ArConexiones: Conference by and for ISU's Spanish Graduate Students in the Department of Anthropology and Languages
Virtual Conference in 2026
Saturday, February 7th, 2026
9 AM - 4:00 PM MST
To register for the virtual conference (9am-4pm on Saturday, Feb. 7th, 2026), click here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Call for Papers
Meet our Keynotes for 2026!
Dr. Jason A. Kemp
(WIDA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
Dr. Jason A. Kemp is an Assessment Researcher at WIDA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He participates in language testing research projects focused on K-12 multilingual learners and their educators. At WIDA, Jason also contributes to the development of English language proficiency assessments. Previously, he taught Spanish in a variety of contexts in Florida, Wisconsin, and Illinois and worked with future world language educators in teacher certification courses. His current research interests include affect in K-12 language testing, language assessment literacy, and critical care in the language classroom. Jason is a member of the editorial board of Dimensions, published by the Southern Council on Language Teaching where he co-edited the 2024 special issue focused on bridging language education fields. Jason completed his PhD in Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a MA in Spanish from the University of Central Florida and BAs in Spanish and sociology from the University of North Florida.
Dr. Heidi Backes, Professor of Spanish
(Missouri State University, USA)
Dr. Heidi Backes is a professor of Spanish literature and cultural history at Missouri State University. She specializes in the relationship between modern Gothic fiction and fascism, with a particular emphasis on the Franco dictatorship and its aftermath in 20th century Spain. Her articles on Spanish Gothic have appeared in numerous journals, most recently in Gothic Studies, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and the Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies. Her first book, Spectral Spain: Haunted Houses, Silent Spaces and Traumatic Memories in Post-Franco Gothic Fiction (published by the University of Wales Press in 2024), examines the haunting motif in eleven Gothic novels from the post-Franco era, using theory from memory and trauma studies to analyze the spectral presence of sociopolitical trauma in contemporary Spanish Gothic. Her second book, Fascist Female Gothic: National Catholicism and the Politics of Fear in Spanish Fascist Women’s Writing, 1937-1945 (currently under contract with the University of Wales Press), studies the use of the Gothic mode by fascist women writers during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, positioning the Gothic as the mode of choice for an elaboration of fascist propaganda under the early National Catholic dictatorship, which made strategic use of fear and monstrosity in order to convince Spanish women to join the fascist cause and support Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini.