Tulane University
K-12 Educators Become Cultural Anthropologists
September 10th, 2012
This past July ten educators travelled to Guatemala with archaeologist, Diane Davies and program manager Denise Woltering to learn more about the culture and history of the Maya. They returned after two weeks with new experiences and adventures to incorporate into a new curriculum they are developing for their students in classrooms across the country. Supported by funds through a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant, the Stone Center brought K-12 educators to Guatemala in order to update current teaching resources on the Maya and incorporate current social issues into classrooms. Our visit enabled us to prepare and learn more about the upcoming mystical date in the Bak’tun Maya long count calendar, December 21, 2012. While our group was meeting with local artists and visiting schools, another Tulane group was discovering an important reference to the Maya calendar, Director of the Middle American Research Institute, Marcello Canuto was also in Guatemala uncovering an important reference to the Maya calendar.
The educator group began their journey in Antigua and ended in Flores. Coffee plantations, local schools, and visits to the ruins of Iximche and Tikal were among the highlights of this trip. Educators explored important issues ranging from indigenous language preservation to ecological diversity and restoration. Each educator will submit their curriculum by January 2013 when they will be turned into an online curriculum for any educator to use on the Stone Center website [Click here to access other online curricula]. Check the site in the Spring 2013 to view the completed curricula! This February 21, 2013, the group will reunite for a special teacher workshop where they will share their curriculum and best practices for teaching on the Maya at the K-12 level. If you are interested in registering for the upcoming Maya Teacher Workshop, please check back for updated information.
Two of the educators in the group were funded in part by a Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs – CLASP National Resource Center Teacher Training Grant from the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Latin American Studies. Other educators in the group came from across Louisiana and throughout the United States. The trip was also supported with funds from the U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant to Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American studies.
- To view photos from this trip view the flickr site
- To explore more resources from the group website, click here
Denise Woltering-Vargas
Program Manager - SCLAS Latin American Resource Center
LATEST SITE UPDATES
EVENTS
- Rebel on PBS
- Rethinking State-Society Relations in Contemporary Latin America
- Dr. Manuel Alcántara: Politicians
- Singing for the Dead (in Cyberspace): Mazatec Music, On and Off Line
NEWS
- Feoli and MacKinnon's book on representation and effectiveness in Latin America published
- Graduate and Undergraduate Latin American Photo Contest 2013
- Stone Center hosts annual Awards Ceremony
- Carmelo Mesa presents on Raul Castro's reforms in Cuba
- CIPR Post-doctoral Fellow Jessica Rich Publishes Article in LAPS Journal
- Carmelo Mesa Lago discusses Pension Reform in Cuba
- Edesio Fernandes Presents on Informal Urban Land Development
- Marcello Canuto presents at blockbuster National Geographic conference in Guatemala
- Eduardo Silva's book on transnational activism and national movements published
- Tulane's Latin American Library welcomes the Melgar Collection
- Tulane represents Panama at Model Organization of American States
MEDIA
- Taco Trucks
- Futebol: Brazil's National Sport
- Exploring Tropicalia
- Regionalismo of Brazil
- Radio in Brazil
- Roots of Racism in Brazilian Education
- Carmelo Mesa Lago: The Return of the State to Privatized Pension Systems
- Carmelo Mesa Lago: Raul Castro's Economic and Social Reforms in Cuba
- Edésio Fernandes: Informal Urban Land Developme
- Paulo Affonso Leme Machado: A Reforma da legislaçao florestal no Brasil
Upcoming Events
Rethinking State-Society Relations in Contemporary Latin America
The emergence, crisis, and collapse of neoliberalism gave way to new types of political regimes that set themselves the task of redefining state-society relationships to promote more socially inclusive polities. The accomplishments and shortcomings of those processes need yet to be evaluated, particularly from an encompassing, historically-informed perspective that is not afraid of challenging established assumptions and mainstream understandings of Latin America to do justice to current developments. What are the continuities/ discontinuities in terms of state-society linkages that the various processes of change experienced since the return to democracy introduced in the Latin American landscape? Is Latin America moving towards a more democratic and inclusive society? What is the nature of the new patterns of state-society interaction? Have they drastically altered the legacy of populism, bureaucratic-authoritarianism, and neoliberalism?, in which specific ways? Are emerging regimes promoting new patterns of exclusion or novel forms of authoritarianism?
A group of scholars from different disciplines, country expertise drawn from Latin America, the US and Europe will meet on May 24th at Tulane University to debate empirically and theoretically informed articles that address these questions.
SCHEDULE
10:00 AM-10:15 AM – Introduction and welcoming
10:15 AM-10.45 AM – Justice and politics: the dialogic alternative by Roberto Gargarella
10:45 AM-11:15 AM – The political economy of post-neoliberal Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay development regimes by Christopher Wylde
11:15 AM-11:45 AM – The impact of taxes and social spending on inequality and poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru: a synthesis of results by Nora Lustig, George Gray-Molina, Sean Higgins, Miguel Jaramillo, Wilson Jiménez, Veronica Paz, Claudiney Pereira, Carola Pessino, John Scott, and Ernesto Yañez
12:00 PM -1:30 PM – LUNCH
1:45 PM -2:15 PM – Participatory developments and democratic representation in South America by Leonardo Avritzer and Enrique Peruzzotti
2:15 PM -2:45 PM – The second wave of incorporation and territorialized politics in Argentina and Brazil by Federico M. Rossi
2:45 PM -3:15 PM – Indigenous-state relations in Ecuador and Bolivia: challenges and opportunities by Roberta Rice
3:15 PM-3:30 PM – COFFEE BREAK
3:30 PM -4:00 PM – Gender, power, and women's political inclusion in Argentina and Chile by Susan Franceschet
4:00 PM -4:30 PM – Viral politics, the post-liberal imaginary and #Yosoy132 in Mexico by Benjamín Arditi
Rebel on PBS
Rebel is the story of Loreta Velazquez, a Confederate soldier turned Union spy. She was dismissed as a hoax for a hundred and fifty years, but new evidence shows Loreta, a Cuban immigrant from New Orleans, was one of an estimated 1000 secret women soldiers of the American Civil War.
María Aguí Carter is an Ecuadorean-American filmmaker who conducted research on the film Rebel as a Rockefeller Fellow at the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University in 2002-2003. The film was previewed on Tulane’s campus a few years ago. More on the film and its protagonist, Cuban-born, New Orleans-raised Loreta Velázquez here
The film will be screened on PBS stations at 9 PM.
Summer K-12 Teacher Institute - Exploring Brazil: A Window into the Language & Culture of a Country on the Rise
The University of Georgia, Tulane University, and Vanderbilt University will collaborate to offer a Summer Institute on Brazilian Culture and Portuguese Language. K-12 educators of any discipline and grade-level are welcome to apply to attend this 4 day institute. The goal of this institute is to encourage and promote the teaching of Portuguese and the culture of Brazil through film, literature, service learning, and technology in any K-12 classroom. The institute will focus on the language, history, and geography of Brazil. Sessions will include Portuguese language instruction and participants will explore the culture, history, and geography of Brazil. Film screenings and other presentations will be incorporated into the institute to highlight contemporary and engaging cultural content for the K-12 classroom. During the week, educators will work in teams to develop interdisciplinary units that address applicable state learning standards, which they will bring back to their schools to teach and share with colleagues. Educators may receive a certificate of completion for 20 hours of professional development if desired.
Sponsored in part through a Portuguese Flagship Program at the University of Georgia and through a Title VI U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center grant on Latin America awarded to Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies and Vanderbilt University’s Center for Latin American Studies.
Registration Information Below:
- Base Registration ($50) includes all materials, parking and registration to entire program with no meals or housing included. You are responsible for making your own housing and dining accommodations.
- Registration with Base Housing ($150) includes everything above as well as breakfast and lunch, and a double room on campus in dormitory housing.
- Registration with Private Housing ($225) includes everything above and assures a private room and bath in dormitory housing.
- Add $50 to registration if interested in receiving Georgia Department of Education approved Professional Learning Units (PLUs)
For more information contact:
Denise Woltering (Tulane University), 504.862.3143, dwolteri@tulane.edu
Kathleen Schmaltz (University of Georgia), 706.583.0388, schmaltz@uga.edu
Claire Gonzalez (Vanderbilt University), 615.343.1837, claire.p.gonzalez@vanderbilt.edu
Call for Papers: Radical Caribbeans
Read the official Call for Papers here.
We welcome papers that address any facet of the Caribbean radicalis and radical approaches to Caribbean identity, culture and social practices. Papers may focus on one country or invoke comparative strategies of any regions contained in the greater Caribbean, beyond the confines of the Caribbean sea, northeast of the Florida straits and into the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, and south, along the Atlantic coast, past Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. Papers may be in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese, though English is preferred.
If you are interested in participating, please send a 250 word abstract as an attachment to either of the email addresses listed below by June 15th, 2013. Include the title of your paper, your name (and the names of any co-presenters), institutional affiliation, phone number, mailing and email address. Papers for presentation should be no more than than 20 minutes and may be considered for publication. If submitting a panel for consideration, please include a top sheet with panel title, participant names and a brief abstract of the panel topic in addition to the individual paper proposals.
Notification of acceptance to the conference will be made by July 5, 2013.
For more information on the conference, location and arrangements, visit the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute website for updates at cuba.tulane.edu.
Submit abstracts by June 15 to:
lopez_AT_tulane.edu
icaballe_AT_tulane.edu
Two-week Public Service summer program in Ecuador
Center for Public Service: International Programs
Ecuador: Tropical Field Biology and Conservation
Chocó Rainforest, Ecuador | Tentative dates: August 9 – August 23, 2013
| Application deadline: January 28, 2013 Deadline extended! |
All majors are welcome to apply to spend two weeks in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. Ecuador: Tropical Field Biology and Conservation gives students the opportunity to apply the theory and knowledge they have acquired in the classroom to the real world. Students will travel with Dr. Karubian and Dr. Duraes to Ecuador for a two-week intensive field course. While on the course, students will experience first-hand the challenges and rewards of conducting field research and implementing conservation activities in tropical environments. These activities will take place within a context of community engagement based on active collaboration and interaction with Ecuadorian local residents in a variety of contexts.
For more information, click here to visit the Center for Public Service’s page on this program.
Copyright © 2013 Roger Thayer Stone Center For Latin American Studies All Rights Reserved.
Tulane University, 100 Jones Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 865-5164 rtsclas@tulane.edu