Past Events

A discussion of the role that ethnic politics and the recent oil finding off the coast of Guyana will play in the coming Guyanese elections.

For more information, visit: https://calendar.pitt.edu/event/featured_scholar_lecture_by_dr_vanessa_v... fro-Latinx Portraiture: The Case of Arturo Schomburg
The Race, Gender, and Representation in the Africana World series presents: Dr. Vanessa Valdés, Director of the Black Studies Program and Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at The City College of New York-CUNY. Her research specialization focuses on comparative studies of Black cultural productions throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean, Brazil, and the U.S. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (2017), in which she analyzed Schomburg’s engagement with the vibrant, ethnically diverse, and racially charged world of early twentieth-century New York City. Summary:
Arturo Schomburg was a central figure in early 20th-century efforts to recover evidence of global Black excellence; with a focus on Spanish-speaking Black populations, he found himself educating a predominantly English-speaking audience about the histories of Afro-Latin Americans. Yet while he was prominent in New York City, particularly in the 1920 and 1930s, there was little memory of his physical image in the years after his death. In this talk, I will discuss questions of the genealogy of photography of Black populations in the ​early 20th century, Schomburg's legibility as a Black man in his portraits, and his measured resistance to the medium. In addition to her public talk, Dr. Valdés will also speak with students enrolled in a class on Afro-Hispanic writers in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures. This series is sponsored by the following units: Department of Africana Studies, Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies Initiative, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Race and Social Problems, Humanities Center, World History Center.

The Asian Studies Center, in close partnership with the Center
for Latin American Studies and the Graduate School for Public
and International Affairs, is pleased to announce the
appointment of Professor Enrique Dussel Peters as Global
Professor in the University Center for International Studies. As Professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Dr. Dussel Peters is an
internationally recognized expert on China-Latin America
relations. His work focuses on economic development, political
economy, industrial organization and trade theory, NAFTA and
CAFTA, TPP and CPTPP, and the evolution of industrial, trade
and regional patterns in Latin America and Mexico. He has
published extensively on China's overseas foreign direct
investment (OFDI) in Latin America and Mexico, and on Mexican
firms in China. In conjunction with his scholarly work, Dr.
Dussel Peters has served as the Coordinator of the Area of
Political Economy at the Graduate School of Economics at
UNAM (2004-2008), and is currently the Director of the Center
for Chinese-Mexican Studies at the National Autonomous
University of Mexico and Director of the Academic Network of
Latin American and Caribbean on China (Red ALC-China). Dr. Dussel Peters has joined the University of Pittsburgh this
semester. With affiliation in the Graduate School of Public and
International Affairs he is teaching a graduate seminar on
China-Latin America relations. Working closely with faculty in
Latin American Studies and in Asian Studies his research
activities will support the Global Asia Initiative.

For information about all the films, visit: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/cinema

In many countries, the representation of women in local and national politics has risen. There has been a simultaneous rise in reports of physical violence and harassment that have targeted women in political positions and public roles. This Round-table will be centered on various cases of political violence and harassment in Latin America, as well as prevention methods and laws in place to combat this rise in gender-based violence and harassment.

The Caribbean is a privileged place to think about Latin America, as it embodied many of the cultural, social, political, and economic theories that emerged in the context of Twentieth Century Postwar - Cold War era. The maelstrom of those years in Latin America helped configure much of the academic knowledge of that era. However, taking on many of the challenges and transformations in Latin America during the first two decades of the 21st century requires us to adopt a global perspective. Integrating local and transnational ideas and fostering awareness of new cultural, social, political and economic movements allow us to fully comprehend Latin Americas’ past and present. Working with issues in the realm of the environment, gender, indigenous peoples, technology, religion, and the Latinx diaspora have opened doors for new voices and scholar whose voices we have begun to hear from. Although aware that planning processes in an organization are a cooperative effort of all its members, envisioning Pitt’s Center for Latin American Studies towards its 60th anniversary provides me a base for sharing my vision and goals as roadmap to guide the Center to fulfill Pitt's Global Path. We will promote new knowledge and life changing research by tackling the most pressing issues of current Latin America and the growing Latinx transnational communities. This presentation will address issues aimed at showing my vision and goals for the Center such as: 1) interdisciplinary experience and across disciplinary programs as a key driver of the strategic approach to Latin American issues and its transnational communities; 2) experiential learning and research opportunities in Latin American and with Latinx communities to advance new knowledge and life changing research; and, 3) partnerships that deepen the Center's offerings and financial resources. Eliseo R. Colón Zayas is a professor and researcher at the School of Communication of the University of Puerto Rico, which he chaired from 1999 to 2013. He holds a B.A. from Duquesne University, earning his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He has been a visiting professor and lecturer at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de São Paulo (Fulbright Research-Scholar), the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, the ITESO (in Guadalajara, Mexico), the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, the Universidad de La Plata in Argentina and the Universities of A Coruña, Sevilla and Málaga in Spain. Some of his books include: Matrices culturales del neoliberalismo: una odisea barroca (2013) and Medios Mixtos: Ensayos de Comunicación y Cultura (2013) .

ARYSE is a local organization that facilitates after school and summer programming for immigrant youth in Pittsburgh. They are currently recruiting for directors and counselors (paid positions) for their summer program, PRYSE Academy. Through engaging academic curricula, creative expression workshops, team-building activities, field trips, and soccer programming, PRYSE is proven to help participants develop literacy skills, build personal confidence, prepare for the school year, and deepen their sense of belonging. Come by the Pitt Global Hub to learn more about this incredible organization and how you can apply.