CLAS hosts Lunchtime Talk with Carolina Sánchez

On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, CLAS hosted a successful Lunchtime Talk event with speaker Carolina Sánchez, Colombian writer and researcher. Sánchez is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American Literature at Rutgers University and a co-editor of the Latin American Platform for Environmental Humanities.  The presentation for the day was titled: "Environmental Historical Memory: Aesthetic Interventions in Contemporary Latin America." This interdisciplinary environmental research delves into how artistic...

Postdoctoral Fellow Franklin Moreno Publishes a new Article

Congratulations to Franklin Moreno,  postdoctoral fellow at The Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers for co-writing and publishing  a new article  in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations. The article, titled:  ’When someone is in a safe place, I believe that your mind rests“ emotional security amid community violence: A cross-national study with youth in Newark, New Jersey, USA, and San Pedro Sula, Cortes, Honduras.  Youth are impacted by...

PRAC Collaborators Receive Grant from Arte Publico Press' Latino Digital Humanities Program

Documenting the Narratives of Puerto Rican Migration, 1945-1980 PRAC Director Aldo Lauria Santiago and Professor Ismael Garcia Colon (College of Staten Island & Graduate Center, CUNY) have been awarded a small grant for the organizing and digitizing documents related to migration at the Archivo General de Puerto Rico. The funding received from the US Latino Digital Humanities Center of Arte Publico Press will support 18-20 weeks of work recovering the stories and documentation of Puerto Rican...

Former Post-Doc Associate and Visiting Scholar Briana Nichols Publishes Book Review

See Briana Nichols's review of Sarah Foss. On Our Own Terms: Development and Indigeneity in Cold War Guatemala. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022 in the most recent Hispanic American Historical Review ((2024) 104 (1): 154–156).

Exciting Opportunity: $10,000 Bilingual Scholarships Available for MSW Students through the LISTA Program!

The Latina/O/X Initiatives For Service, Training And Assessment (LISTA) program is thrilled to share that for a second year in a row, incoming Master of Social Work (MSW) students are eligible to apply for our $10,000 bilingual scholarships! Additionally, we are excited to offer opportunities for both a scholarship and a $4,000 practicum stipend. To be considered, students must be bilingual and enroll in the Latina/o/x Initiatives for Service, Training, and Assessment (LISTA) Certificate...

The Latino Studies Research Initiative Issues Call for Articles

Call for Articles and Blogs for Website on Latinos in New Jersey  The LSRI issued a call for researchers and community leaders to write research-based blogs with photos, sound clips, maps, and other supplementary material that help us understand the diverse Latino communities of New Jersey.  This material will be part of a website that will accompany the publication of the Rutgers University Press book on Latinos in New Jersey which Professors Lauria Santiago and Ulla Berg edited. As part of...

Jian Ren presents his research on China and Latin America, 1950s-1980s

History Graduate Student Jian Ren presented a portion of his dissertation work on China and Latin America at a lunch workshop in the History Department sponsored by CLAS.  Grad students, faculty and undergraduates had many questions on his talk, especially about the non-ideological premises of much of Chinese involvement in Chile.  Ren's work emphasizes the individuals involved in creating and mediating the state to state relationships.    

Prof. Marcone presents his research on the literature and imaginaries of the Peruvian Amazon

Forty students and faculty attended a recent talk by Professor Jorge Marcone, 15 of them in person and 25 via Zoom.   Marcone presented on the literature of and about the Peruvian Amazon (as region and as cultural imaginary), noting how despite significant cultural and literary production, as well as social and economic  density, the region remains invisible to the Peruvian literary and cultural canon. Click below for the Slideshow.  The video will be available soon on our youtube channel.    

Professor Janice Gallagher Presents Her New Book: "Bootstrap Justice: The Search for Mexico's Disappeared"

Congratulations to Professor Janice Gallagher from the Department of Political Science for presenting her new book titled Bootstrap Justice: The Search for Mexico's Disappeared.  On October 18 at Rutgers Newark, Professor Gallagher, along with Nancy Rosette, the mother of Elvis Axell, who disappeared in 2010, presented the book and discussed the important eye-opening themes.  Since 2006, more than 85,000 people have disappeared in Mexico. Disappeared people are rarely found, and the Mexican...

CLAS announces Post-Doctoral Associate Position for 2024-2026

The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) of the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, invites applications for a non-renewable two-year Postdoctoral Associate position in Latin American Studies. We seek applicants with strong multi-regional training in the fields of Anthropology, Geography, History, Politics, or Sociology, with work on indigeneity, violence, migration, race, gender, or urban studies.  Specialists on Central America or Mexico whose work engages...

Sandra Acocal, Ph.D. Student, publishes article in Estudios de Historia Novohispana

Sandra Acocal just published "Pipiltin y macehualtin: gobierno de San Pablo Quauhtotoatlan, Tlaxcala, siglo XVI""Pipiltin y macehualtin: gobierno de San Pablo Quauhtotoatlan, Tlaxcala, siglo XVI" in Estudios de Historia Novohispana.  Congrats, Sandra! El artículo que presento explica la manera en que las autoridades del pueblo sujeto de Quauhtotoatlan (mandones o tequitlatoque, “los que tienen cargo de repartir el tributo o el trabajo”), de estatus pilli, noble, y macehualtin, gente del común,...

Call For Papers: "Labor Past & Present: Bringing History and Activism Together" at Columbia University

The Columbia University (CU) History Department invites all graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to participate in the conference Labor Past & Present: Bringing History and Activism Together. This conference will run on February 2, 2024, at Columbia University and is jointly funded by the Columbia University History Department and the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. All abstracts are due by the end of day on October 27, 2023. What value does history offer labor...

Post Doctoral Associate Evelyn Autry Receives the 2023 Feminist Formations and NWSA Paper Award!

Congratulations to Dr. Autry for receiving the award for her paper “Singing Feminist Ch'ixi+Art Music from las Rajaduras: Renata Flores, Isqun, and the Fractured Locus”. Her work will be published in the academic journal Feminist Formation in their Winter 2023 Edition. Dr. Autry received her Ph.D. in Latin American Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Georgia. Her research creates a conversation between various fields of knowledge, particularly...

Join METÁFORA at the Spanish & Portuguese Department!

Metáfora is a creative and interdisciplinary space to celebrate art and culture in the Hispanic, Portuguese, and Luso-Brazilian contexts. SAS and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese are creating various workshops to explore the endless possibilities of artistic and literary creation. Please join one or all the varied events coming up and food will be provided at the workshops. Additionally, by attending at least 4 sessions, at the end of this academic year (May 2024) participants will...

CLAS co-sponsors conference on Global Black Geographies

The Departament of Geography at Rutgers-New Brunswick and the organizing commitee of the McGrann-USF Global Black Geographies Conference  are excited to bring together a global network of researchers and activists interested in Black geographic studies and activist interventions against the racialized power dynamics that perpetuate devaluation, extraction, expropriation and marginalization of Black lives and majority-Black places.  The conference will highlight critical scholars and community...

Prof. Nicole Burrows Coedits issue of NACLA: The Afterlives of Empire in the Caribbean

From the NACLA Site: October 25, 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. invasion of Grenada that launched a Cold War military intervention in the island nation. October 9, 2023 similarly marks the 70th anniversary of the British invasion of British Guiana (now Guyana) to depose the democratically elected multiracial and leftist government of the People’s Progressive Party—the first government to become a casualty of the Cold War in the Western Hemisphere. In one...

Dr. Moreno, Postdoctoral Fellow, Publishes: "Moral Reasoning about Gang Violence in Context"

Dr. Franklin Moreno, postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, has just published "Moral reasoning about gang violence in context: A comparative study with children and adolescents exposed to maras in Honduras and not exposed in Nicaragua" This study examined how youth morally deliberate about conditions of gang violence shaping their communities. Participants (N = 80; 10–11 and 14–15 years; 50% female) exposed to gangs (maras) in Honduras and not exposed to...

Instructor Antonio Hernandez Matos wins Dissertation Award

Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies Instructor Antonio Hernandez Matos won a Dissertation Award for his 2022 dissertation from the University of Puerto Rico. He received the Aida Caro Costa award for Best Dissertation in History in Puerto Rico, awarded by the Fundacion Rios Pasarell.

Laura De Moya-Guerra Wins 2023-24 Seed Grant

Ph.D student in history, Laura De Moya-Guerra, is one of the two 2023-24 recipients of the Rutgers Digital Humanities Initiative's Graduate Seed Grant Award. Her project is called "From a Plastic Bag to An Online Archive: The Community Archive of the Chinese in Barranquilla, Colombia," a digitized collection of records from a community archive at risk of loss and underrepresentation. She will present her work at next year's Digital Humanities Showcase.  Congratulations! 

Antonio Hernández Matos Publishes Two Pieces on Masculinity and Fashion in Puerto Rico

Full-time LCS instructor, Antonio Hernández Matos, has published two pieces on masculinity and fashion in Puerto Rico. The first, “‘Hombres sí/Hombres nó:’ Fashioning Masculinity in Early Twentieth Century Puerto Rico” was featured in a special issue of Fashion Studies: State of the Field from the journal of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Fashion and Systemic Change. Click to read. Hernández Matos's second article is called “Dime cómo vistes y te diré quién eres: un acercamiento teórico...

Camilla Townsend Publishes an Article in the Hispanic American Review

May 19, 2023 Professor Camilla Townsend has published an introductory article to a special issue of Duke University Press's journal, Hispanic American Historical Review. Her article is called "At the Crossroads: Introducing New Work in Early America and Colonial Latin America." "The people of San Germán, Puerto Rico, had gone to sleep for the night. It was 1581, and they had recently relocated their fledgling town inland in an effort to protect it from seaborne attack. But the Kalinagos who broke...

Queer Aqui Rio: An International Symposium

On May 25, 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Working Group members including Professor Daniel da Silva will be participating in Queer Aqui Rio. Queer Aqui focuses on questions about the reliance of new right-wing populist regimes on homophobic, transphobic and misogynist ideologies. At the same time, they think about multiple forms of queer and trans life in Rio, and in the global south in general, which craft creative, powerful and impactful responses to these new forms of oppression. The...

Call For Papers! New England Council of Latin American Studies Annual Conference

Bridging Knowledges, Technologies, and Cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean New England Council of Latin American Studies Annual Meeting November 10-11, 2023Worcester Polytechnic InstituteWorcester, MA The New England Council of Latin American Studies (NECLAS) warmly invites you to our annual meeting at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA, on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11, 2023. This year, the NECLAS conference seeks to explore the challenges and...

Faculty Accomplishments

As we are approaching the end of the Spring Semester and the 2022-2023 academic year, CLAS would like to highlight some of our faculty's accomplishments, news, projects, and publications!   Kenneth Sebastian León has been awarded the Rutgers 2022-23 School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education. He has also written three articles, the first being  "Techno-Bureaucratic Race-Making: Latino (Mis)Representation in Criminology and Criminal Justice...

Congratulations 2023 Latin American Studies Graduates!

May 4, 2023 CLAS would like to acknowledge our students who are graduating with either a major or minor in Latin American Studies, Emili E. Darrow, Ana R. Principe, and Alexis Ramirez Espana! Congratulations graduates for all your hard work and we wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors! 

PhD Student Josh Anthony Wins Grant to Participate in the "Missionary Manuscripts in Mesoamerican Languages" Workshop

May 2, 2023 CLAS is happy to announce that Ph.D. student Josh Anthony has been accepted to, and has won a grant to support his participation in, the summer 2023 workshop on "Missionary Manuscripts in Mesoamerican Languages." This two-week workshop, running from June 5-16, is cohosted by Princeton University Library, the Library of Congress, and Dumbarton Oaks, a research library and museum in DC with an extensive Mesoamerican collection. Josh will spend a week in Princeton before going down to...

Congratulations to Jennifer Markovtis Rojas for her Dissertation Defense

Congratulations to Jennifer Markovtis Rojas who recently completed her dissertation defense for her Ph.D. in the Bilingualism and 2nd Language Acquisition program here at Rutgers. Her final dissertation is called "Heritage Aymara Bilingual in the North of Chile: Evidence of a Language Contact Situation to Enrich Intercultural Education." Abstract: Despite Spanish being the socially dominant language in many countries in South America, the indigenous language, Aymara, is widely spoken in...