Hofstra University Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) Calendar of Events 2014-15 Spring 2015 Sunday, February 8: African Diaspora. Music and Dance from the Old and New Worlds. A concert in celebration of Black History Month. Organized by Prof. Chandler Carter, Department of Music. Co-sponsored by LACS. Place and time: 5:00pm. John Adams Playhouse.
Monday, February 23: Lecture: “Invisible Wars: Indigenous Religion, Resistance, and Dissent in Colonial Mexico” Dr. David Tavárez is Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Vassar College. He researches transatlantic/global colonial intellectual exchanges, evangelization and language policies, writing and power in the public sphere, and Nahua and Zapotec societies. He has authored several books, including The Invisible War: Indigenous Devotions, Discipline, and Dissent in Colonial Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2013). Event sponsored by the Hofstra Cultural Center, and organized by LACS. Refreshments will be served. Place and Time: Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Monday, March 2: Aviva Chomsky will present her new book, Undocumented. How Immigration became Illegal (Beacon Press, 2014). In this illuminating work, immigrant rights activist Aviva Chomsky shows how “illegality” and “undocumentedness” are concepts that were created to exclude and exploit. With a focus on US policy, she probes how people, especially Mexican and Central Americans, have been assigned this status—and to what ends. Blending history with human drama, Chomsky explores what it means to be undocumented in a legal, social, economic, and historical context. The result is a powerful testament of the complex, contradictory, and ever-shifting nature of status in America. Event co-sponsored by the International Scene Series, Women’s Studies, and LACS. Place and Time: Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, 2:55-4:20 p.m.
Monday, March 16: Screening of the film Frida, followed by a presentation, and a film discussion, with Gillian Sneed (Graduate Center-City University of New York), who specializes in modern/contemporary Latin American art and film, focusing on Mexican women artists. Event co-organized by HOLA,
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with the support of LACS, scheduled as part of the Women’s History Month. Place and time: Student Center Theater, 6:00-9:30pm
Monday, April 20 Lecture: “The Life Within: Local Indigenous Society in Mexico’s Toluca Valley”, by Caterina Pizzigoni, associate Professor of Latin American history at Columbia University. Her research examines indigenous populations in colonial Latin America and the study of sources in Nahuatl (indigenous language of central Mexico). Her recent book provides a close examination of indigenous society, analyzing more than 200 testamentary documents, what Nahuatl homes looked like, who lived within them, and how indigenous households regulated their property and kinship connections. It is a fascinating portrait of daily life in an area that held firmly onto its Nahuatl traditions, while also incorporating certain aspects of Spanish imperialism. Event sponsored by the Hofstra Cultural Center, and organized by LACS. Refreshments will be served. Place and Time: Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, 4:30-6:00p.m
Fall 2014 Wednesday, October 8: 2:55p.m: Screening of the new film Cesar Chavez (dir. Diego Luna, 2014, 103 min.) 4:40-6:00: Roundtable discussion Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater SI, SE PUEDE! Cesar Chavez & Immigrant Rights Today Fifty years ago, the Civil Rights Act became law and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farmworkers Union as a popular movement for expanding immigrants' labor and human rights. As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, Hofstra's Labor Studies and Latin American & Caribbean Studies Programs host a showing of the new film: CESAR CHAVEZ, followed by a discussion on the film and current immigration policy debates with Prof. Lori Flores (History Dept., SUNY Stony Brook) and Emma Kreyche (Organizing Director, Worker Justice Center).
Wednesday, October 22: Common Hour: Alicia Anabel Santos, Writer, Producer and Playwright, Keynote speaker for Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month Reception. The reception includes activities, educational displays, food, and giveaways! Organized by the Division of Student Affairs and the Multicultural & International Student Programs Office. Place and time: Common Hour, Plaza Rooms, Mack Student Center
Wednesday, October 22: Lecture by Jean-Yves Merilus, University of California-Davis, on “Rural Development: the Economic Potential of Haiti’s ‘Lakou’ System”. Sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, and the Division of Student Affairs and Multicultural & International Student Programs Office. Refreshments will be served.
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Place and time: 2:55-4:20p.m., 246 East Library Wing
Thursday, November 6: Fiesta /Celebrazione / Festa / Festlitchkeit / Fête / Party /… A social event to celebrate European and Latin American Heritages with food and music. All students who are interested in European Studies and Latin American Studies are welcome, to gather around all Hofstra international students coming from any of the countries in these two regions. Co-sponsored by LACS, European Studies, MISPO, HOLA and NOAH. Place and time: 6:00-8:00p.m. 246 East Library Wing.
Wednesday, December 3: “Devotional Art, Popular Culture, and Church-State Relations in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Mexico”, A lecture by Prof. Kinga Novak, University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in Mexican religious and visual cultures from the colonial period to the present, with a focus on the nineteenth century. Her current research project is provisionally entitled Of Gratitude and Sorrow: A Visual History of Everyday Mexican Spirituality, 1700-2013, and explores religious, cultural, political, and technological changes in Mexico through the lens of devotional art, tracing ordinary Mexicans' relationships with the church and the state during a period of institutional attempts at modernizing Mexico. Place and time: 2:55-4:20p.m. Roosevelt 108
Wednesday and Thursday, December 3 and 4: Symposium on “Poetry and the Visual Arts in Romance Languages (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries). A Tribute to Jorge E. Eielson (1924–2006)”, organized by Miguel Ángel Zapata and co-sponsored by LACS.
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