Latin American & Caribbean Studies

International Institute, University of Michigan

LACS Events - Winter 2007

Friday, January 19, 12 pm, 2609 SSWB/International Institute

LACS Bate-Papo Series: Keila Grinberg, on "Manumission and Re-Enslavement in the Southern Frontier of the 19th Century Brazilian Empire." Dr. Keila Grinberg, a historian of comparative slavery and emancipation, is Associate Professor of History at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) in Brazil. Recent publications include "Slavery, Freedom, and the Law in the Atlantic World" (with Sue Peabody, 2007.) She is at the University of Michigan during the month of January conducting research on Re-enslavement and Borderlands in South America.

A light lunch will be served.

Monday, January 22, 11:45 am, 1636 SSWB/International Institute

What's Left in Latin America Lecture Series: Enrique Dussel on “Politics, Powers and Institutions” (also part of the International Institute's Citizenship at Risk: International Perspectives series). Enrique Dussel (professor of philosophy, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) is a founder of liberation philosophy and one of the leading political theorists of Latin America. He has authored over fifty books, including Para una ética de la liberación latinoamericana (1973-1980), Filosofía de la liberación (1977), and Thinking from the Underside of History (2000).

A light lunch will be served.

Monday, January 29, 11:45 am, 1636 SSWB/International Institute

What's Left in Latin America Lecture Series: John Beverley on "The Neoconservative Turn in Latin American Literary Criticism" (also part of the International Institute's Citizenship at Risk:International Perspectives series). John Beverley (professor of Latin American literature and culture, University of Pittsburgh) has authored and edited some of the most influential books in Latin American studies, including Testimonio: On the Politics of Truth (2004), From Cuba (2002), La voz del otro: Testimonio, subalternidad y verdad narrativa (2nd edition, 2002), Subalternity and Representation: Arguments in Cultural Theory (1999), and Literature and Politics in the Central American Revolutions (with Marc Zimmerman, 1990).

A light lunch will be served.

Friday, February 2, 12 pm, 2609 SSWB/International Institute

LACS Bate-Papo Series: Flavio Limoncic , on "A Era Vargas e o New Deal Em Uma Perspectiva Comparada." Flávio Limoncic is Associate Professor of History at Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO). A specialist in the twentieth-century political and economic history of Brazil, he has published widely in major Brazilian political and scholarly journals on the history of the automobile industry, fordism, civil society, contemporary political institutions, immigration, and ethnic identity. He is at the University of Michigan during the month of January teaching the LACS mini-course on Ethics in Public Life: Social Movements, Presidential Politics and Public Policy in Brazil.

A light lunch will be served.

Monday, February 12, 11:45 am, 1636 SSWB/International Institute

What's Left in Latin America Lecture Series. Marta Hernandez-Salvan on "Requiem for a Chimera: The Poetics of Post-revolutionary Cuba" (also part of the International Institute's Citizenship at Risk: International Perspectives series). Marta Hernández-Salván (professor of Latin American literature and culture, University of Maine at Farmington) works on Cuban postrevolutionary culture, politics, and trauma in the wake of globalization; her publications include Polygraph 15/16 (edited with Juan Carlos Rodríguez, 2004), “Theory, Democracy, and the Left: An Interview with Ernesto Laclau” and “Reflections on New Latin American Cinema and the Politics of Representation.”

A light lunch will be served.

Friday, March 16, 8:00 pm, Hill Auditorium

Only Midwest Appearance: Gilberto Gil in Concert. Not many government ministers wear their hair in dreadlocks, but not many are also world-renowned music stars like Brazil's Gilberto Gil, who received "Man of the Year" honors at the 2003 Latin Grammy Awards.

Along with Caetano Veloso, guitarist and singer/songwriter Gilberto Gil was a leader in the Tropicalia movement in Brazil in the late 1960s, a response to the military regime’s censorship of songs and lyrics — and its persecution of musicians who were critical of it. Tropicalismo blended native Brazilian folk music such as bossa nova and samba with rock influences, creating what is now commonly referred to as “world music.” This musical fusion was so revolutionary that it frightened the country’s military dictatorship into arresting him and placing Gil (along with Veloso) in solitary confinement. Exiled to England, he spent three years working with groups like Pink Floyd, Yes, and Rod Stewart’s band before returning to Brazil in 1972. Over the years, his political and environmental activism gained prominence alongside his musical career and reached new heights when he was appointed Brazil’s Minister of Culture in 2002.

With four decades of performing and over five million recordings sold, Gil is a pioneer of the world music movement and continues to play a key role in modernizing Brazilian popular music and culture throughout the world.

Monday, March 26, 11:45 am, 1636 SSWB/International Institute

LACS is pleased to have Eva Golinger present a talk based on her two books “The Chávez Code" and "Bush vs. Chávez: Washington's War on Venezuela," which deal with the US intervention in Venezuela, based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Eva Golinger practices international human rights law. She presently manages the New York City branch of Calderon Law Firm. She participated as an observer in the nomination and selection of judges and prosecutor to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Ms. Golinger has also worked with the distinguished International Women's Human Rights Clinic at CUNY Law School.

Monday, April 9, 11:45 am, 1636 SSWB/International Institute

What's Left in Latin America Lecture Series. Julia Sweig on "Fidel's Final Victory: Cuba's 'Transition' and the Future of US - Cuban Relations" (also part of the International Institute's Citizenship at Risk: International Perspectives series). The smooth transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his successors is exposing the willful ignorance and wishful thinking of U.S. policy toward Cuba. The post-Fidel transition is already well under way, and change in Cuba will come only gradually from here on out. With or without Fidel, renewed U.S. efforts to topple the revolutionary regime in Havana can do no good -- and have the potential to do considerable harm.

Julia Sweig, is the Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the award-winning author of Inside the Cuban Revolution and director of numerous Council-sponsored Task Forces on Latin America. Her recent book Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century was released in April 2006.

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 10:30 am and 3:30 pm MWTHF. Fernando Coronil is our Director.

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