Dr. Gordon E. McNeer, a Spanish professor at NGCSU, is spending the acadmic year 1998-1999 on leave of absence.   The Administration granted Dr. McNeer an academic leave of absence so that he could assume the
directorship of the International Institute in Madrid, Spain.
            As Director, McNeer has been responsible for the budget, for coordinating cultural events which are sponsored by the Institute and are open to the public, for hiring and supervising the staff, and for working with the Director and staff of the library. McNeer called the library a "cornerstone of the Institute." He has also been responsible for administrative relations with the American programs currently installed at the Institute and with the Fulbright Commission and the US Embassy in Madrid.
            "The International Institute in Madrid was founded...as an educational facility for women...It has evolved into a prestigious cultural center," stated McNeer. "The Institute currently supports as many as thirty American Studies Abroad Programs," said McNeer who is actively involved in many projects to further the opportunities of American students who study in Spain.
            Another project which assists Spanish students who are studying in the US is "Operation Return," a program run jointly by the International Institute and Arthur Andersen, a major accounting firm in Madrid. The purpose of this program is to interest Spanish post graduate students in the United States in returning to work in Spain," said McNeer. During Christmas vacation, McNeer and his counterpart at Arthur Andersen, Carlos López Combarros, held a job fair at the Institute for returning Spanish graduate students. "It was quite successful," said McNeer.
            McNeer participated in the Fifth International Congress sponsored by the University of Alcalá de Henares, presenting "Imágenes poéticas entre España y Estados Unidos." He has also organized a conference concerning "U.S.--Spain Trade Relations in the 21st Century" which was held in April and sponsored by the American Embassy in Madrid, the Carl Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia, and Arthur Andersen. Doctors James A. Verbrugge and Glenn C. Ames from the University of Georgia were invited to speak. The conference was made possible through a $3,000 grant awarded to the Institute by the US Embassy.
            Professor McNeer's translation of  New York Notebook by Jose Hierro was published in Madrid while he was still at the Institute. It has also been accepted for publication in the USA in Lawrence Ferlinghetti´s City Lights Press.
            "I came here to be close to the poet José Hierro, and the experience has been one of the most rewarding in my life," said McNeer. "His family has been very generous with its time. We have spent Sundays together, and I have a lot of trouble separating the man from the myth."
            Hierro, McNeer says,  has won both the Premio de la Crítica and the Premio Cervantes this year. For the latter prize, McNeer had the honor of attending the festivities at Alcalá de Henares and the National Palace which were hosted  by the King and Queen of Spain; "this honor is what Spaniards call the Spanish Nobel."
            McNeer has also met other Spanish poets and writers. "My main interest is 20th century Spanish poetry," he explains. He has met poets Carlos Bousoño, who teaches at the Institute, Claudio Rodríguez, Felipe Benítez Reyes, Eugenio Suárez Galbán and Benjamín Prado. He has met novelists Francisco Umbral, Almudena Grandes, and Ray Loriga.
            He has also met scholars Fernando Diaz Plaja, Juan Marechal and Carlos Galán. He has discussed the possibility of exchange programs for students in the University system of Georgia with Dr. Gregorio Peces-Barba, President of the Juan Carlos III University, and Saturnino Aguado, Director of the Center for North American Students at Alcalá de Henares.
            Dr. McNeer has traveled several times to Spain. His interest in Spanish stems from his family because his mother and maternal grandmother were from Mexico. He received a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from Princeton. While at Princeton, Dr. McNeer worked at El Banco de Urquijo, a bank in Madrid, one summer. He has traveled to Spain several times since the 60's. Because of the benefits that he has derived from living in Spain, he has encouraged many students to participate in the Santander program which he coordinates at NGCSU.
            During his time abroad, McNeer says he has most enjoyed "the daily experience of living in Madrid. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Lennet Daigle for his support of this experience. I had to leave NGCSU on very short notice in order to accept this position, and it would not have been possible without the help of  Dr. Daigle and many members of the
Department of Language and Literature."