Latin American & Caribbean Studies

International Institute, University of Michigan

LACS Events - Fall 2005

Friday, September 30, 2:30-4:30pm, in the Vandenberg Room (2nd floor) of the Michigan League

LACS looks forward to The Atlantic Studies Initiative (ASI) first lecture of the year in the continuing Colloquium Series, What Is The Atlantic? The lecture is entitled Public Rights and Private Commerce: A Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Creole Itinerary , and will be presented by Professor Rebecca J. Scott, the Charles Gibson Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Law.

Friday, September 30, at 5 pm, at Shaman Drum Bookshop (313 S. State)

Professor Rebecca Scott will present her new book, Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery . As Louisiana and Cuba emerged from slavery in the late nineteenth century, each faced the question of what rights former slaves could claim. "Degrees of Freedom" compares and contrasts these two societies in which slavery was destroyed by war, and citizenship was redefined through social and political upheaval. Both Louisiana and Cuba were rich in sugar plantations that depended on an enslaved labor force. After abolition, on both sides of the Gulf of Mexico , ordinary people--cane cutters and cigar workers, laundresses and labor organizers--forged alliances to protect and expand the freedoms they had won. Rebecca J. Scott is Charles Gibson Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan .

Tuesday, October 4, 3-5 pm, University Library Instructional Center, 4059 Shapiro.

Nerea Llamas , the UM Latin America librarian, will present "Introduction to Latin American Research Resources." This session is aimed at new and continuing graduate students who would like to familiarize themselves with the University Library's collections related specifically to Latin America & the Caribbean . Along with an overview of the printed and microfilm collections, we will cover a variety of databases including HAPI: the Hispanic American Periodicals Index and HLAS: the Handbook of Latin American Studies. We will also discuss other electronic resources, such as newspapers and full text journals. No registration is required. If you are interested in the session, but cannot make this day and time, please contact for an appointment at nllamas@umich.edu .

Wednesday, October 5, 12:00 pm, in Room 2227 at the Art and Architecture Building

The Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department present Sonia Marques, a leading Brazilian scholar of architecture and urbanism, with a Ph.D. from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and a long teaching and research career in Brazil at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (1975-1997) and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (1998-present). Some of her recent publications in English include "The Mystery of the Social Sector: Discussing Old and Emerging Spatial Structures in Brazilian Contemporary Homes" and "We Are Almost in Heaven: An Analysis of Upper and Upper-Middle Class Residential Tower Building in Brazil ."

She will be giving a lecture entitled Lost in translation: French vs Anglo models of Architectural Education. This talk will focus on Professor Marques's research at the Laboratory of Potential Architecture (LEAP) in Montreal , Canada , which compares French and the Anglo models of architectural education.

Wednesday, October 5, 4:00pm, at Shaman Drum Bookshop, on S. State St .

Please join us for a book party to celebrate the release of Alexandra Stern's new book, Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America .

Many people assume that eugenics all but disappeared with the fall of Nazism, but as this sweeping history demonstrates, the idea of better breeding had a wide and surprising reach in the United States throughout the twentieth century. With an original emphasis on the American West, Eugenic Nation brings to light many little-known facts--for example, that one-third of the involuntary sterilizations in this country occurred in California between 1909 and 1979--as it explores the influence of eugenics on phenomena as varied as race-based intelligence tests, school segregation, tropical medicine, the Border Patrol, and the environmental movement. Alexandra Minna Stern is Associate Director, Center for the History of Medicine, and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and American Culture at the University of Michigan . She is coeditor, with Howard Markel, of Formative Years: Children's Health in the United States , 1880-2000 (2002).

Thursday, October 6, 12-1 pm, 2609 School of Social Work/International Institute

Professor Sonia Marques will be leading a Bate-Papo entitled A idéia de casa no cinema brasileiro contemporâneo. This talk -- in Portuguese -- will address representations of the Brazilian home with a class and gender perspective. The Bate-Papo is a series of informal meetings of students, scholars, and invited guests to discuss issues of broad contemporary interest. Conversations will be primarily in Portuguese, but accessible to beginning Portuguese students. Refreshments will be served.

Friday, October 7, at 2 pm, in 1014 Tisch Hall (History Colloquium room)

The Anthropology and History Workshop will be discussing Sarah Arvey's paper: " Honest Maidenhood and Good Customs in Cuba, 1933-1959 ." Sarah is completing her dissertation in the Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History.

Friday, October 7, from 4:00-6:00 PM, in 1636 International Institute/SSW building

Please join us to celebrate at our LACS Annual Fall Party and help us welcome our new LACS faculty and students! Festivities will begin at 4:00 with a Round-table featuring new faculty members from seven schools/departments. At 5:00, join us for Latin American refreshment, music, and mingling. The Round-Table is entitled New Research in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at UM, and will boast the participation of Christine Erdmann (School of Public Health, Epidemiology), Eduardo Kohn (Anthropology), Fernando Lara (Architecture and Urban Planning), Ivonne del Valle ( Romance Languages and Literature), Kate Jenckes (Romance Languages and Literature), Paulina Alberto (History and Romance Languages and Literature), Paul Fine ( Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) and Paul C. Johnson (History Department and Center for Afroamerican and African Studies).

Tuesday, October 11, at 4 pm, at Shaman Drum Bookshop ( 313 S. State St .)

Shaman Drum welcomes Professor E.J. Westlake to celebrate the release of her new book, Our Land Is Made Of Courage and Glory . Our Land Is Made of Courage and Glory covers the political and theatrical history of Nicaragua and Guatemala . Westlake examines the plays of Manuel Galich, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Alan Bolt, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, and others to discern the common characteristics that constitute nationalist plays, a genre that seeks to legitimate the nature of a nation by defining its boundaries, race, language, citizens, and history. E. J. Westlake, an assistant professor in theatre studies at the University of Michigan , has taught theatre history, American drama, and playwriting at Auburn University and Bowling Green State University . She has published essays on Latin American theatre, community-based theatre, and public art.

Thursday, October 13 , at 4 pm, at Shaman Drum Books ( 313 S. State St .)

Shaman Drum holds a book party for Professor Ifeoma Nwankwo (English and CAAS), for the publication of her book Black Cosmopolitanism: Racial Consciousness and Transnational Identity in the Nineteenth-Century Americas ( University of Pennsylvania Press , 2005).

Thursday, October 20, at 4 pm, in room 120 Hutchins Hall (Law Quad)

The International Law Workshop and the School of Law present the Dean's Special Lecture: Luiz Olavo Baptista , member of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization and Professor of International Trade at the University of Sao Paulo , will speak on " Facts and Rules in the WTO ."

Tuesday, October 25, at 8 pm, at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater ( Michigan League)

In Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Center for World Performance Studies & the Program in Latina/o Studies proudly present José Torres Tama and his solo performance, " Between the Pen & the Sword ." Torres Tama combines personal stories, bilingual prose, incantations, movement, and rituals of fire to explore the Latino immigrant experience and the search for the "American Dream" within an urban setting. José Torres Tama is a New Orleans-based artist who tours nationally and internationally, fusing multiple genres in the visual arts, bilingual poetry, sound art, and installations into his solo performances and youth performance workshops. A featured poet of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, he is also the recipient of a Louisiana Division of the Arts Theater Fellowship, and a Regional Artists Project Award from the NEA (1996). Mr. Torres Tama's one-week residency at U of M is being generously co-sponsored by: American Culture, LACS, Romance Languages and Literatures, School of Art & Design, Theatre and Drama, CAAS, and Arts of Michigan. Schedule: 7 pm, Salon of Student Performances. 8 pm, “Between the Pen & the Sword.” Free Admission . Info: www.torrestama.com

Tuesday, November 8, from 12-1 pm, in Room 2609 of the SSWB/International Institute

Professor Fernando Lara (Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, UM) will be leading the Bate-Papo entitled: “Disseram Que Eu Voltei Americanizada: A Troca de Influências Arquitetônicas entre Brasil e Estados Unidos, 1939-1964.” Brazilian modern architecture has traditionally been seen as a tropical offspring of Le Corbusier with emphasis on free form. Although there is some truth to this view, it is now clear that it is a highly reductionist view of what might have been one of the world's most successful modern projects. While the relationship between Brazil and the European avant-garde has been thoroughly investigated, little attention has been focused on the exchanges between North and South American architects. Yet, U.S. cultural policies in the 1940s played a major role in publicizing Brazilian modernism abroad, and this successful southern modernity was an important influence in the United States the following decade. Brazil 's influence on postwar architecture has never received the attention it deserves, especially in North America . Reciprocally, North American influence has been downplayed in Brazil for a number of reasons that will be discussed in this talk.

The Bate-Papo is a series of informal meetings of students, scholars, and invited guests to discuss issues of broad contemporary interest. Conversations will be primarily in Portuguese, but accessible to beginning Portuguese students.

Thursday, November 10, 12-1 pm, in Room 2609 of the SSWB/International Institute

Please join us for a Bate-Papo with Professor Timothy J. Powers who will be presenting on ‘O Governo Lula e a Democracia Brasileira.' The victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002 was a watershed in Brazilian political history, but recently the government has been plagued by accusations of corruption. What does this mean for the sustainability of democracy in Brazil? Professor Power will analyze the roots of Lula's victory, his performance in his first three years, and scenarios for the 2006 elections.

Timothy J. Power is the University Lecturer in Brazilian Studies and a fellow of St. Cross College at the University of Oxford. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Helen Kellogg Institute of International Studies, University of Notre Dame. A specialist on contemporary Brazilian politics, Dr. Power is the current president of the Brazilian Studies Association

Friday, November 11, 12-1 pm, in Room 2609 of the SSWB/International Institute

As part of its Graduate Student Brown Bag Series, LACS presents Ximena Soruco Sologuren (Ph. D. Candidate in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, UM) and “La chola como ‘prostituta' en la literatura criolla boliviana, 1900-1925.” This essay addresses the Bolivian national project from the perspective of Criollo literature about Mestizos and Cholos, between 1900 and 1925. Ms. Sologuren argues that modernity in this Andean country is constructed not only around the ‘Indian question', but also through the barbarization of Mestizos/Cholos. The novels analyzed narrate Cholas as prostitutes (they exchange sexual favors for political and economic influence), and therefore delegitimize their reproductive and symbolic role in the nation (their sons are bastards). To this literary reading, she counterpoints a historical approach that reveals intense processes of Cholos' social rise and economic accumulation, a threat to which the novels are responding. Ximena Soruco is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan . This paper is part of her dissertation “La emergencia de la cultura chola en Bolivia , 1850-1950”, to be defended in December, 2005. Currently, Ximena is a Professor at the Universidad Estatal Bolivar in Cuenca , Ecuador , and she plans to continue her work and research in Bolivia . Her interests are Andean national discourses (literature and visual arts), and Indigenous and Cholo social movements in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Friday, November 18, 12-1 pm in Room 2609 SSWB/International Institute

As part of the LACS Bate-Papo Series, Alvaro Nascimento (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , Brazil ) will be leading the bate-papo entitled: ‘Poder, Raça, e Classe no Rio de Janeiro do Pós-Emancipação.' Focusing on the period following the abolition of slavery in 1888, Nascimento will address differences among workers. How did previous distinctions between slave and free workers influence the organization of labor after emancipation? What kinds of relationships developed between immigrant and Brazilian-born workers? What role did race, gender, and age play in marking differences in the working-class population? These questions will be addressed through analysis of two major instances of popular resistance: the Vaccine Revolt of 1904 and the Sailors' Revolt of 1910. Álvaro Nascimento holds a Ph.D. in History from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil . His publications include various articles on Brazilian social and military history and the book A ressaca da marujada : recrutamento e disciplina na Armada Imperial. He is currently Assistant Professor of History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International and Comparative Studies, Northwestern University, where he is developing research about the jongo, a dance form developed under slavery in the Serrinha community of Madureira, Rio de Janeiro.

Wednesday, November 30, 12-1pm, in 2609 SSWB/International Institute

Shinsuke Uno (SNRE) and Brenda Lin (SNRE) will be leading the second of this semester's LACS Brownbag Series with a presentation on “Sustainable Coffee Agriculture in Chiapas, Mexico: from ecology to economics.” Coffee agroecosystems are diverse agricultural systems that cover much of Latin America. Its traditional form includes many layers of shade canopy cover that serve as habitat for various organisms. For this reason, traditional coffee agroecosystems have received much attention among conservationists as refuges for biodiversity.

Protecting traditional systems of coffee may also be beneficial toward protecting crop production from global climate change. Climate data from Southern Mexico show trends in decreasing annual precipitation and increasing temperatures in the last forty years. This change in climate is a challenge to farmers who need rainwater to maintain crop production. Studies show that traditional coffee systems are capable of maintaining more water within the agricultural crop layer than technified coffee systems. However, current trends show that more technified coffee agroecosystems are replacing these traditional coffee systems, and the value of coffee agroecosystems for biodiversity and water conservation is rapidly being lost.

Brenda Lin is a doctoral candidate in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. She is interested in the ability to maintain ecological benefits in disturbed habitats and is currently studying sustainable coffee agroecosystems in Southern Mexico. Shinsuke Uno is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He is interested in biodiversity conservation in agroecosystems and its practical benefit. His current research focuses on the diversity of parasitic wasps in coffee agroecosystems of southern Mexico.

Thursday, December 8, 12-1pm, International Institute, room 2609

For the next LACS Bate-Papo in our Fall Series, Paulina Alberto (History, RLL) will be talking about “Os Bailes Soul e o Movimento Negro Carioca nos Anos 70.” Paulina Alberto is assistant professor of History and Romance Languages and Literatures, working on questions of race and national identity in modern Latin America. Specifically, her work focuses on black intellectuals' and activists' involvement in defining Brazil's multi-racial identity in the 20th century .

Thursday, December 8 , 3-5pm, International Institute, room 2609

Please come to the Caribbean Workshop Opening Reception which will serve as the official inauguration for the 2005-06 Caribbean Workshop Series. The goal of this reception is to facilitate contact across departments and to initiate communication between students and professors whose work focuses on the Caribbean. At this event, the organizers will also present to the academic community the schedule for upcoming presentations and related events.

LACS hours and staff. The LACS office is open 8-5. Mercedes Santos runs the LACS front desk (763-0553). Bebete Martins is the guru of LACS events and programming. David Frye is in charge of LACS student advising and is available for walk-ins and appointments between 11 am and 3 pm daily. Sueann Caulfield is Acting Director through Fall 2005. Fernando Coronil will return as Director in Winter 2006.

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