006 (On Sabbatical)
Fall 2006
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS U160 37 students
Caribbean Literature and Culture LNS U170 32 students
Spring 2007
Latin American Literature LNS U650 13 students
Latin American Film LNS U240 37 students
Fall 2007
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS U160 36 students
Caribbean Literature and Culture LNS U170 34 students
Spring 2008
Latin American Literature LNS U650 22 students
Latin American Film LNS U240 52 students
Fall 2008
Backgrounds to Latin American Culture LNS U160 35 students
Caribbean Literature and Culture LNS U170 33 students
Spring 2009 (Cuba Study Abroad) 12 students
Summer I 2009
Latin American Culure LNS U160 34 students
Latin American Film LNS U240 26 students
Fall 2009
Caribbean Literature and Culture LITR 3501 32 students
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Introduction to Languages Literatures & Cultures 19 students
Courses with asterisks, indicate development of new course
ADVISING
Undergraduate
Supervision of 8-12 LLACS minors every year (1999-to the present).
Graduate
Supervision and reader for Carmen Hayd e Rivera doctoral thesis for English Department (2001)
Supervision and reader for Jessica Su rez Masters Thesis for the History Department (2002)
SERVICE AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
DEPARTMENT
Executive Committee (Modern Languages-2001)
Search Committee for Assistant Professor of Spanish Hire (2001)
Textbook Adoption Committee (2001-2002)
Supervision of Languages for International Business Program (2003-to the present)
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY
Director, Latino, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LLACS) 2005 to present.
Northeastern University, Acting Director 2000-2004.
LACLA Scholarship Board (2001-2006).
Search Committee to find Director of Latino/a Student Cultural Center (2001)
President s Committee on Latino Affairs (2000-to the present)
Latino Student Cultural Center Advisory Committee (2001- to the present)
Search Committee to find Assistant Director of Latino/a Student Cultural Center (2002)
Exchange program with FLACSO in the Dominican Republic. Site visit from May 1st to 5th, 2002.
EXTERNAL OR COMMUNITY SERVICE
Annual week-long writing workshops for Latino/a and African American students in Boston Public
Schools, through the William Joiner Center at UMass-Boston (from1998 through 2002).
A C A D E M IC R E L A T E D E X P E R IE N C E :
Advisory board for Journal: Cuban Studies, 2000-2008 (published by University of Pittsburgh Press).
Advisory Board for Cuba: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Oryx Press, 2003.
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FELLOWSHIPS AND HONORS:
Latino Prize for Literature in Poetry (1996)
Honorary Member, Golden Key International Honor Society (May 2002)
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching: 2003 and 2007.
LANGUAGES:
Spanish: native fluency
English: native fluency
Portuguese: good writing and speaking ability
French: good speaking, writing/reading ability
MEMBERSHIPS:
Modern Languages Association (MLA)
Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Caribbean Studies Association (CSA)
MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the U.S.)
Contact this candidate