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LAS Conference

Latin American Studies Conference / Study of the Americas

Colorful map of Latin AmericaApril 25, 2024

Transnational Politics, Democracy, and Grassroots Resistance

The Latin American Studies Conference, “Study of the Americas,” fosters knowledge and understanding of the very diverse peoples, processes, and histories shaping Latin America, a cultural construct that spans Mexico to Tierra del Fuego and includes the Caribbean, Latinx peoples in the US, the US-Mexico borderlands, and Latin American diasporic communities around the world. Central to a critical approach to Latin American studies is the interrogation of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous ideologies widespread in the foundations of national identities and the fabric of neoliberal capitalism affecting migrant, farming, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities. Interdisciplinary research in art, music, literature, economics, politics, anthropology, history, ethic studies, and gender studies are welcomed.

Time

Start time: 9am

End time: 5:45pm

Location

John M. Pfau Library PL 5005; Hybrid modality (In-person and Zoom)

Live Stream at PDC, Rancho Mirage Student Center (RG)

Zoom link for conference

(entire day and keynote)

Conference Poster

Conference poster

Conference Program

 

Annual LAS Conference Program

April 25, 2024

All panels will be in person and livestreamed CSUSB PL-5005 and CSUSB-PDC Rancho Mirage Student Center (RG). Use registration link to join us online!

 

8:45-9:00am: Continental Breakfast PL-5005

 

8:55 am Welcome Remarks

 

9:00 to 10:10am Diverse perspectives on resistance, identity, and critique in Central America and Mexico         

Moderator: Esteban Córdoba de la Barrera (CSUSB)

 

Rosario Rizzo Lara (CSUSB), Collective Identity in Transit: The case of the October 2018 Migrant Caravan

Abhirupa Roy (University of North Bengal), Performing the Silence: Rigoberta Menchu’s Post-literary Discourse of Resistance.

Audrey Harris (CSUSB), Ciertos fantasmas de la tradición literaria mexicana: La desaparición y resurgimiento de Amparo Dávila

Cecilia Battauz (Colorado Mesa University), Escritura, solidaridad migrante y resistencia en Tell Me How It Ends. An Essay in Forty Questions de Valeria Luiselli

 

10:15 to 10:55 Dancing to Find Our Roots: Latin American Identity Through Danza Mexica

Moderator: Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez (CSUSB)

Jag Arreola of Danza Azteca Chichimeca Xiuh Arte

Luz Ochoa Director of Danza Azteca Chichimeca Xiuh Arte

Claudia Pacheco Director of Kalli Tecpatl 

 

11:00am-11:20 pm Latinos in Music San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra

Moderator: George Thomas (CSUSB)

Andrea De Leon, Public Affairs for the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra

 

11:20am-12pm Archaeology and History of the Americas

Moderator: George Thomas (CSUSB)

Juan Salcedo (CSUSB), The Symbolism of Teotihuacán Figurines from Central Valley Mexico

Robert Coronado Jr. (CSULA) The Context of a Commissioning: Thomas More’s Utopia and Michoacán in the time of the Relación

 

12:00-12:55pm Keynote Presentation "Scales of Resistance: Indigenous Women’s Transborder Activism"  Maylei Blackwell, César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, UCLA.

 

1:00: 2:15 Politics and Power in the Americas                   

Moderator: Bibiana Díaz-Rodríguez

Dominga Puga (UCSD), Forging Sustainable Agricultural Futures: Exploring Imaginaries and Practices in Biocultural Diversity Revival in Southern Chile

Francesca Bravo and Serena Karivich (Trent University), Shades of Community-Based Tourism: Exploring Theory and Reality in Pisili, Bolivia

Seth Jeter (Swarthmore College), DeColonizing Ethnic Cleansing Lenape:hoking to Condorcanqui: Founding Fathers and Pennsylvania, Transnational Corporations, and Indigenous Peruvians

Alison Blake (CSUSB), World's Coolest Dictator? Nayib Bukele and Democracy in El Salvador

 

2:25-3pm CSUSB Faculty Book Talk: Indian, Black and Irish: Indigenous Nations, African Peoples, and European Invasions, 1492-1790 by James Fenelon

Moderator: Mike Kohout (CSUSB)

 

3:00-3:20pm Coffee Break

Afrolatina Loteria with the CSUSB Anthropology Museum

 

3:20-4:10pm CSUSB Faculty Roundtable Discussion: Grassroots resistance in pedagogical practices with Raisa Alvarado, Kristi Papailler, and Debora Pérez Torres

Moderator: Teresa Velásquez (CSUSB)

 

4:15-4:55 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Showcase

Moderator: José Muñoz (CSUSB)

Mariano Peinado (CSUSB), The Impact of Justice Reynoso and his rise in Imperial County

Serenity Chavez (CSUSB), Can Endurantism Stand the Test of Time?

Michael Rubalcava (CSUSB), The Parameters of Race and Power in Colonial Virginia

 

5:00pm-5:40pm Self-Publishing in Latinx Studies: An Undergraduate Student Panel on Zines (Hybrid and in-person CSUSB Palm Desert Campus Rancho Mirage Student Center (RG)

Moderator: Sarah Dowman (CSUSB-PDC)

Angelica Delval, CSUSB-PDC), The Perplexities of Being Latina

Karina Lomeli (CSUSB-PDC), Understanding Latina/o/x Identities

Sandra Villa (CSUSB-PDC), Invisible Girl

 

5:40pm-5:45pm Conference Concluding Remarks

 

Thank you to our Conference Sponsors

College of Arts and Letters
College of Extended and Global Education
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Department of World Languages and Literatures

John M. Pfau Library
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program
 

Keynote speaker - Dr. Maylei Blackwell

Dr. Maylei BlackwellCésar E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies

UCLA

Keynote Time

12pm noon

Keynote Title

Scales of Resistance: Indigenous Women’s Transborder Activism

Keynote Description

Maylei Blackwell’s book, Scales of Resistance: Indigenous Women’s Transborder Activism (Duke 2023), draws on twenty-five years of research accompanying indigenous women’s organizing in Mexico and its diaspora and over 70 oral histories. She is the author of the landmark ¡Chicana Power! Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement (University of Texas, 2011) as well as a co-editor of ¡Chicana Movidas! New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era (University of Texas, 2018). She is the co-editor of the Critical Latinx Indigeneities special issue of Latino Studies. She is a Professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to co-creating/directing the digital story platform Mapping Indigenous Los Angeles. Maylei is currently working on rematriating historical memory and seeding Indigenous social movements through the Mobile Indigenous Community Archive (MICA).

Keynote Flyer

Keynote Flyer

Conference Sponsors

CSUSB College of Arts and Letters
College of Extended and Global Education
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
John M. Pfau Library
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program
Department of World Languages and Literatures