Honors College Research Assistantship Program
Title of the project: Translating scholarly work authored by Prof. Benita Sampedro from Spanish into English and from English into Spanish
• “Freedom Struggles and Punitive Relocations – from Cuba to Africa
in the Late Nineteenth Century”
Advisor: Dr. Benita Sampedro Vizcaya
Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program.
Student Research Assistant: Sybil Eklof – RHC student with Majors in History and Political Science, Minor in Spanish
Main Tasks
This research project had two dimensions: a pedagogical dimension, aimed at procuring resources for class use, and a faculty research component, aimed at completing two ongoing publications and preparing or translating the professor’s scholarly work as needed for invited guest lectures and keynote addresses this semester.
For the first component, Sybil Eklof worked with Dr. Sampedro to scan resources for her course LACS 1: Putting Latin America and the Caribbean on the Map: Geography, Politics and Literature. The course serves as a multidisciplinary introduction to the two regions, and sources span from social, political, and economic history of the region to artistic and literary approaches to various periods.
For the faculty research component, Sybil Eklof was tasked with conducting Englishto-Spanish and Spanish-to-English translations of recent articles authored by Dr. Sampedro, to be used or adapted for her guest invited lectures this semester, on the topics of her two current book projects. Professor Sampedro is currently working on two book projects, both under contract:
• Racismo científico y prácticas biopolíticas: el proyecto colonial español en África como laboratorio de experimentación bajo el franquismo [Scientific Racism and Biopolitical Practices: The Spanish Colonial Project in Africa as a Laboratory for Experimentation under the Franco Dictatorship]. Barcelona: Bellaterra, forthcoming.
• Caribbean Deportee Narratives and African Presidios: Carceral Systems of the Late Spanish Empire. Gainesville: The University of Florida Press, 2024.
Articles Translated
Professor Sampedro’s recent scholarly work which I have translated include:
• “Entering the Global Hispanophone: An Introduction”
• “The Colonial Politics of Meteorology: The West African Expedition of the Urquiola Sisters”
• A call for papers for the academic journal Huellas: Spanish Journal on Slavery, Colonialism, Resistances and Legacies of which professor Sampedro is a founding member and the managing co-editor.
Student Growth
This translation work provided Sybil with both linguistic and epistemological opportunities for growth. By working directly with high-level academic writing in Spanish, Sybil’s vocabulary expanded, and her confidence increased, thus improving her Spanish-language skills at a scholarly level.
On an epistemological level, Sybil was provided the opportunity to engage with scholarly research by organizing bibliographies and conducting library searches, and by immersing herself in the methodological process of academic writing. This gave Sybil tools to conduct her own research for the project she is carrying this semester with her Departmental Honors Thesis for her History major.
Sybil Eklof first met Prof. Sampedro and became acquainted with academic interests in the Spring of 2022, when she took with her the course SPAN 145: Borders, Human Mobility and Migratory Experiences across the Spanish-speaking World This course was an opportunity to explore together the mutual interest in the history of colonialism, racial oppressions, borders and mobilities across the Hispanic world. The course focused on the effects of migration and human mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean, looking beyond general trends to develop an understanding of personal migrant experiences Course materials included recent documentaries, podcasts, and website repositories on migrant testimonial experiences, in addition to traditional scholarly sources. The current research projects that Dr. Sampedro is pursuing can be conceived as a historical extension of the themes introduced by this course, taking the analysis a step further into the past.
Further Research
Since this is Sybil Eklof’s last semester at Hofstra, this Student Research Assistant opportunity allowed her to engage in scholarly research with a faculty role model. This collaborative research project helped Sybil directly in her independent research for her Departmental Honors Thesis in History. Participating in Dr. Sampedro’s scholarly work helped equip Sybil with the methodology needed to engage in her own scholarly work.
In conclusion, this experience as a Student Research Assistant gave Sybil Eklof two distinct opportunities: a) the chance to significantly improve her Spanish language skills and her ability to make professional English-Spanish and Spanish-English translations, and b) the chance to observe a role model in scholarly research and advance her own academic research skills.
