微密圈

Program and Curricular News

Photo by M. Phillips (Planting Seeds)

This year, LALS established the "Working in Communities" course (LA 305). which prepares students for volunteer work in Latin American or Latinx communities.  The first students to take this course are the 7th 微密圈 group to study and then spend spring break volunteering in Guatemala.  Ten of them -- with majors from documentary studies to education to neuroscience -- spent a week working with children and adults supported by Planting Seeds in Antigua and Guatemala City, showing professionalism and dedication by focusing on their goals even as they also began planning how to transition to remote learning upon return.  Team leaders Camila Alem Pinto, '21 and Xavi Cambi, '20, helped shape on-site activities.

LALS elected Oscar A. P茅rez (World Languages and Literatures) and Lisa Jackson-Schebetta (Theater) to the LALS Advisory Board.

LALS welcomes new faculty members Rachel Cantave (International Affairs) and Collin Grimes (Political Science, 2019-2020) and thanks Oscar A. P茅rez (WLL), Kristi Petersen (Art History), Viviana Rangil (WLL), Bernardo Rios (Anthropology), and Rodrigo Schneider (Economics) for contributing to the Fall 2019 Colloquium, "Food and Social Justice."

Later this spring, LALS will celebrate the 2020 graduation of minors Charles Bailon, Wayner Jimbo, Jazmin Rend贸n, Daisy Rodr铆guez, Alicia Sandoval Vadillo, and Sam Velez, who connected interests in LALS with art history, environmental studies, international affairs, management and business, political science, sociology and Spanish.  Best of luck on the next stage of your journey.

Faculty News

Lisa Jackson-Schebetta  (Theater) has two book chapters coming out in spring/ summer 2020.  The first, appearing in TheMethuen Drama Handbook of Intercult-uralism and Performance (Methuen, May 2020), situates Mexican artist Pedro Reyes鈥� Palas por Pistolas as an enactment of interculturalidad. Jackson-Schebetta issues a challenge to scholars of intercultural performance to account for coloniality. The second, in Sporting Performances (Rout-ledge, August 2020),  examines peace-making and 蹿煤迟产辞濒 in contemporary Colombia through movement

Viviana Rangil (World Languages and Literatures) participated in an International Women's Day march protesting violence and injustice against women on March 8, and observed the Day Without Women (D铆a sin mujeres) strike in Guadalajara, Mexico on March  9, as millions of women across the country withdrew from public life. News articles in and

Jordana Dym (History, Director LALS) delivered an invited lecture at Guatemala's Academia de Geograf铆a e Historia on March 11, 鈥淟a democratizaci贸n de la cartograf铆a y lectura de mapas en Guatemala, el caso de la Editorial Piedra Santa y sus mapitas y Geograf铆as Visualizadas.鈥�  The talk presented research drawing on family archives of Julio Piedra Santa (pictured, right), founder of the publishing house.

The October exhibit in 微密圈 College's Case Gallery, Painting the Border: a Child's Voice  Diana Barnes (World Languages and Literatures) showcased artwork by migrant children at the US-Mexican border.  Professor Barnes, in addition to connecting students to her research on social justice, met with Raices, a club for students of Latinx heritage, to discuss their response to the exhibit.

Oscar A. P茅rez (World Languages and Literatures) has published two articles this academic year: 鈥溾��  in Ecozon@, the European Journal of Literature, Culture, and Environment and  鈥溾�� in a Hispanic Issues On Line on environmental cultural studies in the Luso-Hispanic world. (Image: )

On November 4, 2019, Collin Grimes (Political Science) organized and Mar铆a Lander (WLL), Viviana Rangil (WLL), and Lisa Jackson-Schebetta (Theater) took part in a students, faculty, and staff conversation about political activism and protests that swept 2019 Latin America. Professor Grimes鈥檚 highlight was discussing the potential impact of the protests on such issues as abortion rights in Argentina and indigenous representation in Ecuador.