My name is Manuel Garzon, and I am a fifth year in the Ph.D. program of the Hispanic Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, I am a Ph.D. candidate and my academic research focuses on colonial Hispanic America, especially on decolonial historiographical and literary texts written by authors of indigenous descent. My dissertation explores the literary world of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the first self-identified author of indigenous history in Hispanic America. In analyzing his works, I look at the decolonial features of Inca Garcilaso’s writing: his veiled criticism of the Hispanic Colonial system, his complex sense of irony, and the development of novel literary strategies that would later influence modern forms of historiographical, narrative and political writing. With my dissertation I hope to cast light on the decisive and pioneering role of this early modern non-European author in the development of modern letters. As such, I hope that my dissertation contributes to the decolonization of the Hispanic literary canon, and opens up new vistas to other authors and problematics that can radically challenge the traditional Hispanic canon.

Now, this decolonial approach is also a main element in my pedagogy and teaching philosophy. Both in curriculum development as well as in my everyday lesson planning, I strive to challenge traditional forms of language and culture teaching, by incorporating histories, perspectives and dialects of minorities and marginalized peoples. With this, I hope to expose students to a more nuanced and complex understanding of the Hispanic world, very much in tune with our increasingly diverse academic milieu. In this sense, I take a decolonial approach to be both a theory and a praxis.

Such decolonial approach to my pedagogy has also shaped my mentoring skills. After teaching almost all levels of Spanish as well as Hispanic history and culture courses, I have established strong and productive mentor–mentee rapports with students, obtaining excellent results. Students of diverse backgrounds and different professional inclinations have sought my guidance and support to launch their professional careers whenever Spanish plays a major role. Of my former students, two have traveled to Latin America for both academic and professional internships, one has begun their graduate studies in Spain, and three have engaged with local organizations that provide either healthcare or legal services to the Spanish-speaking population of Western PA. My mentoring approach has revolved around the idea of adjusting my expertise to the professional inclinations of each of my mentees: helping students find their own use of the language skills and knowledge of Hispanic culture in the different career paths they are most inclined to pursue. Business, healthcare, law and academic work in the social sciences have been the types of careers former students have chosen. I am very pleased to have contributed to their professional development. 

Based on these professional and academic interests as well as my expertise as mentor, I was selected to work with Dr. Joel Brady and Treviene Harris of Pitt’s Teaching Center to develop video-based case studies for The Mentoring Academy of Center for Mentoring initiative. This summer micro-internship had the primary goal of transforming already written mentoring case-studies into video scripts as well as creating new ones. These case-studies correspond to the eight mentoring competencies upon which Pitt’s mentoring academy advances its work. By the end of the summer, the goal was to complete the eight scripts corresponding to the eight mentoring competencies and possibly the recording of one or two videos. When I finished the internship in July, I was happy to have completed the eight scripts as intended, in addition to the recording of one test video. I very much look forward to see the results this semester.

Reflection

The Humanities Engage summer Administrative Micro-Internship with the Mentoring Academy at Pitt’s Teaching Center was one of the most rewarding and creative experiences I have had during my doctoral time at Pitt. When I started the internship, I did not really have a clear picture of what my role was going to be. However, my supervisors, Dr. Brady and Treviene Harris, helped me channel my skills and find the best way for me to contribute to the project. Quickly, Dr. Brady, Treviene and I realized where our strengths were. So, as a team, we thought that my skills and previous mentoring experience would be best utilized in assessing the Mentoring Center’s case-studies and transforming them into scripts. Having the freedom to create these scripts was an incredible and very formative experience. Each week, I would carefully study one or two of the case-studies, assess its virtues and flaws, and write one or two scripts for future workshops. One time a week, Dr. Brady, Treviene and I would have a long meeting where we all revised my work, made corrections, suggestions and changes. These meetings were deeply formative in terms of professionalism and teamwork. Not only was I able to present my work as a colleague and peer, but I was also reminded of the value of my ideas, even when those ideas were challenged or modified. Every week, I was thrilled to see how my previous mentoring and professional engagement with students informed each of the situations and characters that I created for the scripts. As such, the scripts that I created––with the constructive criticism of Dr. Brady and Treveiene––reflected the challenges, needs, and problematics that mentors and mentees encounter when they are peoples of diverse backgrounds, sexual orientations, ages and interests. Additionally, I also had the opportunity to discover a creative vein in me. As a scholar of literature and cultural studies, my job was often to critically and methodically analyze other people’s creative works. However, I never thought I could be a creative author myself. Writing scripts for this Mentoring Center’s project allowed me to explore my creative skills with very gratifying results. Finally, this internship also introduced me to the world of video–editing. Although, we did not reach the stage of actually shooting the videos, I had the opportunity to take two virtual video–editing workshops with Max Glider at the Teaching Center.

To conclude, this summer micro-internship not only allowed me to put my previous academic and mentoring experience into practice, but also gave me an understanding of contemporary pedagogical work outside the traditional classroom interaction. The design of virtual workshops on pedagogy as well as the development of pedagogical material like the video case-studies seem to me like a great professional opportunity for me in the future. Projects like this, as well as the overall work of the Teaching Center, are certainly places where my skills can be further developed and my passion for pedagogy can thrive. I very much thank the team at Humanities Engage and the Teaching Center for this opportunity.