LACS Latin American & Caribbean Studies International Institute, University of Michigan


LACS Events and Brown Bags, Winter 2000

January

TUESDAY January 18:
LACS Brown Bag, entitled "Thinking the Haitian Revolution," will feature Laurent Dubois, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Michigan State University. The event will be held at noon in room 2609, International Institute.

WEDNESDAY January 19:
LACS will host a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, roundtable entitled, "Re-Visiting Race in the Americas: Negritude, Metissage and Creolite in the Caribbean and Its Diaspora," followed by reception in room 2609, International Institute from 4-5:30 p.m. Participants include:Professor James Jackson (CAAS), roundtable chair, Professor Arlene Keizer (English/CAAS), Professor Ifeoma Nwankwo (English/CAAS), Professor Frieda Ekotto (Romance Languages), Professor Jossianna Arroyo (Romance Languages), Professor Frances Aparicio (Romance Languages), and Professor Julius Scott (History). This informal roundtable will provide a space for scholars of the Anglophone, Hispanophone, and Francophone Caribbean to exchange ideas on issues relating to métissage/mestizaje, créolité, and Negritude. This is an opportunity to generate a Pan-Caribbean dialogue that transcends the colonial trajectories of the many guises of the Caribbean Basin while inspiring new questions in the context of the Caribbean diaspora. We anticipate that the panelists' reflections will lead to an open discussion with the audience and with each other.

WEDNESDAY January 26:
There will be a Brown Bag Panel Discussion held at noon in the School of Public Health II, 3rd Floor North Conference Room (M3024) entitled, "Working with the Latino Community in the U.S." Participants and their subjects of discussion include, Yessica Diaz -- Dominicans in New York City & Policy in D.C.; Jay Pearson -- Migrant Farmworkers along the East Coast; and Javier Boyas -- Latinos in Southwest Detroit. The panelists will discuss how they secured jobs or internships working with the Latino community, what it was like to do this work, and their reflections on the experience. Come with your questions. Refreshments will be served. The event is sponsored by La Salud Professional Development Committee. For more information, contact Sara Skinner (skinners@umich.edu) or Liliana Fresneda (lfp@umich.edu)

WEDNESDAY January 26:
The International Institute and LACS will co-sponsor a Brown Bag Lunch with Professor Marco Antonio da Rocha at noon in Room 2609, International Institute. Rocha, Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission in Brazil, will be on campus to meet with students and faculty to discuss the Fulbright program in Brazil.

FRIDAY January 28:
The 2000 Aiton Lecture will feature Barbara Weinstein, who will speak on "Racializing Region and Regionalizing Race in Brazil." The lecture will be in room 1644, International Institute from 4-5:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.

February

WEDNESDAY/THURDAY February 9/10:
Paula Allen, documentary photographer, will present a series of lectures and photographic presentations. The series, entitled "Documenting Women's Struggles: The Power of Image and Intimacy," features Allen's recent work in Kosova and her decade long work documenting the search for truth and justice among women of Calama, Chile.
Schedule of Events:
WED, Feb 9, 3:40-5:00 p.m., Room 1636, International Institute:
"Bread, Salt, and Heart"
Slide presentation and discussion of Allen's work in progress documenting two villages in Kosova, separated by the Drini River, where Marta, a 32 year old woman saved 500 women and children from slaughter.
THURS, Feb 10, 4-5:30 p.m., School of Education Schorling Auditorium:
"Flores en el Desierto/Flowers in the Desert"
Slide presentation and discussion, including readings from her recently-published book by this title which documents the search by women of Calama, Chile for their loved ones executed and "disappeared" by forces of the military regime. Reception immediately following. This presentation is part of a series (in conjunction with LACS and the Residential College) on the politics of memory in Chile.
FRI, Feb 11, 12-1:30 p.m., LSA Executive Committee Conference Room
"The Power of Image and Intimacy"
Slide presentation and discussion tracing the history of Allen's long-term projects documenting women's stories and struggles in New York, Northern Ireland, Chile, Kosova, and, most recently, Cuba
FRI, Feb 11, 9-11 a.m., Room 3704 SSWB, Warner Seminar Room.
Paula will also be available to meet informally with students.
Please contact Janet Finn (jlfinn@umich.edu) if you would like more info.

FRIDAY February 18:
A special panel event entitled, "Beyond Walter Reed: Race, Labor, and Disease in the Panama Canal Experience," will be held at the William L. Clements Library, 909 S. University, University of Michigan between the hours of 3-5 p.m.
Session I. Race, Labor, and Disease in the Pre-Canal Americas
Professor Martin Pernick, Department of History, University of Michigan
"Race, Labor, and Yellow Fever in the Pre-Canal United States:
Brief Remarks on Some Unexamined Issues"
Aims McGuinness, doctoral candidate, Department of History, University of Michigan
"Health, Labor and the Transit Industry in Panama during the
California Gold Rush, 1848-1860"
Professor Sidney Chalhoub, State University of Campinas, Brazil
"Yellow Fever and Race in Nineteenth-Century Brazil"
Session II. Public Health in the Americas in the Canal Age
Professor David McBride, Department of African and African American
Studies, Penn State University
"Public Health in the Early Canal Zone: Reconsidering the Process and the Legacy"
Professor Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Health Policy and History, New School
University
"Locks and Keys: The U.S. and Public Health in Latin America,
from the Panama Canal to Puerto Mexico"
A reception will follow.
This program has been generously sponsored by Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the History of Medicine and Health Colloquium of the Program in Society and Medicine, and the Clements Library McGregor Fund.

TUESDAY February 22:
Leigh Payne, political scientist from Madison and author of Uncivil Movements: The Armed Right Wing and Democracy in Latin America, will present a LACS Brown Bag in room 2609, International Institute at noon. The title of this event is, "Confessions of Torturers."

March

MONDAY through SATURDAY March 6-11:
Professor Lucia Suarez, Assistant Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, will mount and curate an exhibition of photographs, entitled "Sambalele: Dance and Survival in the Brazilian Margins," in the International Institute Gallery. This exhibit documents "Sambalele," a community dance project inititiated and directed by the famous modern ballet dance company Grupo Corpo to aid the high-risk children of a favela (urban slum) in the central Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. The exhibit is co-sponsored by LACS, with possible speakers and presentations. Please contact LACS for information on speakers and presentations.

TUESDAY March 14:
Keila Grinberg, doctoral student, Universidade Federal Fluminense, will present a LACS Brown Bag in room 2609, International Institute at noon entitled, "Slaves' Legal Suits For Freedom: Manumission in Brazil and The United States."

MONDAY March 20:
Olivia Gomes, Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center at Harvard University, will present a LACS Brown Bag entitled, "Apprentices Anthropologists and Specialized Travellers: Anthropology, 'Race' and Nation in Brazil and Cuba During the 1940s." The event will take place at noon in room 2609, International Institute. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for African American Studies and the Department of Anthropology.

TUESDAY March 21:
Pedro Monreal, Senior Research Associate at the Centro de Investigaciones de Economia of the University of Havana, will present a LACS Brown Bag at 3:00 p.m. in room 2609, International Institute. Please contact LACS for more information.

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY March 22/23:
On these two days, Michelle Cliff poet and author of The Stone of a Million Items: Stories (1998), No Telephone to Heaven (1996), and Abeng (1995), will make many special presentations including those listed here. On Wednesday, March 22, at 5:00 p.m. in Rackham Amphitheatre, Cliff will present "INTO THE INTERIOR: A Reading of Recent Work." There will be a reception to follow in 1524 Rackham. On Thursday, March 23, at noon in Assembly Hall, Rackham, there will be a Symposium with Cliff entitled, "THE PAST AND THE PRESENT." Symposiasts for this event include: Lemuel Johnson (English), Ifeoma Nwankwo (English & CAAS), Marianette Porter (Art + Design), Jocelyn Stitt (English & Women's Studies).

THURSDAY March 23:
There will be a round table discussion on post-abolition societies entitled, "Beyond Slavery," with Robecca Scott, Professor of History, University of Michigan, and Frederick Cooper, Professor of History and CAAS, University of Michigan, in Tisch 1014, from 8-10 p.m.

TUESDAY
March 28
Peter Kornbluh will make two presentations on this day. The first will take place in Eliana Moya-Raggio's RC Humanities/Literature 410 class, "The Forbidden Memory of Chile," held in room 24-26 Tyler, from 11:10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. This is a class presentation entitled, "The United States and the Pinochet Case: Declassification; Accountability and Historical Memory," and is open to all. Kornbluh will also make a public presentation entitled, "Atrocity and Accountability: The Pinochet Precedent," which will be held in the LSA Building, Room 2554, from 4-6 p.m.

Wednesday, March 29, 4 pm
Maria Elena Cepeda (Romance Languages), "When Talk Isn't Cheap: The Politics of Chronology, Crossover and Spanish in Today's Latin Music 'Boom.'" A precirculated paper is available in the American Culture Community lounge (G-414 Mason Hall) by the coffee maker. At 4 pm in 4633 Haven Hall.

Wednesday, March 29
Society of Ethnobiology preconference roundtable on "Indigenous Intellectual and Natural Resource Property Rights," from 8 to 10 pm in the Hussey Room, Michigan League. Registration required (see below).

Thursday, March 30 - Friday, March 31: Society of Ethnobiology Annual Conference.
The conference opens at 8:30 am on Thursday in the Rackham building, with sessions on subjects such as "Medicinal Plants and Systems of Curing in the Contemporary Societies" and "Biodiversity and Traditional Resource Management" continuing through 5 pm on Friday. Registration is required but will be paid for by UM for enrolled students. (Contact LACS for the complete program.)

Thursday, March 30, 4 pm
Geraldine Franco (Sociology), "Señalando Diferencias: Union Organizing among Undocumented Mexican Workers in Chicago." A precirculated paper is available in the American Culture Community lounge (G-414 Mason Hall) by the coffee maker. At 4 pm in 4633 Haven Hall.

Friday, March 31, noon
Comparative Literature Brown Bag: "A Conversation with Ruth Behar and Maxine Hong Kingston." From 12:10 to 1 pm, in G115 Angell Hall.

Friday, March 31, at 4 pm
José Rabasa (Professor of Spanish, U California-Berkeley), "Of Massacre and Representation: Painting Hatred and Ceremonies of Possession in Protestant Anti-Spanish Pamphleteering." José Rabasa is the author of Inventing America: Spanish Historiography and the Formation of Eurocentrism (U. Oklahoma Press, 1993). He recently finished a book on the writing of violence on the northern frontier (forthcoming, Duke University Press), which studies issues of law, aesthetics and colonialism in both visual and written texts on 16th-century Florida and New Mexico. The talk will be held in the William Clements Library, 909 SOUTH UNIVERSITY.

Friday, March 31, at 4 pm
Michael Brown (Professor of Anthropology, Williams College), "Sacred Sites on Public Lands: Reflections on the Possibilities and Limits of Cultural Rights." At 4 pm in 2554 LSA.

Friday, March 31, 6 pm
Mestre Caboquinho from Bahia, Brazil, will speak on "Capoeira Angola: 500 Years of Resistance." From 6 to 8 pm in the Michigan Union, Pond room. This free public talk will open the "Capoeira Angola Conference at Michigan" (see below).

Friday, March 31 - Saturday, April 1: "Break the Chains of Debt."
A 2-day symposium at the School of Public Health (Building SPH 2, 109 South Observatory). From 7 to 9:30 pm on Friday ("Perspectives on Debt in the Poorest Countries of the World," speakers include Gustavo Parajón of Nicaragua), 9:30-11 am on Saturday ("Issues of Debt Cancellation" with World Bank representatives and their critics), and workshop sessions from 11 am to 4:30 pm Saturday. Register at (734) 821-2117 or email Break.the.Chains@umich.edu.

Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1: The Ninth Annual Charles F. Fraker Conference.
At the Michigan League this weekend: Friday from 6-9 pm and Saturday from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm. The following is an edited program for LACS interests:

Friday, March 31, Kalamazoo Room, Michigan League

6-7:20 pm, "Medieval Studies" papers

7:30 pm, Keynote Speaker Dr. George Greenia (College of William and Mary), "Pilgrimage as Therapeutic Exile."

Saturday April 1, Michigan League

8-9 am, Koessler Room, "Identity in 20th Century Latin America" (papers:)

8:30-9:20 am, Michigan Room, "Medieval Studies"

9:30-10:50 am, Koessler Room, "El Siglo de Oro y la Conquista"

9:30-10:00 am, Michigan Room, "Ethics and Pedagogy"

10:10­10:50 am, Michigan Room, Distinguished Guest Speaker Dr. Charles Ramirez-Berg, Department of Radio, Television, and Film, University of Texas, "Latino/a Stereotypes in Hollywood Film: Representations and Resistance"

11-12:20 am, Koessler Room, "Marginalized Spaces"

11­12:20 am, Michigan Room, "Latin American National Formation"

1:30­2:50 pm, Koessler Room, "French Modernisms"

1:30-2:50 pm, Michigan Room, "Modern Peninsular"

3-4:20 pm, Koessler Room, "Linguistics"

3-4:20 pm, Michigan Room, "Hispanic Women's Studies"

4:30-5:50 pm, Koessler Room, "Romanticismo Peninsular"

4:30-5:50 pm, Michigan Room, "Open Student Readings"

6 pm, Michigan Room, Presentation to Professor Emeritus Charles F. Fraker

April

Saturday, April 1, 10 am
Charles Ramirez Berg, Distinguished Guest Speaker at the Fraker Conference (see Conferences bulletin) will speak on "Latino/a Stereotypes in Hollywood Film: Representation and Resistance." Dr. Ramirez Berg is University Distinguished Teaching Professor and Associate Professor, Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas. As a leading scholar in the field of Mexican and Chicano/a film history and criticism, his publications include Cinema and Solitude: A Critical Study of Mexican Film, 1967-1983 (1992) and Poster Art from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, 1936-1957 (1997), and numerous articles. At 10 am in the Michigan Room at the Michigan League.

Saturday, April 1, 2 pm
"El Valor de Recordar/The Courage to Remember: A Photo Essay Documenting Chilean Memory of Pinochet's Dictatorship" is on display in the Rackham East Gallery (third floor, Rackham Building) through Saturday, April 15. This exhibit constitutes the LACS Senior Thesis of Hannah Meyers (web site: www-personal.umich.edu/~hkmeyers). The opening reception will be held Saturday, April 1, from 2 to 6 pm in the East Gallery.

Saturday, April 1 - Sunday, April 2: First Annual Capoeira Angola Conference At Michigan.
Cosponsored by LACS. In the Michigan Union. Capoeira Angola is an Afro-Brazilian martial art developed as form of resistance against slavery in Brazil.

You can register by e-mailing bsnead@umich.edu or calling (734) 994-0172; preregistration deadline is March 28. Pre-registration is $12 per workshop, $25 for all 3. On-site registration is $15 per workshop, $30 for all 3. For more info and to register, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hbriggs/

Thursday, April 6, noon
LACS Brown Bag! Anne Rubenstein will speak on "Bad Language, Naked Ladies, and the New Cultural History of Mexico." Anne Rubenstein is Assistant Professor of History at Allegheny College and author of Bad Language, Naked Ladies, and Other Threats to the Nation: A Political History of Comic Books in Mexico (Duke University Press, 1998). At noon in 2609 International Institute (SSWB).

Thursday, April 6, noon
Professor Sonia Larangeira (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) will present her work on "Privatization of Telecoms in Brazil." From 12:00-1:00 at the William Davidson Institute Seminar Room (in Sam Wyly Hall at the corner of East University and Hill Streets).

Friday, April 7, noon
Special brown-bag forum: "Sweatshops in the Global Economy," featuring international labor organizer Marion Traub-Werner of STITCH, Honduran union organizer Marina Gutierrez, and Delphi plant worker Omar Gil Aguilera from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Moderator: Ian Robinson of UM's Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. The speakers are all involved in organizing, advocacy and research of this important contemporary socioeconomic phenomenon. Sponsored by the Labor Studies Center (ILIR) and LACS. At noon in 3816 Social Work Building.

Friday, April 7, 4 pm
Scott Atran (Institute for Social Research), "The Spirit of the Commons: Ecological Rationality and Emergent Cultures in Mayaland." At 4 pm in 2554 LSA.

Sunday, April 9
Opening reception for "Ritmo de la Tierra / Rhythm of the Land: Photographs by Alicia LaValle," on display April 9 - 15 in the Pierpont Commons Atrium Gallery (North Campus). Taken in Esmeraldas and Valle Chota, Ecuador, these photos look at the connections between people, land, culture and music in the construction of identity. The reception features a presentation by Troy Peters on the reclamation of traditional Afro-Ecuadorian music. Reception, 7 pm, Pierpont Commons (2101 Bonisteel).

Monday, April 10, 8:30 am - 7 pm
End of Seminar Mini-Conference, "Comparative Caribbean: Fiction, Metaphors, and History of Caribbean Place, Space, and Self." This conference is organized by Professor Lucia M. Suarez and her Spanish 870 graduate seminar, and will be held in the Rackham East Conference Room. Abbreviated program:

Monday, April 10, 4 pm
The Atlantic Studies Seminar presents Tania Cypriano's 1-hour documentary "Odo Ya! Life With AIDS" (1997). (This film will be screened together with other short videos by Cypriano on April 12, see below.) The documentary looks at Afro-Brazilian approaches to treating and preventing AIDS in Brazil. The focus is on the unusual response of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble to the AIDS epidemic in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Bahia. At 4 pm in 2024 Tisch Hall.

Monday, April 10, 4 pm
Krzysztof Brzechczyn speaks on "The Collapse of 'Real Socialism' in Eastern Europe vs. the Overthrow of the Spanish Colonial Empire in Latin America." Professor Brzechczyn (Philosophy, A. Mickiewicz University) is Kosciuszko Foundation Research Scholar this year at the University of Illinois in Chicago. At 4 pm in 1636 International Institute (Social Work Building).

Tuesday, April 11, noon
LACS Brown Bag! Bianet Castellanos (PhD candidate, Anthropology) will speak on "Indigenous Autonomy and Agrarian Reform in Yucatan, Mexico." At noon in room 2609 International Institute.

Wednesday, April 12, 7 pm
Re-Envisioning the Social Body: Screenings and Discussion with Filmmaker Tania Cypriano. The filmmaker will be available for questions following the screenings of: "Viva Eu!" (1989, 18 min.), a portrait of an HIV positive Brazilian artist in exile. "Ex-Voto" (1990, 7 min.), a personal offering to Nossa Senhora Aparecida, Brazil's patron saint. And "Odo Ya! Life With AIDS" (1997, 58 min.), see description above. Currently based in New York, Tania Cypriano has worked with media in Cuba, Spain, Nicaragua, United States, and her native Brazil. Her films have been screened at international festivals and have won major awards in the United States, Brazil, and Burkina Faso. At 7:00 pm in 1400 Chemistry

Wednesday, April 12, 7:30 pm
Benny Cruz y la Buena Vida / Ballet Folklorico Estudiantil of Ann Arbor perform at the "Latino Spring Concert," Mendelssohn Theatre. Tickets are $6 and are available from <mexfolk@umich.edu> or by phone, 623-1753.

Friday April 14, 2 pm
Serafin Coronel Molina's Spanish 270 students will present a public poster session on the last day of classes, Friday April 14, from 2:00-3:00 pm in 2002 MLB. Students have worked together to research chosen topics and develop posters on a wide variety of themes related to the Hispanic world.

Saturday, April 15
You are invited to a special daylong event (9 am to 5 pm), "Sin Vergüenza (Shameless): Interdisciplinary Research on Latino/a Sexualities," a roundtable to be held in the Pendleton Room, Michigan Union. Featuring: George Chauncey (History, University of Chicago), Rafael Díaz (Center for AIDS Prevention and Studies, UC San Francisco), Ramón Gutiérrez (Ethnic Studies and History, UC San Diego), José Esteban Muñóz (Performance Studies, NYU), Frances Negrón-Muntaner (Producer/Director of "Brincando el Charco"), Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez (Spanish, Mount Holyoke College), and Patricia Zavella (Community Studies, UC Santa Cruz).Info: latino.studies@umich.edu, www.umich.edu/~lsconf.

EXHIBITS:

"Sambalele: Dance and Survival in the Brazilian Margins," an exhibit of photographs by Brazilian photographer Valeria Queiroga, curated by Prof. Lucia M. Suarez (Romance Languages). In the International Institute Gallery (first floor, II/Social Work Building) through April 15. This exhibit documents a community dance project inititiated and directed by the famous modern-ballet dance company Grupo Corpo to aid the high-risk children of a marginal community in the central Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.

"El Valor de Recordar/The Courage to Remember: A Photo Essay Documenting Chilean Memory of Pinochet's Dictatorship" is on display in the Rackham East Gallery (third floor, Rackham Building) through Saturday, April 15. This exhibit constitutes the LACS Senior Thesis of Hannah Meyers.

"Ritmo de la Tierra / Rhythm of the Land: Photographs by Alicia LaValle." Taken in Esmeraldas and Valle Chota, Ecuador, these photos look at the connections between people, land, culture and music in the construction of identity. On display April 9 - 15 in the Pierpont Commons Atrium Gallery (North Campus, 2101 Bonisteel).


For more information on events as they draw nearer call LACS at 763-0553
or e-mail at lacs@umich.edu.

This page last updated by David Frye on March 30, 2000. Copyright 2000, Regents of the University of Michigan.