Tulane University

Equity Thursdays Series to host talk on racism and immigration in the U.S.

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On Thursday, October 18, join the Community Engagement Advocates, the Tulane University Center for Public Service and the Office of Multicultural Affairs for a talk titled Racism & Immigration in The US as part of the Equity Thursday series.

The conversation around immigration in the United States is arguably as pertinent right now as any time in U.S. history. And yet, immigration has been a constant theme and thread throughout U.S. history, from colonization of indigenous lands, to Westward expansion and “Manifest Destiny”, to the notion of a “Melting Pot.” And while we may learn about certain events in school and popular culture, how much do we really know about the history of racism and immigration? How do these histories connect with and influence our experiences today? How did immigration policies shape how we got here?

We invite participants to join us as we walk together through an Incomplete Timeline of Racism and Immigration, followed by a dialogue.
Lunch will be provided!

For more information and to register, visit OrgSync.

Equity Thursdays offer weekly presentations by members of the Tulane University community and invited guests from Greater New Orleans. Faculty, Students, Staff, Alumni and Friends share information regarding topics of academic access. The sessions discuss cutting edge research, distinctive academic opportunities and offer a forum for reflection on the intersection of identity and the academic experience. Students, faculty, and staff are welcome to participate in Equity Thursdays and join the Center for Academic Equity community.

Medical anthropologist Dr. Torres-Velez to present research on responses to environmental and public health changes in Puerto Rico

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Join the Office of Research at Tulane University in welcoming Dr. Víctor M. Torres-Velez, who will be presenting in his research in a talk titled, Racializing Space: the Enviro-embodied Poetics of Bare Life in the Age of Neoliberalism on Thursday, October 18.

Dr. Torres-Velez received his bachelors from the University of Puerto Rico (1996) and his Masters (2003) and Ph.D. (2007) from Michigan State University. He is currently affiliated with the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at City University of New York. He is a critical medical anthropologist by training, who specializes in gender, justice and environmental change. Dr. Torres-Vélez’ interdisciplinary theoretical expertise and interests are diverse. Some of these include: political ecology, development theories, theories of social change, transnationalism, science and technology studies, visual anthropology and contemporary and classical theory. Dr. Torres-Vélez’ regional focus is Latin America and the Caribbean, with an emphasis in Puerto Rico. Dr. Torres-Vélez’ research explores people’s responses to drastic environmental and public health changes. Particularly, how people make sense of health problems in contexts environmental pollution and widespread chronic diseases. His emphasis on embodied meaning-making practices is used to decipher the triggers behind the emergence of environmental social movements. His more recent work focuses on the racialized spaces of capital as related to some of the cause(s) and consequential impacts of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico. While Dr. Torres-Vélez’ research in Vieques, Puerto Rico, contributes to Puerto Rican and Latin American studies in particular, his research insights provider a broader illustration of similar processes that affect people and places globally.

CIPR post-doctoral fellow Christopher Chambers-Ju to present on labor politics and teacher mobilization in Latin America

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Tulane University’s department of Political Science in association with the Murphy Institute and the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research is proud to begin the 2018-19 Political Science Seminar series with a presentation by Christopher Chambers-Ju titled, Varieties of Labor Politics: Teacher Mobilization in Latin America on Friday, October 19.

Dr. Christopher Chambers-Ju received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. His research examines the politics of education through a focus on teachers’ unions. Studying the cases of Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, he examines why some teachers take to the streets while others form an organized voting bloc, with distinct relationships to political parties. By focusing on teachers, Christopher seeks to shed light on broader dynamics of education policy-making and political change in contemporary Latin America. Dr. Chambers-Ju is currently a post-doctoral fellow with the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research.

9th Annual South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica

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The 9th annual South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica will be hosted by the University of Texas San Antonio and the San Antonio Museum of Art on October 19 through October 21, 2018. The South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica is a regional conference that provides a venue to bring together scholars in the fields of archaeology, ethnography, art history, and others, as well as the general public, to share information and interpretations on current research focused on the cultures of the Mesoamerican region.

The keynote address will be given by Dr. Vera Tiesler, who has been a research professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico for nearly 20 years. Her academic interest lies in illuminating the human conditions of the Maya and of past society, by correlating data gleaned from human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts with information from other material and documentation. In her keynote address Ancient Maya Life, Death, and Identities: A View from Yaxuná, Yucatan, Mexico, Dr. Tiesler will discuss perceptions of life and death of the Yucatecan Maya prior to and during the rise of the ancient city of Chichén Itzá. This northern cultural arena is poorly understood compared to other regions of the Maya kingdoms. Tiesler anchors her explorations of ancient Northern Maya Lowlanders through examinations of the burial population at Yaxuná, another ancient urban center located in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula and connected to Chichén Itzá by a causeway. The human remains unearthed during excavations provide valuable insight into everyday life, evolving social roles, collective identities, and manners of death experienced by Yucatec Maya. To reveal these mysteries, Tiesler combines several approaches, including bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, and artifact-based iconography. Her discussion will address the fate of individuals and neighborhoods, the regional trajectory that resulted in Yaxuná‘s rise, and then, ultimately, the city’s abandonment. She will conclude with thoughts on the advent of Chichén Itzá‘s political networks and what was perceived as a new cosmic era for the Maya.

During her career, Dr. Tiesler has conducted work on some 250 Maya burials. Her publications discuss living conditions and lifestyle among Maya social classes, social aspects of age and gender, physical appearance and body enhancement, violence, sacrifice, and ancestor veneration. Dr. Tiesler recently published her findings from Yaxuná in the book Before Kukulkán: Bioarchaeology of Maya Life, Death, and Identity at Classic Period Yaxuná (University of Arizona Press).

All conference events will be held at the San Antonio Museum of Art. The conference is free and open to the public.

To receive updates about the conference meeting, please sign up for the mailing list.

Registration for the 9th Annual South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica is now open. To register please fill out the registration form.

Schedule of Events

Friday, October 19
Keynote Address
Ancient Maya Life, Death, and Identities: A View from Yaxuná, Yucatan, Mexico
Dr. Vera Tiesler

Saturday, October 21
Screening of Out of the Maya Tombs
Panel Discussion lead by David Lebrun, Michelle Rich, and Jason Yaeger

Saturday October 20 – Sunday, October 21
Paper Presentations

CIPR talk series Critical Issues in Democratic Governance to host political scienctist Victor Menaldo

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Join the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies in welcoming Dr. Victor Menaldo as part of the fall speaker series Critical Issues in Democratic Governance, on Friday, October 26, in 110A Jones Hall. Dr. Victor Menaldo will give a talk titled Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy.

Victor Menaldo (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2009) is an associate professor of Political Science at University of Washington and an affiliated faculty of the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS), Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Center for Environmental Politics. Dr. Menaldo specializes in comparative politics and political economy. Menaldo’s research focuses on the political economy of taxation and redistribution, the political economy of regulation, the political economy of regime change, and the political economy of natural resources.

The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to cipr@tulane.edu.

Outgoing authoritarian rulers sometimes design democratic institutions in ways that preserve their political and economic advantages. For example, over two-thirds of countries that have transitioned to democracy since World War II have done so under constitutions written by the outgoing authoritarian regime. This lecture will examine the reasons behind this phenomenon, as well as how different types of political power and economic resources in a society following democratization. Not only do these disparate origins determines polities’ basic architecture, the rights of citizens, and how representative and inclusive the political system becomes, but also has a big impact on the size of future governments and their commitments to social justice and egalitarianism. Statistical analysis and case studies of Chile, Sweden, and several other countries show why some democratic transitions yield unequal political representation and rights for citizens.

Celebrate Caribbean culture and heritage during Caribbean Carnival of New Orleans

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Bayou Bacchanal, the original Caribbean Carnival of New Orleans, is back for its 16th annual celebration of Caribbean culture and heritage. Presented by Friends of Culture, Bayou Bacchanal will include two days of Caribbean cuisine, dance, music and celebration.

World Wide Dance
Beginning Friday, November 2 stop by the newly-opened, Algiers based, Haitian restaurant Rendezvous, for World Wide Dance. This late-night dance party begins at 10:00 p.m. and doesn’t end until the final dancer clears the floor. Enjoy live sets by locally and regionally based, Trinidadian DJ Phil and DJ Spice. Admission is $10 in advance and $12 at the door and includes access to the World Wide Dance celebration. A cash bar and bites from Rendezvous will be available for purchase.

Bayou Bacchanal Parade and Party
After an evening of dancing and celebrating, rest up for the annual Bayou Bacchanal Parade on Saturday, November 3. Assembly begins at 11:00 a.m. and the parade takes off at noon from Harrah’s. Parade-goers are welcome to come dressed in traditional carnival attire while engaging, marching and dancing to the beats of Soca music along with Casa Samba throughout the French Quarter. The parade’s final destination will be at North Peters & Mandeville Street where the party will then transition to Crescent Park.

From 2:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. several Dancehall, Soca and Reggae performers will grace the Bayou Bacchanal stage for this daylong festival. Guests can expect live performances by local, national and international artists such as: Soca Artist Preacher, Pan Vibrations, Tigress of Trinidad & Tobago, and Mystic of Trinidad & Tobago.

Beats will be provided by DJ Spice and hosted by Lady Pepper. Authentic Caribbean foods, drinks and special merchandise will be available for purchase. Trini Lisa and Boswell’s will be among the official vendors for Bayou Bacchanal 2018. Fest-goers can expect Caribbean staples such as salt fish, curry goat and roti. Tropical drinks including ginger beer, passionfruit juice and Sorrel will also be available. Guests are also encouraged to dress in tradition Carnival attire for a chance to win a grand prize of $2000.

Admission to the Bayou Bacchanal fest is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. For more information on Bayou Bacchanal or Friend of Culture, visit their onsite information booth during the festival or click here.

Bayou Bacchanal Post Party
Closeout Bayou Bacchanal at Island Flavor Bar and Grill and enjoy tasty Caribbean bites, music and dancing. DJ Ray will be spinning beginning at 11:00 p.m. Celebrate the closing of Bayou Bacchanal with a bang!