Galician Studies Group Founded at UMaine Wins International Award

The International Galician Studies Association, founded by professor of Spanish Kathleen March in 1985 at the University of Maine, has been awarded the Premio Nacional da Cultura Galega (National Prize for Galician Culture) from the Galician government, A Xunta. The Galician studies association seeks to increase awareness of Galician language and culture worldwide, and has developed its goals chiefly in the academic area of higher education.

The honor recognizes the work begun 27 years ago by people who valued the minority language and culture as a valid area of research and teaching, according to March.

Since its creation in Orono, the association has expanded and holds a conference every three years in places that include Brown University, City University of New York, Oxford (England), Trier (Germany), Havana, Barcelona, A Bahia (Brazil), Santiago de Compostela and ,in September, Cardiff, Wales.

The 2015 conference of the Asociación Internacional de Estudos Galegos is scheduled to be held in Buenos Aires, where thousands of Galician immigrants arrived in the 19th century and many more arrived as political exiles after the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939.

Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756