Our beloved colleague, Joy Renjilian-Burgy, Associate Professor emerita of Spanish, died on January 14 at the age of 81.
Joy retired from the faculty in the summer of 2022 after 43 years of service. Over that long career here, she was one of the College’s leading experts in foreign language and literature pedagogy, a brilliant instructor of Spanish, a mentor, ally, and friend to generations of students and alums, and a tireless advocate for educational equity.
Joy was committed body and soul to this community: it often seemed that there was no meeting or lecture she did not attend, no varsity athletic team she did not cheer on, no cultural event or Shakespeare Society play or Ruhlman or Tanner panel she missed. For more than four decades she was a fixture in our collective life.
Joy came to Wellesley in 1979 after doing her graduate work at Harvard and with an A.B. in Spanish from Mount Holyoke College. Her excellence as an instructor was recognized with the award of the Pinanski Prize just four years after her arrival here.
She taught the complete sequence of introductory, intermediate, and advanced intermediate language courses in Spanish, and also developed a broad suite of literature courses, ranging from Christians, Jews, and Moors: The Spirit of Spain in Its Literature to Latin American Film, Hispanic Literature in the United States; and Cuban Literature and Culture.
She taught a Writing course on Love and Death in Spanish Writers and important Education department courses on World Language Methodology and on the Theory and Practice of Teaching English as a Second Language.
Her expertise in pedagogy was deployed not just in our classrooms but in the co-creation of Spanish language textbooks, multi-media language programs, and readers, all of which became widely adopted and appeared in multiple editions.
Joy’s professional standing was exemplified in the leadership roles she played in numerous organizations: she was president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (MAFLA), the Spanish Cultural Association of New England, and New England Council on Latin American Studies.
Her service here at Wellesley was similarly distinguished: she was Chair of the Spanish department, co-director of Latin American Studies, founding and long-serving director of the College’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, co-creator and executive director of our study abroad program at the University of Cordoba in Spain, faculty representative to the Wellesley Aid Society, our Faculty Athletic Representative for the NCAA, and the director of a summer bridge program for entering students in the 1980s and 1990s.
Joy grew up in a family of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and she often traced her ethic of service and community to that fact. In addition to all her professional service, she was active in the Armenian community. She was president of the Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA), a life trustee of the Armenian Library and Museum of America, and co-editor of several volumes of Armenian literature.
Service to students was at the heart of Joy’s remarkable contribution to Wellesley. One of her students once described her as “hands down the most giving professor I know”. Many recalled the small acts of kindness she so often performed – driving them to the train station before fall or spring break, helping them return books to the library in the pouring rain, lending them jewelry to wear in interviews. Her students noted that she was blessed with a first name that suited her perfectly. I will leave the last word to one of those grateful students,
“Joy gives all of herself to her students both as a professor and as a mentor. I remember being amazed at the degree of energy she exhibited at student events after a full day of classes and committee meetings. She was the only professor we knew [who] would be present at our student sponsored poetry readings and lectures. I realize now that Joy is able to access a wealth of resources within herself because she approaches her job with profound love. This love allows Joy to define her job as a professor in a broad and generous manner.”
Please join me in a moment of silence for Professor Joy Renjilian-Burgy.
