Tulane University

Photo: Graduate Students relax while watching the 2nd Annual LAGO Soccer Tournament held at Tulane (Story below)

2008 Stone Center Awards Ceremony

The Stone Center‘€™s Annual Awards Ceremony took place Monday, May 5th, 2008, from 5-6pm in the Greenleaf Conference Room. At the Awards Ceremony, six Best Paper Prize winners were honored, as well as the Best Graduate TA, and the Undergraduate Senior Scholar. Additionally, the graduate and undergraduate student organizations recognized select Faculty and peers for their contributions to student life and education. A small reception followed the Ceremony in the Jones Hall patio.

• The Stone Center Award for best campus-wide undergraduate paper on a Latin American topic
  Shivani Gupta, ‘€œThe United States‘€™ War on Terror: A Perpetuation of Cold War Tactics Employed in Latin America‘€

• The Stone Center Award for best campus-wide graduate paper on a Latin America topic
  Jordan Shannon, ‘€œWhen the Proletariat Becomes the People: Socialism, Populism, and the Politics of Hugo Chávez‘€

• Alberto Vázquez Award for best undergraduate paper in the Humanities written by a Latin American Studies major/minor
  Ilan Roth, ‘€œVirility and Violence: The Masculine Identity of Argentina‘€™s Barrabravas‘€

• M. Karen Bracken Award for best undergraduate paper in the Social Sciences written by a Latin American Studies major/minor
  Rosa Mathai, ‘€œRethinking the U.S.-Cuban Embargo: U.S. Minorities at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana‘€

• Donald Robertson Award for best graduate paper in the Humanities written by a Latin American Studies graduate student
  Hilary Smith, ‘€œAcercando una Representación Híbrida: Opresión e Identidad en Entre la piedra y la cruz de Mario Monteforte Toledo”

• Richard E. Greenleaf Award for best graduate paper in the Social Sciences written by a Latin American Studies graduate student
  Amelia Steadman, ‘€œDemocracy‘€™s Vanguard: The Mexican Supreme Court Post-Presidencialismo‘€

• William J. Griffith Award for Outstanding Teaching Assistant in Latin American Studies
  Annie Gibson

• LAGO Outstanding Graduate Student Service Award
  Annie Gibson

• LAGO Outstanding Faculty Member Service Award
  Chris Dunn, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Back (L-R): Chris Dunn, Ilan Roth
Front (L-R): Hilary Smith, Annie Gibson, Jordan Shannon, Amelia Steadman, Shivani Gupta, Rosa Mathai

To see more photos from the awards ceremony, visit the Stone Center’s Flickr site.

2007 TUCLA Conference

The Fifth Annual Tulane Undergraduate Conference on Latin America (TUCLA) took place in Jones Hall at the Stone Center for Latin American Studies on Saturday, December 1. The conference, designed to provide undergraduates the opportunity to present papers in the style and atmosphere of an academic conference, is an interdisciplinary symposium for seniors in the Latin American Studies program. During the conference, students presented individual research projects done as part of their core seminar class. Nineteen students participated in the conference which was split into three sessions. Each session was made up of two panels geared toward key concepts focused on in the Latin American Studies curriculum. The undergraduate presentations in each panel were followed by discussion lead by a faculty guest speaker. The first panel, Encounter, dealt with inter-cultural communication in Latin America. The panel focusing on Creativity centered on culture, identity, and social justice. The third panel, Nation, was designed to deal with issues of neo-liberalism in the Latin American world while the following panel, Exchange, dealt with civil society and the transitioning of state sovereignty. The final two topics covered were Identity and Welfare which addressed issues of gender and sexuality and health politics in the age of globalization. Faculty discussants included Christopher Dunn of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Laura Murphy of the School of Public Health, Vicki Mayer of the Communications Department, Justin Wolfe of the Department of History, and Jeffrey Stacey and Casey Kane-Love both of the Political Science Department. Click here for photos of the conference .

Student participants and research topics are listed below:

• Lucien Bruno, ‘€œSpreading the Weak State Thin: Governmental Decentralization in Colombia‘€

• Meaghan K. Callahan, ‘€œCountering Repression with Creativity: Canto Nuevo and the Pro-Democracy Movement in Chile, 1973-1990‘€

• Judith ‘€˜Garland‘€™ deRouchey, ‘€œFueling Chavez: The Impact of Venezuela’s Oil Economy on Hugo Chavez’s Presidency‘€

• Roxana Díaz Gómez, ‘€œCAFTA-DR: Toward Poverty Reduction in Nicaragua‘€

• Brian Doran, ‘€œForms of Dissent during the Argentine Military Dictatorship and the 2001 Economic Crisis‘€

• Sophie Healy, ‘€œHow the Irish ‘€˜Hicieron la America‘€™: An Autobiographical Journey through Irish-Argentine Identity Creation”

• Nathalie Hendleman, ‘€œPopulation Control Gone Wrong: Family Planning Institutions and Fertility Decline in Brazil‘€

• Rebekah Heuberger, ‘€œLack of Government Authority and the Mexican Maquiladora Health Crisis‘€

• Lexie Kirylo, ‘€œInstitutionalizing Tolerance: Changing Attitudes toward Homosexuality in Cuba‘€

• David Klauber, ‘€œBrazil‘€™s Battle against AIDS: Lessons for Central America and the Health Implications of CAFTA‘€

• Lauren Ledbetter, ‘€œThe Effects of Power Distance on Managerial Practices: A Look at Maquiladoras in Mexico‘€

• Rosa Mathai, ‘€œRethinking of the U.S.-Cuban Embargo: U.S. Minorities at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana‘€

• Erin E. O‘€™Flaherty, ‘€œDel Agujero: The Perpetual Cycle of Educational Inequality in Argentina‘€

• Robyn Orth, ‘€œIndigenous Revolt in Chiapas, Mexico: The Chamula Rebellion and Miscommunications‘€

• Courtney Patterson, ‘€œA Success Story: Securing the Panama Canal‘€

• Ilan Roth, ‘€œVirility and Violence: The Masculine Identity of Argentina‘€™s Barrabravas‘€

• Janike Ruginis, ‘€œMotherhood in Argentina: The Enhancement of Traditional Roles?‘€

• Lauren Shepley, ‘€œMacho, Macho Man: Male Identities in Mexican Film‘€

• Anne Zembron, ‘€œMexico‘€™s Progresa-Oportunidades Anti-Poverty Program: The Way to a Better Future or Just Another Dead End?‘€

LAGO Hosts 2nd Annual Soccer Tournament

On Sunday, November 18, LAGO, the Latin American Graduate Organization, at Tulane University sponsored its second annual soccer tournament at the university‘€™s Uptown Campus. Six teams participated in the tournament, several comprised of ESL students taught by members of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies. There was also a team coordinated by LAGO members comprised of players from the Latin American Studies department and the department of Spanish and Portuguese as well as an undergraduate TULASO team. The double elimination tournament took place at the UC quad on campus and began at 10 am with the final match being played around 4 o‘€™clock. The tournament brought together a diverse mix of the New Orleans public‘€“Tulane graduate and undergraduate students as well as members of the Mexican and Brazilian communities present in the city. The final match of the tournament pitted the skilled TULASO team against an experienced Brazilian team. Ultimately, the Brazilians triumphed and were awarded first place at the trophy ceremony lead by LAGO coordinators Lauren Nussbaum and David Weaver. To see more photos from the event, visit the Stone Center’s Flickr site!

Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow Announcement in Latin American Studies

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies invites applications for two one-year post-doctoral fellowships for the 2008-09 academic year. Applications from social scientists in the fields of urban studies, environmental studies, and policy studies are encouraged. Cuban or Andean area expertise preferred, but not required. Experience with Community Based Research or Service Learning instruction a plus. Fellows will be selected following two criteria: intellectual merit; and the potential impact that their research, teaching, and experience would have on the strategic advancement of Latin American Studies at Tulane. For detailed job announcement please click here.

LAGO hosts first annual graduate conference on Latin America

The Latin American Graduate Organization hosted their first annual graduate student conference on Latin America on October 12-13. The conference featured six panels and a keynote address by visiting Richard E. Greenleaf Professor of Latin American Studies, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto. The panels included: Latin American Arts, chaired by Dr. Florencia Bazzano-Nelson; Neopopulism and the Left, chaired by Dr. Justin Wolfe; Development and Health, chaired by Dr. Jeffrey Stacey; Brazilian Cultural Exchange, chaired by Dr. Mauro Porto; Representations of Violence, chaired by Dr. Martha Huggins; and Identity and Class, chaired by Dr. Maureen Shea. Friday‘€™s panels were followed by a dinner at the Saltwater Grille, and a closing Pachanga on Jones Hall Patio followed the conclusion of the final panels on Saturday.

Tulane student participants included:

• Adam Beebe, Latin American Studies: Mário de Andrade: a Novel Approach to National Identity

• Asli Berktay, Latin American Studies: Brazilian Nationhood, Modernity, Cultural Incorporation and Racial Democracy: A Critical Perspective on Brazilian Music

• Derek Burdette, Latin American Studies/Art History: Owning the Exotic: The Commodification of New Mexican Santos during the Early Twentieth Century

• Lisa Crossman, Art History: Macy‘€™s Taste in Latino Art: Selling the Latin American Fair‘€™s Aesthetics

• Rachel Crouch, Latin American Studies: Guatemalan Migrant Women on Mexico‘€™s Southern Border: 1980-present

• Annie Gibson, Latin American Studies: Embodiment of Waters: Stories, Conflict, and Change in Northeastern Brazil

• Steven Jacobs, Latin American Studies: Caminito: The Immigrants use of Tango as a path toward Porteño Identity

• Xela Korda, Latin American Studies: Sand Cinderellas: Sex Tourism, Prostitution, and Gender in the Brazilian Northeast

• Aaron Lorenz, Latin American Studies: Rosario Tijeras and the spectacle of violence

• Rodrigo Massi, History: Combative Masculinities: Duarte and D‘€™Aubuisson

• Lauren Nussbaum, Latin American Studies: An interpretation of the Indigenous Acceptance of Álvaro García Linera

• Jordan Shannon, Latin American Studies: When the Proletariat Becomes the People: Socialism, Populism, and the Politics of Hugo Chavez

• Hilary Smith, Latin American Studies: Acercando una Representación Híbrida: Opresión e Identidad en Entre la Piedra y la Cruz de Mario Monteforte Toledo

• David Weaver, Latin American Studies: La Vida en una Campaña: Populism and Rafael Correa

Tulane at LASA 2007: After the Washington Consensus: Collaborative Scholarship for a new América

The XXVII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association was held from September 5-8, 2007 in Montreal, Canada. The Latin American Studies Association is the largest professional association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America. With over 5,000 members, twenty-five percent of whom reside outside the United States, LASA is the one meeting that brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines and diverse occupational endeavors across the globe.

LASA’s mission is to foster intellectual discussion, research, and teaching on Latin America, the Caribbean, and its people throughout the Americas, promote the interests of its diverse membership, and encourage civic engagement through network building and public debate.
Every eighteen months, specialists on Latin America gather at the LASA International Congress. Featuring over 700 sessions, including plenary sessions and informal meetings, the Congress is the world’s premier forum for expert discussion on Latin America and the Caribbean.
Tulane University was represented at LASA 2007 by four graduate students and nine professors who served as panel organizers, chairs, discussants and presenters. On Friday, September 7, a reception for the friends and alumni of Tulane‘€™s Stone Center for Latin American Studies was held at the Fairmont Hotel. The Stone Center was pleased to be joined by current students and faculty as well as numerous alumni and friends.

Tulane participants at LASA 2007:

• Idelber Avelar, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese: Presenter, Technologies of Online Publication.

• Sarah Borealis, History: Presenter, Missionaries of Nationalism: Urban Mexican Women and the Evolution of Cultural Identity in Post-Revolutionary Mexico.

• Christopher Dunn, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese: Chair, Lula‘€™s Brazil, Looking Forward: Government/Social Movement Dynamics; Chair, 1968 in Latin America I: Utopian Futures; Presenter, From Avant-garde to Counterculture: Artistic Practice, Mass Culture, and the Quotidian in Brazil, 1968-1974.

• Ludovico Feoli, Executive Director, Center for Inter-American Policy & Research: Presenter, In Search of a Reform Agenda in the Post Washington Consensus Era.

• Cynthia Garza, Ph.D. candidate, Latin American Studies: Organizar, ¡Sí se puede!: Agentes culturales en Lima, Perú; Presenter, Contemporary Cimarronaje: Teatro del Milenio‘€™s Choreographic Vision of Afro-Peruvian Identity.

• Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Senior Research Fellow, Latin American Studies: Discussant, African Diaspora Perspectivas on Identity: ‘€œRace‘€ and Nation in Latin America‘€“Part 1.

• Elizabeth Manley, Ph.D. candidate, History: Organizer, Of Morals and Manners: Women, Citizenship and Social Policy in Twentieth Century El Salvador, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Argentina; Presenter, ‘€œNo más que aves sin nudo‘€: Prostitution and Perceptions of Government Accountability in the Post-Dictatorial Dominican Republic, 1965-1969.

• Nancy Maveety, Professor, Political Science: Discussant, Institutional Reform and Democracy.

• Marilyn Miller, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese: Organizer, El Caribe Virtual; Chair, El Caribe Virtual; Presenter, Entre lo creole y lo criollo: Nueva Orleáns como una ciudad caribeña.

• Mauro Porto, Assistant Professor, Communication: Presenter, Television, Redemocratization, and News Coverage of Presidential Elections in Brazil (1989-2006).

• Susan Schroeder, History: Presenter, Nahuas Writing: To What End?

• Hilary Smith, M.A. candidate, Latin American Studies: Presenter, Recovering Marginalized Voices in Libertad Demitrópulos‘€™ ‘€œUn Piano en Bahía Desolación.‘€

• Justin Wolfe, Associate Professor, History: Discussant, Of Morals and Manners: Women, Citizenship and Social Policy in Twentieth Century El Salvador, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Argentina.

The 2007-2008 Graduate Student Cohort Arrives at Tulane

On August 27th The Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University welcomed fourteen new students to their program. During orientation, students met with representatives from departments associated with Latin American Studies. They spoke with Dr. Casey Love from the Political Science department, Dr. Chris Dunn of Spanish and Portuguese, Dr. Mauro Porto from Communications, Dr. Justin Wolfe of the Department of History, Dr. John Verano of Anthropology, Dr. Martha Huggins of the Sociology department and Dr. Florencia Bazzano-Nelson from Art History. They also had the opportunity to meet many of the Latin Americanist faculty with whom they will be working during their graduate program at a welcoming reception that evening.

This year‘€™s class of M.A. and Ph.D. candidates comes to Tulane with diverse backgrounds and experiences in Latin America and will pursue a wide range of interdisciplinary study as they complete their graduate research at the Stone Center.

Jennifer Boone graduated from Louisiana State University in 2002. She has studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed an environmental work/study program in Costa Rica. She plans to focus her Master‘€™s research on sustainable development and the environment in Mesoamerica.

A 2004 graduate of Northern Arizona University, Derek Burdette joins the Stone Center after having completed his M.A. in Art History at Tulane in 2007. Last summer he studied Nahuatl in Zacatecas, Mexico. He has also studied Portuguese in Sao Paolo, Brazil and done research in Cuzco, Peru. Derek will now pursue a Ph.D. focusing his research on Colonial Mexican processional images and sculptures.

Elise Dietrich, a 2001 graduate of Bard College, comes to Tulane after having spent time in Mexico and studied in Venezuela. She also spent two years living in Brazil. Elise plans to focus her graduate research on Brazil, specifically visual culture, gender, and race.

M. A. candidate Lori Dowell is a 2007 graduate of Rhodes College and has studied in Mexico. She joins the Stone Center with plans to focus her research on international organizations and operations in Latin America.

Anna Frachou joins the Stone Center with plans to focus her research on post-revolutionary Cuban immigration to Spain. Anna, a 2005 graduate of Loyola Marymount University, has studied in Mexico and Spain and worked at an NGO for Latin American immigrants in Spain.

Brad Hentschel is a 2007 graduate of Spring Hill College who has traveled to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Belize and Nicaragua. He joins the Stone Center with plans to focus his Master‘€™s research on the social and racial structures, cultural movements, and political circumstances that precipitate gang composition, operation, behavior, and transnational transformation.

Jordan Hooper graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2005 and spent nearly two years living in Managua, Nicaragua. Jordan‘€™s graduate studies interests lie in community development and the coffee industry in Central America.

Katharina Kniess was born in Nicaragua and spent six years living in Latin America, specifically San José, Costa Rica and México, D.F. She studied Latin American Studies, North American Studies and Communications at the Freie Universität in Berlin. She plans to focus her studies at the Stone Center on cultural studies and literature from Mexico and Cuba.

Lauryn Minter is a 2007 graduate of Fisk University. She joins the Stone Center with plans to focus her Master‘€™s research on the celebration of African heritage as a part of the Latino experience and Latino psychology.

Monique Moss has worked as a choreographer, dancer and teacher in New Orleans for over thirteen years. She now rejoins the Tulane community after having received her B.A. in French in 1994. Monique has spent time in Central America, in particular Belize, and plans to focus her research at the Stone Center on the music and dance forms of Belize, Haiti and New Orleans.

A 2006 graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Kevin O‘€™Connor joins the Stone Center with plans to focus his studies on Andean identity and Argentine literature and film. Kevin has studied and lived in Argentina and Bolivia.

A native of Germany, Jana Radmann studied at the University of Mainz and completed an exchange program at Louisiana State University in 2002. In 2005, she received an MA in Spanish linguistics from LSU, where she also instructed Spanish. Jana plans to focus her research at the Stone Center on political relations between the U.S. and Latin America, especially the affect of U.S. foreign policy on the domestic politics of the region.

Amelia Steadman graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2006. She has studied and traveled in Mexico and Panama. Amelia is pursuing joint degrees in law and Latin American Studies at Tulane. She plans to focus her research on the effects of “closed door” post-September 11 legislation regarding international student/scholar visas on inter-American relations.