He has earned the right to put another, perhaps more definitive, exclamation mark on a career that few could match, but we expect there to be more !!!!! to come.īorn and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, David did not even take a Spanish class until fate made it necessary. He will no longer stand in front of a classroom (though he probably will), he will no longer serve on committees or task forces or senates or other such things (though he probably will), he will no long be under any obligation to enlighten us with typically (for him) incisive and yet entertaining analysis of Spanish culture and literature (though he almost certainly will, we hope). One thing about David Gies that should be noted from the outset: exclamation marks are necessary.ĭavid is, in fact, retiring, but none of us believes that this will alter the way in which he lives his life. Adjectives: “rigorous,” “relentlessly encouraging,” “mighty,” “knighted.” Nouns: “fun-loving spirit,” “a man of travel,” “one helluva sailor.” Entire dependent clauses: “your never-ending happy and positive spirit that made the rest of us look and feel like boring dips and dolts,” “ on sunshine.” And this: “Dashing, Amusing, Vivid, Inspiring, Dignified, Teacher, Guru, Insightful, Ebullient, SPAIN!” A selection of words and phrases, quoted directly from people who know him well, bear out the incongruity. In none of its meanings does the word retirement or any of its variants apply easily to him. There can certainly be no more inappropriate-seeming combination of name and noun than this, especially for those who know David. We would also like to thank Professor Alison Booth, and Jeremy Boggs of the UVA Scholar’s Lab, Lauren Work of UVA’s Simpson Library, along with Kris Shaffer of the University of Mary Washington’s Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies for their guidance on this project.ĭavid T. We would like to to thank all of the contributors to the site, as well as those who responded to a survey to help us collect information for our visualizations.
#Historia de david y mical professional#
We also have mapped his professional networks of colleagues and students, which radiate from Charlottesville across the world.ĭavid’s colleague David Haberly remarked in his post that David “is simultaneously enlightened and romantic in all the best senses of the terms.” He is head and heart, and we hope this site is not only able to give that sense of David Gies, but also to reflect our love and admiration back to him.
We use Voyant text analysis tools to compare posts on the site from different categories to reveal his impact in various settings. Lastly, the section “Visualizing David’s Impact” uses some digital humanities tools to look a his career in some different ways. We’ve collected the many photographs submitted into several photo galleries. These contributions of text, images, and video are searchable by various categories: by institutions (Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas for example), by relationships (former students for example), by institutions (University of Virginia for example), and by author.
They also document David’s important contributions to the university, his field of of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Peninsular Spanish studies, and to the creation of the strong academic programs of study that the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese offers today. The greetings, memories, and tributes posted from many of David’s colleagues, students, and friends collectively speak to his influence on the University of Virginia, Hispanism, and the Charlottesville community. Thus the impetus for this site, which was coordinated by Jeff Bersett and Betsy Lewis.Ī biographical sketch gives an overview of David’s accomplishments and the many accolades he has earned, while his curriculum vitae gives an even more detailed view of his impressive productivity and contributions to UVA and the profession. He just wanted to hear from his colleagues, students and friends, “on a blog” he suggested. “They’re expensive and no one reads those anyway!” he exclaimed. When we approached David about organizing a festschrift volume in his honor, his response was that he didn’t want one.
This site was created in celebration of David Gies, Commonwealth Professor of Spanish, upon his retirement from the University of Virginia, where he has served for almost four decades as professor of Spanish literature and culture academic advisor to countless undergraduate and graduate students Chair of the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Chair of the Faculty Senate and Dean of Semester at Sea, among many other roles.
0 kommentar(er)
