Updates--Center for Latin American Studies at Pitt (January 5 to January 9)

*** Deadline ***

If you have an announcement related to a Latin American/Caribbean activity taking place during January 2015 that you would like to share with others interested in the region, please send details by January 9, 2015 to: clas@pitt.edu. Sorry, information will not be accepted over the phone.

 

 

Inequality and Democratization:  An Elite-Competition Approach

by

David Samuels (Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota)

 

Date: Friday, January 9, 2015

Time: 3:00 p.m.

Where: 4130 Posvar Hall

 

Research on the economic origins of democracy and dictatorship has shifted away from the impact of growth and turned toward the question of how different patterns of growth - equal or unequal - shape regime change. In this lecture, Dr. Samuels offers a new theory of the historical relationship between economic modernization and the emergence of democracy on a global scale, focusing on the effects of land and income inequality. Contrary to most mainstream arguments, Ben W. Ansell and David J. Samuels suggest that democracy is more likely to emerge when rising, yet politically disenfranchised, groups demand more influence because they have more to lose, rather than when threats of redistribution to elite interests are low.

 

David Samuels is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego in 1998. He is the author of Presidents, Parties, and Prime Ministers (with Matthew Shugart) (Cambridge, 2010), Ambition, Federalism, and Legislative Politics in Brazil (Cambridge, 2003), and the co-editor of Decentralization and Democracy in Latin America (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004), and an introductory undergraduate comparative politics and accompanying country-casebook from Pearson Higher Education. He currently serves as co-editor of Comparative Political Studies.

 

For more information contact: Luz Amanda Hank at lavst12@pitt.edu.

 

Sponsored by The Center for Latin American Studies, Department of Political Sciences and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

 

 

9-Week Brazilian Portuguese Language and Culture Workshop--Beginner

Date: Thursdays (January 8 to March 5, 2015)

Time: 6:00 – 7:30p.m.

Location: University of Pittsburgh, 101 Mervis Hall

For more information: Lilly Abreu at lillyabreu1@gmail.com

 

These are non-credit classes, therefore no University of Pittsburgh credits will apply.

 

Course fee: non-refundable $180 per person (for the 9 sessions)

Book for beginner and intermediate levels: Brasil! Lingua e Cultura by Tom Lathrop, Eduardo M. Dias (Text and Ex-ercise Book). Linguatext Ltd; Third Revised Updated edition (December 2004) ISBN-10: 9780942566437; ISBN-13: 978-0942566437 (available online)

Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies and the International Business Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

 

 

Save the date

35th Annual Latin American & Caribbean Festival

        Date: Saturday, March 21, 2015

        Time: Noon to 10:00 p.m.

        Location: 1st Floor—Galleria—Posvar Hall

        Free and open to the public

 

For registration and more information: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/festivalor contact: Diana Shemenski at dms180@pitt.edu.

 

Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Med Health Services & Pittsburgh Cardiovascular Institute. 

 

 

Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS)

University Center for International Studies

University of Pittsburgh

4200 Wesley W. Posvar Hall

Pittsburgh, PA  15260

Office: 412-648-7392

Fax: 412-648-2199

clas@pitt.edu