It took him 16 years of studying part time on nights and weekends while working full time and raising a family to complete his engineering degree at UB, but Felix Smist, B.S. ’65, of North Tonawanda, N.Y., kept at it. To honor his father and help students who experience similar situations, Felix’s son James Smist, B.S. ’80, and his wife, Mary, have established the Felix Smist Scholarship at UB with their gift of $30,000.
| MoreI used to get criticized when I first came to the FBI for being a social worker, for being too much of a social worker. I can remember the grumbling: “Grrr, social worker.”
My first arrest was a... | More
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What Writers Decide to Talk about
by Margarita Vargas
Through the 1999 Convergencias Hispanicas conference organized by professors Elizabeth Scarlett and Gus Puleo, the Puerto Rican writer Rosario Ferri came to Buffalo. Her visit was certainly a coup for the department.
Rosario Ferri discussed the concept of the house in Latin American and Latino literature. It was more or less an overview, starting with Spain. Architectural space, in Ferri's novel in particular, serves to discuss racial issues: there's a hierarchical structure in the house that corresponds to the races that occupy it. You have the servants living down in the basement, and then the landlords or white owners above.
Ferri's talk was much more descriptive than analytical, and I think that was disappointing for some members of the audience. This reminds me of Umberto Eco's visit in the late '80s. And that's a funny story, in terms of what writers come and decide to talk about.
Eco's popular The Name of the Rose, either as the novel or the movie, had just come out. For the most part, people were expecting him to talk about The Name of the Rose in his presentation at the Kiva. Instead, he gave a theoretical presentation on semiotics!