Julio Ortega, professor of Hispanic studies, began the semester in Madrid and has presented papers, led colloquia, and joined symposia in Barcelona, Salamanca, and Seville — and has had his most recent book published in Madrid.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Julio Ortega, professor of Hispanic studies, spent the fall semester in Barcelona, Spain, as a faculty fellow at the Consortium of Advanced Studies, where he taught a seminar for students of seven American universities, including Brown, on transatlantic literature of the 21st century. His class looked at the works of new Catalan, Spanish, and Latin American authors.

His new book César Vallejo, La Escritura del Devenir, was also published by Taurus in Madrid.

Ortega began the academic year in Spain at the Universities of Salamanca, Sevilla, and Barcelona, addressing classes at each of the three institutions’ programs of Hispanic literature. He also presented papers on Julio Cortázar’s fiction at la Maison de la Amerique Latin, Paris, and on Nicanor Parra’s poetry at Universidad de Granada.

With the University de Barcelona and the Consortium of Advanced Studies, Ortega organized the First Transatlantic Colloquium, dedicated to the cultural history of the city, readings across borders, and new women writers from Spain and Latin America. Three Ph.D. students from Brown’s Program in Hispanic Studies also took part in the colloquium.

Ortega will end the semester in Madrid, speaking at a symposium on writer Cesar Vallejo, and at a celebration of the Argentinean translator Aurora Bernárdez.