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New England Council of Latin
American Studies
2016 Annual Meeting
Saturday November 12, 2016
Trinity College
Hartford, CT
On our 46th anniversary, this coming November 14, we celebrate the innumerable
contributions that NECLAS members and friends continue to make to research and
teaching, and to the exchange of ideas and initiatives to advance our NECLAS goals.
Now, we are proud to present the 2016 Annual Meeting at Trinity College organized in
collaboration with El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies
at the University of Connecticut. The meeting is a wonderful opportunity for experts,
scholars, students and community representatives from a wide range of disciplinary
backgrounds to discuss their work. I thank the Executive Committee, the chairs and
members of the Prize committees, our colleagues Eric Galm (Trinity College) and Mark
Overmyer-Velázquez (University of Connecticut) as well as the NECLAS Secretariat who
make NECLAS vibrant and meaningful. It was a privilege and an honor to serve as
NECLAS President in 2015-2016. I wish you all a very productive conference!
Un abrazo,
Maria Amparo Cruz-Saco
Joanne Toor Cummings '50 Professor of Economics
Connecticut College
The NECLAS mission is to foster and develop interests in Latin American studies by scholars, researchers,
teachers, students, and the general public primarily located in the New England region, to encourage more
effective training, teaching and research in Latin American affairs, and to facilitate greater exchanges within
the region of information and ideas through lectures, forum, seminars, conferences, and publications.
Cover: EZILI. Beaded Flag from the Edith A. Graham Collection of Haitian Art, Trinity College. Photo
courtesy of Pablo Delano.
Please visit the artwork and rare book exhibition on the second floor of Mather Hall courtesy of the Edith A.
Graham Collection of Haitian Art, and the Watkinson Library.
8:00 – 9:30
Registration
Washington Room – Mather Hall
Continental Breakfast
Washington Room – Mather Hall
Session One: 9:30 – 11:00
PANEL 1.1 – Transnational Constructions of Images and Meaning
Alumni Lounge – Mather Hall
Chair: Rosario Hubert, Trinity College
Cultural Diplomats in the People’s Republic of China
Rosario Hubert, Trinity College
Frontera, identidad y nación en las tres mitades de Ino Moxo de César Calvo
Cinthya Torres, Boston College
Rufino blanco fombona: Escritura y silencio
Ángela Martin Pérez, University of Connecticut
PANEL 1.2 – Politics and Policy in (Post)-Neoliberal Latin America
Rittenberg Lounge – Mather Hall
Chair: Kenneth Erickson, Hunter College, CUNY
The Scope and Limitations of Postneoliberal Policy Experimentation in Argentina
Ruth Felder, State University of New York at Albany
Radical Leftist or Rentier Populist? Ecuador and Venezuela in Comparative
Perspective
Paul Posner, Clark University
Why Do Latin American New-Left Governments Use Distinct Exchange Rate Regimes?
A Study of Venezuela and Brazil from 1999-2014
James Suggett, City College of New York
PANEL 1.3 – Modern Mexican Narratives
Terrace Room B – Mather Hall
Chair: Pedro Lasarte, Boston University
Juan Rulfo: Mexico’s Hybrid Composition of Past and Present
Pedro Lasarte, Boston University
México y la muerte: Aproximaciones a una narrativa contemporánea sobre la violencia
Diana Aldrete, Trinity College
PANEL 1.4 – Búsqueda de nuevos lenguajes en cine contemporáneo: La renovación
estética de la interpelación política
Terrace Room C – Mather Hall
Chair: Lori Hopkins, University of New Hampshire
Representaciones y excesos de la naturaleza/(paisaje) versus lo monsturoso/(humano)
en "Wakolda" de Lucía Puenzo
Lori Hopkins, University of New Hampshire
La evolución estética de Patricio Guzmán: Del cine militante a la estética de
indagación cósmica
Ignacio López-Vicuña, University of Vermont
Patricio Guzmán y El botón de azúcar: la ecología y el postcolonialismo en la
Patagonia chilena
María Alessandra Woolson, University of Vermont
PANEL 1.5 – Colonial Caribbean Identities
The Dangremond Family Commons – Hallden Hall
Chair: Cynthia L. Stone, College of the Holy Cross
Demonic Necrophilia and Necromancy in the Hispaniola: The World of the Dead in Fray
Ramón Pané’s Relación acerca de las antigüedades de los indios (1493-1496)
Jorge Abril Sánchez, University of New Hampshire – Durham
Mito e historia en la biografía de Ismael Rivera, un ícono afrocaribeño
Rosa Elena Carrasquillo, College of the Holy Cross
¿Así Somos?: From Echoes of the Old Colony to Reclamations of Power in
Contemporary Puerto Rican Visual Art
Pablo Delano, Trinity College
PANEL 1.6 – National Politics and the Environment in Twentieth-Century Brazil
Seabury Hall 129
Chair: Christina Mehrtens, University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth
The Politics National Park Creation in Brazil
Grant Burrier, Curry College
Indigenous Resistance to Hydroelectric Projects in the Tapajós Valley, Amazonia
Jeremy Campbell, Roger Williams University
Building Belo Horizonte: City, Space, and Race in the Pursuit of Modernity in Minas
Gerais, Brazil, 1889-1898
Daniel McDonald, Brown University
PANEL 1.7 – Sustainability in Teaching, Research, and the Liberal Arts
Seabury Hall 130
Chair: Julia Kushigian, Connecticut College
Sustainability and Ecofeminist Memory: Scientific and Cultural Discourse in Patricio
Guzman’s “Nostalgia de la luz”
Julia Kushigian, Connecticut College
Embedding Local and Global Engagement in History Classes: Peru, Mexico, and Cuba
Leo Garofalo, Connecticut College
Re-Imagining Latin@ ‘Food Deserts’: Food Security and Justice in Urban New England
Abigail Adams, CCSU
Sustainability of Partnerships: Supporting the Migrant Community Locally and
Globally
Joyce Bennett, Connecticut College, Mike Doyle, IASC, and Margie Giacalone, Connecticut
College
11:00 – 11:30
Coffee Break
Second Floor of Mather Hall
Session Two: 11:30 – 12:55
PANEL 2.1 – Political Philosophies and Latin American Realities: Cuba, Venezuela, and
the Dominican Republic
Alumni Lounge – Mather Hall
Chair: Kenneth Erickson, Hunter College, CUNY
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao's Paradoxical Pedagogy: Epic and Novel, Voice
and Text
Dina Rivera, University of Connecticut
Incertidumbres bolivarianas entre el legislador ilustrado y el césar democrático
Marco Cupolo, University of Hartford
El uso de la filosofía en la elaboración del proyecto nacional Cubano
Jose Aguilera, University of Cordoba
PANEL 2.2 – New Caribbean Studies Initiatives
Rittenberg Lounge – Mather Hall
Chair: Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, University of Connecticut
Melina Pappademos, University of Connecticut
Fiona Vernal, University of Connecticut
Darío Euraque, Trinity College
Leslie Desmangles, Trinity College
PANEL 2.3 – Perspectivas de Jorge Luis Borges y Macedonio Fernández
Terrace Room B – Mather Hall
Chair: Amir Effat, Boston University
Un estudio de la intertextualidad y el mito del héroe guachesco en “La noche de los
dones” y “El indigno”
Amir Effat, Boston University
1001 Palermo Nights: how the 1001 Nights dissolves the barrier between fiction and
reality in the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges
Philip Noonan, Boston University
El mea culpa borgiano
Mike Vinces, Boston University
Entre “el soñador” y “el soñado”: el Quijote en la poesía de Jorge Luis Borges.
Paloma Pueyo Sahún, Boston University
PANEL 2.4 – Nacional, Regional y Global: Tendencias Recientes en el Cine
Latinoamericano
Terrace Room C – Mather Hall
Chair: Gina Canepa, Independent Scholar, National Coalition of Independent Scholars
(NCIS)
“El Pejesapo” de Carolina Adriazola y José Luis Sepúlveda: La Marginalidad como
Representación Revisitada
Gina Canepa, Independent Scholar, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS)
Documental y riesgo. Ironía como realización estética del duelo en Los rubios de
Albertina Carri
Ana Sofia Negri Villamil, McGill University
Cine y novela urbanos de México: Memorias de la revolución Mexicana
Thomas Morin, University of Rhode Island
Otras memorias, otras resistencias al quiebre democrático: Tres documentales
Uruguayos post-dictadura
Elizabeth Rivero, U.S. Coast Guard Academy
PANEL 2.5 – Imágenes de violencia: la producción cultural en tiempos de crisis
The Dangremond Family Commons – Hallden Hall
Chair: Anne Lambright, Trinity College
Graphic Narratives of Political Violence in Post-Shining Path Peru
Anne Lambright, Trinity College
Arte y crisis en Puerto Rico: el Manual del bestiario doméstico de Las Nietas de Nonó
Aníbal González, Yale University
Teo- y narco-logías: Los mercaderes del templo en El narco negocia con Dios de
Sabina Berman
Priscilla Meléndez, Trinity College
PANEL 2.6 – ROUND TABLE: Heritage Politics and Latin American Perspectives
Seabury Hall 129
Co-chairs: Kimberly Berg and Walter Little, State University of New York at Albany
A Tale of Two Heritages: Insiders and Outsiders in the Heritage Network
Kimberly Berg, State University of New York at Albany
Antigua, Guatemala: Heritage Politics
Walter Little, State University of New York at Albany
Round Table Participants:
Cruise Ship Tourism and Heritage Sanitation in the Riviera Maya
Christine Preble, State University of New York at Albany
Deporte es Cultura: A Case for Theorizing Sport as Culture
Bernardo Ramirez Rios, Skidmore College
Coffee, Culture and Heritage: Brief Observations at the Puerto Rico Chocolate & Coffee
Expo
Joseph Torres-González, State University of New York at Albany
PANEL 2.7 – Ethical Dilemmas in Feminist Research
Seabury Hall 130
Chair: Ruth Hernandez, University of Connecticut
Forging Transnational Social Movements through Feminist Praxis: Ethical Dilemmas
and Methodological Considerations
Ruth Hernandez, University of Connecticut
Negotiating Ethical Research Entry: A Revisiting of Feminist Praxis
Cristina Khan, University of Connecticut
1:00 – 2:30
Lunch and Prize Ceremony
Washington Room – Mather Hall
Session Three: 2:45 – 4:15
PANEL 3.1 – Catalysts of Creation in Borges
Alumni Lounge – Mather Hall
Chair: Janelle Gondar, Yale University
Jorge Luis Borges – Author of Santiago Dabove
Janelle Gondar, Yale University
Centrality and Circulation in “El Sur”
Pelin Kivrak, Yale University
El origen del aleph de Jorge Luis Borges: La greguería de Ramón Gómez de la Serna
Diego Del Río Arrillaga, Yale University
PANEL 3.2 – Challenges of Social Protection Systems: Migrants, Domestic Servants,
Independent Workers
Rittenberg Lounge – Mather Hall
Chair: Mónika López-Anuarbe, Connecticut College
Political Competition and Benefit Generosity in Latin American Social Policy
Gabriela Tafoya, University of Connecticut
Structural Issues Affecting Social Protection Coverage in Peru
Maria Amparo Cruz-Saco, Connecticut College
Running in Place: An Analysis of the Social and Labor Status of Paid Domestic
Workers in Peru
Leda Perez, Universidad del Pacífico – Lima
PANEL 3.3 – Spatial Movements in Puerto Rican / Latin@ Studies
Terrace Room B – Mather Hall
Chair: Angel López-Santiago, Hunter College, CUNY
The Geography of Bernardo Vega’s Memoirs
Angel López-Santiago, Hunter College, CUNY
“The Geography of Their Complexion”: Nuyorican Poetry and Its Legacies
Urayoán Noel, New York University
Geolocal Hazard: Mapping the Puerto Rican Left in New York City, 1936-1954
Lena Burgos-Lafuente, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Discussant: Wilson Valentín-Escobar, Hampshire College
PANEL 3.4 – Inequalities in Education: Dimensions of Race and Class in Puerto Rico,
Cuba, and the Continental U.S.
Terrace Room C – Mather Hall
Chair: Joy Renjilian-Burgy, Wellesley College
Black Teachers and School Segregation in Mid-Nineteenth Century Cuba
Raquel Otheguy, Southern Connecticut State University
Over-Tested Generation: Youth and Standardized State Testing in a Racialized
Education Context
Ana Campos-Holland, Grace Hall and Gina Pol, Connecticut College
PANEL 3.5 – Language, Land and Political Parties in Latin America
The Dangremond Family Commons – Hallden Hall
Chair: Patricia Olney, Southern Connecticut State University
Mexico’s No Party System Revisited: “El Bronco” v. Democratic Institutionalization
Patricia Olney, Southern Connecticut State University
Bolivian Quechua Politics
Margarita Huayhua, University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth
PANEL 3.6 – Latino Spaces in New England
Seabury Hall 129
Chair: Maria Acosta Cruz, Clark University
Strategic personalism and the Political Economy of Migrant Farmwork in Connecticut
Jennifer Cook, University of Connecticut
PANEL 3.7 – From Animal Power to Battery Power: Energy and Environment in Latin
America
Seabury Hall 130
Chair: Mark Healey, University of Connecticut
The Environmental Movement and The Oil Industry in Brazil
Maria Rodrigues, College of the Holy Cross
Modernization and The Changing Perceptions of Animals in Bogota, Colombia, 1960 to
the Present
Jane Rausch, University of Massachusetts – Amherst
The Battery Business: Lithium Availability and The Growth of The Global Electric Car
Industry
Tom Narins, University at Albany
PANEL 3.8 – Politics of Memory & Human Rights Reconciliation
Seabury Hall 128
Chair: Kristin Sorensen, Bentley University
Human Rights and Historical Memory in Northern Chile: Cycles of Violence and
Forgetting
Kristin Sorensen, Bentley University
Practices of Truth Telling: Passages of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation
Commission from The Perspective of a Cultural Discourse Analysis
Luisa-Maria Rojas-Rimachi, University of Rochester
4:15 – 6:00
Samba Hour
Washington Room – Mather Hall
Led by Eric Galm and the Trinity Samba Ensemble
All are welcome to participate!
NECLAS Executive Committee (2015 - 2016)
President: Maria Amparo Cruz-Saco, Connecticut College
Vice President: Maria Rodrigues, College of the Holy Cross
Secretary-Treasurer: Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, University of Connecticut
Assistant Secretary-Treasurer: David Scott Palmer, Boston University
Past President: David Carey Jr., Loyola
Robert S. Alegre, University of New England
Katrina Burgess, Tufts University
Maria Acosta Cruz, Tufts University
Leo J. Garofalo, Connecticut College
Lori Hopkins, University of New Hampshire
Mark Healey, University of Connecticut
Pedro Lasarte, Boston University
Renata Keller, Boston University
Agustín Laó-Montes, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Eva Paus, Mount Holyoke College
Louise E. Walker, Northeastern University
Ex-Officio Members:
Gina Canepa, Independent Scholar, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS)
Kenneth P. Erickson, Hunter College, CUNY
Joy Renjilian-Burgy, Wellesley College
Special thanks to:
Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Timothy Cresswell, Sonia Cardenas, Pablo Delano, Leslie Desmangles, Darío
Euraque, Megan Fitzsimmons, Erica Paine, Richard Ring, Christina White, Rosario Hubert, Anne
Lambright
Local Arrangements Coordinators: Eric Galm (Trinity College) and Mark Overmyer-Velázquez
(University of Connecticut)
Local Arrangements Administrative Support: Anne Theriault and Katie Quinn (University of
Connecticut)