Spring 2019 Newsletter

Dear all,

We hope everyone’s semesters have gotten off to a good start, and we are looking forward to hearing more about what you all have planned for this semester! Here are updates/from our network:

Brown - Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS):
Storytelling in the Americas: Journalism, Gender, Fiction, and Borders

This lectureship has been organized by Erica Durante and Kate Goldman of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at Brown University. The funds for the series have been provided by the Charles K. Colver Lectureships and Publications.

The aim of this lecture series is to address several important contemporary issues related to storytelling in the Americas today, including the role of journalists in writing about and on borders (geographic, literary, etc.), the relationship between journalism and fiction, and the role of women in contemporary journalism in the Americas.

Over the course of the 2019-2020 academic year, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) will host several US-based scholars and journalists who represent perspectives from across the region. We will engage students, faculty, and other members of the Brown community, as well as members of Providence and Rhode Island communities, and -via webcasts of the events- the international community.

Our fall 2019 speakers were Boris Muñoz (New York Times), Nina Álvarez (Columbia University), and Ashoka Mukpo (ACLU). Information about our spring 2020 events will be published on our website in the coming days.

Columbia - Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS):
Visiting Scholars at Columbia´s Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS)

This Spring Semester, ILAS will host over 15 Visiting Scholars from throughout the region. Among our visitors this semester is our Tinker Visiting Professor Ricardo Gutierrez, a Political Scientist from the National University of San Martin, with expertise on environment and resource politics. We are also hosting two Lemann Visiting Public Policy Fellows this academic year, consisting of Ilona Szabó, a leading expert on crime, violence, and public security in Brazil, who works at the Instituto Igarapé (an “independent think and do tank devoted to integrating security, justice and development agendas”) and Alexandre Schneider, who is the former Secretary of Education for the Municipality of São Paulo and affiliated with Fundação Getulio Vargas. For additional information about current Visiting Scholars please see: http://ilas.columbia.edu/about-ilas/scholars-fellows-teste/

Upcoming Conferences at Columbia´s Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS)

New Ruralities in Mexico: Phenomenology and Genealogies
Friedrich Katz Memorial Conference 2019-20
February 20-21, 2020, Center for Mexican Studies Columbia University, Location TBD

This year’s Friedrich Katz Memorial Conference, to be held at Columbia University, shall be dedicated to the exploration of the phenomenology of new ruralities in Mexico, and to establishing some of the historical parameters of this great contemporary transformation. Thus, alongside an anthropology and sociology of Mexico’s new ruralities, we hope to develop at least some rudimentary guidelines for the study of their multiple historicities, with special attention to emerging class formations, new life-worlds, the renegotiation of property relations, family and community structures, environmental degradation, and political expression. These are subjects to which Friedrich Katz made robust contributions during his time, including in his classical essay on peonage and haciendas during the Porfiriato, and in his distinctive view of agrarian politics presented in his masterwork on Pancho Villa, to name two salient examples. For additional conference details please contact Renata Del Riego (rd2759@columbia.edu).

The Erosion of Political Responsiveness and the Stretching of Populism:
Latin America in Comparative Perspective
March 27th, 2020, in room 1501, International Affairs Building (420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027).

Latin America is the region of the developing world with the most continuous and extensive experience with democracy. The promise of democratization that characterized the third wave has seen several regional trends that built into a historical legacy of shared political experiences since early decolonization in the nineteen century. Since independence, Latin American young republics promised popular sovereignty to different degrees but often failed to delivered on those promises. This conference seeks to investigate the linkage between popular discontent, polarization, and the emerging of ‘populist’ options that stretch across very different political offers. The legacy of a ‘populist’ historical experiences in Latin America and its implications for sociocultural and economic inclusion of subordinate sectors including in terms of art and urbanization is crucial to understand contemporary political and societal expectations. The tensions between the experience recognized as ‘populist’ in the region with many aspects of liberal democracy is also important to understand what are its implications as the concept is stretched to

include very different policies in other regions of the world and even in Latin America. The panels are thus organized to assess those historical legacies the entrance of ‘the people’ in the Latin American political arena and its policy and sociocultural implications as well as contemporary changes in society and voters’ demand for responsiveness. We also seek to understand the supply provided by political systems to these demands in terms of its connections to the citizenry. The last panel seeks to put the Latin American experience in comparative context to assess what are the lessons and what can be learned from other regions where popular discontent has led to political offers also classified as ‘populists’, which even when different in policy content may have generated similar challenges to crucial political institutions of liberal democracy. Among the speaker highlights are included Saskia Sassen and Jorge Castaneda. This conference is a collaborative initiative with NYU´s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS). For a full agenda and additional details, please see: http://ilas.columbia.edu/the-erosion-of-political-responsiveness-and-the…

Rethinking Nature and Society in Latin America
Friday April 24, 2020, in room 1501, International Affairs Building (420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027).

In the last few decades throughout Latin America there have been substantial changes to nature and the ways in which societies envision, engage with, and inhabit nature. The region has witnessed increased attention to sustainable development and green growth, along with the strengthening of environmental policies, institutions, and governance. While, on the surface, the overall long-term trends in environmental governance and valuation may appear to be favorable, contradictory impulses and setbacks are evident, with many instances of acute or systemic conflicts between rural livelihoods, environmental protection, the dominant economic development paradigms, and land and resource-use policies. Furthermore, in many countries in the region, the last few years have been marked by intensified efforts to dilute environmental regulations and the social protections and rights of rural peoples. Better understanding current trends in the politics of nature is of critical importance for maintaining healthy ecosystems, promoting equitable and sustainable economic systems, safeguarding human rights, and furthering democratic governance in the region. Considering the context delineated above, Rethinking Nature and Society in Latin America brings together experts in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities from Columbia and outside institutions to participate in a highly interdisciplinary discussion of nature and society in Latin America. Engaging varied disciplinary and national perspectives the conference takes a regional approach to land and natural resource use policies and politics on the premise that there are important social, economic, political, human rights and environmental interlinkages between different countries in the region that can provide the foundation for productively rethinking nature in Latin America. This conference is made possible through the generous support of the Tinker Foundation. Among the conference speakers are included Marina Silva, Eduardo Gudynas, Alberto Acosta, Susanna Hecht, Ben Orlove, Ricardo Gutierrez, and Anthony Bebbington. For a full agenda and additional details, please see: http://ilas.columbia.edu/rethinking-nature-and-society-in-latin-america/

UNAM-Boston - Center for Mexican Studies:

Here is a list of some scholars who will be visiting us this year. Exact dates are still to be confirmed but we will let you know as soon as possible:

Alonzo Ruizpalacios, March 17th, 2020
- Alonzo Ruizpalacios is a rising star among the new generation of Mexican directors, after Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron. His work is highly original, engaging with Mexico’s recent past in provocative ways. “Güeros,” a revisionist cinematic exploration of politics (Mexico’s student movement of the 1990s) and of auteur cinema (Nouvelle Vague) has been acclaimed worldwide. The NEw York Times described the film as “a flip-book history lesson, one that evoctes the pain and comedy - the pop, the politics, the tedium and momentousness - of a particular moment in the endless, cyclical chronicals of youth and disillusionment.”
Carmen Alanis, March 2020
- Mexican woman and Juris Doctor (J.D.). Until November 2016 she was Justice of the Federal Electoral Court. From 2007 to 2011 she was the first woman President of the Electoral Court. For 30 years dedicated her life to the public service of Mexico. Today she is Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School (2017-2018) and Consultant for Latin America at the Kofi Annan Foundation. Her specialization focuses on the rule of law, access to justice, gender parity and equality, political violence against women, democracy and electoral integrity. Director of the Center for Mexican Studies of the National University of Mexico in Boston (UNAM Boston) from April 2018 until January 2019.
Emilio Rabasa, March 2020
- He served as General Consul of Mexico in Boston and Mexican ambassador before the Organization of American States. Currently Dr. Rabasa is full time researcher at UNAM’s Institute for Legal Research, professor of constitutional law in UNAM’s School of Law and at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
Francisco Cervantes, Abril 5, 2020
- Specialist in informatics, distance education and educational technologies. Dr. Cervantes has served as President of the Mexican Academy of Informatics, President of the Online and Distance Education University of Mexico, and Vice Provost for Open University and Continues Education of UNAM.
Érika Bárcena, June 25-26, 2020
- Senior member of UNAMs Institute of Law Research. She is an expert on Human Rights and the traditional legal practices of rural Mexican communities
Alberto Vital, September 2020
- Dr. Domingo Alberto Vital Díaz holds a Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg in the area of Hispanic Studies, he also holds graduate and Undergraduate degrees from UNAM. He is a distinguished member of the Hermeneutics Seminar of the Institute of Philological Research at UNAM, he has studied the works of Rulfo, Rilke, Borges, Neruda and García Márquez, among others. He recently edited a “History of the literatures of Mexico” and this year he will present his work on Pedro Páramo around the 65th anniversary of its first edition.
Sergio Aguayo, October 2020
- Sergio Aguayo is a Mexican academic and Human Rights activist who has taught at UNAM, CIDE and is professor emeritus at Colegio de México. He writes regularly for the OpEd section of Reforma newspaper in Mexico and El País in Spain.

Also, we will organize a 2-days conference regarding the Tren Maya project, initiative of the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This event will take place in April 2020 at UMass Boston.

Moreover, we will host an event at our house institution UMass Boston to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of UNAM-Boston with Pedro Ángel Palou as keynote speaker on October 23, 2020. We would like to extend an invitation to the whole network to join us.

University of Pennsylvania - Latin American and Latino Studies Program:
Upcoming events sponsored or co-sponsored by the Latin American and Latino Studies Program.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020 (3PM) María Pilar de Fernández about her work on the Chagas disease in Peru. Lerner Center 102.
Friday, February 21, 2020 (6 PM) “La revolución nos mal-cogió: Politics of Identity and the Left in Central America Today” a part-performance, part-discussion event with Gabriel Miranda and Elyla Sinverguenza, Nicaraguan artists. Location: Annenberg Center 3rd floor
Monday, March 2, 2020 (6 PM) Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro will present “Calle de la Resistencia: Narrative, Poetry and Perreo Combativo from an Afrolesbian Boricua” Location: Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk

Latin American and Latino Studies External Speaker Series (LALSES)

The Latin American and Latino Studies External Speaker series (LALSES) brings invited guests to the University of Pennsylvania, some of whom will lecture with LALS cross-listed classes, to expand and deepen our intellectual understanding of Latin America and Latinxs across disciplines. It also aims to foster dialogue and possibilities for collaborative research between Penn faculty and scholars from across the Americas. Refreshments or lunch are usually served. The following is a list of LALSES events in the 2019-2020 academic year:

Thursday, March 26, 2020 (5 PM). Aline Helg, Professor Emeritus, University of Geneva. “Self-liberation before abolitionism in the Americas” Professor Helg has written extensively about race relations in LA and has recently published a book on slave resistance with UNC Press. Hosted by Roquinaldo Ferreira, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History. Location: College Hall 209
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 (4:30 PM) Valeria López Fadul, Assistant Professor of History, Wesleyan University, will present “The Cradle of Words: Language and Knowledge Making in Early Latin America” on invitation from Prof. Melissa Teixeira. Location: College Hall 209
Friday, April 3, 2020 TBD William I. Robinson, Professor of Sociology at University of California at Santa Barbara, will present “The Global Police State.” Invited by Prof. Jennifer Ponce de León, Assistant Professor of English. Dr. Robinson’s research focuses on macro and comparative sociology, globalization and transnationalism, political economy, political sociology, development and social change, immigration, Latin America and the Third World, and Latina/o/x studies. Location: Fisher-Bennett Hall 401

Latin America and Latino Studies Internal Speaker (LALSIS) Series

The Latin American and Latino Studies Internal Speaker (LALSIS) Series is an interdisciplinary forum for the presentation and discussion of research about Latin America or Latinos conducted by the faculty and advanced graduate students of the University of Pennsylvania.

The LALSIS Series has four main objectives. First, presenters receive constructive feedback on their on-going research from colleagues in their field and other disciplines. Second, the members of the Penn community learn about and from the eminent scholarship of colleagues and students on campus. Third, the interactions taking place in LALSIS solidify an interdisciplinary community with interests in Latin America and Latinos at Penn. Fourth, such interactions facilitate future collaborations in teaching and research.

Most of the LALSIS events this year have had approximately 30 persons in attendance. For the past two years, they are almost always held at the Forum of the Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics. All of them take place on Tuesdays at noon, and lunch is always served.

Here is the tentative schedule of LALSIS presenters for the 2019-2020 academic year: (This upcoming year the talks will take place from 12 to 1:30pm on Tuesdays in the LALS/ASAM Conference room in the 4th Floor of McNeil, 3718 Locust Walk, unless otherwise noted.

Tuesday, February 11th- Thomas Conners, Ph.D. Candidate, Hispanic & Portuguese Studies: “Feeling What’s Not There: Latinidad and Affect in Carmen Maria Machado.”
Tuesday, March 3rd - Marlén Rosas, Ph.D. Candidate, History: Recording Resistance: “Indigenous Activists: Archives and Power in Twentieth-Century Highland Ecuador.”
Tuesday, April 7th - Aldo Anzures Tapia, Ph.D. Candidate, Educational Linguistics: “A Long Way for Quality Education, let alone Language Reclamation: Opportunities and Challenges in Indigenous Early Childhood Education in Mexico.”
Tuesday, April 21st- Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Associate Professor, Department of History

Yale – Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies (CLAIS):

It has been a wonderful fall semester. The work we do at CLAIS is so important, and I am thankful for you allowing me to be a part of it and lead these efforts. We have accomplished a lot this semester, from hosting several conferences and cultural events, including the Old and New Challenges to Mexican Democracy and the Latino & Iberian Film Festival at Yale, to our well-attended CLAIS Colloquia Lunchtime Series. We were also delighted to have Tinker Field Research Grant fellows present on their summer research. Thanks to our support from the Tinker Foundation, we have been able to award even more funds for student research in Latin America, especially those in our graduate affiliates network (over 70 students!).

We are excited to continue our programming with two areas of focus on next semester. We will focus on Brazil, and we will host our second Brazil Activities Fair on January 24 and a conference on Brazil and Public Health in collaboration with faculty at the Yale School of Public Health as well as Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Brazil on April 3. We are also launching a lunchtime colloquia series around the theme of protests, repression, and democracy in Latin America. Related to this theme on current protests and unrest, we also have a few other exciting events planned this semester.