CLAS@Pitt Monthly Calendar/January 2023

CLAS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

With the first CLAS Newsletter for 2023 we share our continued hope for an auspicious year. We are proud to share news about our Center’s participation in the Afro-Latin America Consortium (see note below, and links to WESA story here, and University Times article here).
On January 26th and 27th we have our first planned Amazonia Studies Program workshops involving scholars from institutions from Pitt and Latin America to consolidate and refine innovative international partnerships and agreements. On the 26th we also have our first screening of the CLAS Cinema series for 2023, with Mala Mala, a highly regarded film from Puerto Rico, co-sponsored by Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance. Next week, on February 2 we will hold the first Charlemos event of 2023, Autocracy Rising, reflecting on 10 years of Nicolas Maduro's rule in Venezuela. The whole month will bring many events and opportunities, and we hope you will join us as we work to become an ever more important resource on Latin American and its diasporic communities and find ways we can engage with your interests.

Afro-Latin American Consortium

Photo creds: Melissa Blackall

Since 2013, a group of institutions and research groups across the Americas have been working together to expand and consolidate the field of Afro-Latin American Studies. Centered on the histories, cultures, and experiences of Africans and of people of African descent in Latin America, this multidisciplinary academic field represents a major engine for inclusion and racial justice in Latin America. With a generous $1.7 million dollar grant from the Ford Foundation, these groups have now constituted the University Consortium on Afro-Latin American Studies, with representatives from Mexico (Afrodescendientes y Diversidad Cultural, INAH / Universidad Autonoma de Mexico), Colombia (Centro de Estudios Afrodiaspóricos, Universidad ICESI), Brazil AFRO Núcleo Pesquisa e Formação Raça, Gênero, Justiça Racial, CEBRAP), Argentina Grupo de Estudios Afrolatinoamericanos, Universidad de Buenos Aires), and the United States (Center for Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh, and Afro-Latin American Research Institute, Harvard University). We seek to expand and institutionalize the field of Afro-Latin American Studies, transforming it into an engine for racial justice and inclusion.

Congratulations to Dr. Michele Reid Vasquez for being selected as the 2023 recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Creating a Just Community award! Thank you for embodying the spirit of Dr. King in your work and service.