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Marquis Scholar Angela Guarino ’04 (Springfield, Pa.) has been researching a 17th century Spanish author’s work for an ambitious honors thesis written and defended entirely in Spanish.
She’s already published two research articles with her mentor, Michelle C. Geoffrion-Vinci, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures.
Guarino is analyzing the work of María de Zayas y Sotomayor, namely her Desengaños amorosos (Disenchantments of Love), a collection of short stories first published in 1647.
“I decided to undertake this project as the perfect capstone of my Spanish language studies. This thesis means a great deal to me, and I have demanded a great deal of effort from myself to complete this project,” says Guarino, a double major in government & law and Spanish. “It is a work that I hope will represent all of the language, analytical, and research skills imparted to me by the tremendous instructors I’ve been privileged to have over the years, whether in high school at Notre Dame Academy in Villanova, Pennsylvania, at Lafayette, or abroad in Madrid last fall.”
“I find Lafayette to be an excellent environment in which to produce a thesis, a fact that I directly attribute to our caring faculty,” she adds. “Lafayette provides a research experience that few undergraduate institutions may boast, and faculty members, both inside and outside the Spanish department, have been more than happy to impart advice. For instance, as my area of study encompasses religious themes, I was able to turn to Eric Ziolkowski (professor and head of religious studies) for research guidance that was generously provided.”
Lafayette also provides an ideal environment in which to study Spanish, according to Guarino.
“Lafayette is an incredible institution. I can’t say enough about the faculty within the department, who have continued to encourage my studies and offer advice even after I have completed their courses,” she says. “My experience in every Spanish class I’ve had here has been a positive one, and in various ways, this thesis ties together the knowledge I’ve received from each of the professors under whom I’ve studied.”
The thesis builds on previous research on contemporary Spanish author Cristina Fernández Cubas that Guarino conducted with Geoffrion-Vinci. Starting with an investigation of issues of gender, food, and cooking in Hispanic literature, Guarino explored how the kitchen plays into Cubas’ short stories.
They collaborated through Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, in which students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend. EXCEL has helped make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year share their research through articles in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
“The EXCEL Scholars program is unique,” says Geoffrion-Vinci. “Very few institutions offer this funded collaborative research opportunity. Students and faculty alike benefit from the interaction that the college supports through this program. Angela and I had the opportunity to work together for two years on a project that has resulted in two scholarly articles. This work helped us both further our careers. In Angela’s case, it also gave her significant insight, I believe, into the challenges involved in scholarly research in Spanish.”
One such article was published this year in Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea.
“The EXCEL program gave me invaluable experience in terms of how to conduct research, how to organize a substantial written work, and how to bring a particular analytical lens to a text in support of a specific argument,” Guarino says. “In addition, while working on my EXCEL research, I was very fortunate in the fact that Professor Geoffrion-Vinci always granted me creative freedom in exploring ideas that could influence our project. It has now been my goal to call upon that same spirit of creativity to produce a paper I can truly call original.”
Guarino will continue to use the feminist criticism framework applied in the EXCEL research in her thesis.
“The central argument of my thesis is that Zayas manipulates standard religious themes in these stories in order to promote a feminist ideal,” she says.
Guarino received the 2002 Eugene P. Chase Phi Beta Kappa award and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish), and Phi Sigma Alpha (political science) honor societies. She also belongs to the Kirby Government and Law Society and is Women’s Crew captain and a Spanish peer tutor.
Geoffrion-Vinci, who is serving as her thesis adviser, is an award-winning teacher and author of a book on pioneering 19th-century Spanish feminist Rosalía de Castro. In addition to other publications, she has presented papers at many conferences and given two keynote addresses for Stanford University programs. A recipient of grants from Stanford, Yale, the Ford Foundation, and several other institutions, Geoffrion-Vinci has developed interactive computer programs for beginning, intermediate, and advanced Spanish courses.
“I am extremely pleased to be working with her, and find her a highly qualified and caring mentor. Michelle has consistently encouraged me to achieve an original body of work of which I can be proud and call my own,” Guarino says. “Though technically this thesis could have been written and defended in the English language, Michelle has challenged me to settle for nothing less than a project conducted entirely in Spanish to yield a full representation of the Spanish skills I’ve accrued throughout my studies.”
“Angela has worked diligently to hone her communicative skills in Spanish throughout her academic career,” says Geoffrion-Vinci. “As a result of her thesis work, she has developed finely tuned interpretational, analytical, and presentational skills in English and in Spanish that will greatly benefit her in whichever profession she ultimately chooses. The challenges involve tremendous amounts of time and energy reading in both English and Spanish, searching for pertinent articles, texts, and theories to support your ideas. Moreover, the mere generation of ideas and expressing them in Spanish presents a daunting task to students at this level.”
In the face of such challenges, Guarino credits Geoffrion-Vinci for her guidance throughout her time at Lafayette.
“Michelle continues to be a tireless adviser to me as she has since I first enrolled in her Spanish 211 class as a first-year student. If I ever have a concern relating to my studies or otherwise, she has always made time in her busy schedule to offer support, advice, and her great sense of humor. I couldn’t imagine conducting this present study without her, and I hope my final product is one of which she can be proud and that accurately represents all of the knowledge she’s imparted to me throughout my Lafayette career.”
Says Geoffrion-Vinci, “Angela is extremely bright, thoughtful, insightful, and self-motivated. She is also driven to succeed in whatever goals she sets for herself. Most importantly, though, she has a sense of humor and is mature enough to understand that success requires hard work and a lot of stumbling before you get to the finish line. This remarkable young woman will be a success in whatever she chooses to do next.”
Guarino’s future plans include law school, where Geoffrion-Vinci say “she will doubtless be able to make good use of the skills she has polished in researching, writing, and presenting this thesis.”
She is a graduate of the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur.
Honors thesis projects are among several major opportunities at Lafayette that make the College a national leader in undergraduate research. Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty-two students were accepted to present their work at the annual conference last month.
Chosen from among Lafayette’s most promising applicants, Marquis Scholars receive special financial aid and distinctive educational experiences and benefits, including a three-week, Lafayette-funded study-abroad course during January’s interim session between regular semesters. Marquis Scholars also participate in cultural activities in major cities and on campus, and mentoring programs with Lafayette faculty.