In spring 2025, student and future Spanish teacher Aiden Irish had the opportunity to work at the Siena Research Institute (SRI) for an independent study with his faculty mentor Dr. Garcés (Professor of Spanish), fulfilling his curiosities about the opinions of Hispanics on pressing issues such as the economy, politics, and societal conflicts. Once a week, Aiden spent a few hours dialing and conducting surveys on behalf of SRI and other organizations trying to receive and organize answers from surveys for them to use in their studies.

Throughout his shifts, Aiden gained much experience conversing with Spanish speakers and collecting responses for organizations such as the New York Times, the New York State Department of Health, and more. However, for Aiden the focus of this experience was not only to collect data for these organizations, but also to listen and retrieve these opinions specifically from those of Latino origin. For too long, they’ve struggled to have their voices heard for many reasons, a couple of which include language barriers and ineligibility in certain polls. The Siena Research Institute, however, strives for equality and inclusion, and wants the opinions of everyone. They look for people such as Aiden who can speak Spanish to conduct polls and hear from the Latino population specifically.

One of Aiden’s most profound experiences was when he got to speak with a woman who lived in Rhode Island but was originally from the Dominican Republic. This specific survey looked for answers on the subject’s community and overall opinion on certain themes and issues within the community, such as the economy, politics, response to certain issues, and more. Aiden had a smooth and informative conversation with the woman and found that even through the phone he was able to understand the woman well and accurately record her answers. The woman found the economy to be in bad shape and expects in the future years for it to worsen due to recent government regulations. She hopes that this tariff war will end soon and that the economy will somehow become strong again.

Aiden utilized this experience to connect with his future plans to be a Spanish teacher. In his weekly diaries he wrote for his independent study, Aiden compared his experiences with the competencies of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Aiden would reflect on what he had learned or experiences and select which competency it mostly corresponded to, such as Communication, Equity and Inclusion, Professionalism, and more. For example, Aiden mentioned his adaptability to technology by learning how to switch the transcript’s language from English to Spanish to accurately ask questions. He then proceeded to use this to explain how important adaptability is in the classroom and how this experience will be useful in his career.

Overall, Aiden is very appreciative of this experience and the valuable lessons he has learned through the Siena Research Institute. He extends his gratitude to SRI for letting him conduct his independent study work there. Dr. Garcés enjoyed hearing all about what Aiden learned when they met regularly to converse in Spanish about his written reflections submitted as part of his work.

• Written by Aiden Irish ’26, edited by Dr. Garcés

The Spanish Club at Siena University has held many events this academic year, including tertulias (informal student-led conversation groups) and different themed events. They culminated the semester with an event about Medical Spanish (SPAN 250), a class developed by Dr. Garcés that she teaches every spring semester. The course includes an overview of medical vocabulary, social justice based cultural exercises as the course is a Franciscan Concern Social Justice Core Course, and online conversations with native speakers versed in medical topics through the online platform Talk Abroad.

Many of the club’s officers have taken the class since they are students in the Albany Medical College and Health Studies programs at Siena, so it will be useful to them in their future careers to have proficiency in medical vocabulary and cultural norms of the Spanish-speaking world.

The students were very creative in developing a special evening for their classmates as the event was not only about medical Spanish vocabulary, but they also paired it with comfort foods like empanadas and foods that are known to have healing properties such as chamomile tea and a hearty soup, a nod to natural remedies that are discussed in the class textbook. They also gave away prizes, making the event even more interactive!

Next year, the club officers are Gabrielle Hix (President), Cristiana Hoene (Vice President), Mya Chrysogelos (Secretary), Tanya Shukla (Treasurer), Giovanna Pérez (Event Coordinator), and Gael Peña Reyes (Public Relations).

¡Buen trabajo!

Dr. Marcela T. Garcés received an International Travel Grant from the Committee on Teaching & Faculty Development during her spring 2024 sabbatical. The fellowship supported two initiatives: (1) an international faculty development seminar at a conference in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (July 2024); (2) the development of a new Siena University course titled “Food Studies in the Transhispanic World” (Fall 2024). Her work in Food Studies is rooted in her discipline of Iberian Cultural Studies. Historically, more attention has been given to “gastronomically hegemonic” areas such as France and Italy, while less attention is paid to the Transhispanic world, resulting in a “lack of scholarship on Spain and […] limited attention paid to Latin America and Latinx-focused food cultures in the United States” (Anderson & Ingram, 472-3).¹ Therefore, both teaching Siena students and helping to equip scholars in her field with research and pedagogical tools to contribute scholarly products and courses is fundamental to remedying this lack of representation.

Garcés developed a hybrid course, Food Studies in the Transhispanic World on Canvas, taught as a 400-level course in Spanish and cross-listed with International Studies. In addition to analyzing Food Studies course readings and discussions, students enjoyed three different course-based excursions to the University at Albany Special Collections to study food-related texts with Latin American and Iberian librarian Jesús Alonso Regalado from Salamanca, Spain, did a cooking class in Spanish to learn how to make gazpacho, and learned about and tried Venezuelan cuisine, including interviewing the owner of Oh Corn Arepas, who is from Caracas, Venezuela in Spanish. For another class activity, students tasted and evaluated a series of products and their labels from six Spanish-speaking countries, reflecting together as a class about taste, health packaging, and marketing, and making connections with their other areas of study as students from business, education, and science backgrounds. Framed by Lucy Long’s concept of culinary tourism (1998), they discussed what surprised and interested them about the flavor, marketing, and history of each item. After interacting with and talking about the cultural products in person, students completed online discussion boards to “think with food,” employing Transhispanic theoretical sources and individual research to further understand food’s communicative power. Garcés hopes to teach the course again soon!

Above: Students at University at Albany Special Collections.

Below: A gazpacho cooking class at La Centralita Culinary Studio and a visit to Oh Corn Arepas.

1. Anderson, Lara & Rebecca Ingram.”Introduction. Transhispanic Food Cultural Studies: Defining the Subfield.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Vol. XCIII, No.4, 2020. ↩︎