Prof. Kietrys Wins Prestigious Boswell Fellowship

Professor of Hispanic Studies Kyra Kietrys has received the prestigious Boswell Family Faculty Fellowship for 2019-20.

The Boswell Family Faculty Fellowships were established by Tom and Cheryl Boswell to honor the exceptional education their sons experienced at Davidson. Boswell Fellowships provide salary, travel, and research funding for one or two faculty members each year to extend a sabbatical to a full year. Professor of English and Thomson Professor of Environmental Studies Annie Merrill also received the 2019-20 fellowship.

During most of her sabbatical year, Kietrys will be working on three continuing projects revolving around Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira, a prolific writer and political figure on Spain's liberal intellectual scene in the early 1930s. Known simply as Hildegart, she advocated for working class and women's rights in ways that were then progressive.

Kietrys will work on the Archivo Hildegart project, a curated digital archive of Hildegart's work and its reception over time, as well as a collaborative translation of fictional writings with Hispanic Studies major, Katie Kalivoda '14 (Duke University, MA '18). Kietrys will also be working on a scholarly article that will examine the visual paratexts of works that reintroduced Hildegart to Spain in the 1970s, as Franco's fascist dictatorship was coming to an end.

During her sabbatical, Kietrys will continue to coordinate the Spanish in Davidson Elementary School (SiDES) volunteer partnership program with her advisees and mentees.

Kietrys is looking forward to this important work and is "deeply grateful to Davidson College and the Boswell Family for the funding that will allow me the opportunity to delve into my research and also remain connected to the community."