The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Davis has announced that thanks to a generous gift from Roberta Lee Johnson (BA and MA, UC Davis; professor emerita, University of Kansas), the UC Iberian Studies Consortium has been formed, and will be headquartered at UC Davis.
The UC Iberian Studies Consortium promotes the study of the languages, literatures, and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula, including Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, Euskara/Basque, and Asturian. It was founded in 2011 by Robert Patrick Newcomb (UC Davis) as the UC Comparative Iberian Studies Working Group, and received seed funding from the UC Humanities Research Institute. It has hosted nine meetings at six UC campuses, including UC Davis. Newcomb and Silvia Bermúdez (UC Santa Barbara) have co-directed the group since its founding.
Robert Patrick Newcomb will serve as the Consortium’s inaugural Director, with Silvia Bermúdez serving as Co-Director. The Advisory Board will consist of Eloi Grasset (UC Santa Barbara), Covadonga Lamar Prieto (UC Riverside), and Santiago Morales-Rivera (UC Irvine). Ana Peluffo (Chair, UC Davis Department of Spanish and Portuguese) and Ryan Advincula (Assistant Director of Development, UC Davis College of Letters and Science) will work with the officers to manage and build upon the Consortium’s endowment.
The Consortium will hold a meeting at UC Davis in May 2024 to honor the gift, career, and academic interests of Roberta Johnson, who has been a devoted member of the group since its inception.