Julia Kushigian has been the faculty / staff liaison of the Camel women's soccer team since the program was officially adopted during the spring of 2018. She has been advising the program since the 2013-14 academic year.
As the Hanna Hafkesbrink Professor of Hispanic Studies and Social Justice and Sustainability Pathway Coordinator on campus, Kushigian puts the liberal arts into action in her courses. She encourages a rigorous and interdisciplinary development of critical skills and individual expression in her students. From her authorship of a computer-based History of Hispanic Art course, to upper level sequences in Myth, Folklore and Legends, Foreign Language Methodology and Second Language Acquisition, and Postcolonial Coming-of-Age Narratives, she promotes an inquiry into the complexities of postmodern life.
Through an analysis of problems regarding social justice, environmental justice and "Othering," her approach is to intentionally bridge analytical, problem-solving skills, with the robust, flexibility of the liberal arts tradition.
Kushigian was on sabbatical leave from 2013-2014 during which time she worked on the completion of two manuscripts: “Negotiating Intellectual Smugness: Rearticulating Orientalism, Hispanic and Self-Orientalisms,” a book-length study that contests received notions of East-West political, social and literary engagement, and "Crónicas orientalistas y autorrealizadas: Entrevistas con Borges, Fuentes, Goytisolo, Poniatowska, Sarduy, y Vargas Llosa," a unique collection of interviews that informs discourses on Orientalism and literary self-realization.
Professor Kushigian has held the following service and leadership positions at Connecticut College:
- Member, CAPT (Committee on Appointments, Promotions, and Tenure) 2011-2013
- Chair, Faculty Steering and Conference Committee (FSCC) 2010-2011
- Chair, Hispanic Studies Department 1993-1995, 1998 (Spring), 1998-1999, 2002-2005, 2014-2017
- Chair, Foreign Language Caucus, 2002-2003
- Chair, Gender and Women’s Studies, 2009-2010
- Associate Director, Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy, 2001-2002
- Director, Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts, 1995-199
She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut, a master's degree from New York University, and a Ph.D. from Yale University.
