Monday, September 8, 2014

September 8-14, 2014



  • JOIN US FOR THE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES AND THE LEMANN INSTITUTE FOR BRAZILIAN STUDIES 2014 PARTY RECEPTION
    • Friday September 12
    • 5 - 8 PM
    • 101 ISI
  • GRADUATE MINOR IN LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
The graduate minor in Latin American Studies will require the student to complete 12 graduate hours; 8 of the hours must be at the 500-level.
  • Area Coursework: A minimum of 8 graduate hours at the 400/500-level from courses in two different departments approved by CLACS every semester. The Center updates and posts approved courses in our website and announce them through our listserv. Our Center has approximately 104 faculty affiliated from different departments in campus, and we approve their courses as part of our curriculum. The Center will record the approved courses on a master list to be kept in the unit that will be used to certify that students took approved courses during their studies in the minor.
  • Language Component: At least 4 hours in language coursework taken in any Latin American language (Portuguese, Spanish or Native American Language or Haitian Creole) while enrolled in the Graduate Minor program.
  • In the case that not enough or advance language courses are offered, The Center also accepts as equivalent area courses taught in these languages, i.e. literature class taught in Portuguese or Spanish.
  • If the chosen language course is at the 400-or 500 level it may count towards the required 12 hours for Graduate Minor. We anticipate that students registering in the Minor already have knowledge of Latin American language.
  • If the Student's Master's thesis or doctoral dissertation deals with a country from Latin America and the Caribbean, we advise students in this minor to speak with their advisor about including a committee member from the minor area.
  • We recommend that the courses taken for the minor not be applied to course requirements in the students' Master's or PhD program

  • CONSULT WITH THE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES LIBRARIAN
Antonio Sotomayor, Latin American Studies Librarian, will be holding special office hours in CLACS every Thursday this semester from 3:00pm to 4:00pm in room 200, ISB. If you have any questions about the research process, finding sources, literature review, exploring a potential research topic, starting a paper, or anything else involving research, the library, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, please stop by the International Studies Building room 200 on a Thursday, 3:00-4:00pm. If these hours doesn’t work for you, just send me an e-mail and we’ll find another time to meet. 

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THE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES
LECTURE SERIES

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

LAURA ROUSH, Colegio de Mexico, Michoacan

THE SANTA MUERTE, PROTECTION AND DESAMPARO: A VIEW FROM A MEXICO CITY ALTAR

LECTURE CANCELED BY THE SCHOLAR TO PROTEST THE SALAITA’S CASE

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2014 LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 19-25

ART THEATER CO-OP
126 W.  Church Street, Downtown Champaign 
All the information is posted at  www.clacs.illinois.edu and

  • PELO MALO/ BAD HAIR
Venezuela, 2013, 93m.
Director: Mariana Rondón
Starring: Beto Benites, Samantha Castillo, Samuel Lange Zambrano
Junior is nine years old and has "bad hair." He wants to straighten his hair for his yearbook picture so he can look like a fashionable pop singer. This elicits a tidal wave of homophonic panic in his hard-working mother, who finds it increasingly difficult to tolerate Junior’s fixation with his looks. The more he tries to look sharp to make his mother love him, the more she rejects him. Eventually, he is cornered, faced with a painful decision.

Havana Film Festival 2013, Best Film
Montreal Festival of New Cinema 2013, Best Actor
San Sebastian International Film Festival 2013, Concha De Oro, Best Film

Watch the trailer:  http://www.pelomalofilm.com/

  • O LOBO ATRAS DA PORTA/ Wolf AT THE DOOR
Brazil, 2013, 131 m.
Director: Fernando Coimbra
Starring: Leandra Leal, Thalita Carauta, Julaino Cazarré
Brazil’s A Wolf at the Door opens with a mother arriving to pick up her young daughter at school, only to learn that the girl already left with another woman. From that point on, the film takes increasingly sinister turns as it delves into the events that led to the girl’s kidnapping. Director Fernando Coimbra has described the film as a modern-day variation on Medea, which provides a hint on where this story will be heading. Coimbra was also inspired by some news stories in South America that suggest why the Greek tragedy is not outdated. The film does not take audiences on an easy ride, and it’s an utterly compelling and indelible drama.

Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival 2013, Best Film and Best Actress
Havana Film Festival 2013, Best First Work
Miami Film Festival 2014, Best Director


  • FECHA DE CADUCIDAD/ EXPIRATION DATE
Mexico, 2012, 111m.
Director: Kenya Marquez
Starring: Damian Alcazar, Marisol Centeno, Ana Ofelia Murguia 
In modern-day Guadalajara, loving mother Ramona searches for her layabout adult son. Her new neighbor Mariana seems to be the key to finding him, but she has dark secrets of her own. Then there’s Genaro, an odd duck obsessed with forensics who hangs around the local coroner’s office. A dark comedy of errors with a Rashomon-like structure: the tantalizing puzzle-pieces of a murder mystery are gradually revealed from three different perspectives, subverting our assumptions and preconceptions.
Winner of the Audience Award at the Morelia Film Festival, Kenya Marquez’s debut feature (after her years as director of the Guadalajara Film Festival) effortlessly blends drama, suspense, and humor to create a wry commentary on the endemic violence of contemporary Mexico. DP Javier Morón uses a shadowy, burnished color palette to masterfully convey an atmosphere of dark suspicion, and leads Ana Ofelia Murguía, Marisol Centeno, and Damiàn Alcazar turn in subtle but magnificently intense performances.
Huelva Latin American Film Festival 2012, Best Director
Miami Film Festival 2012, Ibero-American Opera Prima Award


  • RAMBLERAS/ PROMENADE WOMEN

Uruguay, 2013, 93m
Director: Daniela Speranza
Starring: Vicky Rodríguez Cartagena, Maria Elena Pérez, Adriana Aizenberg 
With Montevideo’s rambla, an avenue that goes along the coastline, as its stage, “Rambleras” centers on three women facing a personal crisis. Thirty something Patricia, an employee at Jacqueline’s rotisserie, spends her nights alone in her apartment, staring wistfully at her cell phone, hoping for that one phone call that might change her life. Jacqueline, on the other hand, fears that her relationship with husband Juanca has reached a dead end. Meanwhile, eighty something Ofelia is still coming to terms with the death of her sister, her longtime companion; she dares not walk the rambla alone.

  • SE VENDE/ FOR SALE
Cuba, 2013, 95 m
Director: Jorge Perugorria
Starring: Daylenis Fuentes, Jorge Perugorria, Yuliet Cruz 
Actor turned director Jorge Perugorria follows on the footsteps of Cuban masters Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio with this scathing dark satire. Deeply indebted Nacar, a young lab technician, visits her mother’s tomb every Sunday to talk to her. Her mother’s spirit advises her to sell the family’s tomb and its contents to pay the bills and keep the family afloat. With the help of painter and future flame Nilo, Nacar sets the wheels in motion as they exhume the bodies and remains of their loved ones in this story about survival in post-Special Period Cuba.

Havana Film Festival 2012, Best Film


  • GLORIAS DEL TANGO/ GLORIES OF TANGO
Argentina, 2014, 117m.
Director: Oliver Kolker, Hernan Findling
Starring: Hector Alterio, Gaston Pauls, Antonella Costa
Ezequiel Kaufman is a psychiatrist who works in a typical 3rd world country public hospital. Among his patients is Fermín Turdera (85) (Héctor Alterio), a patient at the hospital for more than 10 years. Mr. Fermin expresses himself exclusively using the lyrics and titles of Tango Songs, a peculiar characteristic not understood by the doctors until Ezequiel comes on the scene. A great patient/doctor relationship develops between Ezequiel and Fermín. Through their relationship, Ezequiel discovers the tango and the customs of Argentina in the 40’s , when Fermín reveals his relationship with his two most intimate friends, Ciempiés and Clodomiro; and Zulma Prando his greatest love.
Not only will Ezequiel navigate across the waters of the Tango underworld with Fermín, he will also find love when he meets Fermin’s granddaughter, EVA Turdera. Eva was raised by Fermín when her parents disappeared during the Military Dictatorship in the 1970’s.
The treatment brings Fermín to an understanding of his own past, and to settle an old debt. Ezequiel, on the other hand, will be forced to decide his own future.

  • WHO’S DAYANI CRISTAL
USA, 2013, 85m
Director: Gael Garcia Bernal and Marc Silver
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal
Following a team of dedicated staff from the Pima County Morgue in Arizona, director Marc Silver seeks to answer these questions and give this anonymous man an identity. As the forensic investigation unfolds, Mexican actor and activist Gael Garcia Bernal retraces this man’s steps along the migrant trail in Central America. In an effort to understand what it must have felt like to make this final journey, he embeds himself among migrant travelers on their own mission to cross the border. He experiences first-hand the dangers they face and learns of their motivations, hopes and fears. As we travel north, these voices from the other side of the border wall give us a rare insight into the human stories which are so often ignored in the immigration debate.
Who Is Dayani Cristal? tells the story of a migrant who found himself in the deadly stretch of desert known as “the corridor of death” and shows how one life becomes testimony to the tragic results of the U.S. war on immigration. As the real-life drama unfolds we see this John Doe, denied an identity at his point of death, become a living and breathing human being with an important life story.

Saturday 21 3:15pm
Sunday 22 3:15pm

Sundance Film Festival 2103, Cinematographic Ward
Cork International Film Festival 2013, Audience Award

Watch the Trailer: http://whoisdayanicristal.com/

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CONFERENCES/CALL FOR PAPERS

  • LASA2015 / Precariedades, exclusiones, emergencias
XXXIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association.  TODAY LAST DAY TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS
May 27 – 30, 2015, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Caribe Hilton
Many of us, from our different locations and disciplines, have been thinking about precariousness and emergent practices a good deal lately, focusing on three large and very different realms: social and labor issues in Latin America; the academic workplace and education; and modalities of knowledge exchange (how our work and networks are evolving). Precariousness is often associated with exclusions of class, gender, race, age, and sexual identity and yet, in these times of permanent crisis and emergency, we also see some of the most exciting flowerings of emergent practices.

These are large questions that have a bearing on many forms of human and social expression. For example, the recent mobilization of millions of citizens in Brazil, the massive student manifestations of the past years in Chile or Puerto Rico, the growing environmental crisis and its effects on local communities across countries and regions, or the plight of 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States are events that strike to the heart of how we think of democracy in a neoliberal hemispheric context. All of them also speak all at once on the three concepts that we would like to engage in the 2015 LASA Congress.

While the conditions of the academic workplace vary tremendously throughout the Americas, one of the huge shifts in higher education in the United States and many countries in Latin America has been to move away from the tenure system towards a system of contingent, contract labor. The recently released Delphi Project report, for example, confirms that approximately 70% of all instructors in U.S. colleges and universities are now contingent faculty. The squeeze on tenure line positions and their replacement by short-term contracts has made the job market very challenging for many of our young colleagues, who can now look forward to little more than poverty-level income with no benefits. Even more precarious is the status of students from Latin America, who increasingly find green card or citizenship requirements as the bar they must meet for consideration. Likewise, in Latin America the structural reforms and the flexibilization of labor have affected the working conditions in academia. According to reports from members of the Federación de Colegios del Personal Académico de la UNAM, in the higher education system in Mexico, approximately 70% of the teaching is now under the responsibility of professors in part-time positions and under temporary contracts. “Tenured positions” (plazas con definitividad) are being substituted by temporary positions under partial contracts, leaving the new generations of Latin American academicians without any labor security. In the midst of these critical realities, academic communities seem to be facing not only their own internal issues but also a pressing need to imagine and establish other modes of linking the university to public life and scholarship to social service.

As part of this process, we experience the precariousness of our conventional concepts of knowledge production and sharing--the book, the academic article, the conference— as well as the challenge to old understandings of intellectual practice that are suggested by new forms of expression, often finding their homes on the vast world we call the internet. The new media—as well as broader material, technological, and ecological changes—have suggested to us new and unexpected forms of exchange, opening up exciting possibilities for the future. Moreover, new technologies have become central to linguistic, cultural, social, political, and economic subjects as tools to challenge existing exclusions, exercise new horizons of knowledge, and forge creative forms of emergence, visibility, and empowerment.
·         September 8, 2014
Deadline to renew your LASA membership to be able to submit proposals and travel funding requests.
Guidelines to submit proposals and renew subscription: http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/eng/index.asp


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OUTREACH

SPANISH STORY TIME

Saturday September 13th
2:30 – 3:30 PM, The Urbana Free Library

PANCHO RABBIT AND THE COYOTE


Come with your children to listen the story in English and Spanish, enjoy Latin American songs, and make a craft !

http://www.clacs.illinois.edu/outreach/storytime.aspx

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IN THE MARKET

·         Latin American & Iberian Studies Librarian. Columbia University

Deadline: Open until filled.
Contact Information: Apply on-line at https://academicjobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=59669

·         Research Professor in International Relations . Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City

The Departamento de Estudios Internacionales seeks to hire a research professor whose research and professional interests are concentrated in at least one of the following three areas: migration, Mexican foreign policy, and international public policy (specialists in the design, implementation, and evaluation of governmental or intergovernmental policies as well as international cooperation projects). The ideal candidate will possess proven teaching abilities as well as the eligibility to become a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI). Deadline: Monday, September 22
Minimum Requirements:
  • Doctorate in International Relations, Political Science, or a related area.
  • Strong theoretical and methodological abilities in both research and teaching.
  • Fluency in both Spanish and English.
  • Proof of excellence in teaching is desirable.
  • Evidence of potential for publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
  • Membership or eligibility for membership in the National System of Researchers (SNI).
Preferred Qualifications:
The successful candidate will be expected to cover three sets of functions within the DEI: research, teaching, and academic/administrative service.

  • In terms of research, the ideal candidate will possess a specialized and cutting-edge research agenda. He/she will either already be a memberof the National System of Researchers (SNI) or will become one, and will be expected to publish consistently in domestic and international peer-reviewed journals, and/or with prestigious publishers. He/she will collaborate in interdisciplinary research teams within and outside the university, and will procure research funding for his/her initiatives.
  • With respect to teaching responsibilities, the candidate who is selected will commence teaching three courses per semester at the undergraduate and graduate level in his/her areas of expertise. This teaching load will be reduced to two courses per semester once he/she enters the SNI. The successful candidate will also advise undergraduate students as well as contribute to their preparation for the annual national exam EGEL-RI administered by the national accreditation body CENEVAL.
  • In relation to departmental and university service, the ideal candidate will assist the DEI with accreditation/certification processes, the revision of the undergraduate curriculum, attention to prospective students, the coordination of work experience opportunities for students, and promotional activities. He/she will eventually be expected to assume director or coordinator functions within the department.
Documents Required:
  • One-page statement of purpose
  • Curriculum vitae (maximum 10 pages) and professional bio (maximum one-page)
  • One-page research agenda
  • Writing or publication sample not exceeding 50 pages
  • Three previous teaching evaluations if available
  • Three reference letters to be sent directly by the referees
Contact Information:
convocatoriaplazadei@gmail.com

Additional Information:
For further information on the position

Ivett Velázquez Velázquez at 011 52 55 5950-4131 or ivett_v2@hotmail.com (8am-3pm)

Information regarding the selection process

All complete applications will be duly considered and evaluated by a hiring committee selected by the DEI. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview in which they will make a departmental presentation based on one of their research publications. Interviews will begin on October 20. The successful candidate will be selected according to his/her academic merits as well as the suitability of his/her profile for the institutional priorities of the DEI. The decision of the hiring committee will be final.

For further information on the Department of International Studies, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City

Visit www.iberori.org

Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México

Prol. Paseo de la Reforma 880, Col. Lomas de Santa Fe, 01219, México

Tel.
resource://skype_ff_extension-at-jetpack/skype_ff_extension/data/call_skype_logo.png+52 (55) 5950-4000 / 9177-4400; 01 800 627-7615

·         Assistant Professor of Anthropology. Wellesley College

The Anthropology Department at Wellesley College seeks applications for a full-time faculty appointment at the rank of tenure-track assistant professor, with an expected start date of July 1, 2015. We are seeking a cultural anthropologist with a geographic area of research focusing on South (including Brazil) and/or Meso-America. Although research subfield is open, the anthropology department aims through this new hire to broaden current curricular offerings by providing support in teaching introduction and theoretical overview courses in cultural anthropology as well as strengthening curricular offerings for the Latin American Studies program. The successful candidate will demonstrate innovation and excellence in scholarly research as well as a strong commitment to teaching. . Deadline: October 20, 2014
Minimum Requirements: PhD preferred (ABD considered).
Documents Required: Applications must include a letter of application, curriculum vitae, writing sample (dissertation, article), and The names/email addresses of three references are requested. (The online application will request names/email addresses so that recommenders or dossier services may submit the letters directly.). All items (including letters of reference) must be submitted electronically no later than October 20, 2014 at https://career.wellesley.edu/ to Cultural Anthropology Search.
Contact Information: Adam Van Arsdale, avanarsd@wellesley.edu

·         Assistant Professor: Tenure Track-Latina/o Studies. Department of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies, University at Albany

Description: Tenure Track- Research Profile- Transnationalism: US & Latin America, Latin American and U.S. Immigration and Migrant communities, Latino Social Movements
Deadline: 9/18/14
Minimum Requirements: Ph.D.
Documents Required: CV, Letter of Interest, Names of Three References
Contact Information:
Pedro Cabán
pcaban@albany.edu

Additional Information:
Submit Materials Electronically to
Librada Pimentel-Whitaker
lpimentel@albany.edu

·         Assistant Professor Spanish . University of California, Riverside

The Department of Hispanic Studies invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in Spanish at the Assistant Professor level. Area of Specialization: Latin American Literature and Culture. The position will begin July 1, 2015. ABD candidates will be considered, Ph.D. will be required at time of appointment. Salary is commensurate with education and experience.

We are seeking a faculty member with a major focus in at least two of the following areas within Latin American literature and culture: trans-Atlantic studies; gender studies; border studies; literary and cultural theory; visual culture. Genre and period are open.

We encourage applicants to visit our departmental website for information about our undergraduate and graduate programs as well as our faculty:

http://www.hispanicstudies.ucr.edu

Please apply online at APRecruit: https://aprecruit.ucr.edu/apply/JPF00187 Job ID code: JPF00187

Deadline: Review of applications will begin 15 October 2014 and continue until position is filled.
Documents Required: Include application letter with curriculum vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, a sample of teaching evaluations, and a writing sample.
Contact Information:
Questions/inquiries please email: Professor Alessandro Fornazzari, Search Committee Chair
Email: Alessandro.Fornazzari@ucr.edu

·         Assistant / Associate Professor – 20th Century Latin America - Department of History . University of California, Berkeley

The Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley seeks applications for a full-time faculty appointment at the rank of tenure-track assistant professor or tenured associate professor, with an expected start date of July 1, 2015.
We are seeking an historian of twentieth-century Latin America in any specialty. Applications must include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, all published and unpublished scholarly work ready for examination (such as dissertation or dissertation chapters, a book or book manuscript, articles, and book chapters), and three letters of reference.

Basic Minimum Qualifications: Completion of all degree requirements except the dissertation at the time of application.

Additional Qualifications: A Ph.D. or equivalent is required by date of hire.

All items must be submitted electronically no later than October 15, 2014.

To apply, please go to the following link: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00488.

All letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including those whose letters will be provided by a third party (such as a dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality: http://apo.chance.berkeley.edu/evalltr.html. Questions may be addressed to Ethan Shagan, Chair, Department of History, 3229 Dwinelle Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2550. Questions about the application process can be directed to Kristina Andrews, Academic Personnel Coordinator, at k_perkins@berkeley.edu.

The department encourages individuals who may have had non-traditional career paths, may have taken time off for family reasons (e.g., children, disabled, or elderly), or have achieved excellence in careers outside academia (e.g., in professional or industry service) to apply. Applicants whose research, teaching, or service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in higher education are also encouraged to apply.

For information about potential relocation to Berkeley, or career needs of accompanying partners and spouses, please contact the CALcierge office at calcierge@berkeley.edu or visit calcierge.berkeley.edu

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct

Deadline: October 15, 2014
Minimum Requirements: Completion of all degree requirements except the dissertation at the time of application.
Preferred Qualifications: A Ph.D. or equivalent is required by date of hire.
Documents Required:
  1. Cover letter
  2. Curriculum vitae
  3. All published and unpublished scholarly work ready for examination (such as dissertation or dissertation chapters, a book or book manuscript, articles, and book chapters).
  4. Three letters of reference.
Contact Information:
Ethan Shagan, Chair, Department of History, 3229 Dwinelle Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2550.

Questions about the application process can be directed to Kristina Andrews, Academic Personnel Coordinator, at k_perkins@berkeley.edu.


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IN THE NEWS


Petrobras corruption allegations smear Brazil's political system a month ahead of elections  http://en.mercopress.com/2014/09/08/petrobras-corruption-allegations-smear-brazil-s-political-system-a-month-ahead-of-elections

Clashes as Chile mourns disappeared under Pinochet rule  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29106846

Elections Revive Bolivia’s Controversial TIPNIS Highway Plan  http://nacla.org/blog/2014/9/4/elections-revive-bolivia%E2%80%99s-controversial-tipnis-highway-plan


Latin America’s Anti-drug Policies Feed on the Poor  http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/09/latin-americas-anti-drug-policies-feed-on-the-poor/

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LIKE US IN FACEBOOK

CLACS AT UIUC
  
 Angelina Cotler, Ph.D
Associate Director
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
201 International Studies Building
910 S. Fifth Street
Champaign, IL 61820
Ph: (217) 333-8419
Fax: (217): 244-7333

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

September 1-7, 2014



  • CLACS AND THE LEMANN INSTITUTE FOR BRAZILIAN STUDIES WELCOME
Jerry Dávila is Jorge Paulo Lemann professor of Brazilian History at the University of Illinois and the new Director of the University of Illinois Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies. Dávila received his his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1998. His research is focused on in the influence of racial thought in public policy, as well as the state and social movements in the twentieth century. He has authored several books including Hotel Trópico: Brazil and the Challenge of African Decolonization (Duke, 2010), winner of the Latin Studies Association Brazil Section Book Prize; and of Diploma of Whiteness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945 (Duke, 2003).In 2000, Dávila taught as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of São Paulo, and in 2005, he held the Fulbright Distinguished chair at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro. He has also received the national endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and the Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship. From 2013 through 2017, he serves as Vice- President/President-Elect of the conference on Latin American History, the affiliate of the American Historical Association dedicated to the study of Latin America. He has also written for publications including the New York Times and the Cairo Review about the experiences of military rule and redemocratization in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, the subject of his most recent book, Dictatorship in South America (Wiley, 2013).

Elis  Gomes Artz, is the Lemann Program Coordinator and manages Institute programs and projects under the direction of the Faculty Program Director. She is from the northeast of Brazil where she received her professional degree in Psychology.





  • NEW COURSES FALL 2014

    • ARTH 491: 20th Art from Latin America
T & R 3:30 AM – 4:50 PM

This class presents a thematically organized survey of the early to mid-20th century art of Latin America. The works to be studied in the class come from a diverse range of media including architecture, painting, muralism, and conceptual art. We will discuss issues of identity, race, gender, nationalism, and politics among other things. This course is not meant to be a comprehensive survey of the region or period. Rather, it will introduce students to a variety of concepts related to art from Latin America. The course is designed to provide a foundation for further engagement with art by constructing a broad framework for understanding the art of this period and region, and by developing skills of visual analysis and the ability to talk and write about art.

  • GRADUATE MINOR IN LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
The graduate minor in Latin American Studies will require the student to complete 12 graduate hours; 8 of the hours must be at the 500-level.
  • Area Coursework: A minimum of 8 graduate hours at the 400/500-level from courses in two different departments approved by CLACS every semester. The Center updates and posts approved courses in our website and announce them through our listserv. Our Center has approximately 104 faculty affiliated from different departments in campus, and we approve their courses as part of our curriculum. The Center will record the approved courses on a master list to be kept in the unit that will be used to certify that students took approved courses during their studies in the minor.
  • Language Component: At least 4 hours in language coursework taken in any Latin American language (Portuguese, Spanish or Native American Language or Haitian Creole) while enrolled in the Graduate Minor program.
  • In the case that not enough or advance language courses are offered, The Center also accepts as equivalent area courses taught in these languages, i.e. literature class taught in Portuguese or Spanish.
  • If the chosen language course is at the 400-or 500 level it may count towards the required 12 hours for Graduate Minor. We anticipate that students registering in the Minor already have knowledge of Latin American language.
  • If the Student's Master's thesis or doctoral dissertation deals with a country from Latin America and the Caribbean, we advise students in this minor to speak with their advisor about including a committee member from the minor area.
  • We recommend that the courses taken for the minor not be applied to course requirements in the students' Master's or PhD program


  •     CONSULT WITH THE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES LIBRARIAN

Antonio Sotomayor, Latin American Studies Librarian, will be holding special office hours in CLACS every Thursday this semester from 3:00pm to 4:00pm in room 200, ISB. If you have any questions about the research process, finding sources, literature review, exploring a potential research topic, starting a paper, or anything else involving research, the library, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, please stop by the International Studies Building room 200 on a Thursday, 3:00-4:00pm. If these hours doesn’t work for you, just send me an e-mail and we’ll find another time to meet. 


·         THE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES AND THE LEMANN INSTITUTE FOR BRAZILIAN STUDIES 2014 PARTY RECEPTION:
Friday September 12, 5-8pm
101 International Studies Building

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LEMANN INSTITUTE FOR BRAZILIAN STUDIES
Lecture 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER  3rd
Room 101 ISB, 1-2:30
 
Prof. DAIN BORGES, Department of History, University of Chicago

NOVELS OF UPWARD MOBILITY IN A POST-EMANCIPATION METROPOLIS: LIMA BARRETO AND MACHADO DE ASSIS  

The writers Machado de Assis and Lima Barreto are often contrasted as evidence of the scope and limits of social mobility under Brazilian racial conditions: one rising gracefully from poverty, the other frustrated in his middle class aspirations. Their writings from different stances show a surprising amount of agreement about ambitions and opportunities in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the Empire and the early Republic.

Dain Borges is Associate Professor in the Departments of History and Romance Languages and Literatures, at the University of Chicago.  He is the author of The Family in Bahia, Brazil, 1870-1945, the editor of the Oxford translation of Machado de Assis, Esau and Jacob, and author of articles on Lima Barreto.

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  • SEPHARAD AS IMAGINED COMMUNITY LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND RELIGION FROM THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD TO THE 21st CENTURY

Organized by Mahir Şaul (Anthropology, UIUC) and José I. Hualde (Spanish, Italian and Portuguese & Linguistics, UIUC)

SEPTEMBER 2-3, 2014
Illini Union, Room 210

This conference will examine the formation and development of Judeo-Spanish in the Eastern Mediterranean lands
of the Ottoman Empire and the varied cultural and identity-related roles that several oral and written manifestations of
this language played for centuries and continue to play in the present for its speakers. The conference is focused in its topic,
Judeo-Spanish, but broad in the spectrum of disciplinary perspectives on the themes that we would like to bring together,
including perspectives from diverse fields such as Linguistics, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Literary and
Cultural Studies and Religious Studies.

For more information, including the full program, click here http://www.sip.illinois.edu/sepharad/index.html

This conference is co-sponsored by

Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities
Center for Advanced Study
The Program in Jewish Culture and Society
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics
Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese
Department of Anthropology
Department of Linguistics
Department of Religious Studies
UIUC Library
European Union Center
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Russian, East European and Eurasian Center
 
 
     Amadeo Preziosi, Hakham and Widow. Cemetery of Pera, Constantinople, 1865


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THE 8TH ANNUAL LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

IS BACK
September 19-25th, 2014

Art Theater, Co-op

MORE INFORMATION SOON


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CONFERENCES/CALL FOR PAPERS

  • LASA2015 / Precariedades, exclusiones, emergencias
XXXIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association
May 27 – 30, 2015, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Caribe Hilton
Many of us, from our different locations and disciplines, have been thinking about precariousness and emergent practices a good deal lately, focusing on three large and very different realms: social and labor issues in Latin America; the academic workplace and education; and modalities of knowledge exchange (how our work and networks are evolving). Precariousness is often associated with exclusions of class, gender, race, age, and sexual identity and yet, in these times of permanent crisis and emergency, we also see some of the most exciting flowerings of emergent practices.

These are large questions that have a bearing on many forms of human and social expression. For example, the recent mobilization of millions of citizens in Brazil, the massive student manifestations of the past years in Chile or Puerto Rico, the growing environmental crisis and its effects on local communities across countries and regions, or the plight of 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States are events that strike to the heart of how we think of democracy in a neoliberal hemispheric context. All of them also speak all at once on the three concepts that we would like to engage in the 2015 LASA Congress.

While the conditions of the academic workplace vary tremendously throughout the Americas, one of the huge shifts in higher education in the United States and many countries in Latin America has been to move away from the tenure system towards a system of contingent, contract labor. The recently released Delphi Project report, for example, confirms that approximately 70% of all instructors in U.S. colleges and universities are now contingent faculty. The squeeze on tenure line positions and their replacement by short-term contracts has made the job market very challenging for many of our young colleagues, who can now look forward to little more than poverty-level income with no benefits. Even more precarious is the status of students from Latin America, who increasingly find green card or citizenship requirements as the bar they must meet for consideration. Likewise, in Latin America the structural reforms and the flexibilization of labor have affected the working conditions in academia. According to reports from members of the Federación de Colegios del Personal Académico de la UNAM, in the higher education system in Mexico, approximately 70% of the teaching is now under the responsibility of professors in part-time positions and under temporary contracts. “Tenured positions” (plazas con definitividad) are being substituted by temporary positions under partial contracts, leaving the new generations of Latin American academicians without any labor security. In the midst of these critical realities, academic communities seem to be facing not only their own internal issues but also a pressing need to imagine and establish other modes of linking the university to public life and scholarship to social service.

As part of this process, we experience the precariousness of our conventional concepts of knowledge production and sharing--the book, the academic article, the conference— as well as the challenge to old understandings of intellectual practice that are suggested by new forms of expression, often finding their homes on the vast world we call the internet. The new media—as well as broader material, technological, and ecological changes—have suggested to us new and unexpected forms of exchange, opening up exciting possibilities for the future. Moreover, new technologies have become central to linguistic, cultural, social, political, and economic subjects as tools to challenge existing exclusions, exercise new horizons of knowledge, and forge creative forms of emergence, visibility, and empowerment.
·         September 8, 2014
Deadline to renew your LASA membership to be able to submit proposals and travel funding requests.
Guidelines to submit proposals and renew subscription: http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/eng/index.asp
  • ·         CALL FOR PAPERS: LASA 2015 PUERTO RICO
“Clases medias y mediadas. Identidades emergentes y respuestas múltiples a la crisis argentina del 2001”

Varias disciplinas han examinado tanto empírica  como teóricamente los impactos que tuvo la crisis económico-institucional de diciembre del año 2001 en Argentina respecto a las posibilidades de ampliación política de la clase media y los alcances y continuidades del estado neoliberal argentino, entre otras variables. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han tenido en cuenta la multiplicidad de respuestas políticas, sociales y culturales de la clase media a estos procesos.
Si bien la clase media argentina constituye un grupo de actores contraído, complejo y muy heterogéneo, entendemos que como constructo social ha moldeado profundamente los procesos políticos y económicos de las ultimas décadas en el país, tanto de manera progresista como reactiva. 
Este panel propone examinar, debatir y teorizar acerca de las identidades emergentes a partir de la última crisis, a través de distintas disciplinas que incluyen, entre otras, antropología, ciencias políticas, literatura, cine, historia, sociología y geografía.
En particular, nos interesa reunir un grupo interdisciplinario para indagar acerca de las diversidad de respuestas u orientaciones sociales, políticas y culturales de la clase media urbana . En este sentido, nos interesan trabajos que interroguen y analicen la crisis y las consecuencias de la misma, desde los discursos elaborados por este grupo como también las representaciones que se han hecho del mismo.
Invitamos entonces a todos aquellos interesados a presentar sus trabajos examinando estos procesos, de manera empírica, teórica o por qué no, especulativa.
Los interesados pueden enviar su abstract a Luján Stasevicius (stasevi1@illinois.edu) y/o Carolina Sternberg (csternb1@depaul.edu) hasta el 7 de septiembre.
Agradecemos enormemente su participación y estaremos en contacto nuevamente cuando se acerque la fecha de la conferencia.

  • LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN SECTION (LACS) OF THES SOUTHERN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
November 11-14, 2015
Little Rock, Arkansas

LACS accepts papers and panels on all aspects of Latin American and Caribbean history, including the fields of borderlands and the Atlantic World. Submissions should include a 250-word abstract for each paper and a brief curriculum vitae for each presenter. We encourage faculty as well as advanced graduate students to submit panels and papers. Graduate students are eligible for the Ralph Lee Woodward Jr. Prize, awarded each year for the best graduate student paper. Please note that the program committee may revise proposed panels. All panelists are required to be members of LACS. For information about membership, please visit the website at: http://www.tnstate.edu//lacs/ or contact Tamara Spike of the University of North Georgia tamara.spike@ung.edu. For more information about the Southern Historical Association, visit the website: http://www.uga.edu/~sha/ Submit conference panels and papers to Peter Szok, Department of History and Geography, TCU at p.szok@tcu.edu.
Proposal deadline: October 1, 2014
Contact information: Peter Szok, p.szok@tcu.edu, resource://skype_ff_extension-at-jetpack/skype_ff_extension/data/call_skype_logo.png817-257-6651
  • BORDER ENCOUNTERS IN THE AMERICAS
    LAGO Graduate Student Conference
    February 13-15th, 2014
    New Orleans, LA
    Deadline for Submissions: October 25th, 2013
At Tulane University’s Latin American Graduate Organization’s (LAGO) 2014 graduate conference, meet graduate scholars, faculty, and community leaders interested in Latin America across disciplines and experience the unique Mardi Gras season in New Orleans with the famous Krewe du Vieux parade set to roll on Saturday evening!
Latin America and the Caribbean are rich with cultural, linguistic, and geographic diversity which has historically made and continues to make the region an object of prolific scholarly study across disciplines. Produced within this diversity are the boundaries—both physical and abstract—between nations, languages, ethnic and racial identities, ecologies, and geographies. Figurative and literal borders are confronted each day as people move across regions, navigate between cultures, and communicate with others around the world; global capital crosses national borders, redefines local economies, and produces labor migrations; geographical landscapes shift as land becomes deforested or designated as protected. These various “border encounters” highlight the ways in which borders can both restrain and liberate the objects, people, or ideas that face them, a distinction that is often bound up with power and politics.
With this broad theme in mind, LAGO invites graduate scholars across disciplines to submit abstracts exploring the notion of borders—their strictures, leniencies, and significance—in Latin America and the Caribbean for LAGO’s 2014 graduate student conference. LAGO encourages participants to interpret this theme as they see fit. We invite submissions in the English and other languages of Latin America and the Caribbean regions.
  • ·         23rd INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON CENTRAL AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE (CILCA)
Tulane/Loyola Universities
March 11-13, 2015.  
Please contact <mshea@tulane.edu> or <uquesada@loyno.edu> for more information or visit the website for up-to-date information: http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/go/cilca

Tulane University, Loyola University New Orleans, y Purdue University Calumet tienen el gusto de invitar al CONGRESO DE LITERATURA y CULTURA CENTROAMERICANAS (CILCA XXIII) que se llevará a cabo en la ciudad de New Orleans, Louisiana, del 11 al 13 de marzo del 2015 en el campus de Tulane University y Loyola University New Orleans.
Desde el primer congreso realizado en Nicaragua 1993, CILCA se ha caracterizado por ser un espacio de intercambio intelectual y de amistad para académicas/os, escritoras/es y lectoras/es. El congreso se ha efectuado en todos los países centroamericanos y por primera vez en su historia, CILCA se realizará en los Estados Unidos. La ciudad escogida es Nueva Orleáns, puerta de entrada hacia el Caribe y los países de América Central. El intercambio cultural entre Nueva Orleáns y América Central ha sido intenso por muchísimos años, y la ciudad alberga una de las comunidades de origen hondureño más grandes de los Estados Unidos. Tulane University tiene estrechos lazos con la región a través del Stone Center for Latin American Studies, the Latin American Library, y the Middle American Research Institute. Loyola University New Orleans se ha distinguido por el trabajo con las comunidades hispanas que realizan varias de sus unidades académicas, incluyendo the Law School y el Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
La organización de CILCA XXIII la realizan la Dra. Maureen Shea y el Dr. Uriel Quesada, expertos en literatura y cultura centroamericanas, con el apoyo del Dr. Jorge Román Lagunas, creador y promotor de CILCA.
La convocatoria será publicada en agosto 2014.
Tulane University, Loyola University New Orleans, and Purdue University Calumet invite you to the Congress on Literature and Culture of Central America (CILCA XXIII) which will take place in New Orleans, Louisiana March 11-13 2015 on the campuses of Tulane and Loyola New Orleans.
From the first conference, held in Nicaragua in 1993, CILCA has been a space for intellectual exchange and friendship for academics and writers. The conference has been held in all of the Central American countries and for the first time in its history will be held in the United States. New Orleans, the gateway to the Caribbean and Central America, has been chosen as the location. New Orleans and Central America have a longstanding cultural exchange and New Orleans has one of the largest Honduran communities in the United States. Tulane has long connections with the region through the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, the Latin American Library, and the Middle American Research Institute. Loyola New Orleans works closely with hispanic communities particularly through the Law school and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
CILCA XXIII is organized by Drs. Maureen Shea and Uriel Quesada, experts on the literature and culture of Central America, with the support of Dr. Jorge Román Lagunas, creator of CILCA.
Call for papers coming in August 2014.


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IN THE NEWS

Cuba imposes restrictions on goods in travellers' luggage  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/cuba-imposes-restrictions-travellers-luggage


Ecuador gives details of new digital currency http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28992589

El Gobierno argentino busca el aval del Senado para el pago local de la deuda  http://www.infolatam.com/2014/08/31/el-gobierno-argentino-busca-el-aval-del-senado-para-el-pago-local-de-la-deuda/

Ascending Marina Silva ties with Dilma and polarizes the 5 October election http://en.mercopress.com/2014/09/01/ascending-marina-silva-ties-with-dilma-and-polarizes-the-5-october-election


México: Presidente Peña Nieto rinde este lunes su segundo informe de Gobierno centrado en reformas  http://www.infolatam.com/2014/09/01/pena-nieto-rinde-este-lunes-su-segundo-informe-de-gobierno-centrado-en-reformas/

What Happened To Progressive Politics In Lima?  http://nacla.org/news/2014/8/27/what-happened-progressive-politics-lima


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CLACS AT UIUC
Angelina Cotler, Ph.D
Associate Director
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
201 International Studies Building
910 S. Fifth Street
Champaign, IL 61820
Ph: (217) 333-8419
Fax: (217): 244-7333