Fulbright Journey to Spain

June 26th (Sat), 2021, 12pm (Noon; Pacific Daylight Time)

Join Zoom meeting with this link:

https://pdx.zoom.us/j/87344459659

Meeting ID: 873 4445 9659

Elena San José Martínez (she/her)

I am Elena San José, from Madrid, Spain. I have a degree in law and my last year of study was at the Université Paris XI, with an Erasmus scholarship. For a decade I practiced as a lawyer, specializing in civil and commercial law.

My vocation to develop projects in the interest of the common good finally led me to work in the Public Administration in Spain, and after a tough selection process in 2005 I started working as a civil servant. Since then, I have been involved in projects to improve the Social Security System, the assistance to Spanish people living abroad, and in recent years I have worked in the Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda Department where initiatives are implemented, among others, for the development of rural areas through new technologies. On the other hand, I have participated in programs held for the modernization and improvement of the Spanish Public Administration.

In 2019 I was granted with a Fulbright scholarship, and nine months later I obtained a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit and Public Management by the College of Urban and Public Affairs, Portland State University. A great opportunity to learn, to share experiences in the Public Administration and to have a look about what’s happening in the US. I loved Portland and the portlanders!

Coming back to Spain in June 2020, I started to work for the Labor Ministry, in charge of the elaboration process of the new labor laws and regulations in a Covid-19 environment, with the aim to protect employment and guarantee the workers rights. It’s been a very busy year, always with my Fulbright experience around and helping me in my new responsibilities.

Passions & Interests: I love my job, but my passion is my family, my husband, my three kids, my siblings, cousins… we’re a big family! I also enjoy reading, going to theatre, seeing movies and spending time in the nature. I loved visiting Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks and spending the night in a RV by the Monument Valley.

Suzanne Dunai

I completed my doctoral degree in History at the University of California San Diego with previous degrees from Texas A&M University (dual BA) and the University of New Mexico (MA). I completed my dissertation research in Barcelona and Madrid with funding provided by the Fulbright Student Research Grant, the Hispanex Grant awarded from the Spanish Culture Ministry, The Cherwell Studentship Award from the Oxford Symposium for Food and Cookery, and the Frontiers in Innovation Scholarship from the University of California, San Diego. My dissertation, Food Politics in Postwar Spain: Everyday Life during the Hunger Years, 1939-1952 investigates the impact of food policies on the practice of everyday life in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

My dissertation was advised by Dr. Pamela Radcliff and my Spanish mentor is Dr. Maria de Carmen Simon Palmer in the Center for the Studies of Humans and Society at the High Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) in Madrid. My broader interests include food studies, women and gender studies, and the practice of everyday life during dictatorship. I recently published a chapter on taste and food strategies in Spain during the war titled, “Homefront Cooking: Eating and Daily Life in in Republican Cities during the Spanish Civil War” in the volume edited by James Matthews, Spain at War: Society, Culture, and Mobilization, 1936-1944, published through Bloomsbury Press with a Spanish translation through Alizanza press.

I currently live in Portland, Oregon and work as an independent scholar. I have several publications under contract and am working to revise my dissertation into a monograph. I have enjoyed giving back to the Fulbright program this year as secretary of the Fulbright Association Oregon Chapter.