The Latin American Studies Center at the University of Maryland cordially invites you to our 20th Anniversary Conference, “Reconfiguring Latin America: Conversations for the 21st Century”

Tomorrow, Thursday, March 3, 2010 Pía Barros will talk on “Globalization and Changes in Cultural Consumption” at 3:30pm (Multipurpose Room, St Mary’s Hall).

Pía Barros es una de las escritoras de más renombre en Chile. Desde 1976, Barros dirige los talleres Ergo Sum y la Editorial Asterión. Ha publicado una treintena de libros-objeto, con cuentos ilustrados por distinguidos artistas gráficos. Por sus talleres literarios, que destacan entre los de mayor prestigio en el ámbito, han pasado una infinidad de alumnos incluyendo a los célebres escritores Pedro Lemebel y Alejandra Costamagna. Entre sus publicaciones se cuentan: Miedos transitorios (Ediciones Ergo Sum, 1985, traducido al inglés en 1996); A horcajadas (Mosquito Editores, 1990); Astride (Edición bilingüe, 1992); El tono menor del deseo (Editorial Cuarto Propio, 1990); Signos bajo la piel (Editorial Grijalbo, 1994); Ropa usada (Ediciones Asterión, 2000); Lo que ya nos encontró, primera novela chilena en formato digital editada por Chilelibro.com (2000); Los que sobran, cuentos (Ediciones Asterión, 2002). Sus cuentos han aparecido en más de treinta antologías, en Latinoamérica, Estados Unidos, Europa y Australia.

On Friday, February 26, at 12:00pm (St Mary’s Hall, Multipurpose Room), Professor Adela Pineda will give a lecture titled : “The Mexican Revolution through the Lens of Hollywood: The Case of ‘Viva Villa’ (1934).”

Adela Pineda Franco (Ph.D., University of Texas) is a faculty member in the Latin American Studies Program at Boston University. She is the author of Geopolíticas de la cultura finisecular en Buenos Aires, Paris y México: las revistas literarias y el modernismo (ILLI, 2006) and co-editor of Hacia el país del mezcal (Aldus Editorial, 2002) and Alfonso Reyes y los estudios latinoamericanos (University of Pittsburgh, 2004). She was awarded a grant by the US-Mexico Fund for Culture and the Rockefeller Foundation, and was a member of the SNI (Sistema Nacional de Investigadores) in Mexico (1999-2001). She is currently at work on a book project on Mexico City, its lettered culture, and the Mexican Revolution.

On Monday, February 22, at 12:00pm (St Mary’s Hall, Multipurpose Room), Professor Licia Fiol-Matta will give a lecture titled, “The Times of Your (Colonial) Life: Sound, Gender, and the Politics of Voice in Puerto Rico, 1935-1995.”

Licia Fiol-Matta (Ph.D. Yale University) is Associate Professor of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies at Lehman College, City University of New York. She is the author of A Queer Mother for the Nation: The State and Gabriela Mistral (University of Minnesota Press, 2002), and of scholarly articles on gender, race, and sexuality. Her current research focuses on pop music and media; her second book, forthcoming from Duke University Press, is tentatively entitled The Politics of Voice: Gender and Music Culture in Puerto Rico. She is a member of the Editorial Collective of Social Text and co-editor of the series “New Directions in Latino American Cultures and New Concepts in Latino American Cultures” at Palgrave/Macmillan.

Abril Trigo will give a lecture titled, “A Critique of the Politico-Libidinal Economy of Contemporary Culture.”

Abril Trigo (Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park) is “Distinguished Humanities Professor of Latin American Cultures” at The Ohio State University. He is the author of Memorias migrantes. Testimonios y ensayos sobre la diáspora uruguaya. (Beatriz Viterbo Editora 2003), ¿Cultura uruguaya o culturas linyeras? (Para una cartografía de la neomodernidad posuruguaya) (Vintén Editor, 1997), Caudillo, estado, nación. Literatura, historia e ideología en el Uruguay (Hispamérica, 1990), and co-editor of Critical Index of Uruguayan Theater (Ohio State University, 2009), The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader (Duke University Press, 2004), Los estudios culturales latinoamericanos hacia el siglo XXI (Revista Iberoamericana 2003).

The LGBT Studies program is proud to invite you to the first event in our eighth annual lecture series, Bent Voices:  Queer of Color Interventions.
Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé “Queer Latino Testimonio: Writing the Self and Community”

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
5:00pm – 6:45pm
Tawes 1101

Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé is a professor of Spanish and comparative literature at Fordham University and is author of Queer Latino Testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza: Hard Tails (2007) and co-editor, with Martin Manalansan, of Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism (2002).

We look forward to seeing you as we welcome Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé to our campus.

We are grateful to the Office of Undergraduate Studies for its support of the series. Additional sponsors include the departments of African American Studies, American Studies (including U.S. Latina/o Studies), Anthropology, English, Spanish and Portuguese, and Women’s Studies; the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, the Latin American Studies Center, and the Asian American Studies Program.

For further information, please visit our Web site at http://www.lgbts.umd.edu

“Nation and State: Public vs. Private in Rodrigo Plá’s La Zona” by Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste
When          : Monday, February 15, 2010 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Where         : Jimenez Building : JMZ 2206
Event Type(s) : Conference

Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste (Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook) is the Director of the Center for Latin American and Latino/a Studies at Georgia State University, where he teaches Latin American Cultural Studies. He is the author of Narrativas de representación urbana: un estudio de expresiones culturales de la modernidad latinoamericana (Lang, 1998) and co-editor of Rockin’ Las Americas (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004) and Redrawing the Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

For more information, contact:
SPAP: 1 301 314 5817
mmunoz2@umd.edu

8^th Annual SLLC Graduate Student Forum

Space and Transculturality; April 8-9, 2010

Each time I undertake to paint a picture, I have the sensation of leaping into space. I never know whether I shall fall on my feet.” Picasso may have simply been trying to paint a picture, but his statement exemplifies the metaphysical connection between space and the endeavor of expression. Space, as evidenced by its charm over architects, artists, writers, and scientists alike, is a concept that profoundly intrigues us, the examination of which is fundamental to an understanding of ourselves.

Space can be an emptiness, or it can be room to grow. “The space between” can be a communal place where ideas meld, but it can also be a gap, a breach in understanding. This conference seeks to explore the question of space and its representations within the context of transculturality in language and literature. How does space, from its geographical to metaphorical manifestations, affect the flow and transfer of ideas between cultures? What are the differences between physical and mental spaces among cultures? What consequences arise from the imposition of one culture on the space of another? We think of barriers as marking a boundary within a space, but in what ways does space itself create boundaries? How is space compartmentalized by different cultures? Do certain gaps between cultures defy exchange?

The graduate students of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland cordially invite students from all disciplines to submit papers that analyze possible reflection on and interpretation of “Space and Transculturality.” Topics include but are not limited to:

• The relationship between space and borders (both physical and metaphorical)
• Representations of space in literature
• The conceptualization of space from a linguistic perspective
• Socio-cultural approaches to the question of space
• Colonialism and post-colonialism
• Terrorism in today’s world literature
• Geographical space
• Emptiness
• Visual representations of space
• Borders, boundaries, and walls
• Definitions of space

Abstracts are encouraged from all fields and papers should be in English. Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words by January 15, 2010 to umdsllcconf2010@gmail.com.