SAMPLE SABBATICAL APPLICATION-LIBRARY SABBATICAL APPLICATION: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Transcription

1 SAMPLE SABBATICAL APPLICATION-LIBRARY SABBATICAL APPLICATION: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Abstract for Publication/Board Resolution: I am applying for sabbatical in order to further my doctoral studies in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at SUNY Stony Brook, for which my area of specialization is Latino and Latin American Studies. In addition to fulltime coursework (12 credits) for the semester, I will continue assisting Dr. Roman de la Campa, Chair of the department, with research for a book he is writing on Latino culture and literature in the United States, as well as related projects. Narrative on activity: According to the most recent figures from the Population Estimates Program of the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hispanic, i.e., Latino, population of the United States continues to rise. On the national level, the Hispanic population in 1990 was 22,372,000; this number is projected to reach 31,366,000 by the year 2000 and 41,139,000 by In fact, according to a recent Newsday article, the Hispanic population is estimated to constitute 17 percent of Long Island's total population by the year Closer to home, the aforementioned Population Estimates Program presently ranks Suffolk County as 46th out of 2,094 counties across the United States with the highest numbers of Hispanics. According to SCCC's Office of Institutional Research, in the fall of 1998 Hispanic students numbered 1,514 for the three campuses, with 608 being based on the Ammerman campus and 801 on the Western campus. Undoubtedly, these numbers continue to change the face of Long Island's communities and, thus, our institutions of higher education. As such, colleges and universities are responding to the growing diversity in their student bodies on a variety of levels, most notably by developing new curricula and programs on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In responding to these challenges, the State University of New York at Stony Brook has been aggressively engaged in hiring faculty with expertise in the respective areas of study, as well as developing new graduate programs to further the growing body of research. At present, the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures offers a variety of graduate courses relevant to Latino Studies, such as the course I completed in the fall 1998 semester, SPN 612: Latino Writers in the United States. It was after completion of this course that the professor, Dr. de la Campa, a distinguished scholar in the field, invited me to apply to the department for doctoral studies. By pursuing my Ph.D. in the emerging field of Latino and Latin American Studies, I will be among the first students in this new track offered through the department. In addition to encouraging my application, Dr. de la Campa, aware of my professional expertise in research as well as my interest in Latino Studies, has asked me to assist him with various research projects, most notably the book he is currently writing on Latino culture and literature in the United States. I have already begun working with him on this, as well as on related projects, e.g., identifying Latino film titles for a mini-grant being sought to create a departmental video library, and reviewing a manuscript for Columbia University Press regarding the historical and contemporary production of the "latinization" of New York. In addition to assisting Dr. de la Campa this semester, I am currently enrolled in SPN 552: Writing Violence in Colonial Discourses. The focus of my individual work for this course will be the relationship and impact this literature continues to have on contemporary

2 Latino writing and sociopolitical movements. In addition to holding an M.L.S., my academic background includes a B.A. in sociology plus 36 graduate credits in sociology from SUNY Binghamton. Both areas have thus far proven extremely useful in pursuing a doctorate in an area as interdisciplinary as Latino studies. I have further demonstrated my commitment to advanced studies by completing the prerequisite coursework in Spanish between the spring 1994 and fall 1996 semesters. This coursework includes: Spanish Conversation and Composition, Introduction to Literary Studies, Advanced Grammar and Composition, Introduction to Spanish-American Literature, The Culture & Civilization of Spain, Latino & Latin American Literature, and The Culture and Civilization of Spanish-America. If granted a fall semester sabbatical I will attend SUNY Stony Brook full-time. Contingent on finalized course offerings, my coursework would include Comparative Literary Theory, Translation Theory, Contemporary Film in Latin America and Spain, and Twentieth-Century Latin American Narrative. I am particularly interested in a fall semester sabbatical as Dr. de la Campa is assisting me in making arrangements to study in Merida, Venezuela this summer to enhance my oral fluency with the Spanish language. In addition to private tutoring over a course of approximately six weeks, I will also be attending seminars at the Institute for Literary Studies in Merida. A full load in the fall would allow for continued immersion with my second language. As a librarian for eight years, my professional background contributes immeasurably to both the pursuit of the Ph.D. as well as to the research I will be doing with Dr. de la Campa. The book on Latino culture and literature in the United States that I will be assisting him with over the course of the sabbatical will include an extensive bibliography on the respective areas of Latino cultural expression, as well as the current "boom" these areas are experiencing in academic as well as popular arenas. As such, I will be able to apply my expertise in using a wide range of technologies, from accessing online catalogs worldwide to advanced searching on specialized databases and the www, toward this end. The opportunity to integrate my expertise as a reference librarian with research related directly to the areas I will specialize in while pursuing my doctorate provides a unique opportunity, particularly as I continue to do so while working closely with Dr. de la Campa, who is renowned for his work in this field. Professional Benefit to Applicant: Coming from a Puerto Rican background by way of the Bronx, my academic interest in the field of Latino Studies is coupled with much personal motivation. As such, a brief review of my professional career as a public services librarian provides evidence of my continuous commitment to Latino Studies and concerns. Prior to coming to SCCC, I worked for two years for the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) as a reference librarian. Based on my personal and professional interests, one of my primary areas of responsibility included providing reference and research assistance to faculty, students, and staff utilizing the Chicano Studies Collection, one of the foremost collections of its kind. Shortly after coming to SCCC, I was invited by colleagues at UCSB to co-present a paper at a conference they were sponsoring based on my work in the Chicano and Black Studies Collections. The paper, entitled "Diversity and Diversifying in a Downsized Library," was later published by Neal-Schuman in The Upside of Downsizing: Using Library Instruction to Cope (1995). The presentation (and paper) dealt with how downsizing in libraries would impact underrepresented groups, particularly in matters of teaching, research,

3 and collection development. Both of these components relate directly to my responsibilities at SCCC as the library instruction coordinator, and as the librarian responsible for the following collections: Hispanic and Latino Studies, Spanish Language and Literature, Multicultural Studies, and Women's Studies. My long-standing commitment to Latino Studies has also been demonstrated through a variety of other forums, e.g., Lo Saben Las Montanas: A Visual Perspective on the Life and Times of Puerto Rican Women, which I presented as part of SCCC's Women's Week in This multimedia presentation, which combined photographic images with Puerto Rican and Nuyorican writing and music, was attended by a large audience from within the college as well as from the surrounding communities. The success of the program led to my accepting invitations to present it that same year at St. Joseph's College and the Brentwood and South Country public libraries. While advancing my work in Latino and Latin American Studies, I would like to create similar programs for SCCC as well as the surrounding communities. In fact, the Brentwood public library has offered their space as a venue for future programs. Along similar lines, in addition to having already researched titles for inclusion in the mini-grant mentioned in the narrative, in the fall semester I plan to take Contemporary Film in Latin America and Spain, and 20th Century Latin American Narrative, which will incorporate visual forms of cultural expression. As the collection development manager for the Latino, Hispanic, and Spanish collections, these courses will contribute to my knowledge of these areas with respect to making recommendations for the Media Resources Collection, which serves the three campus libraries. During my tenure at SCCC, I have participated in Latino-related programs on both the local and national level. For SCCC's Professional Development Committee's Lecture and Discussion Series At the Crossroads (1994), I co-presented "Hispanic Perspectives: When Cultures Meet." In 1997, I attended Understanding and Working Effectively with ESL Students in Mainstream Courses, a program offered through the Ammerman Campus' Teaching & Learning Center (TLC). As a member of the TLC Advisory Board and Program Committee, expanding my expertise in areas that pertain to issues of diversity would further enable me to plan and present similar workshops in line with the rapidly changing composition of our student body. On a broader scale, I have attended conferences which incorporate both my professional and academic areas of interest, such as Latinos and the Academic Library (1993), and have been involved in the organization of related forums, such as that sponsored by the American Library Association's Instruction for Diverse Populations Committee, "Teaching Diverse Populations: Do We Need to Change?" The cited statistics on Latino population and education provide us with an obvious answer to the above question, as well as provoke new ones. Likewise, library conferences such as those mentioned, further attest to the need for our institutions to develop collections that reflect the growing body of research being done in Latino Studies, as well as lend support to existing (e.g., the Hispanic Voice in American Literature and Global Literature) and future courses. The development of a Latino and Latin American Studies track by the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at Stony Brook also speaks to the need for such programs. Having the opportunity to pursue my coursework and research on a full-time basis at such a pivotal time would not only put me in touch with relevant developments in the field, but also put me in an advantageous position for addressing collection development and related library issues.

4 Having studied Spanish in Mexico for three weeks approximately 10 years ago, I am confident that studying in Venezuela this summer for six weeks will greatly improve my ability to speak Spanish fluently. Not only will this achievement be of great personal reward, having grown up in a mostly monolingual household, but, in considering the growing Hispanic population on Long Island as well as at SCCC, being bilingual will prove to be beneficial on a professional level as well. Benefit to the College: Statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reaffirm the need for colleges and universities to respond to the noted demographic changes, particularly in terms of the Hispanic and Spanish-speaking population. Findings from "The Condition of Education 1996: Minorities in Higher Education" point to the fact that in 1992, 20% of Hispanic seniors planned to continue their education at 4-year colleges and 26% at 2-year colleges (compared to 11% for either type of college in 1972). The same study showed that 31% of Hispanic high school seniors expected to complete graduate school, 31% to finish college, and 31% to have some college education. Bearing in mind Suffolk County's ranking as 46th out of 2,094 counties nationwide with the highest concentration of Hispanics, these numbers become even more potent. With the library serving as the heart of an educational institution, and the community college as the link between its community and higher education, SCCC would benefit from having well-prepared non-classroom faculty to assist in the continued development of curricula and programs. Fluency in the language of the discipline as well as in the spoken language would provide the necessary background to develop stronger print, electronic, and media collections. As Latino and multicutural studies are by nature interdisciplinary, further development of these areas would have positive ramifications across the board, e.g., the social sciences and humanities. Further, the premise behind developing strong library collections is that of providing support for existing and future courses and programs, as well as to aid and encourage faculty and student research. As we are all aware, today's libraries are undergoing dramatic changes, particularly in terms of technology. As a community college, therefore, it is imperative that we continue to provide equal access to information to all of our constituencies, both in terms of our collection, as well as through our services and resources. Having a bilingual full-time librarian, therefore, is a necessity in light of Suffolk County's growing Hispanic population. In fact, our own online catalog, as well as numerous online databases, can now be searched in both English and Spanish. In addition to full-time coursework, the research I do both for my classes as well as with Dr. de la Campa will be repackaged for submission to professional library and information science publications, such as Choice and The Multicultural Review, which both feature thematic bibliographic essays regularly. Upon completion of the coursework for the master's level, I will also possess the credentials necessary to teach classes in the areas of Latino Studies and literature and Spanish language and literature, providing a further benefit to the college. In fact, it is my understanding that for the first time a special topics course in Latino literature will be offered during the fall 1999 semester on the Ammerman campus. As our student body continues to diversify, it is extremely important that we offer them the resources and courses by which to see themselves. Based on my own academic experiences, I believe this is one of the keys to encouraging students to

5 become actively engaged in learning. By advancing my doctoral studies on a fulltime basis for one semester and assisting Dr. de la Campa with research for a book dealing directly with my area of specialization, I will be seizing an opportunity to combine my studies with my expertise as a librarian. This in turn will enable me to further my commitment to Latino Studies as well as to actively contribute as the college embraces its changing community. Thank you for your consideration of my application for sabbatical.