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English Professor Presented at Global Studies Conference

Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Dr. Bethany Hicok, Westminster College associate professor of English, presented a paper at the Global Studies Conference July 18-20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Hicok's paper, "Elizabeth Bishop's Brazilian Translations," was part of a panel on "Elizabeth Bishop's Globalization in the 1950s and '60s: A North American Poet in Brazil."

During Bishop's time in Brazil (1951-1974), she translated a significant body of Brazilian literature, including a 300-page adolescent memoir, several stories by Clarice Lispector, and many poems by a number of Brazil's major poets.

Her final translation project, as co-editor of an anthology of 20th-century Brazilian poetry, was the first to introduce English-speaking audiences to Brazilian poetry. 

In the paper, Hicok argued, "We find ourselves at a moment of high interest in Brazil, which coincides with a serious academic focus on translation studies in the humanities.  In this current climate, Bishop's ethical process of translation has much to teach us and our students about the value of cultural exchange between and across linguistic and national boundaries."

Hicok, who joined the Westminster faculty in 2001, earned an undergraduate degree from Russell Sage College and two masters and a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.  She is the author of Degrees of Freedom: American Women Poets and the Women's College, 1905-1955.  She is also the co-editor of a new book of essays on Bishop, Elizabeth Bishop in the 21st Century, forthcoming from the University of Virginia Press in 2012.  She has published articles on Bishop, Marianne Moore, and Wallace Stevens; contributed chapters to two books; and delivered papers on American poetry at professional conferences. 

Contact Hicok at (724) 946-6349 or email hicokbf@westminster.edu for additional information.

Dr. Bethany Hicok