Bridget Drinka
Dr. Bridget Drinka, Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English and Co-Director of the COLFA Semester in Urbino, specializes in historical and Indo-European linguistics. Her research focuses on such issues as the sociolinguistic motivations for language change, the role of contact in linguistic innovation, and the importance of geographical contiguity in the diffusion of changes across the Indo-European languages. Her 2017 book, Language Contact in Europe: The Periphrastic Perfect through History (Cambridge University Press), explores the complex development of a grammatical category as it spread across the map of Europe. The book was awarded the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award in 2019 by the Linguistic Society of America. Besides co-directing the COLFA Semester in Urbino, Dr. Drinka has participated as an instructor in the program for four semesters, teaching two linguistics courses, "Excavating Language" and "Language and Religion." In 2022, she organized a colloquium entitled "Excavating Language" which brought 12 renowned European historical linguists to Urbino to speak to her students and colleagues. At the same time, her students were participating in the "This is Our Classroom" project, working together in teams to build interdisciplinary projects, videos, and break-out sessions for their peers.
Drew Stephen
Dr. Drew Stephen is an Associate Professor of Musicology in the School of Music and Co-Director of the COLFA Semester in Urbino. His research covers a wide range of topics including the culture of the hunt in nineteenth-century music, performance practices of the natural horn, and the natural horn in contemporary composition and performance. During an extended residence in Urbino in 2018 he completed research for a chapter addressing traces of Jewish music and culture at the Urbino court of Federico da Montefeltro. The chapter was published In Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy: New Perspectives in 2022. During the 2022 COLFA Semester in Urbino
Devon Bradley
Devon Bradley is a first year PhD fellow in the department of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She earned her Master of Arts in 2022 from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with a concentration in Literature and Cultural Studies and film studies. Devon’s work has appeared in Mise en Scene: The Journal of Film & Visual Narration and ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture. Her current research analyzes representations and rhetorics of social justice in literature and film. Devon has presented her research at conferences such as the National and Southwest Popular Culture Association conferences, the Literature/Film Association annual conference, the 5th International Edgar Allan Poe conference, and the Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association annual conference.
Brandon Davis
Brandon is a Senior Music Composition student focusing on piano. He is also studying for a Music Technology minor. Growing up playing video games, he found the music in them to be quite interesting, so he decided to go down the path of music to see how it was made. Notably, one of his pieces has been featured in the New Music Festival here at UTSA in Spring 2023. After he graduates, he plans to continue studying for a Master of Music Composition in Italy.