CERLAC presents a brown bag seminar

with

Gena Chang-Campbell

PhD Candidate, Social and Political Thought

Through the commercialization of the body and “souvenir format” of the mulata, internationally recognizable (and commodified) images of Cuban/Brazilian-nation-as-mixed-race-woman have become portable versions of Cubanidad and Brasilidade, items that can be touched, examined, purchased and imported into a global market of “cultural tourist” products.  What are the implications of this process for the Cuban or Brazilian woman of colour?  What limitations are imposed upon her agency to construct and express an identity that may or may not conform to nationalist ideals of the mixed-race female? These and other issues will be addressed in terms of contemporary aesthetic tastes as well as the political economy of Caribbean cultural tourist practices and praxis.

 ALL ARE WELCOME

Light refreshments will be provided.

 February 7^th, 2008

1:30 - 3:30pm

280H York Lanes  

 More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

Seminarios RedLEIDH Seminars present

The voice of native women in Colombia

with

Daris Cristancho

One of the few women leaders to serve on the community’s tribal council, she represents the U’wa people of the Colombian Departments of Boyaca, Arauca, Norte Santander, Santander, and Casanare.

Daris’s community organizing skills were poignantly represented in 2001 when she led a 6-month peaceful roadblock in response to a violent eviction of U’wa families carried out by the Colombian army, which was favouring the attempts of US-based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) to begin drilling on U’wa ancestral land.

She speaks first-hand on how the U'wa struggles are grounded in the spiritual strength which comes from their land, Kajka Ika, the heart of the world. Grounded in the heritage of a long line of medicine women, Cristancho speaks about the interrelations between putting her life on the line for her community and her daily struggles and joys of being a woman, a grassroots leader and a mother.

Wednesday, February 6th

2:00-4:00pm

Room 390 York Lanes

York University

Daris es una de las pocas mujeres indígenas dirigentes del pueblo U’wa de los Departamentos Boyaca, Arauca, Norte Santander, Santander y Cazanare de Colombia.

Daris es una infatigable luchadora, imbuida de una profunda fuerza espiritual basada en su conexión con la tierra Kajka Ika, el corazon del mundo.

Daris Cristancho es un ejemplo de lucha y compromiso con su pueblo, y de las dificultades experimentadas por las mujeres que deben balancear sus vidas como dirigentes y madres.

The Latin American Human Rights Research and Education Network (known by its Spanish acronym “RedLEIDH”) is a six-year CIDA-funded Project coordinated jointly by CERLAC and Osgoode Hall Law School. In addition to York University the other founding members of the network include the Association of Jesuit Universities in Latin America (AUSJAL); the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), based in Argentina; the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights (IIDH) with its headquarters in San José, Costa Rica; and the Latin American Institute for Alternative Legal Services (ILSA), based in Bogotá, Colombia.

UCGS and CERLAC present

Neoliberal Oligarchs:

Central American Power Structures After the Wars

Organizer: Simon Granovsky-Larsen (PhD Candidate, York)

Chair: Liisa L. North (Professor Emeritus, Political Science, York)

Panelists:

Simon Granovsky-Larsen, “Retrenchment, Regression: Guatemalan Elites and the Neoliberal Peace” and

Carlos Velasquez (PhD Candidate, York), “The Reconstituted Salvadoran Oligarchy: Finance, Import-Based ‘Growth’ and the Remittance Economy”

Central American nations have long been under the political and economic control of small sectors of powerful local elites, the oligarchic networks whose disproportionate command of resources has maintained a system of inequality for centuries.  Following the period of revolutions, civil war, and military rule that characterized most of the region from the 1970s through 1990s, however, Central American elites have struggled to reassert their traditional power while maneuvering changes in the global political economy and confronting new influential actors.  The panel will discuss the interaction of neoliberal policies and local political and economic structures in an attempt to map out the new lines of dominant power in post-war Central America.

Wednesday, January 30th

2:30-4:30 pm

Room 305 York Lanes

York University

 More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

A Roundtable with

Richard Roman (former Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto)
Thomas Marois (PhD candidate in Political Science)
Hepzibah Munoz Martinez (PhD candidate in Political Science)
Alejandro Alvarez Bejar (Professor of Economics, UNAM, Mexico)
 

Friday, January 11
2:30 pm
Room 305 York Lanes
York University, Toronto
 

This event is part of the Seminar Series in Comparative Political Economy, and is co-hosted by the Colloquium on the Global South and the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) at York.

CERLAC presents a brown bag seminar

How to Present a Conference Paper

with Judy Hellman

Professor of Political Science, Social and Political Thought, International Development Studies and Women’s Studies, York University

Professor Judy Hellman will run a workshop for

graduate students on how to present a conference paper.

Don't miss this great opportunity to learn how to prepare an engaging presentation of your work.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

2:30-4:30

305 York Lanes

Light refreshments will be served - all are welcome!

 More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, (416) 736-2100 ext. 88705

CERLAC presents an information session on

Funding Opportunities

for graduate research and study in Latin America and the Caribbean

Representatives from CERLAC and York International will provide information on a number of available funds, and graduate students who have received funding will be available to answer your questions.

To view the funding opportunities presented at this information session click here

Tuesday, Nov. 27
2:30pm
280 York Lanes
 

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.2100 ext. 88705
 

CANCELLED

CERLAC presents

Conflict and the State of Law in Colombia:

Defending Human Rights

with Miguel Angel Gonzalez   Secretary General of the Colombian Association of Democratic Lawyers
moderator: nchamah miller PhD candidate, Political Science

CANCELLED

 Monday, November 19

2:30 – 4:30 pm

305 York Lanes

York University

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

Sponsored and/or endorsed by: CERLAC, York University; Political Science Department, York University; New Socialists; Centre for Social Concerns, King's University College, UWO; Centre for Studies in Social Justice, University of Windsor; Fensuagro Solidarity Committee - Ontario & BC; Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association (LACASA); National Farmers Union; OSSTF, District 12; OSSTF, Human Rights Committee; Socialist Project; Windsor Peace Coalition; Young Communist League, York University

CERLAC and the Department of Sociology present

Canada-US-Mexico Integration:

Do Transnational Networks Lead to

Health Policy and Health Service Convergence?

with

Nielan Barnes

Fullbright Scholar and

 Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University at Long Beach

More than ten years post-NAFTA, the US, Mexico and Canada face many challenges providing and coordinating health care for its mobile transnational populations— migrants, immigrants and border residents.  Trade agreements such as NAFTA have neglected to consider how mobility of capital, goods and labour may affect the health of transnational migrants and border populations.  This discussion explores the problem of “migrant and immigrant health” by examining the possibilities for the trilateral convergence of migrant/immigrant health policies and programs between Canada, the US and Mexico.  The discussion will include the investigation of two primary research questions:

1) What is the current state of health policy (dis)agreement between the three States?

2) And how do civil society actors work with (or around) existing state policies and programs to provide health advocacy and services for migrants and immigrants?

Thursday, November 15

280 York Lanes

4-6pm

Nielan Barnes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at California State University.  She currently holds the Fullbright Scholarship for the Canada-Mexico Joint Award in North American Studies.  Nielan’s research focuses on transnational networks and health policy, with a focus on AIDS NGOs and community-based organizations in Mexico.  She is also currently investigating the transnational dimensions of youth gangs in Central America, Mexico and the United States.

This event is sponsored by CERLAC and the Department of Sociology

More info: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

CERLAC and the Brazil Studies Seminar present a brown bag seminar

Critical Reflections on Popular Environmental Education in Marginalized Watershed Communities:

The case study of São Paulo

with

Claudia de Simone

MES Candidate, Environmental Studies

Using an anticolonial framework, Claudia will outline and present critical reflections on her work in environmental education during her field experience earlier this year with the Sister Watersheds project in Brazil.

Wednesday, November 14

HNES 142

12:30-2:30pm

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

CERLAC and LACS present

with

Franklin Knight

Tuesday, November 13 4:00 - 6:00pm Senate Chamber Ross Building N940 York University (map)
This event is free and open to the public

This talk will examine the multiple causal factors that coincided to erode support for the continued existence of the American slave systems during the nineteenth century indicating the unexceptional nature of the British deed. The lecture will cover the period between roughly 1770 and 1886.

View Professor Knight's entire lecture here.

See the PowerPoint presentation Professor Knight prepared for his presentation.

Sponsors: York's Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS)

Co-sponsors: The Ontario Bicentenary Commemorative Committee on the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, and York University's Harriet Tubman Institute, Division of Social Science, International Development Studies Program, Founders College, History Graduate Program, Department of History, York International and School of Social Sciences (Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies)

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

CERLAC presents a brown bag seminar

Elusive Democracy

Oligarchical Consolidation in Post-War El Salvador

with

Carlos Velásquez Carrillo

PhD Candidate, Political Science

Tuesday, November 6

390 York Lanes

12:30-2:30pm

Fifteen years after the signing of the peace accords, El Salvador has experienced the consolidation of an oligarchical socioeconomic system rooted in the post-1989 neoliberal program of privatization, dollarization, and liberalized trade.  The traditional oligarchy has reconstituted itself from an agrarian export-based class to an even more exclusive clique of business groups with family underpinnings based on financial activities and enormous concentration of capital and investment.  Moreover, the institutional framework of the country, allegedly in place to guarantee transparency and accountability, functions to enhance and protect the interests of this consolidated oligarchy. This process has simultaneously created an unproductive import-based terciary economy sustained by immigrant remittances and more poverty, unemployment, and forced migration for the majority of Salvadorans.

Carlos Velásquez Carrillo is a PhD candidate in Political Science at York University.  His areas of specialization include Central American political economy, international relations, and comparative and development politics.  His PhD dissertation will study the reconstitution of the Salvadoran oligarchy in the era of neoliberal reforms and the impacts of this process for El Salvador’s democratic aspirations, social justice, and integral economic development.

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

CERLAC, the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Stong College and the York Institute for Health Research, and the Health and Society Programme are pleased to present

Taking care of bodies:

Sport, physical education and health in the French West Indies

since the end of the 19^th century

with

Jacques Dumont

Thursday, November 1

3:00-5:00pm

2183 Vari Hall (History Common Room)

(note change of time and venue)

A history of the body is a new topic for the French West Indies. In spite of the importance of sports on these islands and numerous specific health problems, the politics around physical education and health have not been explored. The history of the body in FWI is connected to the long quest for French West Indians to be considered “fully-fledged French citizens.” Identity claims also begin here: at first a grounds for integration and assimilation, the body becomes a place to demand the right to be different. This talk will explore the links between sports, health and public hygiene using an interdisciplinary approach essential to the study of complex “creole societies.”

Jacques Dumont is an Assistant Professor at the University of the French West Indies and Guyana (UAG).  He holds a PhD in History and works in two research groups:  Archéologie, Industrielle, Histoire et Patrimoine and Adaptation au climate tropical, exercice et société, where he takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of sport and health in tropical climates and (post)colonial societies. He has published two books about the history of sports and youth movements in the French West Indies entitled Sport et Assimilation à al Guadeloupe (L'Harmattan, 2002) and Sport et Mouvements de Jeunesse à la Martinique, Le Temps des Pionnniers -années 1960 (L'Harmattan, 2006). He has also published several papers on physical education, conscription, and health policies in the 20th century. He is currently undertaking multidisciplinary collaborative research on health in the French West Indies and the Caribbean.

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

CERLAC presents a brown bag seminar

So You Want to be a Coolie Woman?:

The Negotiation of Cooliehood in

Janice Shinebourne’s The Last English Plantation

with   Tanita Muneshwar MA Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies       Tuesday, October 23, 2007 390 York Lanes 12:30-2:30pm

 

Janice Shinebourne’s The Last English Plantation is a central text in exploring the ‘mixed messages’ of British hegemonic culture as it comes into contact with other cultures, in this case, Guyanese.  Through the eyes of twelve-year-old June Lehall, the cultural instability of British Guiana is portrayed as June, a mixed Chinese and Indian girl living in a rural community, moves beyond childhood for Creolization, Christianity and the city.  As she matures into adolescence and embarks upon a new journey in education, June Lehall struggles with her cultural identity as inscribed by her cooliehood, which is uprooted not only by spatial negotiations and racial/cultural tensions, but especially through religious conflict. June must negotiate her ‘coolie’ identity in order to better understand herself, the community around her and the political situation of British Guiana that has brought drastic change to her life. 

Tanita Muneshwar is currently pursuing her Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies at York University.  Her areas of studies include: English, Women’s Studies and Social Political Thought.  For her MA thesis she is researching the roles of education, politics, culture and gender in the novels of contemporary Indo-Guyanese female authors.  The novels include: The Last English Plantation by Janice Shinebourne; A Silent Life by Ryhaan Shah; and Tomorrow is Another Day by Narmala Shewcharan.

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

York's History Department and CERLAC present

Sugar, Migration, and Oral History

in Twentieth-Century Cuba

Monday, October 22 12:00-1:30 History Dept Common Room Vari Hall 2183

with

Gillian McGillivray - Glendon College, York University

The Rise and Fall of Populism in Cuba: Sugar Workers and Cane Farmers at the Chaparra Sugarmill and Beyond, 1934-1959

and

José Abreu - Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba

(Holguín, Cuba)

Canary Islanders and Caribbean Immigrants

in Cuba’s Sugar Industry, 1900-1925

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Sponsored by the Vice-Presidents Research and Academic (York University), Glendon College Office of the Principal, York University Faculty of Arts History Department, Glendon College History Department, the Faculty of Graduate Studies History Program, CERLAC, LACS and the Glendon College Departments of Hispanic Studies and English.

The Jagan Lecture Series 2007 presents

A Caribbean Dialogue

with

Walton Look Lai

Recently retired Lecturer in the History Department of the

University of the West Indies in Trinidad

Saturday, October 20, 2007

7:30pm - 9:30pm

Vanier Lecture Hall, 135 Vanier

York University (map)

This is the seventh annual Jagan Lecture, commemorating the life and vision of the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, Caribbean thinker, politician, and political visionary.

 The Jagan Lecture Series is co-organized by CERLAC, York International and the Jagan Lectures Planning Committee.

Venezuela and 21^st Century Socialism

with Diana Raby,

discussing her new book

Democracy and Revolution

Oct. 9, 2007

2:30pm – 4:30pm

280 York Lanes

Is socialism dead since the fall of the Soviet Union? What is the way forward for the Left? In Democracy and Revolution Raby argues that Cuba and above all Venezuela provide inspiration for anti-globalisation and anti-capitalist move­ments across the world. Another World Is Possible, but only through an effective political strategy to win power on a popular and democratic basis.

Raby argues passionately that the way forward for progressives is not to be found in the dogmatic formulae of the Old Left, nor in the spontaneous autonomism of John Holloway or Tony Negri. Instead, it is to be found in new, broad and flexible popular movements with bold and determined leadership.

Examining the relationship of key leaders to their people, including Hugo Chávez and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Raby shows that it is more necessary than ever to take power, peacefully where possible, but in all cases with the strength that comes from popular unity backed by force where necessary. In this way it is possible to build democratic power, which may or may not be socialist depending on one’s definition, but which represent the real anti-capitalist alternative for the twenty-first century.

Diana Raby is Senior Research Fellow at the Research Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool (UK) and also holds the rank of Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, University of Toronto, where she taught for many years. She is the author of numerous academic publications on populism, popular movements and revolution, with reference particularly to Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and Portugal. Diana has also long been active in solidarity movements and progressive political causes in both Canada and the UK.

For more information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

Black identity and race quota policies in Brazil

Wed. Oct. 3, 2007

12 noon - 2pm

280 York Lanes

Gislene is a Professor at University of Sao Paulo (West Campus) where she teaches Societies, Multiculturalism, Rights and Public Policy. She is the author of several books such as Black Woman, White Men: A brief study of the Black Feminine  and The Invention of “Being  Black” : The trajectory of ideas that naturalized the inferiority of Blacks.

Co-sponsors: CERLAC, FES, VPRI

YORK GRAD STUDENTS

You are invited to a

Come to learn more about CERLAC and

how you can become involved in our activities. 

Meet faculty and other grad students working on

Latin American and Caribbean issues.

There will be information on our graduate diploma program, essay prize,

documentation centre, events, publications and funding opportunities

We also want to hear about how we can best support you

and the activities you would like to see!

Thursday, September 20

2pm – 4pm

430 Student Centre (GSA Lounge)

and then... please join us after the orientation

at our annual social gathering -

all are welcome!

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

Please join us at our annual welcome event to start off the school year

and meet with new and old friends and colleagues.

All are welcome!

CERLAC social gathering

Thursday, Sept. 20
4pm-6pm
CERLAC, 240 York Lanes
 

Graduate students are invited to come to the orientation at 2pm, before the reception, to learn more about CERLAC and how you can become involved.

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

CERLAC is proud to present

Social Economy as an Alternative to Globalization

with

Rosa García Corado

Alianza por la Vida y la Paz, Guatemala

Rosa García Corado is a member of the Alianza por la Vida y la Paz, a coalition of social and popular organizations, indigenous and ladino women and men from Petén, Guatemala. The Alianza strives for respect for life and peace, and fights against economic, social, cultural, and political exploitation and exclusion. During the past years, the Alianza has centred its efforts on building a People’s economy network, as a counter-proposal to the destructive neo-liberal policies being implemented in the region. This is a real challenge and a process which has led them to constantly analyze the local, national and international market economy, and to define their own alternatives at the community and organizational level.

 

Rosa will speak on how women participate in alternative economic projects such as cooperatives and community based initiatives as a means of building empowerment for women in the social economy.

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September 17, 2007

2:30pm - 4:00pm

305 York Lanes

York University, Toronto

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For more information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

CERLAC, Humanities, and LACS are proud to present

with panel presentations on

Garvey, Rodney, Marley: Pan-Africanism in Cuba

by Samuel Furé Davis
Professor of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Havana
 

and

Higher Education, Local Development,

and the Environment in Cuba

by Javier Gilberto Cabrera Trimiño
Professor, Centre of Demographic Studies (CEDEM), University of Havana

Wednesday, September 12th
3:00pm - 4:30pm
390 York Lanes

Samuel Furé Davis is a professor of English in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Havana. Dr. Furé’s research focuses on the Anglophone Caribbean influence in Cuba, including Garveyism, Rastafari, Reggae and Dub Poetry. A contributor to the CERLAC-based Caribbean Religions Project, he has published articles and a book, Cantos de resistencia, on Pan-Africanism and youth culture in Cuba.

 

Javier Gilberto Cabrera Trimiño is a professor in the Centre of Demographic Studies (CEDEM) at the University of Havana. He coordinates the Environment Network in Cuba’s Ministry of Higher Education, is head of the Population, Environment and Development Group at CEDEM, and vice-president of Caribbean Studies at the University of Havana. He has published and advised extensively on local management, community development and environmental education.

 

More information: cerlac@yorku.ca, 416.736.5237

Dear friends and colleagues -

You are cordially invited to a reception for

VIVIANA PATRONI

in appreciation of her contributions as the Director of

CERLAC

Please join us for food, drink and friendly celebration

(cash bar available)

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

4:00pm – 6:00pm

Founders College Senior Common Room, 305

York University

Please RSVP by September 5 to cerlac@yorku.ca