Alumni Spotlight
April 21, 2017
This week we catch up with S&P Alumni Willyam Thums. Willyam has been diligently working towards a PhD and second Master’s degree since graduating from UNM in the spring of 2017 with a Master’s degree in Portuguese. Read about this dynamic Alumni below.
“I am currently finishing my second year PhD in Hispanic Literature and Cultural Studies at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C. Here at Georgetown, I have dedicated my research to contemporary Mozambican, and Brazilian authors. My investigations deal with themes such as violence, afro religions, and trance. As far as teaching obligations, I am responsible for two of the Advanced Portuguese courses in our department, and am also an active participant in the Portuguese coffee hours. After taking French at UNM, I decided to incorporate Italian to my daily life. I have successfully completed all advanced courses in Italian and just passed the Italian proficiency examination here in Washington. This upcoming year, I am taking a break from languages (phew!). While I start writing my doctoral thesis, I am also being awarded a second Masters of Arts from Georgetown University. This time in Hispanic Literature. Time flies in the nation's capital, so the heavy course load allied with investigations at the Library of Congress have gotten me as busy as a bee in these past two years. Nevertheless, I have started my first novel of short stories (!)- which will be finished by the end of the year. One of the chapters has already been published through the University of Wisconsin, Madison (Zona de Carga, no. 7, 2016).”
