June 2, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — On June 3, UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) assistant Professor Mario Chandler, Ph.D., will arrive in Spain for a two-week mission to research the African presence and influence on Spanish history, culture and literature. The Louisville native and former Atlanta resident’s research trip will be the second excursion featured on WOW.UAB.EDU, the first interactive university research Web site.

WOW.UAB.EDU lets viewers interact with UAB researchers and students as they travel around the world and is designed to educate K-12 and university students, teachers, researchers and the general public about the research at UAB. The Web site was launched in January with a voyage to Antarctica with UAB biologists James McClintock, Ph.D., and Charles Amsler, Ph.D., from the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Chandler, 28, a scholar of Spanish in the UAB Department of Foreign Languages, will share photographs and his personal journal entries on the Web site as he travels to the cities of Madrid, Salamanca, Granada and Valladolid. He will visit the National Library in Madrid and the University of Granada as he searches for manuscripts that highlight the black African presence in pre-modern Spanish literature and society and materials on Juan Latino, a black, 16th century scholar.

While in Spain, Chandler also will look for documents that speak to African slavery in Spanish society such as legal codes, punishment decrees and announcements for runaways or rewards for their return. He also will talk with black Africans for insights on what it’s like to be a black person living in Spain and examine the problem of racial discrimination and the recent wave of anti-immigration sentiments.