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Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Inside this edition
Spring 2019
2 Director’s Greeting 3 Graduate Student Conference 4 Annual Spring Reception/Photo Contest Winners 5-12 CLACS News/Events 13-17 Faculty Accomplishments 18 Student Accomplishments 19 Affiliated Faculty/Alumni Corner/Acknowledgments
Photo awarded Honorable Mention for 2018 Spring Photo Contest (submitted by Giselle Cunanan)
DIRECTOR’S GREETING Director’s Greetings This spring semester of 2019 was packed with exciting events for Latin Americanists at IU. The Arts and Humanities Council put together an amazing slate of programming for its third Global Festival, titled “Mexico Remixed.” The festival featured concerts, lectures, performances, conferences, and exhibits, with highlights such as Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli, comic book author Jaime Hernandez, Mariachi Los Camperos, a film retrospective on Carlos Reygadas, cookboox author Fany Gerson, and so much more. CLACS contributed two talks on Mexican immigration, one by Robert McKee Irwin on his open access digital storytelling platform “Humanizing Deportation,”, and the other by Stanford historian Ana Raquel Minian on the long history of Mexican immigration since the Braceros program of the 1940s. CLACS also supported a conference organized by Anya Peterson Royce, “Voces del Pueblo,” which brought together an impressive group of indigenous writers and linguists coming from Mexico and discussing their work with IU scholars and students. Supported by Title VI funding, CLACS collaborated with the Center for Documentary Research and Practice to host our first invited visiting documentary filmmaker, Roberto Olivares from Mexico. As part of the Latin American Speaker Series, Rebecca Dirksen hosted Haitian performer, scholar, and vodou priest Erol Josué for impressive performances in conjunction with her exhibit on “Sacred Drums, Sacred Trees in Haiti,” displayed at the Mathers Museum. There also were a number of student-facing events this semester. Primarily, a very successful Graduate Student Conference took place, using funds almost entirely raised by the CLACS Graduate Student Association, and featuring keynote speaker Luis Cárcamo-Huechante (University of Texas, Austin) on indigenous soundscapes in Chile. We also continued our CLACS Happy Hour, generously sponsored by CLACS faculty, and finally, our first Graduate Student Brown Bag Series, which provides an opportunity for graduate students to share in-progress research and writing with an interdisciplinary audience. In addition, we have been lucky to have a number of visiting scholars with us. This year’s Fulbright Chair in Brazilian Music was Erica Giesbrecht, affiliated with the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, who presented her research on belly dancing in Sao Paulo. Sergio Lemus, a visiting assistant professor in at the Latino Studies Program, presented his research on Mexican yarderos in Chicago. Mario Ramírez, a CLIR postdoctoral affiliated with CLACS and the IU Libraries, presented the work he had done to update the Archivo Mesoamericano, an archive of audiovisual primary sources from El Salvador, Mexico, and Nicaragua. We also heard our very own Associate Director Bryan Pitts present on Brazil’s recent presidential elections. To update you on activities this summer: In May, CLACS brought together the authors of a new beginning Haitian Creole textbook, including our soon to be appointed Haitian Creole Visiting Lecturer. We also celebrated the almost forty years of existence of the Creole Institute, founded by Albert Valdman, which sadly closed its offices definitively. CLACS senior lecturer Quetzil Castaneda traveled to Mexico to continue work on his beginning and intermediate Maya textbooks. Also in May, we began turning our attention to revamping and expanding our outreach to K-12 schools, community colleges and four-year universities, and the community. Most notably, we got started on an exciting and innovative new outreach project called a “Digital Toolbox,” about which you will hear more in the near future. Finally, I am pleased to announce that César Félix-Brasdefer will be CLACS Director during the next academic year. It has been a great privilege working with you all. I hope we can collectively continue to make a difference! Enjoy the summer!
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GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE On Heritage and Struggle: Deconstructing Neoliberal Assumptions and Realities by Matt Cesnik
In its eighth iteration, this year’s CLACS Graduate Student Conference brought together over two dozen scholars from universities in countries as far flung as Mexico, Brazil, and Belgium. The conference planning committee chose this year’s theme in order to provide student scholars the chance to harness the interdisciplinary nature of Latin American Studies and the diverse intellectual space promoted by the conference to challenge prevailing interpretations and assumptions about the region. Held on March 1-2, the conference featured keynote speaker Luis Cárcamo-Huechante of the University of Texas at Austin, who gave a talk entitled “Acoustic Colonialism and Its Counter-Currents: Sounds and Listening(s) in the Mapuche Territory.” Day One of the conference began with a panel led by faculty discussant Dr. Peter Guardino. Entitled “Mexico in Focus,” the panel’s four participants all tackled issues that revolved around state policy in the country. Jorge Rios Allier (IU) began by presenting his paper on innovations in financial mechanisms in cultural management. Guadalupe Arellanes (Cal. State, LA) then spoke on the erasure of Afro-Mexicanas in discourse surrounding murders in Juarez. The panel’s final two papers centered on Oaxaca, with Jorge Puma (Notre Dame) speaking on teachers’ unions and Carmina Spíndola (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla) discussing the complex nature of adoption. The conference’s second panel focused on the theme “Reimagining Resistance.” Guided by Micol Seigel, the panel featured two students of theology and a historian of Mexican counter-culture. Hector Araya (Université Catholique de Louvain) discussed the emergence of Queer Theology, Conor Rasmusen (Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York) spoke on the relationship between the Zapatistas and a “non-ethics of violence,” and Noe Pliego Campos (Notre Dame) fleshed out a history of the Chavos Banda subculture in Mexico. After lunch, Dr. Angela Babb led a panel entitled “Systems, Markets, and Resources.” Martin Delaroche (IU) presented research on conservationism among large soy farmers in the Amazon, Rosie Eyerman-Motz (IU) spoke on modern food systems in the Andes, and Jesús Nazario (UT-Austin) situated indigenous corn farming in post-NAFTA Mexico. With Shane Greene at the helm as discussant, Day One’s final panel centered on the theme “Movements and Mobilizations.” Vitor Martins Dias (IU) spoke on the relationship between social movements and the “judicialization” of politics in Brazil, Casimir Korducki (IU) discussed his research on the competing visions of Juan Bosch and the Dominican Republic’s Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, and Michiko Soto (Cal State, LA) spoke on resistance and profit-making in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria. After a night’s rest, the conference continued on Saturday with its fifth panel “Traversing Boundaries.” Alvaro Pajares (IU) began the day by discussing the political aesthetics of neoperreo in Spain, after which, Jodi Scofield (Cal State, LA) presented her paper on the migration of Garifuna across the Americas. Faculty discussant Sergio Lemus then provided his comments and guided audience questions. In a new addition to the conference, the conference then hosted a panel featuring Alex Elvis Badillo and Matthew Brennan entitled “VR Presentation & Digital Heritage,” before conference participants then had the chance to explore the Monte Albán site in Oaxaca, Mexico through visual reality technology. The conference then continued to its final panel, “Erasure through Space and Time,” which was led by faculty discussant Luciana Namorato. Zachary Hayes (UCSan Diego) first discussed the role of space in Roberto Bolaño’s “By Night in Chile.” He was then followed by Talisson Souza (Yale/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) who discussed the role of memory, identity, and market forces in the 1985 18th São Paulo Biennial. Lais Lara Vanin (IU) presented the conference’s final paper on the central role slaves and domestic workers played in the literature of the Brazilian author Emi Bulhões. After the conference’s end, members of the CLACS community joined conference participants for a reception that featured music, thanks to the assistance of the Latin American Music Center. This year’s CLACS Graduate Student Association Conference Planning Committee was made up of Matt Cesnik (President), Rosie Eyerman Motz (Vice President), Nate Young (Treasurer), John “Monty” Montgomery, Oscar Lemus, Ricardo Higelin Ponce de Leon, and Aline Xavier de Araújo. CLACS, the IU Funding Board, the Latin American Music Center, the School of Public Health, the Department of Sociology, Department of Informatics, and the Department of Anthropology also provided essential resources and financial support.
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ANNUAL SPRING RECEPTION Annual Reception by Katherine Cashman
CLACS’s Annual Spring Reception was held in the Bridgewaters’ Room of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center on April 18, 2019 from 5-7pm. CLACS affiliates, students, and staff enjoyed the food, as well as a wine and beer bar. Latin and Caribbean music added to the ambiance of the evening. CLACS Director Anke Birkenmaier highlighted some CLACS’s successes, highlighting our receiving Title VI funding. Anke also presented the top two winners of our annual Photo Contest with a framed copy of their winning entries. The Winning entry, titled, “Soccer in Havana,” was submitted by Quinton Stroud. Honorable Mention went to “Lago Quilotoa,” submitted by Neha Srinivasan. Next Anke presented the winner and honorable mention for the Martin-Sadlier Brazil Essay Prize with certificates of recognition. First prize went to Matt Cesnik for his essay titled, “For Our Enemies the Law: A Counter-narrative to Brazilian State Discourse on Bolsa Familia Auditing Following the Impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff,” and Honorable Mention was awarded to Tais Xavier Carvalho for her essay titled, “Caminhos da poesia infantil brasileira: contrastes no tratamento da natureza e da família em Poesias infantis de Olavo Bilac e Ou isto ou aquilo de Cecília Meireles.” The CLACS staff, led by Associate Director Bryan Pitts, surprised Anke by presenting her with a card and a gift of a customized platter in recognition for her tenure at CLACS, which ends in June of 2019. Thank you to all who contributed to making this a great year for CLACS.
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CLACS NEWS 50th Anniversary of IU’s relationship with the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú by Hannah L. Buxbaum, Vice President for International Affairs
One of IU’s longest standing successful international relationships has been with the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Indiana University first embarked on sending students to Peru in 1959, as one of the first North American universities to send students to Latin America. Although the original host institution was the Universidad de San Marcos, after a few years it became clear that IU students would be better served at La Católica. Indiana University has sent 400 students to La Cató1ica since 1969. They have returned home transformed in many different ways by their experiences. Beginning in 1990, the program was suspended due to concerns over violence related to the Sendero Luminoso insurgency, but with the defeat of Sendero and the return of relative political stability, the program was reinstated in 2000. Since the reinstatement of the partnership, La Católica has provided full support for IU students, including a full range of courses, academic advising, host-family housing, and counseling for their individual situations. Two of the constants throughout our five-decade relationship have been the outstanding academic environment in which our students are immersed and the consistent professionalism of La Católica’s staff and faculty. Indiana University thanks them for their collegiality over the past 50 years and looks forward to the future.
CLACS EVENTS Belly Dancing in São Paulo by Bryan Pitts
In Spring 2019, IU was privileged to host Erica Giesbrecht at the Fulbright Chair in Brazilian Music. Professor Giesbrecht is an ethnomusicologist by training who did her graduate work at the Universidade de Campinas, one of Brazil’s top universities. She combines ethnomusicological research with documentary filmmaking in innovative ways, and while at IU she taught a course in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology titled “Ethnographic Filmmaking.” She also offered classes in jong0, and Afro-Brazilian musical and dance genre from Southeastern Brazil. Finally, she presented her research on the social, cultural, and gendered complexities of Middle Eastern-inspired belly dancing in contemporary São Paulo. This marked probably the first time that CLACS faculty and students have been asked to stand during a lecture and practice belly-dancing moves.
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CLACS EVENTS Los Morenos and the Mexicans: Of Muggings, Critical Colorism, and Relational Race-Making Processes in South Chicago by John (Monty) Montgomery
On Thursday, April 4th Dr. Sergio Lemus, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Latino Studies Program presented “Los Morenos and the Mexicans: Of Muggings, Critical Colorism, and Relational Race-Making Processes in South Chicago.” Lemus’ work, based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, explores the relationship between Mexican yardero lawn care workers and their working class, mostly black, clientele. In his research, he finds a mutually beneficial economic relationship exists between the two groups, but not without difficulties. While yarderos are the preferred lawn care experts for the South Chicago neighborhoods Lemus researches, they are at times subject to robberies in their work. These instances of theft contribute to racialized preconceptions in the minds of many yarderos. Likewise, the mostly black community’s preference for Mexican lawn care workers represents the construction of a dynamic racialization. Based on a chapter from an upcoming book, Lemus’ presentation captured the interest of attendees, who participated in a lively question-answer session.
Border Brujos: Carlos Castaneda, Indigenismo, and New Age Anthropology by Eduard Brudney
On Wednesday, March 20, Indiana University welcomed Ageeth Sluis (Professor of Latin American History, Chair of the Department of History and Anthropology, Butler University). Dr. Sluis gave a presentation entitled “Border Brujos: Carlos Castaneda, Indigenismo, and New Age Anthropology,” which explored the academic career and post-academic life of one of Carlos Castaneda, one of anthropology’s most (in)famous celebrities. Castaneda’s scholarly and popular work encompassed nearly twenty books that described his interactions with the Yaqui medicine man Don Juan and sold millions of copies, making Castaneda perhaps the most widely-read anthropologist of the 1970s. However, as Dr. Sluis unpacked, his controversy surrounded his research, as many expressed doubts related to his methods and sources—including the question of whether “Don Juan” had ever existed at all. In “Border Brujos,” Dr. Sluis traced the emergence of Castaneda’s particular brand of New Age Anthropology at a moment of cultural and political upheaval in the United States and Latin America and showed how ideas around Mexicanness and Indianness were central to the reception and popularity of Castaneda’s work. The presentation provoked a lively discussion with the audience over the import and legacies of Castaneda as an academic and as a popular literary figure and raised questions about cultural exchange across the US-Mexico border from the 1960s through the 1990s. This talk was co-sponsored by Indiana University’s Department of History, Department of Anthropology, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Enfoque-Page 6
CLACS EVENTS Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration by Sonia Manriquez
Historian Ana Minian, associate professor in the Department of History at Stanford University, visited the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies to discuss her first book Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration. Professor Minian explores a specific period in the history of Mexican migration to the United States ranging from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. In her talk she elaborated why this was such a significant time period for Mexican migration. She opened by highlighting the fact that 18% of the U.S. population is of Latin American decent, half of whom are of Mexican descent. She stressed how government policies, both from the U.S. and Mexico, have and continue to encourage migration to the United States. As the number of Mexican migrants in the U.S. increased, so did the instances of discrimination, accompanied by a surge in nationalism and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Professor Minian’s discussion of Mexican migrants’ experiences of discrimination and encounters with U.S. nationalism are pertinent to understanding today’s political climate and the latest surge of nationalist sentiment in the United States. It is her hope that her work will continue to shed light on the lives of undocumented Mexicans past, present, and future.
Bullets, Bulls, and Bibles: Jair Bolsonaro and the Rise of the Far Right in Brazil by Matt Cesnik
On February 15, CLACS Associate Director Bryan Pitts gave a timely talk on recent political events in Brazil that gave rise to the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. In his talk entitled “Bullets, Bulls, and Bibles: Jair Bolsonaro and the Rise of the Far Right in Brazil,” Pitts charted the connections between the 2016 parliamentary coup that facilitated the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the imprisonment of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Bolsonaro’s successful campaign for the presidency. By challenging US popular media discourses on the relationship between anti-corruption programs and democracy in Brazil, Pitts presented a narrative that links a complicit political class to the rising tides of misogyny and homophobia most typified by the political avatar of Bolsonaro. Following the talk, Pitts and members of the audience engaged in a spirited discussion on the roots of Bolsonaro’s election and ongoing resistance to threats against democracy and the human rights of long-marginalized communities in the country. Enfoque-Page 7
CLACS EVENTS Visualizing Struggle, Conflict, and Indigeneity: Building and Preserving the Archivo Mesoamericano by Bryan Pitts Mario Ramirez (Ph.D., Information Studies, UCLA) spent three semesters at IU as the CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Collections Services. His task has been to develop a new platform and add features to IU’s and CLACS’s Archivo Mesoamericano, a unique collection of audio and video recordings of political and social movements in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Mexico between the 1970s and the turn of the 21st century. On March 22, Dr. Ramirez presented the preliminary results of this project, outlined next steps, and discussed strategies for maintaining the Archivo’s site in the future. The talk was followed by a discussion among various people who are or have been involved in the project, including Jeff Gould (History), who was CLACS Director when the Archivo Mesoamericano began. In the fall, Dr. Ramirez will leave IU to take a position as Head of Special Collections and Archives at Cal State Los Angeles. CLACS appreciates all the hard work he put into this project!
Pilgrimage: An Evening with Erol Josué by Rebecca Dirksen
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Minority Languages and Cultures Speaker Series
PILGRIMAGE: An evening with Erol Josué Vodou priest, singer, & dancer
Internationally renowned Haitian singer, dancer, and Vodou priest Erol Josué gave the Minority Languages and Cultures Lecture Series Talk for Spring 2019 on April 10. The following day, he also led The Celebration of the Drums at the Mathers Museum, the inaugural event for the exhibit Sacred Drums, Sacred Trees: Haiti’s Changing Climate curated by Rebecca Dirksen, Assistant Professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. With both events supported by CLACS, Mr. Josué brought a delegation from the Bureau National d’Ethnologie d’Haïti, including master drummer Beauvois Anilus. They brought out large and enthusiastic crowds to both public April 10, 2019 | 8PM Musical Arts Center, MC 066 events—even getting the audience up to sing and dance—and were very well Free and open to the public received in three classes: F111 World Music and Culture, SOAD-F485 Autobiographies of Dress and the Body, and F330 Caribbean Carnival. Additional support for this residency was generously offered by the Bureau National d’Ethnologie d’Haïti, the Sage Collection, the Mathers Museum, the Latin American Music Center, the Jacobs School of Music, the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, and the Department of Religious Studies. Erol Josué is an internationally renowned dancer, vocalist, and recording artist with an active touring schedule throughout the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and Africa on the “world beat” circuit. Deeply invested in the safeguarding and transmission of Haiti’s intangible cultural heritage, he is also an educator and an activist who has spent his life working to dispel pervasive myths about Haitian Vodou and to break down prejudices against its practitioners. He has spoken and performed at universities from Harvard to Dartmouth and Duke to Michigan, and regularly presents at academic conferences— besides organizing them at the Bureau National d’Ethnologie in Port-au-Prince. Josué captivates audiences by weaving together live music and dance performance with profound discussions of Haitian culture and spirituality. As an oungan (Vodou priest), he attends to the physical and spiritual needs of his community in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora.
Photographer: Ludner Desvarieux Sylist: Prajje Jan Baptiste
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CLACS EVENTS Humanizing Deportation by Matt Cesnik
After a two-month delay on account of winter storms, Robert McKee Irwin of the University of California Davis visited CLACS on March 27 to present his “Humanizing Deportation” digital storytelling project. During his lecture, which doubled as part of the semester-long Mexico Remixed initiative, Irwin highlighted several of the stories on the project’s web platform that depict the experience of people deported from the United States to Mexico. Through the project, persons deported from the US write and create short videos that describe their lives and how deportation continues to affect them. Irwin highlighted two videos made by one man that describe how he was detained and deported while on the way to a church conference, and how in Mexico he is targeted by corrupt police officials due to his trans-border identity. Irwin also discussed the history of the project and the work of the dozens of people who have made it possible. Following his presentation, Dr. Irwin took a series of questions that touched on challenges the project faces, the manner in which deportees tell their personal stories through the project, and his plans for the future. You can find more information about Humanizing Deportation at http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/en/.
Fly Me to the Moon, with Director Esther Figueroa by Saul Kutnicki
In March the Black Film Center/Archive and the IU Cinema’s Creative Collaborations program, with the support of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, showcased “Black Sun/White Moon: Exploring Black Cinematic Imaginations of Space.” A highlight of the program was a screening of Dr. Esther Figueroa’s Fly Me to the Moon, organized by CLACS affiliate Terri Francis (Media School). This most recent work of Figueroa’s presents an account of the history and effects of bauxite mining in Jamaica that originated out of U.S. and worldwide demands for aluminum in the midst of a post WWII industrial complex. The film juxtaposes the international space race, and the massive quantities of aluminum materials needed to equip rockets for space travel, with the extraction of natural resources and displacement of people and farms across the Jamaican countryside. Figueroa’s documentary style is both gravely serious and subversively whimsical in its presentation of commercial exploitation and the recurring aftermaths of colonial oppression, which collectively have led to many of the environmental, economic, and social problems facing Jamaica to date. Those problems are also multivalent and traceable to other activities like tourism, local fishing industries, and corrupt public officials—topics that are expertly addressed in three short films of Figueroa’s, Jamaica For Sale, Massa God Fish Can Done, and Cockpit Country is Our Home, which screened at the IU Libraries Moving Image Archive. Dr. Figueroa was present for both screenings, receiving praise and enthusiastically seeking feedback on how to continue developing her work for a growing audience of engaged scholars, artists, and activists.
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CLACS EVENTS Profundo Laberinto/Deep Maze by Sonia Manriquez
As a recipient of Title VI funding, CLACS was able to host an international Visiting Documentary Filmmaker, an annual event scheduled to last the duration of our Title VI award period. Many applicants submitted proposals from all over Latin America and the Caribbean. Roberto Olivares, a renowned documentary filmmaker from Mexico, was selected by CLACS and the Center for Documentary Research and Practice for a week long stay at IU Bloomington. While on campus, Olivares also collaborated with African American and African Diaspora Studies and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for class visits and discussions about his experiences as a filmmaker, activist for indigenous rights, and the complexities of identity politics in Mexico. Olivares’ in-progress documentary Profundo Laberinto/Deep Maze was screened in Shreve Auditorium. It reflects on issues of identity and nationalism by looking at the residents of Costa Chica, a coastal region in the state of Guerrero. The population of Costa Chica is comprised of African descendants. The film shows that residents of Costa Chica see themselves as Mexican but are racialized by others due to their appearance, traditions, and dialectical differences, which are seen to contradict the country’s mestizo identity. The documentary artistically sheds light on the subjects of discrimination and identity construction in Mexico.
Lotus Blossoms World Bazaar by Katherine Cashman
March 29-30 was the date of the Annual Lotus Blossoms World Bazaar, one of CLACS most successful outreach events. On Friday, Monroe County schools bused students to Fairview Elementary to participate in a multicultural experience allowing students to interact with music, crafts, languages, from around the world. The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies introduced students to Peruvian Masks and Chilean rains sticks. Students from around the area colored and assembled a traditional Peruvian mask and others were guided through the steps of making a Chilean Rain stick. On Saturday, March 30th the volunteers returned to assist the public in learning about their world by treating them to the music, art and crafts of the highlighted at the Bazaar. Along with Peruvian Masks and Chilean Rain sticks, there was African music, Ukrainian Egg Decorating and musical performances throughout the day, which included bagpipes. CLACS looks forward to continuing our participation in the Lotus Blossoms Bazaar in the future. Enfoque-Page 10
CLACS EVENTS Graduate Student Brown Bag Series by Bryan Pitts
Spring 2019 saw the inaugural edition of the CLACS graduate student brown bag series, which provides M.A. and Ph.D. students in the midst of writing their thesis or dissertation the opportunity to get constructive feedback from an interdisciplinary audience of faculty and fellow students. This year, three Ph.D. candidates presented chapters from their dissertations. David Tezil (French Linguistics, IUB) discussed the links between social class and the use of Haitian Creole and French in Haiti. Elena Guzmán (Anthropology, Cornell) presented her research on transnational religious expressions on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. And Denisa Jashari (History, IUB) shared a dissertation chapter on discourses about poverty, race, and class in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Santiago, Chile. If you are a graduate student and would be interested in presenting your research at next Spring’s brown bag series, just email us!
IU Mexico Gateway
by Best West, IU Mexico Gateway Director The IU Mexico Gateway is designed to support and create new connections between Indiana University and local Mexican institutions. It supports logistics to hold workshops, seminars, and talks and has helped create links between IU Faculty members and their UNAM counterparts. The IU Mexico Gateway was inaugurated with a visit from IU President Michael McRobbie in May 2018. Since that date has held 16 events, with attendance of over 1,500 people. Participating IU units include the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, The College of Art & Sciences, the Jacobs School of Music, and other IU offices such as CLACS and the Office of the Vice President of International Affairs. One of the most important and recent events hosted by the Mexico Gateway was a second IU Presidential Delegation to the UNAM to renew our partnership for the next five years. During this visit the IU soccer team and the UNAM student soccer team played a friendly at the Olympic Stadium. Additionally, the IU Mexico Gateway has hosted seven academic workshops: 1) Voices of People: Indigenous Languages, Literature, Cultures Alive; 2) Archivo Mesoamericano 3) Punk en las Americas; 4) El Estudio de la Variación Lingüística: Métodos y herramientas de análisis; 5) Proyecto de preservación lingüística en una comunidad bilingüe: cuicateco y español; 6) A condição feminina e a causa feminista na obra de Clarice Lispector; and 7) Recentering American Religion IU faculty members can apply for seed funding for activities that take place at IU’s Global Gateways. Funding is provided for activities, research, and programs which build on existing IU institutional partnerships in Global Gateway countries or regions, that involve collaborative activities likely to be sustained and enhanced in the future, and that advance the goals of the Indiana University International Strategic Plan. Enfoque-Page 11
CLACS EVENTS
Voces del Pueblo/Voices of the People by Anya Peterson Royce
Mexico is a country rich in indigenous languages and cultures. More than seventy indigenous languages are spoken and written, and offer us profound commentaries on indigenous lives and cultures through award-winning volumes of poetry and stories. Voices of the People/The Power of Word and Image brought together poets, writers, translators, linguistics, and film-maker for two days of workshop, public presentations and poetry readings at the Mathers Museum, and the Global of International Studies from April 15 to 16. These events were part of the Indiana University Mexico Remixed. Our participants interacted in classes and informally with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as with faculty from the Departments of Anthropology, Spanish and Portuguese, CLACS, Latino Studies and the American Indian Studies Research Institute. Thanks to La Casa, the specialists from Mexico and the US had the opportunity to share their expertise with the Latino community at IU. Through the poetry of Irma Pineda, Victor Teran, and Pedro Serrano translated by Wendy Call and Donald Frischmann, we saw the power of indigenous languages to portray cultures with great antiquity that are active forces in global conversations. Film-maker Roberto Olivares with his work on Afro-descendant and indigenous communities brought these cultures alive through his images and films. Marcela San Giacomo, Manuel Diaz-Campos, Cesar Felix-Brasdefer, Quetzil CastaĂąeda, Daniel Suslak, Donald Frischmann, and Alex Badillo demonstrated the importance of linguistic and archaeological approaches to indigenous languages and communities fosters conversations within and across indigenous peoples bringing an important voice to national and global dialogue.
Photos from 2019 Photo Contest
Submitted by (from left to right) Ricardo Martins, Matt Cesnik, Zayra Lopez, Jelena Nguyen, Monty Montgomery, Jelena Nguyen Enfoque-Page 12
FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS Lee Alston, Director, Ostrom Workshop, Ostrom Chair & Professor of Economics and Law Research Associate, NBER
• Received a Fellowship from the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics, University of Chicago, for academic year 2019-2020.
Robert Arnove, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus, School of Education
• One of three keynote speakers -- including Mmantsetsa, Marope, Director General of UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education- at the XVII World Congress of Comparative Education Societies to be held in Cancun, Mexico, May 20-24. , 2019. My address will be on the “The Empirical and Ethical Dimensions of Comparative Education.”
Rick Bein, Professor, Department of Geography, IUPUI
• Published with other authors, Mohamed Babiker Ibrahim, Leo C. Zulu and Frederick L. Bein (2017) “Settlement in Transition of a Transformation of a Village into a Small Town in Western Sudan” Urban Forum, January 2019. • Presented a paper at the Association of American Geographers annual conference in Washington DC, Rubber Harvesters in the Amazon April 5, 2019. • Translator for Portuguese to English for Partners of Americas, Indiana Chapter. • Published Youtube video presentations titled, “Piranha Affair” February 2019, “Anaconda” in press April 2019, “Peace Corps Experience” in press April 2019. • Member of the Boards of Directors: Indiana Partners of the Americas, partnership with the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, Geography Educators Network of Indiana, 1989-present, Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District. 1985 to present. • Host translator of Portuguese for visiting Brazilians 1981 to present.
Quetzil Castañeda, Senior Lecturer, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
• Appointed Editor in Chief of The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (JLACA) in July 2018. • Re-appointed as a Councilor to the Board of directors of the Society of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. • As Editor in Chief, published first issue in volume 24 (1) in February 2019 as well as the accompanying “Editor’s Introduction.” • Collaboration with Naomi Leite and Kathleen Adams as second co-editor of the collected volume, titled, The Ethnography of Tourism: Edward Bruner and Beyond, comes to a conclusion in 2019. • Co-authored the Introduction to, “Anthropology and the Emergence of Tourism Ethnography,” and authored Chapter 11 titled, “Contested Sites and Ideologies at War in Chichén Itzá: An Ethnography of a Tourism Destination” published by Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing) in late fall of 2019. • Summer 2019, Castañeda will use grant support from the CLACS Title VI grant to develop Maya audiovisual materials in order to complete the first academic (“Yucatec”) Maya textbook for English speakers to be published in the USA. • Traveling with IU students to the ethnography field school and Maya language program that he directs in the Maya community of Pisté, three kilometers from Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, México in the Summer of 2019.
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FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS César Félix-Brasdefer, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese • Presented his new book, Pragmática del español: contexto, uso y variación, (2019, Routledge Press) at the UNAM-Chicago on Monday, March 11, 2019. The companion website provides additional exercises, readings, and a corpus in Pragmatics: https://pragmatics.indiana.edu/textbook/ • Delivered a talk as part of the IU Mexico Remixed, titled “Teaching and Assessment of Indigenous Languages: Nahuatl”, Voces del Pueblo/El Poder de la Palabra y la Imagen / Voices of the People/The Power of Word and Image, April 15-17, 2019.
Gerardo M. González, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the School of Education
• Selected to serve on the Indiana University Bicentennial Speakers Bureau. Spoke to several IU classes, the University Club, and St. Thomas Aquinas—Indianapolis teachers and students in Spring 2019 semester. • Conducted book readings and discussions at La Casa and in the Education Library as part of Hispanic Heritage Month events. • Participated in the First Thursday “Human Library” activities centered around discrimination and breaking down human barriers based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, lifestyle choices, and other aspects of people’s life.
Luis A. González, Librarian for Latin American, Iberian, Latino, and Chicano-Riqueño Studies
• Published artilce titled “Latin American and Caribbean Documentary Memory in the Digital Age.” In Latin American Collection Concepts: Essays on Libraries, Collaborations and New Approaches, edited by Gayle Ann Williams and Jana Lee Krentz, 197-223. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2019. (Co-author: Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez).
Israel F. Herrera, Senior Lecturer, Outreach and Experiential Learning Coordinator, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
• 2019 IUB Distinguished Service Award. Israel will represent Bloomington in the university-wide W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service. • 2019 City of Bloomington Be More Influential Award. • Elected President of the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association (IFLTA). • Elected Vice President of the Indiana Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. • Selected by the Indiana Department of the Education to be part of the Indiana World Language Standards Revision Committee. • Recipient of the Indiana Humanities Grant. • Recipient of the CITL Global Faculty Learning Community Grant. • Recipient of the CITL SER Faculty Learning Community Grant. • Chair of the 50th Anniversary IFLTA Conference. • Chair of the 2019 IFLTA Pam Gemmer Conference.
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FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS Jeffrey Gould, Rudy Professor, Department of History
• Published monograph in May, Cambridge University Press, Solidarity Under Siege, The Salvadoran Labor Movement, 1970-1990.
Peter Guardino, Director History Honors Program, Professor, Department of History
• Named Provost’s Professor. • Received the Bolton-Johnson Prize from the Conference on Latin American History for the best English-language book on any aspect of Latin American history for The Dead March: A History of the Mexican- American War (Harvard University Press, 2017). • Received the Distinguished Book Award for United States History from the Society for Military History for The Dead March: A History of the Mexican- American War (Harvard University Press, 2017). • Published “La historia de una historia de la invasión estadounidense” in Letras Libres No. 241 January 1, 2019. • Presented the Belton Y Cooper Lecture at the University of Alabama Birmingham. The title of the talk was “Very Soon We Will be the Owners of the Enemy’s Food: the New Military History and the Mexican American War.” • Presented the talk “With Whatever Weapons: Mexico City’s People, National Identity, and the American Invasion, 1847” for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Illinois, Champaign, Il. • Presented the keynote speech “Los hombres, las mujeres y la Guerra: Acercándonos a las experiencias de la gente del siglo XIX” for the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico.
Stephanie C. Kane, Professor, Department of International Studies
• Presented paper at the final conference of the Ice Law Project titled “Circumpolarity and the Trophic Architecture of Ice: Animals in Ecology and Law”, Centre for Borders, Research at Durham University, Durham, UK, April 25-27. • Distinguished Guest Lecture presented “Intensionality and Loss in the Red River Basin of the North” at the Cultural Studies Common Seminar and Colloquium at the University of Pittsburgh. April 10-11. Pittsburgh. • Presented at the workshop entitled: “Questioning Territory: Extending Concepts of Territory through Engagement with Experience, Affect and Embodiment.” Mobilities and MigrationsSubproject, Ice Law Project, paper titled “From the Horse’s Mouth: Notes for a Multispecies Ice Law”,at University of Albany, SUNY, March 8.
Carlos M. Lisoni, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
• Presented “Buying Votes from the Poor? Persuasion and Coercion to Enforce Compliance in Argentina” on March 28,2019 at IU South Bend. • Awarded “Merit Status” which honors associate (or adjunct) faculty at the IUSB campus on April 10, 2019.
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FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS Michael T. Martin, Professor, Cinema and Media Studies
• Invited to speak in a two-day symposium, “Confronting Our Memory and Shaping the Future of a Pan African Cinema in its Essence, Economy and Diversity at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, also known as FESPACO held February 25-26, 2019. • Published book titled, “Race and the Revolutionary Impulse in The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora),” co-edited with David C. Wall and Marilyn Yaquinto and published by IU Press, January, 2018. • Submitted citation from the Black Camera, An International Film Journal on Feb 22 2019 to IU ScholarWorks, https://iu.tind.io/record/754. • Co-edited book titled “The Birth of a Nation: The Cinematic Past in the Present” will be published by IU Press in August 2019.
John H. McDowell, Professor, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology
• Visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, for Spring 2019 semester, teaching two folklore classes: “Myth, Cosmos, and Healing in Latin America,” for undergraduates; and “Tradition and Modernity: Constructing Tradition,” a graduate seminar. • Invited to be the Alan Dundes Guest Lecture and , on March 14, delivered a public lecture titled, “Ecoperformativity: Expressive Culture at the Crux of Ecological Trauma.”
William J. Mello, Associate Professor, Labor Studies, IUN
• Published Journal Article: Poverty and Politics: The 2018 Brazilian Elections and Neoliberalisms Authoritarian Alternative. For Nonsite, (forthcoming).
Kathleen Myers, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
• Exhibited a photography and informative Exhibit with Steven Raymer titled “In the Shadow of Cortes: From Veracruz to Mexico City” opened at the Waldron in April 2019. • Participated in a round table titled “Contemporary Coloniality and Mexico,” sponsored by IAS, CAHI, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. • Published “A Country of Shepherds: Cultural Geographies and Pastoralism in Contemporary Spain” (working with the University of Seville Press and the Junta de Andalucia). • Partnered with the University of Seville: Dr. Yolena Mena, Professor of Tecnología de la Producción Animal and specialist in the human and ecological benefits of traditional grazing practices.
Luciana Namorato, Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
• Awarded Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award (2019). • Invited Lecturer “El viacrucis de ser mujer: Pasión y ciclo de vida en Clarice Lispector.” Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City (February 2019). • Invited Lecturer “De amadora a mestra: Uma viagem pelas crônicas de Clarice Lispector .” Centro Cultural Brasil-México, Embajada de Brasil en México, Mexico City (February 2019). • Awarded grant CLACS Faculty Travel Awards, $1000 (2019). • Awarded grant EURO Research Travel Grant, Institute for European Studies, Indiana University, $1500 (2019).
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FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS John Nieto-Phillips, Associate Professor, Department of History, Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion
• Received “Best New Journal” award at the 2019 Modern Language Association convention in Chicago, Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). • Named “Journal of the Month” in February 2018 by Project MUSE.
Anya Peterson Royce, PhD, D.Litt, Medalla Binniza, Chancellor’s Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature, Adjunct Professor, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance
• Published article titled “Reflections on a Community of the Heart: Ethnographer and the people of Juchitan, Oaxaca” in the November 2, 2018 issue of Camp Anthropology, https://campanthropology. org/2017/11/06/anya-royce-and-the-people-of-juchitan-oaxaca/#more-1396 • Published article titled “Culture Keepers” in the October 4< 2018 issue of Pride of IU, https://pride. iu.edu/arts-culture/culture-keepers/. • Created vidoe titled “Sol de Movimiento” on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OotxkL8-BBc (sol de movimiento). • Participated in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Spring of 2019, https://www.irishworldacademy.ie/wp-content/themes/IWA/pdf-flipbook/.
Darlene J. Sadlier, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
• Published a Portuguese translation of my book “A Diáspora em Língua Portuguesa”,https://ntradio. pt/2019/04/10/lancamento-a-diaspora-em-lingua-portuguesa-a-12-abril/?fbclid=IwAR07rrliFY1sIzT_ E6gbJt6LfCf9shtrEEMNVXCdLtpfHdBdGAnK8qPEU9c.
Michael D. Wasserman, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology • Awarded with Dr. Peter Beck (St. Edward’s University) a NSF-IRES grant to research the overarching goal of understanding how environmental policy influences forest ecology and primate biology for the next three years in Costa Rica, Panama, and Uganda.
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STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS Edward Brudney, Ph.D. Student, Department of History
• Accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Latin American History at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga in the Fall of 2019 • Published article titled “”Manifest Destiny, the Frontier, and ‘el Indio’ in Argentina’s Conquista del Desierto” in the Journal of Global South Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (2019).
Matt Cesnik, M.A./M.P.A. Student, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Public and Environmental Affairs • Awarded the degrees of Master of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies by the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies and Master of Public Affairs by the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. • Awarded the Martins-Sadlier Award for Best Essay in Brazilian Studies by CLACS and the Portuguese Program at IU for his M.A. Final Paper, ““For Our Enemies the Law: A Counter-narrative to Brazilian State Discourse On Bolsa Família Auditing Following the Impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.”
Tori Collins, M.A. Student, Department of International Studies
• Awarded a Tinker Grant and a summer research grant from the Tobias Center for my fieldwork in Mexico City.
Mark Fitzsimmons, Ph.D. Candidate, Associate Instructor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
• Awarded the IUB Latino Studies Dissertation Year Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year allowing dedication to my dissertation project “Literature between Language(s): The Poetics and Politics of Language Encounters in Contemporary US Latina/o Literature.”
Denisa Jashari, Ph.D. Student, Department of History
• Awarded the Future Faculty Teaching Fellowship at Butler University, University Graduate School, 20182019. • Awarded the Frederick W. & Mildred C. Stoler fellowship through the History Department at Indiana University for academic year 2018-2019. • Awarded the College Arts and Humanities Institute Graduate Student Travel Award for academic year 2018-2019. • Awarded the American Historical Association Council Annual Meeting Travel Grant for academic year 2018-2019.
Jorge Luis Rios Allier, Ph.D. Student, Department of Anthropology • Awarded the Ostrom Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year in the Spring 2019 semester.
Emma McDonell, Ph.D. Student, Department of Anthropology
• Featured at PBS, a piece on agrobiodiversity titled, “Can Markets Save Agricultural Diversity? Quinoa as a Case Study (EnviroSociety),” February, 2019, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/peru-agricultural-diversity.
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NEW AFFILIATED FACULTY
Oscar Barrau, Department of World Language Studies IU South Bend
Oscar Barrau (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of World Language Studies at IU South Bend, where he has taught since 2003. He served as chair of the department between 2011 and 2017. His scholarship focuses on Spanish-American narrative, particularly during the early colonial period, and his research has appeared in journals like Colonial Latin American Review and Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. He is also interested in early cartography in the Americas and is finishing an article on Rodrigo Fernandez de Santaella’s attack (1444-1509) against Columbus in the cosmography of his 1503 edition of the Book of Travels of Polo. Professor Barrau has taught courses on Spanish and Spanish American literature, Hispanic cultures (particularly in the 20th century), women in Hispanic literatures, and modern Mexican thought.
ALUMNI CORNER Diana Velazquez, M.A., Assistant Director, Ispire Living Learning Center, Indiana University Bloomington
• Released a musical album titled,”Fronteras Sin Cruzar” (apple music, i-tunes, spotify) and includes original lyrics, https://open.spotify.com/album/7sxWsVtT3VscxoNj5u00eg; https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianavelazquez.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CLACS would like thank our sponsors William Mello, Claudia Avellaneda, Eduardo Brondizio, Andrea Siqueira, Stephanie Kane, Micol Seigel, and Luciana Namorato, of their first annual Happy Hour series for contributing funds that helped contribute to the lively and thought provoking interchange of ideas between students, faculty, and the community. Cheers to one and all!
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