CLAS Weekly Update

Center for Latin American Studies

Upcoming Events

 

 

 

32^nd Annual Latin American and Caribbean Festival

 

Come and enjoy the diversity of Latin American and Caribbean cultures through exhibits, food, arts and crafts, music, and dance!

Date: Saturday, March 31, 2012

Time: 12:00 p.m. - Midnight

Location: William Pitt Union, 3959 Fifth Avenue, University of Pittsburgh

For more information: contact Luz Amanda Hank, 412-648-7394, lavst12@pitt.edu visit: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/events/festival.html

Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Latin American Cultural Union, and Med Health Services & Pittsburgh Cardiovascular Institute

 

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Lectures and Workshops

 

"Goethe y la trastienda de 'El pudor de la historia'," a lecture by Ivan Almeida

and

"Bustos Domecq y Suárez Lynch: dos ilustres desconocidos," a lecture by Cristina Parodi

Ivan Almeida earned his Ph.D. from the University of Louvain, Belgium, and Cristina Parodi from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. In 1995, they founded the Borges Center at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. They directed Variaciones Borges until 2006. They now live in Córdoba, Argentina.

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012

Time: 1:00 - 4:30 pm

Location: Humanities Center, 602 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh

Sponsored by the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

 

"The Colombian Caribbean between Oblivion and Visibility. Aspects of the Materiality of Literature in García Marquez's Novel Cien años de soledad," a lecture by Liliana Gómez-Popescu

Dr. Gómez-Popescu is assistant professor for Ibero-American literatures and cultures at the Institute for Romance Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). She is author, among other works, of "The Urbanization of Society. Towards a Cultural Analysis of the Sacred in the Modern Metropolis", in: Gómez, Liliana/Walter van Herck (eds), The Sacred in the City (Continuum, 2012, London); and "Un caso de archivo fotográfico: economía visual de la circulación de mercancías, cuerpos y memorias", in: Gómez, Liliana/Gesine Müller (eds), Relaciones caribeñas. Entrecruzamientos de dos siglos/Relations caribéennes. Entrecroisements de deux siècles (Peter-Lang, 2011, Frankfurt). She is editor (with Carlos Rincón and Sarah Gónzalez de Mojica) of Entre el olvido y el recuerdo. Iconos, lugares de memoria y cánones de la historia y la literatura en Colombia (Instituto Pensar, CEJA, Bogotá, 2010), with Gesine Müller of Relaciones caribeñas. Entrecruzamientos de dos siglos/Relations caribéennes. Entrecroisements de deux siècles (2011, Peter Lang, Frankfurt), and with Walter van Herck of The Sacred in the City (2012, Continuum, London).

The talk and media presentation will be in English

Date: Friday, March 23, 2012

Time: 3:00 p.m.

Location: 213 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh

Sponsored by the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

 

"Cholitas: Gender, Sexuality, and Dress in Bolivia," a lecture by Anna Babel (Assistant Professor, Spanish and Portuguese, Ohio State University)

The figure of the Bolivian cholita embodies a semiotic complex of language, dress, class, ethnicity, gender, region, and sexuality, as well as acting as a national symbol in discourses about "typical" or "traditional" Bolivia in international contexts. In this paper, I discuss the local and global valences of the cholita, using this figure as an example of semiotic clustering and alignment that is constructed in opposition to a female figure who is modern, Western, relatively wealthy, and ethnically and regionally unmarked, as well as in relation to male Bolivians. I discuss the multiple discourses surrounding cholitas in Bolivia, focusing on the contrast between their role as symbols of traditional Bolivia and their roles as political activists, economic agents, and migrant workers. Finally, I examine the role of semiotic valences in current linguistic anthropological theory, characterizing semiotic valence as a (language) ideological process like iconization, fractal recursivity, and erasure and as a superordinate construction surrounding and organizing indexical fields.

Date: Friday, March 23, 2012

Time: 3:00 p.m.

Location: 3106 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh

 

"Historical Connections within Latin America and the Caribbean," Teacher Workshop by Lara Putnam (History, University of Pittsburgh)

Date: Saturday, March 24, 2012

Time: 8:30 a.m. -2:00 p.m.

Location: 5604 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh

Cost: $50/person (Act 48 workshop)

For more information, please visit: http://www.worldhistory.pitt.edu/saturdayworkshop.php

Sponsored by the Department of History, School of Education and the World History Center

 

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Documentary and Film Series

 

Documentary: Harvest of Loneliness (A documentary about Bracero program)

The film Harvest of Loneliness is a documentary done by Prof. Gilbert Gonzalez (University of California Irvine) and Prof. Vivian Price (California State University, Dominguez Hill). The film is about the Bracero Program―a guest workers program that brought Mexican workers to the US between 1942 and 1964. The film lays the foundation for discussion about immigration connecting past history with current present debates. This award-winning film has been aired on PBS and received the 2012 Peter Rollins Film Award for best documentary, the Cinelatino Audience Choice Award for best documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival 2010,and the Best Educational Film Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival 2011. Please see more info on the website http://www.harvestofloneliness.com/englishversion/english.html

Q&A session will follow with Vivian Price (producer)

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012

Time: 4:30 p.m.

Location: McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University

For more information: contact Mariana Achugar, 412-268 1895, machugar@andrew.cmu.edu

 

2012 CMU International Film Festival: Faces of Others

Dates: March 22-April 15, 2012

The University of Pittsburgh co-sponsors this year's Carnegie Mellon University's International Film Festival! The Faces Festival is an annual event directed by Jolanta Lion, Assistant Director of the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon, and is produced by the collaborative effort of dedicated student contributors from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

            Six years since its inception, the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival continues to shine a cinematic light on the human faces that reflect the themes that define our contemporary social landscape, with this year's theme being the concept of the Other. Faces of Others will showcase new award-winning, independent films and documentaries from around the world, as well as an international student short film competition, at venues throughout Pittsburgh that challenge the audience to contemplate the perspectives of Others from cultures across the globe, including: Dutch, Polish, Latin American, French, Finnish, Germanic, Norwegian, African, Middle Eastern, Romanian, Hungarian, Austrian, Greek, Russian, and Chinese. Each screening will be a memorable event featuring panels with renowned international directors and casts, live performances, ethnic foods, and controversial ideas that will keep you thinking long after the credits roll.

For more information & complete listing of films, times & prices, please visit: www.cmu.edu/faces

Faces of Others is co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh along with a few of its affiliations: the Film Studies Program, the Global Studies Center, the Global Cinema Project, the Cultural Studies Program, the European Union Center of Excellence and European Studies Center, Department of German, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Russian and East European Studies Center

 

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World History Center Graduate Travel Awards

Each academic year, the World History Center provides two Graduate Travel Awards of $250 in the Spring semester and two additional awards in the Fall semester. These awards support graduate students in any Pitt department for travel to a professional meeting. The applicant is to demonstrate that participating in the meeting is a contribution to world-historical study. The application is to consist of a one-page letter of application and a two-page CV (including an indication of the applicant's faculty advisor). The letter of application should describe the proposed meeting and the purpose of attending, with attention to explaining how participation in the meeting will contribute to the applicant's world-historical study. The Spring 2012 deadline for applications is March 30, 2012. Awards will be announced in early May for travel to take place during the 2012 calendar year.

Please submit applications electronically to World History Center Administrator Katie Jones at joneskh@pitt.edu

 

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Barrio Latino

 

Quiero invitarles muy cordialmente a que sintonicen "Radio Acero" este jueves a las 6:00 p.m. (EDT) en WRCT. El programa, creado por estudiantes de nivel avanzado de estudios hispanos en CMU, pasa como parte del programa Barrio Latino (jueves, 6:00-7:00 p.m.). También pueden seguir los desarrollos y los podcasts del programa en http://radioburgh.blogspot.com/

 

Escúchenos todos los jueves a las 6:00 -7:00 p.m. por WRCT 88.3 FM Pittsburgh y en el internet en tiempo real www.wrct.org. Llámenos en vivo directament al 412-621-9728.

 

Barrio Latino airs on Thursdays, 6:05 – 7:00 p.m. (EDT) from WRCT 88.3 FM Pittsburgh – listen to our internet broadcast at www.wrct.org or call us live 412-621-9728.

 

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Call for Papers

 

West Virginia University Thirty-Fifth Colloquium on Literature and Film

"The Language of Humor in Literature and Film" We are seeking submissions about the many ways that authors and filmmakers use humor in their works. Analyses may be about works in any language and time period, and may be presented in English, French, German, or Spanish. Topics include but are not limited to the following:

Irony, Parody, Comedy, Political Satire, Great National Humorists and Their Works, Theories of Humor and Laughter, Challenges of Translating Humor, History of Humor, Humor as Resistance or Subversion, Humor in Minority Film and Literatures, Humor of Ethnic and National Identities, Countering Xenophobia and Prejudice through Humor, Comics, Cartoons and Graphic Novels, Gendered Approaches to Humor, Humor in Popular Culture, Humor in Documentaries, The Semiotics of Humor, Stylistics of Humor, Conversation Analysis, Dialect, Stereotype and Humor, The Actor's Contribution: Body Language, Delivery and Inflection, Puns and Word-Play: Linguistic Ambiguity in Humorous Literature, Pedagogical Approaches to Humor in Literature and Film.

Please submit 300-word proposals for papers and/or panels by April 1, 2012 to WVUCOLL@MAIL.WVU.EDU. The program will allow twenty minutes for the reading of each paper with additional time for discussion. Include a cover letter containing the proposal's title, complete contact information, and institutional affiliation.

Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics/205 Chitwood Hall/Morgantown, WV 26506/304-293-5121

 

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If you have an announcement related to a Latin American/Caribbean activity taking place that

you would like to share with others interested in the region, please send details

no later than Tuesday of the week prior to the event to:

Center for Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh,

4200 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260;

Phone: 412 648 7392; Fax: 412 648 2199; E-mail: clas@pitt.edu

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