Lola Lorenzo

Lola Lorenzo, Associate Professor of Practice (PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln) has a Licenciatura in Art History (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain) and a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature and Culture (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007). Her dissertation, "Sensibilidad melodramática y metamelodrama en Benito Pérez Galdós y Pedro Almodóvar," links the work of the nineteenth century novelist with the films of the present-day director through the notion of 'meta-melodrama,' a type of melodrama that displays a combination of identification and distanciation without preventing the cathartic function. Other areas of interest are the social and political history of Spain and the connections between culture and politics. For many years she has taught a wide variety of classes at the University level. She has experience teaching, coordinating and designing basic, intermediate and advanced language classes, as well as upper level courses. She uses a variety of educational approaches and she is particularly interested in incorporating culture and technology in her teaching.

Courses Taught and Curricular Innovation

I have taught all levels of the Spanish Basic Language Program, as well as the Intermediate and Advanced levels of the Undergraduate Program. I have also taught some cross-listed courses (Undergraduate / Graduate) of the Graduate Program.

Courses Taught at UNL

• Spanish 101 First Year Spanish – First Semester
• Spanish 201 Second Year Spanish - First Semester
• Spanish 202 Second Year Spanish - Second Semester
• Spanish 203 Conversation
• Spanish 204 Intensive Writing
• Spanish 210 Intensive Second Year Spanish
• Spanish 303 Advanced Reading for Comprehension (Fall 2011)
• Spanish 304 Advanced Writing
• Spanish 305 Literary Analysis in Spanish
• Spanish 314 Representative Authors of Spain (Middle Age and Golden Age Literature)
• Spanish 315 Representative Authors of Spain (Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, and 20th-century Literature)
• Spanish 321 Spanish Civilization (Fall 2011-two sections)
• Spanish 497 Senior Seminar 19th-Century Spanish Short Stories
• Spanish 497 Senior Seminar Federico García Lorca: Life and Plays
• Spanish 497 Senior Seminar Spanish Literature and Film Adaptations (Fall 2011)
• Span 432/832 Spanish Speaking Proficiency
• Span 498/898 Trans-Atlantic Hispanic Culture
• Span 498/898 Spanish Popular Culture
• Span 498/898 Federico García Lorca: Life and Plays

Thesis Director

1. Stephen Krumland (Undergraduate Honor Thesis, Spring 2009). Dialectology: Medical Terminology in Social Settings Where Hispanic People from Different Countries Interact.
2. Britt-Marie Varisco (Undergraduate Honor Thesis, Spring 2010). Poetry in Translation.
3. Matthew Paul Majestrik (Undergraduate Honor Thesis, Spring 2013). Injustice Portrayed by Spanish Film.
4. Daniel Agraz (Undergraduate Honor Thesis, Spring 2013). Three Generations, Two Languages, One Family: A Study About Lanuage Brokering in One Mexican American Family.

Graduate Student Committees (Member)

• Jennifer Isasi (reader).
• Sylvain Kimbulo Okitote(reader).
• Omar Fernando Sanchez Forero(reader).
• Rosie Sevillano, Ph.D. Committee (reader).
• Dayana de Soto Caballero de Galicia, Ph.D. Committee (reader).

Curricular Innovation (Courses created)

• SPANISH 203 (UNL) (Intensive Conversation)
  • This course is designed to develop students' practical speaking skills in a friendly and communicative environment. This class is required for majors and minors.
• SPANISH 204 (UNL) (Intensive Composition)
  • This course is designed to develop students' writing skills, with special attention to grammar and the organization of ideas. This class is required for majors and minors.
• SPANISH 209 (Wesleyan University) (The Love Theme in Spanish and Latin-American Literature)
  • This class examines the theme of love in Hispanic literature from medieval times to the present. The survey includes literary texts, movies, and popular culture.
• SPANISH 210 (UNL) (Accelerated Second Year Spanish)
  • This is a course where students learn and review grammar with an emphasis on cultural context.
• SPANISH 303 (UNL) (Reading for Comprehension)
  • A course where students in the Intermediate and Advanced level develop an ability to make inferences and learn more about Hispanic Culture. The students demonstrate competence in Spanish by making presentations with supporting material, and by creating a Vocabulary book in a progressive evaluation process.
• SPANISH 497 (UNL) (Senior Seminar devoted to 19th Century Spanish Short Story)
  • A course where students read short stories written by Larra, Bécquer, Clarín, Galdós, Iguals de Izco, and Pardo Bazán, and study the historic and cultural context of these literary texts.
• SPANISH 497 (UNL) (Senior Seminar devoted to Federico García Lorca's theater and film adaptations of his works).
  • A course where students read drama and contrast it with movie adaptations based on the plays. The course also offers a strong background in Spanish history and art before de Civil War (1936).
• SPANISH 497 (UNL) (Senior Seminar devoted to several texts from the 19th and 20th century and movie adaptations).
  • Students have guides for reading the texts and learn how to analize movie adaptations. Also, students read drama and contrast it with movie adaptations based on the plays. The course also offers a strong background in Spanish history and art before de Civil War (1936).
• SPANISH 432/832 (UNL) (Spanish Speaking Proficiency).
  • A class were students need to practice the Spanish Language in different life contexts and need to perform several presentations and two exams, the final oral exam is based in the Guidelines of the Modern Language Proficiency Exam.
• SPANISH 498/898 (UNL) (Undergraduate/Graduate course devoted to Spanish and Latin-American History and Literature)
  • A course where students read literature and are exposed to other cultural artifacts, like music, plastic arts and cinema. It is a component of our transatlantic interdisciplinary program.
• SPANISH 498/898 (UNL) (Undergraduate/Graduate course devoted to Spanish Popular Culture)
  • A course where students read literature and are exposed to other cultural artifacts, like music, plastic arts and cinema. The focus is Spanish popular cultural production.
• SPANISH 498/898 (UNL) (Undergraduate/Graduate course devoted to the Spanish poet and playwriter Federico García Lorca)
  • Students read all plays written by Federico García Lorca and learn about the historical context and life of the renown poet.

Curricular Innovation (Courses that I have attended)

• Proposal for a Writing/Tutoring Center in Spanish/Modern Languages and Literatures for developing a writing Tutoring Center in the Fall 2012. The proposal was fund by Academic Affairs UNL.
• University of Nebraska Peer Review of Teaching Project (Fall semester 2010 –Spring semester 2011).
• Benchmark Course Portfolio Spring 2011. Spanish 303: Reading for Comprehension.
• Summer Instittute for Online Teaching. Extended Education and Outreach. UNL (May 12, June 16, 2010).
• Spanish Inmmersion Program TEAC. A 10 days course devoted to Primary Education Teachers and High School Teachers from Nebraska and the Midwest. The participants work with me in the Literature part of the Immersion program developing literary and cultural connections with texts. Part of the lesson plans and material we build up in this program is used in a study to establish the significance of reading comprehension in Second Language adquisition under Linguafolio support (2009).

Publications

• Advanced Reading for Comprehension Workbook (Revised Printing) Kendall Hunt publishing company, Dubuque, IA ISBN 978-1-4652-6599-9
• Bechmark Course Portfolio
  • Peer review Course Portfolio. SPAN 303: Reading for Comprehension. Online
• Text book manuscript: Toma nota with Ana María López Aguilera co-authored. A book for Advanced Spanish (303-304).
• Film Reviews
  Reviews written for the Cine Club en Español, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (UNL). Published in DigitalCommons@UNL.
  • Reseña de Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto: El thriller como comentario social. (Co-authored with Oscar Pereira Zazo). DIGITAL COMMONS UNL, 2008.
  • Reseña de Intacto: Irrational Exuberance (Co-authored with Oscar Pereira Zazo). DIGITAL COMMONS UNL, 2008.
  • Reseña de Belle Époque: La cultura del silencio y la nueva imagen de España en el año de gracia de 1992. (Co-authored with Oscar Pereira Zazo). DIGITAL COMMONS UNL, 2008.
  • Reseña de Torremolinos 73: Consumo, Sexo y Súper 8 (Co-authored with Oscar Pereira Zazo). DIGITAL COMMONS UNL, 2008.
  • Reseña de Familia: El gran teatro del hogar (Co-authored with Oscar Pereira Zazo). DIGITAL COMMONS UNL, 2008.
  • Reseña de Esa pareja feliz: Toma de conciencia (Co-authored with Oscar Pereira Zazo). DIGITAL COMMONS UNL, 2008.

Conferences

• “Cómo enseñar la crisis urbanística española con dos novelas: Komatsu PC-340 de Javier Mestre, (2011) y Crematorio de Rafael Chirbes, (2007)” Member ALCES XXI conference at Centro Sefarad, Madrid, II Jornadas de ALCES XXI, 9-12 de Julio de 2013
• “Madrid: Galdós 2012” Panel called: “Teaching in the 21st Century” at the MACHL (Mid-American Conference on Hispanic Literatures), Lincoln, Nebraska 2012
• "Rosa Montero: "Teaching Rosa Montero in the age of Globalization" TheThird Annual Four Corners Conference: Globalization and Media, Mesa State College, 28-29 October, 2011
• "Los girasoles ciegos: Metamelodrama and History in Alberto Méndez's Fiction," 33rd European Studies Conference, University of Nebraska-Omaha. October 2-4, 2008
• "Meta-Melodrama in Pedro Almodóvar's High Heels," 31st European Studies Conference, University of Nebraska-Omaha, October 6, 2006
• "Personajes al límite y espacios melodramáticos en tres cuentos cortos de narradoras hispanas," October 10, 2002 Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis
• "Subjetividad y punto de vista en dos películas españolas con niño: El espíritu de la colmena (Víctor Erice, 1973) y Secretos del corazón (Montxo Armendáriz, 1997), October 8, 1999 Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literatures at University of Missouri Columbia.

Honors & Awards

• 2011 Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska Parents Association
• 2010 Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska Parents Association
• 2009 Outstanding Educator. Beta Theta Pi Fraternity
• 2008 Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska Parents Association
• 2007 Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska Parents Association
• 2007 Seed money from UNL Summer Sessions in coordination with the College Deans and the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs to develop a new 300-level course on Culture and the Arts for High School Teachers, members of the Hispanic Community, and UNL Spanish majors and minors
• 2004 Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska Parents Association
• 2003 Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska Parents Association
• 2002 Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska Parents Association
• 2002 Nomination for The Sue Tidbal Award for Creative Humanity
• 2001 Nomination for Outstanding Teacher of the College of Arts and Sciences, UNL