1-CLAS and Other Events at SDSU

LASSO Happy Hour – Last one of the semester!

Please join CLAS and LASSO as we celebrate the end of the Fall 2011 semester. The Happy Hour will be held at El Zarape on Friday, December 9th, 2011 at 4:30PM.

El Zarape is located at 3201 Adams Ave, San Diego CA 92116

Their happy hour is until 7pm daily. Come enjoy some delicious food and drinks with your fellow Latin American students and faculty.

The Comprehensive Examination for Latin American Studies schedule for Fall 2011 is as follows:

Date 6: Monday, November 21 through Tuesday, December 6, 2011 – oral exams

Date 7: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 – last day for faculty to submit CE results to the Center for Latin American Studies

For more information: Procedures and Dates for the Comprehensive Exams (CE)

Thesis Information

December 16th (noon) is the deadline to submit thesis for final clearance by Montezuma Publishing assuring fall 2011 graduation. If this deadline is not met, you will need to reapply for spring 2012 graduation.

December 30th – Noon deadline – This is the final day to submit thesis to Montezuma Publishing for review, without having to reenroll in Thesis 799B the following semester. However, you will need to reapply for spring 2012 graduation.

Graduation

Application deadline for Spring/Summer February 2, 2012

Please note the applications for Spring/Summer graduation are now available on students «Web Portal» accounts. Graduate students who are planning to graduate either Spring or Summer 2012 semester «MUST» apply by the February 2, 2012 deadline.

Native Peoples of Mexico: A Glimpse of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya, and Nahua Cultures / Pueblos Originarios de México: Una Mirada a Las Culturas Mixteca, Zapoteca, Maya, y Nahua

San Diego State University
SDSU Love Library, Donor Hallway
September 8, 2011 – December 9, 2011
Free to the public
Visiting hours: 8 – 5

Come explore “Native Peoples of Mexico: A Glimpse of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya, and Nahua Cultures,” a fascinating exhibit presented by SDSU’s Center for Latin American Studies. 

The Latin American Studies Department created “cultural discovery boxes” to educate K-12 level school children about Mexico’s four largest ancient indigenous communities through the introduction of everyday objects. The artifacts contained in the cultural discovery boxes—which are all on display—are available on a loan basis to educators following the exhibition.  Although these boxes were put together with school children in mind, their artifacts will intrigue adults as well. Please join us in witnessing the emergence of extraordinary cultures through the exploration of everyday objects.

For more information, please contact:

Cynthia Rodriguez
Special Events Coordinator
Center for Latin American Studies
Email: classtdy@mail.sdsu.edu

2 – Events Outside SDSU

Events with Fernando F. Sánchez from the Languages and Literatures Department at USD

Talk by Fernando F. Sánchez, an Asst. Professor at California Polytechnic State University and author of Artful Assassins: Murder as Art in Modern Mexico (Vanderbilt UP, 2010). A detailed biography can be found at http://web.pdx.edu/~ffs/.

It will be an informal discussion in Spanish of his short story, «Lilith,» that treats the topic of the femicides in Ciudad Juárez. The short story was published in his collection, De la escritura a la evidencia. Siete historias (seudo)policiales, published in 2009 by the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila. This event will take place at 5:30pm, on Thursday, Dec 1, 2011 in Loma 302.

Presentation of books in the FIL

On December 2 at 18:30 in the same space, will present the International Migration Review No. 20, on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. Dr. Olga Odgers, coordinator of the publication and Dr. Alejandro Canales (U of G), will be responsible for the presentation.

Finally, on December 3rd at 16:30 pm, is presented in the classroom Alatorre, the book Baja California a hundred years of the Mexican Revolution (1910-2010) coordinated by Dr. Jorge Carrillo and Dr. David Piñera (UABC). Discussants: Dr. Jose Maria Muria (El Colegio de Jalisco) and Dr. Maria Eugenia de la O. Martinez (CIESAS West)

Major reports FIL 2011: http://www.fil.com.mx

Cultural boundaries, otherness and conflict (also available via Livestreaming)

Monday, December 5, 2011

El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, through the Department of Cultural Studies, the seminar presented cultural boundaries, otherness and conflict, the 5 and December 6 at 9:30 pm in the auditorium of The Colef Raul Rangel, Tijuana. Transmitted by videoconference to regional headquarters in Monterrey Colef and Colef House, Mexico City, and live on the Internet.

The seminar aims to account for the cultural dimension of reality border and take stock of cultural research conducted in recent decades, both within the Colef and regional institutions and abroad, similar epistemic contexts.

On the border between Mexico and the EU interact various socio-cultural universes lifestyles claim arising out of their memory, their history, their duty being and knowing / doing in their environment. Under different forms of symbolic appropriation, this reality often leads to frontier survival in a conflicted and complex representation of the experiences of individuals and communities, including migrant groups, indigenous communities, youth, men and women seeking to participate in the wider cultural conglomerate.

The event will feature keynote speakers and workshops that address topics such as: migration and conflict, cultural violence, history and cultural boundaries, and Otherness and gender violence.

The seminar is divided into 4 working groups under the following themes: Migration and Conflict, Otherness and gender violence history and cultural boundaries, and cultural violence. Participants included leading experts and external Colef.

In addition to the workshops will be held the following lectures:

• Patterns of violence: contemporary pragmatic devastation. Dr. Raymundo Mier, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco.
• The northern border mapping of an assembly model. Dr. Juan Cajas Castro, Autonomous University of Morelos.
• Mexico to the United States, how it has handled a contradiction of two centuries?. Dr. Lorenzo Meyer, Professor Emeritus, Center for International Studies, El Colegio de Mexico.
• Identities in motion: the southern border of Mexico. Dr. Andres Fabregas Puig, Universidad Intercultural, Chiapas.

Program Admission is free. For more information: + 52 (664) 631-6300 Ext. 1155 or informes@colef.mx

State and Local Immigration Policy at USD

Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Time: 9:00 – 11:30 am
Location: Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110

RSVP: transborder@sandiego.edu
This event is free and open to the public.

The Trans-Border Institute will host a panel discussion on State and Local Immigration Policy, which will be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 from 9:00 to 11:30 am in the Joan B. Kroc Theatre at the University of San Diego.

While immigration reform largely has stalled in Washington, recent implementation of the Dream Act notwithstanding, it has occupied a prominent place at other levels of government. The recall of Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, lead sponsor of the heavily publicized SB 1070, and the recently passed Alabama immigration law HB 56 reflect the heated nature of this controversial and momentous issue. The objective of this panel is to generate discussion of immigration policy at state and local levels, especially in border states such as California. Among the issues to be discussed are the influence of Arizona’s SB 1070, the leveling of Mexican emigration and immigration to the United States, and the effects of the coming elections in the United States and Mexico.

Panelists Include: Alberto Pulido, USD Professor and Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies, Angela Garcia, Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, Pete Nunez, Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Center for Immigration Studies, and Lori Saldana, candidate to California’s 52nd Congressional District in U.S. House of Representatives

For more information please contact the Trans-Border Institute: (619) 260-4090, transborder@sandiego.edu

Live Lecture (Watch Online!) from COLEF Online with Dr. Sassen

Dr. Saskia Sassen of Columbia University presented the lecture: Beyond Inequality: expulsions, on Thursday December 8 at 9:30 am (Pacific time) in Tijuana Colef occasion of the closing cycle 2011 of SEPMIG.

Saskia Sassen, a distinguished and award-winning researcher at the Department of Sociology at Columbia University, where she currently is responsible for the Chair Robert S. Lynd, co-chair of the Committee on Global Thought at the same institution. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of social research. Her work has specialized in understanding processes of globalization, mainly from its social, economic, and political migration, global cities and new technologies from the theoretical perspective of transnationalism.

She has extensive academic production of books, compilations and articles which have been translated into 21 languages. Among her major works include Global City (Translated into Spanish as a Global City), published in 1991 by Princeton University Press and considered her seminal work, Territory, authority, rights: from medieval to global assemblages and A sociology for globalization both published in 2006 and recently translated into Spanish. Currently working on the project exits Existing Territory When framings with Harvard University Press. For more information: www.saskiasassen.com

The session will be broadcast via videoconference and online. Watch at www.colef.mx

Mexican Modern Painting at the SD Museum of Art

Mexican Modern Painting at the San Diego Museum of Art, which was curated by Latin American Studies alumna, Amy Galpin!!

Mexican Modern Painting from the Andrés Blaisten Collection will be on view until February 19, 2012. This is one of the premiere collections of 20th-century Mexican art. Assembled over the last 25 years, the collection normally resides at its permanent home at the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco. This exhibition features a selection of 80 paintings dated between 1907 and 1962 from this renowned collection as part of a traveling tour of the Blaisten Collection.

The exhibited artists include well-known painters María Izquierdo, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, and many others. In addition to these important painters, there are several painters with works in the exhibition that might be new to San Diego audiences such as Alfonso Michel, Federico Cantú, and Angel Zárraga.

According to SDSU Emeritus Professor, Dr. Janet Esser, Sr. Blaisten is one of the hero collectors of our time. He has rescued some of the most important works (hitherto not well known) of the dynamic period after Mexico’s social revolution. This is a supremely intelligent and important exhibition and not to be missed!

Also, a Mexican mural by Writerz Blok is in process in Gallery 15. The dedication is slated for December 8 from 6:30 to 9:00 PM.

Read more on Events Outside SDSU

3-Conferences and Calls for Papers

Call for Papers, SECOLAS/LAS Annual Conference – Submission Deadline: December 1, 2011

«The Struggle for Democracy in Latin America»
March 29-31, 2012
University of Florida Gainesville, FL

The 61st Annual Conference of the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies will serve as the 59th Annual Meeting of SECOLAS, and will take place on the UF campus in Gainesville, Florida, Thursday, March 29 to Saturday, March 31, 2012. Featured speakers will address the conference theme. Papers and panels that address the theme (broadly conceived) are also encouraged but not required. Panel proposals are preferred but individual paper proposals will also be accepted. Papers are invited from faculty members, independent scholars and graduate students.

2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the Cádiz Constitution that made Spain and its embattled empire a constitutional monarchy and the 100th anniversary of the Sáenz Peña electoral law that brought universal adult male suffrage to Argentina, two key steps along Latin America’s tortuous road toward constitutional democracy. Although Latin America experienced what Paul Drake has called a «tsunami of democracies» from the 1970s to the 2000s, much remains to be done to strengthen and secure governments «of, by and for the people» throughout the region. Even more is required if one considers social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects of democracy along with the political and institutional.

Finally, as Latin American aspirations for democracy have not been confined to south of the Rio Grande/Bravo, la lucha for democracy by Latin Americans and Latina/os in the United States also merits serious attention. Thus we invite panels and papers on Chicano/a and U.S. (Afro)Latino/a struggles for democracy. Papers and panels that address social and political movements as well as artistic and literary work are encouraged.

Proposal Submission Deadline: December 1, 2011. Send proposals, including a 250-word abstract for each panel and/or paper and a brief CV (no more than 2 pages) for all panelists, to the most appropriate program chair. http://conferences.dce.ufl.edu/SSP/section.aspx?s=1400035234

2nd Binational Conference on Border Issues Announcement

San Diego City College
December 1, 2011 9 am – 3 pm, Room D 121A

Politics of Violence: Militarization, Incarceration and Globalization in the U.S.-Mexico Border Area

Keynote Speaker: Anabel Hernandez, Mexico City. Author of Los Señores del Narco (The Drug Lords)

The U.S./Mexico border has become increasingly important and relevant to populations living and interacting with one another on both sides of this international boundary. Impacts and perceptions of the border region continue to be the subject of many contemporary research projects, advocacy and activism. Papers in this conference will explore the impact of the border on populations living both in the U.S. and Mexico. They may also discuss how these populations perceive and respond to these impacts from various perspectives through current research, activism, advocacy and life experience.

Contact and additional information
E-mail: binationalconference@gmail.com
Blog: www.conferenciaborder.blogspot.com

Read more on Conferences and Calls for Papers

4-Study Abroad and Summer Programs

OSEA: Spend Summer 2012 in the Maya World, Yucatán, Mexico

Summer 2012 Programs:

• Heritage Field Study & Ethnography
• Teach English Service Learning
• Maya Language Immersion
• Intensive Spanish Immersion

OSEA Field School Programs are based in Pisté and Maya Communities surrounding Chichén Itzá, One of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

OSEA Field School Program Fees include:

• Direct Enrollment with Accredited University Transcript
• Food & Lodging, Homestays with Maya families in Pisté
• Local Field Trips to Chichén Itzá, Ek Balam, Yaxuna, Cenote Dzitnup, & jungle caves
• Mid-Program Break (4-night/5 day) to allow participants free-time to explore Yucatán on their own (not included in program fees).

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS: Open to Undergraduates in sophomore year and higher, with any social science & humanities major Open to Graduate Students in any social science and humanities fields (send us an email to ask about grad rates) GPA of 2.5 or higher

Write to contact@osea-cite.org for more information, or visit us at www.osea-cite.org!

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5-Scholarship and Fellowship Opportunities

The Graduate Student Travel Fund (GSTF) supports travel associated with scholarly research and creative activities.

AWARD The maximum award is $1,000 and must be used within twelve months of the allocation. Approximately $7,000 will be granted during each review cycle (fall, winter and spring).

ELIGIBILITY The Graduate Student Travel Fund is available to all degree-seeking SDSU graduate students with an accumulated grade point average of at least 3.0. An eligible graduate student may submit one application for each review cycle.

CRITERIA FOR REVIEW The GSTF applications are evaluated by a sub-committee that includes representation from Associated Students, Graduate Student Association, the Graduate Council and the Division of Research Affairs. The primary criteria used in evaluating applications for funding are as follows:

• Relevance or merit of professional activity to support student’s research/scholarship in designated major field of study
• Appropriateness of scope and budget
• Contribution to completion of a thesis or dissertation

TO APPLY Complete the GSTF application, including required signatures, at: http://gra.sdsu.edu/grad/research/docs/GSTF_Application.doc

Save as a single low-resolution PDF file (files exceeding 5 MB and multiple PDF files will not be accepted) and e-mail the document to the Division of Research Affairs (dra@mail.sdsu.edu). No paper submissions will be accepted. Decisions for funding will be announced within one month of the submission deadline.

Deadlines for fall, winter and spring are October 1st, February 1st and May 1st respectively.

Please direct questions to the Division of Research Affairs (dra@mail.sdsu.edu), (619) 594-5938.

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6-Internships, Volunteer, and Job Opportunities

Call for Postdoctoral Researcher-Editorial Manager

The Political Science Institute at the University of Luxembourg is seeking candidates for a two-year postdoctoral research position that is also associated with the peer-reviewed journal Regions & Cohesion (Berghahn Journals) which is based in the institute. The successful candidate will principally work on his/her own research project but the subject should broadly be related to the aims and scope of the journal (http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/reco/) which promotes the comparative examination of the human and environmental impacts of regional integration processes. The successful applicant will be expected to assist the editors with the daily operations of the journal including communications with authors and peer-reviewers. The University of Luxembourg is a multilingual and interdisciplinary institution so candidates with a Ph.D. in any of the social sciences can apply. Regions & Cohesion is published in English, Spanish and French so applicants should be fluent in at least two of these languages. Working knowledge of all three would be viewed favorably. For further information, please contact Dr. Harlan Koff (harlan.koff@uni.lu) or Dr. Carmen Maganda (carmen.maganda@uni.lu), Editors, Regions & Cohesion.

Read more on Internships, Volunteer, and Job Opportunities

7-Articles, Publications, Books

Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC)

http://www.cepal.org/

Latin American Network Information Center (Lanic)

http://lanic.utexas.edu/

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)

http://www.nacla.org

Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)

http://www.wola.org/