Hélène de Fays
Education
Ph.D., Latin American Literature, supporting program performance arts, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004MA, Spanish, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997BA, Finance, Kent State University, 1991BS, International Relations, Kent State University, 1991
About Professor de Fays
Hélène de Fays' main objective as a teacher is to help her students to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Hispanic world, its language and its cultures. As such, in her classes, she strives to awaken her students’ consciousness to the wealth of the Hispanic cultures, to motivate them to go beyond what we do in the classroom and to inspire them to further explore the Spanish-speaking world, by taking more advanced classes, studying abroad or travelling independently.
During her years at UNC, she has had the opportunity to teach a broad range of courses at a variety of levels. She has been in the vanguard of educational innovation and, in order to enhance the language learning experience, she strives to incorporate technology into the classroom through applications of the World Wide Web, the use of Power Point activities, electronic discussion forums such as Voicethread, and the development of materials in electronic form. As a direct result of her interest in utilizing technology to its full potential in the classroom, she co-authored El mundo hispano a lo largo de los años, an electronic textbook that includes historical and literary readings, biographies, maps, and pictures of art and artifacts. This text was first published in 2008 by Great River Technology, a division of Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company. It is now in its second edition.
In addition to teaching, she is currently the course coordinator for Spanish 330 (Cultural History of the Hispanic World I), Spanish 331 (Cultural History of the Hispanic World II) and Spanish 340 (The Cultures of Contemporary Spain), as well as co-coordinator for Spanish 204 (Intermediate Spanish II) at UNC.
Publications, Articles, & Presentations
de Fays, Hélène and Larry D. King. El mundo hispano a lo largo de los años. 2nd ed. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 2014. http://www.grtep.com
“From 1984 to Sueños digitales: The Dystopian Novel in the Age of Globalization.” A contracorriente 3.1 (2005): 114-47.
“The Revolutionary Empowerment of Nature in Gioconda Belli's The Inhabited Woman.” Mosaic 38.2 (2005): 95-110.
“Neo-Luddism in a Mexican Novel: ¿En quién piensas cuando haces el amor? by Homero Aridjis.” CiberLetras 4(2001): 23 pars.
Typical Courses
Undergraduate courses
Cultural History of the Hispanic World I
Cultural History of the Hispanic World II
Introduction to Spanish and Spanish American Literature
Intermediate Spanish II
de Fays' has also served as reader for undergraduate Honors Thesis on such topics as Identity and Linguistic Policy in the Catalan Context and The Independence Movements of South America.