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Message from the Director
Welcome, Bienvenidos, Bem-vindos to the CLAS 2024-2025 academic year! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are excited for the special year ahead. This year, we proudly celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Center for Latin American Studies. We've been busy planning events and organizing opportunities for faculty, students, and the community to continue what we do best: fostering connections between scholars, researchers, and activists from various institutions and countries to promote the teaching, learning, and research of Latin America, the Caribbean, and its diverse diasporic communities at Pitt."
Much has changed within CLAS, Pitt, and in the landscape of US-Latin American scholarly relations since 1964. To reflect on these changes and to discuss Latin American history, languages, culture, and politics, we will be hosting a series of activities. These events are closely aligned with CLAS’s special programs on Afro-Latin American Studies, Amazonian Studies, Luso-Sphere Studies, and Latin American Social and Public Policy, as well as the themes we have focused on in recent years: Rights to the Past, which explores the heritage of colonialism and the history and memory of Afro and Indigenous Latin American populations; Rights to the Present, addressing public health, urbanization, migration, and democracy; and Rights to the Future, focusing on the environment, education, and future perspectives for the region.
We will kick off the year with the presence of Brazilian rapper and intellectual Leandro Roque de Oliveira, Emicida, who will share his vision of Brazilian Black history and music in the pop-up course Brazil: It’s All for Yesterday on September 25th and 26th, followed by a screening of his Emmy-nominated film AmarElo (Yellow – It’s All for Yesterday) on September 27th. These events will pave the way for lectures, book discussions, pop-up courses, and international conferences featuring several visiting scholars, including Dr. Cristiano Rodrigues, the 2024 Fulbright-CLAS Distinguished Scholar, and Dr. Aline Najara Gonçalves, the 2024-2025 Afro-Latin American Post-Doctoral Fellow.
None of this would be possible without the exceptional work of our graduate student assistants and undergraduate student ambassadors, and especially the dedication, commitment, and good humor of CLAS’s extraordinary staff: Kaitlin (Katie) Moira Kennedy, Courtney Newhouse, Martha Mantilla, Ana Paula Carvalho, Luz Amanda Hank, and Luis G. Van Fossen Bravo; we all share in the excitement for the year ahead and very much look forward to engaging with each of you!
Dr. Keila Grinberg, Director, CLAS
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