CLACS at UIUC: CLACS/ LEMANN NEWS. August 11, 2014

· CLACS AND THE LEMANN INSTITUTE FOR BRAZILIAN STUDIES WELCOME

Fabio Akcelrud Durão, Lemann Distinguished Visiting Professor for Fall 2014. Fabio Durão is professor of literary theory at the State University of Campinas. He is the author of Modernism and Coherence (2008), Teoria (literária) americana (2011), and the forthcoming Fragmentos Reunidos (2015). Among his edited and coedited volumes, there are Modernism Group Dynamics: The Politics and Poetics of Friendship (2008) and Culture Industry Today (2010). He is Associate Editor of the journal Alea, and has published essays in such journals as Critique, Cultural Critique, Latin American Music Review, Luso-Brazilian Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and Parallax. He has recently been elected president of ANPOLL, Brazil's National Association of Graduate Studies in Letters and Linguistics.

Glen Goodman, Assistant Professor at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Goodman’s work focuses on the intersection between immigration, ethnicity, and regional and national identity in twentieth century Brazil. Specifically he studies the evolution of German-Brazilian identity in local (primarily Rio Grande do Sul) and national contexts, with a particular interest in incorporating material culture such as tourism, cuisine, and architecture into my research.
Glen received his B.A. in 2004 from Georgetown University with majors in Comparative Literature and Spanish and a minor in German. He then pursued a M.Sc. in Latin American Studies at Oxford University (Exeter College), awarded with distinction in 2006. His thesis looked at the political and philosophical history of Chile's most conservative and most popular party, the Union Democratica Independiente (UDI). Subsequently he worked as a journalist in England and Colombia and attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris for six months.

LIST OF APPROVED COURSES FOR FALL 2014 LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES DEGREES AND FLAS STUDENTS http://www.clacs.illinois.edu/academics/courses.asp

NEW COURSES FALL 2014

LAST 490, SECTION NS (meets with PORT 410 - Studies in Brazilian Lit )-Critical Theory: Made in Brazil

This course aims at presenting an important school of literary criticism in Brazil, as it was developed at the University of São Paulo since the sixties in the works of Antonio Candido, Roberto Schwarz and others. The idea here is to investigate what has been the experience of the dialectic in Brazilian thinking about literature, which could function as a model or at least inspiration for other disciplines. The main concern will be to critically describe how literary form can crystalize social life. Depending on the reading skills of the class texts in Portuguese will also be used. Methodologically, the course will consist of close readings of critical writings accompanied by the literary works on which their insights are based.

LAST 490 , SECTION 0

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Latin American Studies

This course is designed to provide an overview of current trends and issues in Latin American Studies. Students enrolled in the course will attend the CLACS brown bag lecture series and also meet with the professor to discuss the lectures. Readings will be assigned from a wide array of disciplines (i.e. Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Economics, Geography, History, Literature, Media Studies, Political Science) to complement and contextualize the public lectures. The course will also address the history and current status of Latin American Studies as an academic field.

SPAN 314: Early Literary Identities of Spanish America

Swashbuckling pirates, swindling bandits and disobedient women. These are but a few of the many identities that we will explore in SPAN 314: Early Literary Identities of Spanish America. Students will embark upon a survey of pre-colonial to early national texts from Spanish America as we answer the following questions: How does Spanish American literary and cultural production engage notions of identity? How do the notions of gender, race, nationalism, and space change as Latin America shifts from a system of colonies to a system of nation-states? Readings, assignments and classroom discussions will be in Spanish. PREREQUISITE: SPAN 250 or 254 or consent of instructor.

For more information: https://www.smore.com/kqwj3-need-a-spanish-class-for-fall-2014

DID YOU MISS ANY LECTURE DURING SPRING 13? WATCH ALL OUR VIDEOS http://www.clacs.illinois.edu/videos/default.aspx

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
For more information visit:
http://www.clacs.illinois.edu/academics/graduate/minor/default.aspx

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America is the only refereed journal entirely dedicated to lowland South America. Tipití is increasingly recognized as an established and cutting-edge journal for lowland South American anthropology scholarship. Although lowland South American anthropology is far from being a unified, homogeneous field of research, it is renewing anthropological thinking on a number of issues through its debates and its diversity. And although various schools of Amazonian anthropology, rooted in different national traditions, co-exist today, they all share the same commitment to ethnography, as well as the view that it is through advancing cross-cultural comparative research that lowland South American specialists will contribute to anthropological theory. Tipití is committed to providing a space for such a diverse intellectual meeting-ground.

Current Issue: Volume 12, Issue 1 (2014) Amazonian Quichua. We are pleased to publish this Special Topics issue on Amazonian Quichua. The contributions are part of a session at the SALSA meetings in Nashville in the spring of 2013, organized by Michael Uzendoski and Norman E. Whitten (Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, UIUC)

http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/

New Certificate in International Development Studies offered by LAS Global Studies to undergraduates from all majors and colleges at the University of Illinois. http://www.globalstudies.illinois.edu/academics/certificate/

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COMING SOON

LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2014

ART THEATER CO-OP

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS

SIX FEATURE FILMS AND ONE DOCUMENTARY

MORE INFORMATION COMING 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.

· September 8, 2014
Deadline for proposal submissions and travel funding requests to be received

Guidelines to submit proposals and renew subscription: http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/eng/index.asp

IPRH ANNUAL THEME 2015–16: “INTERSECTIONS”

Marking spatial and conceptual sites of convergence and departure, intersections offer junction points for tracking and investigating multiple paths, perspectives, imaginaries, or systems at once. As literal and figurative spaces of mingling and divergence, intersections produce crossroad moments, from which personal, political, disciplinary, or historical trajectories can emerge. They invite multidirectional webs of inquiry into where and how ideas, cultures, and identities cross and collide, and the effects of such encounters and overlaps. Such inquiries could include but are not limited to what is understood as “intersectional” analyses of how gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, and other axes of identity interact on multiple, concurrent levels.

IPRH welcomes applications from all disciplines and departments with an interest in humanities and humanities-inflected research. We invite applications from faculty and graduate students that focus on any aspect of “Intersections.” The theme also provides an opportunity for artists to consider the relevance of ‘Intersections” in their creative practice. IPRH is especially interested in fostering interdisciplinary work.

All Fellows are expected to maintain residence on the U of I campus during the award year, and to participate in IPRH activities, including the yearlong Fellows Seminar.

Complete fellowship application guidelines for 2015–16 can be found on the IPRH website (Faculty / Graduate Students). Applications must be submitted through an online application portal, which will open September 1, 2014. No paper or emailed applications or letters of recommendation will be accepted.

The submission links will be as follows:

Faculty: https://my.atlas.illinois.edu/submit/go.asp?id=793

Graduate Students: https://my.atlas.illinois.edu/submit/go.asp?id=794

Eligibility: Applications are invited from full-time, tenured or tenure-track U of I faculty members, and advanced graduate students engaged in dissertation/thesis preparation.

Award: Faculty Fellows receive release time for one semester in residence, and $2,000 in research funds to be transferred to the faculty member’s departmental research account. (The department will be compensated $12,000 for releasing the faculty member; in the case of faculty members with two percentage appointments, these funds will be distributed in accordance with the department that holds the course offering/s).

Graduate Student Fellows receive a $10,000 stipend and a tuition and fee waiver.

Deadline: All application materials, including letters of reference, must be submitted by midnight, Friday, December 5, 2014. IPRH strongly recommends, however, that submissions be made prior to 4:30 p.m. on the day of the deadline, as staff will not be available to assist with troubleshooting after close of business on December 5.

For more information about the IPRH Faculty and Graduate Student Fellowship program, please visit IPRH on the web at http://www.iprh.illinois.edu. Questions about the fellowships may be directed to Nancy Castro at ncastro@illinois.edu.

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,

817-257-6651

· BORDER ENCOUNTERS IN THE AMERICAS

AGO 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.

Submit your abstract here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xhzn9mE1rhQ8XnOMWofDFYxoUKhflgfCyCXlC-9AfSA/viewform by Friday, October 25th, 2013.

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IN THE MARKET

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tenure Track California State University, San Bernardino

The Department of Political Science seeks applicants for a tenure-track position with primary expertise in the fields of Comparative Politics and International Relations to begin in Fall 2015.

Deadline: November 15, 2014 or until filled.

Minimum Requirements: A Ph.D. is required at the time of appointment.

Preferred Qualifications:We expect successful candidates for this tenure-track position to teach courses in Latin American and Caribbean politics and regional security, with the ability to teach Latino politics in the United States. The successful candidate will teach a variety of upper-division courses in these and related areas of specialization. In addition, the candidate may be asked to teach graduate courses. The successful candidate will produce scholarly research and provide service to the university and community.

Preferred candidates will be expected to meet the traditional requirements of excellence in teaching, active scholarly and professional work, and service to the university and community. In addition, new faculty are encouraged to develop and participate in activities that support the university’s strategic plan. This plan emphasizes: a) teaching and learning excellence; b) student access, retention, and success; c) excellence in research and creative activities; d) campus community; e) community engagement; and f) infrastructure.

Documents Required:Submit vita, three letters of reference and a letter of application that includes statement on teaching philosophy and strategies, research/professional accomplishments and goals, as well as a description of any interest or experience in one of the strategic plan areas. Submit copies of your most recent transcripts (official transcripts will be required pending an offer).

Contact Information:Dr. Brian Janiskee, Chair, Department of Political Science, 5500 University Parkway, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA 92407-2397. Telephone:

(909) 537-5535.

Additional Information:
Salary is dependent on qualifications and experience. In addition, there are generous medical, dental, and vision benefits and support for moving expenses.

For more information, please visit the Department’s website: http://www.cide.edu/estudios_internacionales.html

The Department of International Studies at CIDE seeks to fill one tenure-track position in International Relations, to start in August 2015 at its campus in Mexico City

CIDE- Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

Tenure track position in International Relations

Deadline: September 30, 2014

Minimum Requirements: Candidates should have a doctoral degree at the time of hire. Basic Spanish skills are required, and candidates are expected to become proficient within a reasonable period of time.Faculty members are expected to publish in top journals and presses and to teach a minimum of one course per year.

Preferred Qualifications: The position is open regarding subfield. Special consideration will be given to candidates focusing on US domestic and foreign policy, international organizations, international relations of Latin America, and international political economy (trade and finance).

Documents Required:
Interested applicants should submit the following documents electronically to: dei.contrataciones@cide.edu
Cover letter
Curriculum Vitae
Statement of purpose, including future teaching and research agenda
Writing sample not exceeding 50 pages
Teaching evaluations (if available)
Three reference letters, sent directly by the referee

Contact Information: dei.contrataciones@cide.edu

Additional Information:
Complete applications received by September 30, 2014, are guaranteed full consideration. Interviews will begin in November 2014. Faculty members will be available for informal meetings at APSA.

CIDE is a public social science research institute oriented towards high quality research with small, elite graduate and undergraduate teaching programs. The International Studies Department is the top IR department in Latin America. For more information, please visit the Department’s website:

http://www.cide.edu/estudios_internacionales.html

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IN THE COMMUNITY

University Language Academy for Children