|
New CERLAC online
resource: Mining
CERLAC has
compiled links to organizations and companies in the Americas
working on mining-related issues. We hope the site will be a
useful resource for activists and scholars interested in these
issues.
We also
invite you to join our bilingual (Spanish-English) mining
listserv by sending an email to
cerlac2@yorku.ca
requesting subscription to MINING-AMERICAS.
York signs agreement
with Organization of American States
York University has signed an agreement with the
Organization of American States (OAS) to join its Consortium of
Universities. This means that graduate students from member
states who have been awarded OAS scholarships will be able to
hold them at York.
"In a very tangible way it unites graduate
education and internationalization in a part of the world where
York has historically been heavily involved, creating unique
opportunities for students and researchers," said Douglas Peers,
dean of York's Faculty of Graduate Studies.
York has a long history of significant
engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean and is known as
a Canadian leader in the field. The Latin American & Caribbean
Studies Program (LACS) was created in 1972 and the Centre for
Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC), which now
has links with more than 50 institutions in 20 countries in the
region, was established in 1978.
Read
the full article.
Andrea Davis is
CERLAC's new Deputy Director
CERLAC is pleased to
introduce Professor Andrea Davis as our new Deputy
Director, with a mandate to coordinate our Graduate Diploma
Program in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, oversee the
associated Brown Bag Seminar Series, facilitate student and
community outreach and participation, and promote
Caribbean-related research and initiatives.
An associate professor
in York’s Division of Humanities, Andrea’s research strengths
are in Caribbean, African American and black Canadian
literatures, and issues of gender, race and ethnicity as they
impact the Caribbean and Caribbean diasporas. She brings to
CERLAC extensive administrative experience and energy. She was
the coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Program from 2001 to 2006. She has also worked with the Center
for the Studies of Black Cultures in Canada and currently serves
as member of the executive committee of the Harriet Tubman
Institute for Research on Global Migrations of African Peoples.
Known for her passion
for teaching and her engaging classroom style, in 2007 she was
recognized as one of the “Top 30” lecturers in the province in
TVOntario’s 2007 Best Lecturer Competition.
At CERLAC, she is
especially dedicated to promoting Caribbean-related research and
initiatives and plans to organize a major conference in fall
2009 that will map out the field of Caribbean Studies across
disciplines (political science, environmental studies, tourism,
education, sociology, history and literature) to identify
strengths and gaps. This conference will bring together
researchers in the Caribbean and North America.
CERLAC Director, Eduardo
Canel, has this to say of Andrea’s new position: “Andrea’s
significant contributions to CERLAC, her excellent intellectual
leadership abilities, and her extensive experience working with
students make her uniquely qualified for this position. On
behalf of the CERLAC Executive Committee I am proud and
delighted to welcome her as our Deputy Director and wish her the
best in her new role.”
Andrea
Davis is enthusiastic about her new role: “I am extremely happy
to be working with Eduardo as CERLAC continues its growth and
expansion. I am excited by the possibilities and dedicated to
enhancing CERLAC's long commitment to research in Latin America
and the Caribbean.”
See
Andrea’s profile in our
Handbook of Researchers:
Call for Nominations:
Michael Baptista Essay Prizes 2008
Deadline: August 31,
2008. Nominations limited to York University students only.
These prizes offer an opportunity
for York University faculty to recognize outstanding student work,
at the undergraduate or graduate level, in the area of Latin
American and Caribbean studies at York University.
The Michael Baptista Essay Prizes
recognize annually, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels,
an outstanding scholarly essay of relevance to the area of Latin
American and Caribbean Studies from a humanities, social science,
business or legal perspective.
The prize includes a monetary
component of $500 per awardee. Winning essays will be considered for
publication by CERLAC (the Centre for Research on Latin America and
the Caribbean at York University).
The essays may be from a full or
half course during the 2007-2008 academic year, or a summer 2007
course. Major Research Papers at the graduate level may also be
nominated. Submissions should be no longer than 35 pages, including
all references, tables, figures and notes. All submissions must be
in English. Deadline extensions are available in instances where
significant re-writing is required to shorten the work to within
that limit.
The papers submitted will be
reviewed by two to three Faculty readers with research interests in
Latin America and the Caribbean. Both the Prize winners and the
nominating Faculty members will be advised of the decision by the
end of October, 2008.
TO NOMINATE:
Request a Nomination Form from
CERLAC: <cerlac@yorku.ca>
Submit the nominated paper and
accompanying form to CERLAC, 240 York Lanes, no later than August
31, 2008. Please include an electronic copy of the paper via email <cerlac@yorku.ca>.
PLEASE NOTE: ONLY FACULTY
MEMBERS CAN NOMINATE A PAPER. Students may not self-nominate.
Nonetheless, we encourage students who have received outstanding
grades on their papers to bring the existence of this prize to the
attention of their instructors, so that they might nominate the
paper if they so choose. Each faculty member may nominate only
one graduate-level paper and one undergraduate-level paper.
If you have any questions please
do not hesitate to contact CERLAC at 416.736.5237 or
cerlac@yorku.ca.
These Prizes are funded by the
friends of Michael Baptista and the Royal Bank of Canada, where he
was a Senior Vice-President until his untimely death.
Read more about the essay prize.
CERLAC laments the
passing of Fellow Dr. Frederick Case
Dr.
Fredrick Case, who was a loved and loving father, teacher,
volunteer, human rights activist,
the staunch supporter of African and Caribbean people,
principal, and friend died unexpectedly on Saturday, May 10,
2008, at the age of 68. His
passionate heart ceased beating while still in love with life
and eager to serve his fellow human beings with all his
strength.
Frederick
Ivor Case was a Fellow of CERLAC and co-investigator in the
Caribbean Religions Project. He played a number of supportive
roles relating to Caribbean scholarship at CERLAC, which he
always carried out with great thoughtfulness, care and wisdom.
He also served as external examiner for a number of CERLAC and
York doctoral candidates. Despite the breadth of his interests,
he was deeply committed to the Caribbean and to Caribbean
scholarship. Greatly esteemed as a colleague and mentor, he was
an inspiration for many people working in the Caribbean and
related areas.
Prof. Case came to Canada
from UK and France. He joined New College in 1968. He was the
first member of the college staff to become chair of the
Department of French, a position he held from 1985 to 1990.
Later he was principal of New College, the first college fellow
to hold that office. He also served as coordinator for graduate
studies in the French Department from 1982 to 1984 and as
associate chair for graduate studies from 1984 to 1985. Driven
by his commitment to make university accessible to people in
low-income brackets, Prof. Case took personal initiatives in
introducing students from inner city primary and secondary
schools to the University of Toronto. Despite his busy schedule,
he did research on various community, justice, humanitarian and
human rights subjects continuously.
His thesis on Émile Zola was
published by the University of Toronto Press in 1974. He then
focused his studies on African and Caribbean literatures, with a
special interest in race, religion, and ethnicity. In this area
he has published a study entitled Racism and National
Consciousness and a volume on the Guadeloupean and Martiniquian
novel. He is also the author of more than fifty articles and has
presented numerous papers and lectures. He extensively traveled
across the globe from Guiana to Madagascar to Nigeria and
Tajikistan with the sole purpose of serving most vulnerable
people in the South. He inspired his graduate and undergraduate
students by his example and shared his community experiences
with them on an ongoing basis. He helped many to revise their
stereotyped and narrow images of African and Caribbean people.
He served as an indefatigable champion of bilingualism and
multiculturalism in Canada.
Prof. Case was involved with
the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT) for several
years. He has played a vital role in the life of CCVT as a Board
member, a member of Education Committee and an omnipresent
member of the Editorial Board of the CCVT bi-annual journal, the
First Light. His policy making contributions as well as his
participation in various national and international
consultations on behalf of the CCVT will always be fresh in our
memories. He has represented CCVT in human rights consultations
with the government of Canada at the Department of Foreign
Affairs and with the International NGOs in Nigeria.
Dr. Case
lived a meaningful life combining love with wisdom, happiness
with vision and generosity with responsibility. His braveness,
courage, fortitude and compassion made him an upright mountain
in every storm of life. He extended his teaching hand to
youth and sided with the vulnerable. He is alive in all tender
hearts as a brilliant teacher and a friend of the oppressed.
With text by
Mulugeta Abai, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for
Victims of Torture
Call for Papers
Rethinking Extractive
Industry: Regulation, Dispossession and Emerging Claims
The Centre
for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC),
together with the Extractive Industries Research Group (EIRG),
both located at York University, are hosting a conference
entitled "Rethinking Extractive Industry: Regulation,
Dispossession and Emerging Claims." Taking place from March 5 to
7, 2009, as part of the University's 50th anniversary and
CERLAC's 30th anniversary celebrations, the conference will
bring together cutting-edge research on the socio-ecological,
spatial, and political-economic dimensions of industrial
extraction. Through critical theoretical reflection and
policy-relevant analysis, three tracks aim to advance our
understanding of the social regulation of extractive industries
in its broadest sense.
Eduardo Canel begins
full three-year term as CERLAC Director
CERLAC is
delighted to announce that Eduardo Canel will be the new
director of CERLAC for a full three-year term that will commence
in July, 2008. He has been the Interim Director since July 2007.
A York
alumnus and recipient of CERLAC’s Graduate Diploma in Latin
America and Caribbean Studies, Eduardo has been involved in
CERLAC’s activities since its establishment. As a graduate
student, he worked on the Centre’s projects and delivered
seminars here, and now, as an accomplished scholar and a very
popular professor in York’s International Development Studies
(IDS) and Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) programs,
he has maintained close ties to CERLAC as a member of the
Executive Committee.
Originally
from Uruguay, Eduardo’s research has focused on social movements
and processes of change in Latin American societies. Social
movements in Latin America were the subject of Eduardo’s
well-known and internationally recognized earlier work. His
current work focuses on the operation of neighbourhood councils
in Montevideo, Uruguay, and their efforts to democratize city
politics and create a new, more community-based model of
governance. He is currently completing a manuscript for a book
tentatively titled Cities of Citizens? Experiments in Urban
Democracy in Latin America.
No stranger
to directing programs at the university, Eduardo served as
Coordinator of the undergraduate LACS program from 1995-2001,
and from 2006-2007 he was the Coordinator of the undergraduate
IDS program. From 2007-2008 Eduardo was the Interim
Director of CERLAC.
CERLAC is
very fortunate to have such an accomplished scholar, committed
colleague and long-time friend lead the Centre over the next
three years.
For more
information about Eduardo Canel, see the
profile on him in the 2005 CERLAC Review.
CERLAC Honorary Fellow
Miguel Murmis awarded Honorary Doctorate
CERLAC is proud
to report that Miguel Murmis, CERLAC Honorary Fellow, is being
awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad
Nacional de Quilmes in Argentina. The event is to take place along
with a set of conferences about his work on the rural question in
Argentina in recognition of the importance of his contributions to
the understanding of rural social and economic structures.
Dr. Murmis
played a key role in the establishment and development of CERLAC,
and is very highly and warmly regarded by all those who have worked
with him. We send him our very best wishes on the occasion of this
well deserved award.
2007 Baptista Essay
Prizes Awarded
CERLAC is
pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Michael Baptista Essay
Prize for outstanding scholarly papers on topics of relevance to the
area of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
|
Kate Sheese (Individualized Studies) won at the
undergraduate level, and Talia Wooldridge
(Ethnomusicology) took the graduate-level prize.
The essays were nominated by York
professors and evaluated by selection committees of
CERLAC Fellows.
Kate Sheese’s outstanding paper,
Contesting
Victimhood: Indigenous Women and Violence in Chiapas,
Mexico, was chosen unanimously by the reviewers,
who praised it as “thoroughly researched” and
“astoundingly good.” In their words, Kate “grasps
important subtleties” and presents a “sophisticated
argument about how representations of violence against
women in indigenous communities in Chiapas as a problem
of indigenous culture legitimates Mexican state violence
against those communities.” |
Kate Sheese and Mrs.
Baptista
(photo by Benjamin
Cornejo) |
Talia
Wooldridge’s paper, Cuban
Raperas: A Feminist Revolution within the Revolution,
examines present-day female rap in Cuba and contextualizes this
musical style within the framework of Fidel Castro’s ideologies on
the one hand, and the ongoing prevalence of patriarchy and machismo
on the other. Reviewers praised the paper as “ambitious,”
“provocative,” “innovative” and worthy of publication. Professor
Louise Wrazen nominated this prize-winning essay, commenting that
“Talia effectively demonstrates the power of music as an expressive
form to act as a vehicle for social change.”
An awards
luncheon was held in February 2008. Congratulations Kate and
Talia!
More about the Baptista prize
Online: Funding
Opportunities for Graduate Study or Research in Latin America and the
Caribbean
The information
presented during the "Funding Opportunities for Graduate Study or
Research in Latin America and the Caribbean" information session in
November 2007 is now available on the CERLAC website. To
access the information click here.
Online: Franklin W.
Knight's presentation on Slavery and Abolition
Online: "The struggles
of Colombia's Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Peoples"
CERLAC is pleased to announce the
publication of a CERLAC Colloquia Paper on the 2006 conference
entitled “Ethnicity, Violence and Exclusion: The Struggles of
Colombia’s Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Peoples.
The conference, held March 15-16, 2007, was organized by Rights and
Democracy, the Latin American Human Rights and Education Research
Network (RedLEIDH), and the Centre for Research on Latin America and
the Caribbean (CERLAC).
The report was transcribed, adapted from written submissions,
translated and annotated, with a summary, by Marshall Beck.
Download the full report as a
CERLAC Colloquia Paper.
Call for
Submissions: Latino/a youth in Toronto public high schools
Why do 40% of Latino/a youth not complete high school in Toronto
public schools? What can be done about it?
According to a recent study coordinated by Rob Brown of the
Toronto District School Board (TDSB), approximately 20% of
students who start grade 9 do not complete high school four
years later. Among students who speak Spanish, the
non-completion rate is 40%. This means that Spanish-speaking
students are twice as likely to abandon high school. We believe
that this issue is of crucial importance to the Latin
American-Canadian community in Toronto. For this reason, we are
inviting students, parents, teachers, educators and all
concerned to share their views on the following questions:
1) Why are Latina/o students twice as likely to leave school
than their peers?
2) What can be done -and/or is being done- to address this
situation?
If you would like to share your views please write a short text
of approximately 600 to 1,000 words about one of the two
questions and submit it by email before Friday, February 1,
2008. If you wish to address the two questions, please feel free
to send two documents, one for each question. A jury of
community members will read all submissions. Selected
contributions will be included in a publication to be released
in 2008. Contributions can be submitted in Spanish, English or
Portuguese, and can be submitted by an individual or by a group.
This call is open to all people who are willing to participate,
without any restrictions such as age, nationality, birthplace,
migratory status, place of residence or any other condition.
In the body of the message please include the title of the
contribution, the name of the author or authors, and your
e-mail, telephone and mailing address for contact purposes. Only
the organizing committee will have access to this information.
Please submit your contributions to Daniela Mantilla at
lared@oise.utoronto.ca
Partner Organizations
Asociacion Salvadoreña Canadiense
Association of Hispanic Canadian Teachers (AHCT)
Association of Spanish Speaking Seniors
Canadian Hispanic Congress
Casa Maiz
Casa Salvador Allende
Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC)
Correo Canadiense
Diario El Popular
Escuela Pioneros de la Paz
Guatemala Community Network
Grupo Mujer
Factor Hispano
Latin American Research, Education and Development (LARED)
Latin American Studies at the University of Toronto
Red de Estudios sobre Latinoamericanos en Canadá (RELAC)
Transformative Learning Centre, OISE/UT
Email:
lared@oise.utoronto.ca
Website:
http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~lared/
2007 Jagan Lecture
with Walton Look Lai published on CERLAC website
CERLAC is pleased to
announce that the 2007 Jagan Lecture with Walton Look Lai,
titled “They Came in Ships: Imperialism, Migration and Asian
Diasporas in the 19th Century,” has been published as part
of the CERLAC Colloquia Papers Series.
In this lecture, Dr.
Look Lai develops a comparative overview of the pattern of East
and South Asian labour migrations in the 19th century as both
groups were steadily integrated into the expanding Atlantic
world economy. He explores their respective push factors and
destinations, the various mechanisms under which their labour
was engaged, the relative issues of freedom/unfreedom attached
to their engagement, the patterns of reception and treatment in
their various host countries, and finally, their comparative
mobility and assimilation options and choices in their host
countries.
Read
more about the lecture series.
Download the full text of this
lecture as a CERLAC Colloquia Paper.
2005 Jagan Lecture
with Carolyn Cooper published on CERLAC website
CERLAC is pleased to
announce that the 2005 Jagan Lecture with Carolyn Cooper, titled
“Sweet and Sour Sauce: Sexual Politics in Jamaican Dancehall
Culture,” has been published as part of the CERLAC Colloquia
Papers Series.
In this lecture, Dr.
Cooper explores sexual politics in Jamaican dancehall culture,
arguing transgressively for the freedom of women to claim a
self-pleasuring sexual identity that may even be explicitly
homoerotic. She analyzes particular contemporary music and
movements of Jamaican women in dancehalls, and explores the
credentialising of sexual orientation in Jamaican culture.
Read
more about the lecture series.
See the full lecture online in Real Player.
Download the full text of this
lecture as a CERLAC Colloquia Paper.
Viviana Patroni
completes tenure as CERLAC Director
On June 30, 2007, Viviana Patroni
completed two consecutive terms as Director of CERLAC and formally
stepped down from this position. After six years of her tireless and
sincere dedication to CERLAC activities, Viviana leaves behind a
strong and inclusive organization with important initiatives that
were developed and strengthened under her leadership.
She has organized a number of
very successful international conferences, on topics such as
migration issues, mining activities and community rights, human
rights in Colombia, and social (in)justice in Latin America. In
addition to maintaining a remarkably active and diverse lineup of
events every year, she has helped to establish the Jagan and
Baptista Lecture Series as key events for the university and the
broader community.
During Viviana’s directorship,
CERLAC has established new institutional linkages with universities
and organizations throughout the region through student exchange
programs, collaborative research projects, joint workshops and
conferences, and hosting a number of visiting scholars at the Centre
over the years.
Institutional linkages have been
especially strengthened and extended since 2005 through CERLAC’s
Latin
American Human Rights Education and Research Network (RedLEIDH).
Project Co-Directors Shin Imai (Osgoode Hall Law School) and Viviana
received $3 million in Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)-funding for this major six-year project based at CERLAC. The
RedLEIDH network of Latin American universities and leading civil
society organizations will advance an ambitious agenda of human
rights education, applied research and capacity-building in the
region.
Here at York, Viviana has been
particularly responsive to the needs and interests of both students
and faculty, and has provided institutional support to a variety of
exciting new initiatives, including Fair Trade at York, the
University Consortium on the Global South (UCGS), the Gender and
Politics Study Group, the York/CERLAC Brazilian Studies Seminar
Series, the Caribbean Graduate Students’ Network, and the Mining
Group. Viviana’s tenure is also noteworthy for having
cultivated meaningful and fruitful opportunities for engaging with
the broader community outside the university and with a range of
community organizations throughout the region. All this reflects
Viviana’s conviction that “there are critical tools we can
contribute to the work that our colleagues in the region carry out
in our collective struggles for a more just society.”
Beyond CERLAC, her project work
in Latin America, and her own research on labour movements and
neoliberal restructuring in Argentina, it is a wonder that Viviana
has found the time for her continuing involvement in the
International Development Studies Program and her participation in
the collaborative team that developed York's newest MA Program in
Development Studies. She also supervises the work of a number of
graduate students.
CERLAC has grown and benefited
from Viviana’s leadership in innumerable ways, and we are most
appreciative of her tireless commitment and her strong and broad
vision. We will dearly miss having her as Director, though we
are fortunate that she will continue to be closely involved in our
initiatives, most notably as she continues to co-direct RedLEIDH.
Viviana, we wish you the very
best and our most sincere and heartfelt thanks.
CERLAC welcomes
new Director: Eduardo Canel
CERLAC is delighted to
announce that Eduardo Canel has accepted the position of Interim
Director at CERLAC.
A York alumnus and recipient
of CERLAC’s Graduate Diploma in Latin America and Caribbean
Studies, Eduardo has been involved in CERLAC’s activities since
its establishment. As a graduate student, he worked on the
Centre’s projects and delivered seminars here, and now, as an
accomplished scholar and a very popular professor in York’s
International Development Studies (IDS) and Latin American and
Caribbean Studies (LACS) programs, he has maintained close ties
to CERLAC as a member of the Executive Committee.
Originally from Uruguay,
Eduardo’s research has focused on social movements and processes
of change in Latin American societies. Social movements in Latin
America were the subject of Eduardo’s well-known and
internationally recognized earlier work. His current work
focuses on the operation of neighbourhood councils in
Montevideo, Uruguay, and their efforts to democratize city
politics and create a new, more community-based model of
governance. He is currently completing a manuscript for a book
tentatively titled Building Local Democracy in Latin America:
Municipal Decentralization and Working Class Communities in
Montevideo.
No stranger to directing
programs at the university, Eduardo served as Coordinator of the
undergraduate LACS program from 1995-2001, and from 2006-2007 he
was the Coordinator of the undergraduate IDS program.
CERLAC is very fortunate to
have such an accomplished scholar, committed colleague and
long-time friend lead the Centre over the next year.
Update on CERLAC's
RedLEIDH Project
The Latin
American Human Rights Research and Education Network (RedLEIDH) - a
CIDA-funded project coordinated jointly by CERLAC and Osgoode Hall
Law School - was officially launched in September 2006 during a
ceremony held at the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights in
Costa Rica.
Among the
various activities undertaken as part of the project since then have
been the development of new Masters programs in human rights, to be
offered in 2007 in universities in Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico;
the awarding of scholarships to human rights practitioners
throughout Latin America who are undertaking a specialized human
rights diploma program; the development of prototypes for a new
virtual library and portal on human rights; and a series of public
engagement activities in Canada, including the September 2006 visit
of Argentine human rights leader Nora Cortiñas, and a conference in
March 2007 focusing on the rights of Colombia's Indigenous and
Afro-Colombian peoples.
More
detailed information about the RedLEIDH and its work will be
profiled in the next CERLAC Review, coming out this spring.
News about the creation of RedLEIDH is available
here.
Bill
Fairbairn, the coordinator of RedLEIDH, can be contacted at
redleidh@yorku.ca,
416.736.2100 ext. 22027.
Thank you John Carlaw,
welcome back Shana
CERLAC would
like to thank John Carlaw for his excellent work here over the past
year. John was the Administrative Assistant, responsible for
coordinating all of the Centre's activities, while Shana Yael Shubs
was on maternity leave. John was a pleasure to work with and
provided invaluable support to CERLAC Fellows and graduate students.
He is now beginning the PhD program in Political Science here at
York University, and we wish him the best in his studies and look
forward to his continued involvement with the Centre.
CERLAC
welcomes Shana Yael Shubs back to her position and congratulates her
and her partner, Fernando, on the birth of
their son, Teo.
Thank you
John, and welcome back Shana!
2006 Baptista Essay
Prizes Awarded
CERLAC is
pleased to announce the winners of the 2006 Michael Baptista Essay
Prize for outstanding scholarly papers on topics of relevance to the
area of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Jillian
Ollivierre (Anthropology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies)
won at the undergraduate level, and Jasmin Hristov (Sociology) took
the graduate-level prize. At the graduate level,
honourable mention goes to Marcelo Vieta’s (Social and Political
Thought) paper, “The Worker-Recovered Enterprises Movement in
Argentina,” which was also felt to be of a particularly high
quality.
The essays were nominated by York professors and
evaluated by selection committees of CERLAC Fellows.
Jasmin Hristov’s paper, “Visibilizing and
Humanizing Indigenous Peasant Movements: The Case of the CRIC in
Colombia” analyzes the relationship between social class and
ethnicity/race as manifested in the formations, struggles, and
visions of one contemporary Latin American indigenous rural movement
(the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca, Colombia, or CRIC) and
its relationship with the Colombian state.
The reviewers of Jasmin’s paper commented that “the organization and
presentation of the main argument is outstanding--it is rare to read
a paper, at graduate level or even in professional journals, that is
so meticulously structured.” They further
noted that her work “demonstrated a superb grasp of a range of
theoretical perspectives, reinvigorates and adds new life to
Marxist-Leninist influenced modes of social analysis” and considers
“the ways in which class and race operate as structuring and
organizing principles in new social movements in which indigenous
peoples are (problematically) located.”
At the undergraduate level, Jillian Ollivierre’s
essay “Sex on the Beach: Hypersexuality, ‘Making Do,’ and Sexual
Health in the Anglophone Caribbean” was chosen
unanimously by the reviewers, who commented that “her paper is
outstanding, in fact, not only in its attempt to interrogate an
aspect of sex work that has received little critical attention, but
in its ability to disturb questions of gender and sexuality by
introducing "race" and class as agents of global power and
power(lessness).”
Congratulations
Jasmin, Jillian and Marcelo!
More about the Baptista prize
CERLAC Signs Open Letter
to the Government of Colombia
CERLAC recently joined 39 other
organizations and 61 Canadian MPs in signing the following open
letter to the government of Colombia:
Indigenous peoples
organizations, civil society groups and Parliamentarians in
Canada wish to express our indignation over the declarations of
paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso (as reported in the
Colombian press) regarding his role in the disappearance and
assassination of Kimy Pernia Domicó, who he accused of working
with FARC rebels. We repudiate this accusation, one that is all
too common in Colombia, where the perpetrators of human rights
abuses brand those engaged in the legitimate defense of human
rights as subversives in order to justify committing crimes
against them.
Full text available in
Spanish and
English.
The letter was also published
online on the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC's)
website, available
here.
CERLAC Fellow Andrea
Davis one of TVO's "Top 30" Lecturers
Producers of TV Ontario's "Big
Ideas" have selected York University Humanities Professor and CERLAC
Fellow Andrea Davis as one of the ‘top 30’ lecturers in the
province. Andrea was chosen from 155 eligible candidates nominated
by students and alumni of 19 Ontario colleges and universities.
Dr.
Andrea Davis has been teaching courses on cultures of the
Americas at York since 2003 and is a former coordinator of the Latin
American & Caribbean Studies Program (LACS)., She is also an
affiliated faculty member with the Centre for the Study of Black
Cultures in Canada. Her research interests are Caribbean,
African-American and African-Canadian literatures; history and
theatre; Latin American literature; postcolonial and diaspora
studies; and black cultural and feminist studies.
"As a researcher and educator,
teaching has always been one of my passions," writes the
Jamaican-born Davis, who earned an MA and PhD in English from York.
"The research I do has little meaning if it cannot engage meaningful
dialogues about who we are and who we hope to become. As an
African-Jamaican woman living within a marginalized context of black
cultures in Canada, my research has long ceased to be a mere
academic exercise. It is also intensely personal and has demanded an
interrogation of gender and race in which I am implicated out of
necessity."
The top 10 finalists selected by
an independent three-person jury will be asked by TVO to deliver
special lectures to be aired on "Big Ideas" this coming fall.
Viewers will get the chance to vote online or by telephone for their
favourite lecturer following each broadcast. A winner will be named
early in 2007.
Congratulations Andrea!
For more information and a list
of other York nominees, please visit
http://www.yorku.ca/mediar/archive/Release.asp?Release=1155 or
TVO's "Big Ideas" website at
http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?bestlecturer_professors
CERLAC Endorses
Statement on Canada and Corporate Social Responsibility Abroad
CERLAC, along with dozens of
other respected Canadian civil society organizations have endorsed
the following statement on Canada and Corporate Social
Responsibility Abroad. CERLAC's decision to endorse this statement
has come out of its organization and participation in research and
several events examining the behaviour of extractive industries in
Latin America, including a 2002
Conference on this topic which led to
a report and an
edited volume.
MOVING BEYOND VOLUNTARISM:
CANADA AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
ABROAD
The problem
Canadian
mining, oil and gas companies have been implicated in
well-documented cases of human rights violations and environmental
disasters abroad. These violations by Canadian companies
include toxic dumping, the destruction of protected areas, forcible
displacement of indigenous peoples, and threats and intimidation of
local communities.
This is
not a case of a few bad apples: Canadian extractive companies have
been implicated in human rights abuses and environmental disasters
in more than thirty countries.
The
Government offers both political assistance and financial support to
Canadian extractive companies that operate abroad. Yet the
Government has no regulatory mechanisms to ensure that these
companies observe international human rights and environmental
standards – standards that have been adopted by Canada.
The
voluntary approach to corporate accountability championed by the
Canadian Government is problematic for several reasons. Most
voluntary codes lack independent monitoring and verification
systems, complaints tools and enforcement mechanisms.
Moreover, the voluntary approach excludes binding mechanisms to hold
companies accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or
human rights violations associated with their overseas activities.
The solution
The Government should:
-
Require
Canadian companies operating internationally to meet clearly defined
corporate accountability, international human rights and
environmental standards, as a precondition for both financial and
political assistance.
-
Develop
legislation to hold Canadian companies and their directors
accountable in Canada when found complicit in human rights abuses
and environmental destruction abroad.
-
Develop
effective Canadian-based monitoring, verification and compliance
mechanisms to ensure that Canadian companies operating
internationally meet clearly defined corporate accountability,
international human rights and environmental standards.
-
Promote the
inclusion of human rights standards in World Bank policies and
condition provate sector lending on compliance with international
human rights.
This statement was originally organized by The
Canadian Network on Corporate Social Accountability (CNCA), a
network of non-governmental organizations, churches, trade unions
and other civil society organizations concerned with the detrimental
human rights and environmental impacts of Canadian extractive
industries. For positions and other information , visit
http://www. halifaxinitiative.org/index.php/Issues_CNCA .
The following organizations have endorsed the
statement on Canada and corporate social responsibility abroad as of
September 27, 2006:
Members of CNCA
Non-members
-
Africa Files
-
Canadian Physicians for the Environment
-
Canadian Auto Workers Local 2301
-
Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB)
-
Canadian Friends Service Committee
-
Canadian Pugwash Group- Executive
Committee
-
Centre for Social Justice
-
CERLAC (Centre for Research on Latin
America and the Caribbean, York U)
-
Christian Peacemakers Teams Colombia
Team
-
Comité Chileno por los Derechos
Human0s-Mtl
-
Comité syndicale nationale de retraite
Bâtirente
-
Colombia Section Solidarity Committee
-
Greenpeace Canada
-
Grupo de Trabajo No a Pascua Lama
-
Guatemala Community Network, Toronto
-
Le Project Accompagnement
Québec-Guatemala
-
Liu Institute for Global Issues
-
Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN)
-
Oxfam Canada
-
Oxfam Québec
-
Primate’s World Relief and Development
Fund (PWRDF)
-
Scarboro Missions
-
Social Justice Committee
-
The COUNCIL of Canadians
-
United Steelworkers Local 2020, Sudbury
Ontario
-
United Steelworkers Local 6500, Sudbury
Ontario
-
University of Guelph Central Student
Association
For an updated list of organizations that have
endorsed the statement, please visit
http://www.halifaxinitiative.org/index.php/CNCA_Endorsements.
Latest CERLAC
publication - Community Rights and Corporate Responsibility
COMMUNITY RIGHTS AND CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY:
Canadian Mining and Oil Companies in Latin America
Edited by
Liisa North, Timothy David Clark,
and Viviana Patroni
2006
|
Click here for more information and for ordering |
CANADIAN MINING ACTIVITY in Latin America has exploded
over the past decade and a half. Investors have
responded to neo-liberal policies of deregulation,
privatization, state-downsizing, and export promotion
encouraged by leading capitalist nations and
international financial institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The
result, predictably, has been sharp conflicts between
the communities affected by mining and their advocates
on one side, and the transnational mining companies
supported by the local state and the Canadian government
on the other.
This collection, the most comprehensive in the
English-language to date, investigates these conflicts
in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and
Nicaragua. Contributors address the related sustainable
development, community, corporate, legal, and social
issues. A valuable contribution to Latin American
development studies, this collection will be of interest
to students and specialists in the field, journalists,
NGOs, and policymakers. |
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This volume brings together a number of papers and
testimonials originally presented at a CERLAC conference
on "Canadian Mining
Companies in Latin America: Community Rights and
Corporate Responsibility," co-sponsored by
MiningWatch Canada. |
CERLAC welcomes John
Carlaw
CERLAC is very pleased to welcome
John Carlaw. He will be working as the Administrative Assistant and
LACYORK moderator until next February, while
Shana Yael Shubs is on
maternity leave. John brings a great deal of experience to this
position and has already worked closely with CERLAC on a number of
projects, events and other activities.
John is also currently completing
his MA in Political Science at York University, focusing on
democratization in Guatemala.
John welcomes your comments and
feedback and looks forward to working with the CERLAC
community. He can be reached at
carlaw@yorku.ca
Congratulations Shana and welcome
John!
Carolyn Cooper
Delivers the 2005 Jagan Lecture
On October 22, 2005, Carolyn
Cooper delivered the 2005 Jagan Lecture, entitled: "Sweet & Sour
Sauce: Sexual Politics in Jamaican Dancehall Culture." The
event also featured a dub poetry performance by Afua Cooper.
Read more about
the event and the lecture series.
See the full lecture program
on-line, in streaming video here.
(You must have Real Player to view this video.)
The
full text of this lecture has
been published as a CERLAC Colloquia Paper.
2005 Baptista Essay
Prizes Awarded
CERLAC is
pleased to announce the winners of the 2005 Michael Baptista Essay
Prize for outstanding scholarly papers on topics of relevance to the
area of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Fabiola Rios
(Women’s Studies) won at the undergraduate level and Gena
Chang-Campbell (Social and Political Thought) took the
graduate-level prize.
The essays were
nominated by York professors and evaluated by a selection of CERLAC
Fellows.
Fabiola Rios’
essay “Filling the Gap: The Colonial Project and the Goddess” was
chosen unanimously by the reviewers, who commented that the “essay
is outstanding in all aspects” and “could easily be published in a
professional disciplinary journal.” Professor Becky Lee who
nominated the paper had similar praise for Rios’ work, which she
notes, “identifies a significant gap, or oversight, in feminist
scholarship: the failure to consider data from the Americas in the
debates regarding the pre-patriarchal hypothesis.” Overall,
the reviewers agree, this deserving essay is “outstanding,
innovative and demonstrates a very high level of academic maturity.”
Gena
Chang-Campbell’s essay “‘Y/O’ Mestizaje as Foil and Fetish of
Postcolonial Consciousness” critically analyses the ways in which
mestizaje functions as creative possibility and restrictive
limit, as both an inclusive and an exclusive identity, as radical
nationalist ideology and justification for racial domination. The
reviewers were impressed by the “creativity and flair” of
Chang-Campbell’s work, noting that she “has clearly applied
intelligence, creativity in approaching this topic and editorial
skill in writing it.” Professor Patrick Taylor nominated this
prize-winning essay, commenting that “one of the strikingly original
aspects of the paper is the very creative passion with which this
solidly academic paper is written.”
More about the Baptista prize
CERLAC Fellows sign
the Cuernavaca Declaration on Migration and Development
"Migrants are
not just anonymous producers of dollars"
The Cuernavaca Declaration,
signed by experts participating in a conference on "Problems and
Challenges of Migration and Development in the Americas" in Mexico,
calls into question the "development agenda set out by migrant
exporting governments [that] identifies migrants and their
remittances as strategic resources that can or should solve the
economic and social woes of their nations."
The conference, held in
Cuernavaca, Mexico, was co-sponsored by the Centre for Research on
Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) of York University, the
International Migration and Development Network, and the Regional
Centre for Multidisciplinary Research of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico. The conference brought together academics and
other experts, government functionaries and migrant organization
leaders to engage in critical discussions about the impact of
international migration on the dynamics of development in labour
sending and receiving countries of our continent. CERLAC Fellows and
York University faculty members Luin Goldring, Alan Simmons and
Judith Adler Hellman participated in the conference.
The Declaration, with a strong
critique of neoliberal economic policy and an important reminder of
the need to respect and protect the full range of migrant rights,
notes that, "international migration has been silently incorporated
into government strategies, generating an economic model that
distorts the concept of development, basing it on the export of
workers and capture of remittances." It calls instead for radical
change and the development of a "model that can reduce growing
North-South asymmetries and address the root causes of migration, so
that people have more options available within their home country,
including the option not to emigrate."
The
Cuernavaca Declaration has
been published in English by CERLAC. See
here for full
program information and the Declaration in Spanish.
For more information, please
contact Luin Goldring or
CERLAC, 416.736.5237.
CERLAC Fellow Liisa
North wins 2005 Pío Jaramillo Alvarado Award
CERLAC extends heartfelt
congratulations to Fellow Liisa North,
a most deserving recipient of this prized honour.
The international and
interinstitutional jury has granted the 2005 Pío Jaramillo Alvarado
Award to Doctor Liisa North, Professor Emeritus of York University,
Canada, for her significant contributions to knowledge of Latin
American societies, and especially Ecuadorian society. Professor
North has carried out important research on Ecuadorian history and
Ecuador's social and political realities over the last thirty years,
and is an intellectual who has demonstrated a commitment to human
rights.
El jurado internacional e
interinstitucional conformado para otorgar el premio Pío Jaramillo
Alvarado en Ciencias Sociales, resolvió concedérselo en el año 2005
a la doctora Liisa North, profesora emérita de la Universidad de
York, Canadá, por su aporte científico al conocimiento de las
sociedades latinoamericanas, y particularmente de la ecuatoriana. La
profesora North ha generado investigaciones fundamentales sobre
temas históricos, sociales y políticos de la realidad del país a lo
largo de los últimos treinta años, y ha sido una intelectual
caracterizada por su compromiso con los Derechos Humanos.
Congratulations
Liisa!
Call for
Contributions: Building Bridges / Tendiendo Puentes
RUPTURES, CONTINUITIES AND
RE-LEARNING: THE CIVIC AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF LATIN
AMERICAN-CANADIANS
Categories:
Essay - Life Story - Short Story
- Opinion column - Journalistic article – Poetry - Theatre or
Radio-theatre Script - Photography
Deadline: 16 May 2005
For complete information (coming
soon in English):
http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~lared/convocatoria.html
lared@oise.utoronto.ca
2004 Baptista Essay Prizes Awarded
Pictured here are Sharon Baptista and
Kathryn Grimbly. Photo by Benjamin Cornejo.
|
The Centre for Research on Latin
America & the Caribbean (CERLAC) is pleased to announce the
winners of the 2004 Michael Baptista Essay Prize for outstanding
scholarly papers on topics of relevance to the area of Latin
American & Caribbean studies. Kathryn Grimbly, a fourth-year
student in humanities, won at the undergraduate level and
Jennifer Costanza, graduate student in political science, took
the graduate-level prize.
Full Story
More about
the Baptista prize |
J. Michael Dash
Delivers the 2004 Jagan-Baptista Lecture
On March 20, 2004, J. Michael
Dash delivered the 2004 Jagan-Baptista Lecture, entitled: "The
Disappearing Island: Haiti, History and the Hemisphere." The event
was opened by York President Lorna Marsden and also featured a
drumming performance by Muhtadi, a rendition of his well-known song
"Haiti" by Trinidadian soca-calypso giant David Rudder, and a poetry
reading by Prof. Bernard Delpeche of Acadia University.
Read
more about the event and the
lecture series.
View photos
from the event, and/or see the full lecture program on-line,
in streaming video by pasting this address into the location bar
of your media player:
mms://video.yorku.ca/itc/jagan/jagan2004.wmv.
Download the full text of this lecture as a CERLAC Colloquia
Paper.
CERLAC: lead York
partner in a major project on human rights education in Latin America
The Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) has awarded $3 million to the RedLEIDH
project at York University to advance an ambitious agenda of human
rights education in Latin America. The Latin American Human Rights
Education and Research Network brings together York University’s
Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC) and
Osgoode Hall Law School in a new network of Latin American
universities and civil society organizations to promote human rights
education, applied research and capacity-building in the region.
Full story
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