Roger Thayer Stone Center For Latin American Studies

Tulane University

Ana M. López

Director - Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute, Associate Professor - Communication, Associate Provost - Office of Academic Affairs

Contact Info
lopez@tulane.edu

A long-standing faculty member of the Stone Center, Ana M. López became the director of the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute in Fall 2000. She is also an Associate Professor in the Communication Department and Associate Provost of the university. Her scholarship and publications are focused on Latin American film, media, television, and popular culture. She has also worked extensively with Latino cultural production in the U.S. Her work has been widely published in film and Latin American studies journals and she is the co-editor of the volumes Mediating Two Worlds (BFI, 1993), The Ethnic Eye: Latino Media Arts (University of Minnesota, 1996), and the three-volume Encyclopedia of Latin American Culture (Routledge, 2000). As director of the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute, she oversees the Summer in Cuba program, the Summer in the Dominican Republic program, and academic and cultural programming aimed at promoting a true Cuban and Caribbean presence on Tulane’s campus.

Degrees

  • B.A., Queens College, Accounting, 1978
  • M.A., University of Iowa, Communication and Theater Arts, 1982
  • Ph.D., University of Iowa, Communication Studies, 1986

Academic Experience

  • Associate Professor, Tulane University
  • Assistant Professor, Tulane University
  • Visiting Professor, University of Southern California, 1995

Research & Teaching Specializations: Latin America; Mass Communication; Latin American Film; Cultural Studies, Popular Culture

Related Experience

  • Associate Provost, Office of Academic Affairs, Tulane University, 2001-
  • Director, Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute, Tulane University, 2000-
  • Co-editor, South, an electronic Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 1996-
  • Co-Director, Cultural Studies Program, Tulane University, 1992-1999
  • Director, Film Studies Program, Tulane University, 1988-

Distinctions

  • Fulbright Fellowship, 1989

Languages: Spanish; Portuguese; French

Selected Publications

  • Forthcoming 2010. “La Hacienda y el Cabaret: Musical Spaces of the Classical Mexican Cinema.” In The International Film Musical. Corey Creekmuer and Linda Mokdad, eds. University of Edinburgh Press.
  • 2009. “Before the Industry: Orol, Bohr and Peon.” In Latsploitation: Exploitation Cinema and Latin America. Victoria Ruetalo and Dolores Tierney, eds. London: Routledge.
  • 2007. “Cuba: A Porous National Cinema.” In The Cinema of Small Nations. Duncan Petrie and Mette Hijorst, eds. University of Edinburgh Press. 179 – 197.
  • 2000. Latin American Cultural Studies. Editor, with Daniel Balderston and Mike Gonzalez. London: Routledge.
  • 2000. “Early Cinema and Modernity in Latin America.” Cinema Journal. 40: 48-78.

Recently-Taught Latin American-Related Courses: Latin American Cinema, Cuban Culture and Society, Culture and Society in the Dominican Republic.

Number of Dissertations or Theses Supervised in the Past 5 Years: 9

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Upcoming Events

Racism, Black Consciousness and the Problem of Unintended Dissidence in the Cuban Revolution, 1965-1971

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Author and professor Lillian Guerra will be speaking at Tulane. This event is free and open to the public.

Lillian Guerra is a Professor of Cuban and Caribbean history at the University of Florida. She has just published Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption and Resistance, 1959-1971 (UNC Press). This book is one of the first major works to analyze the grand narrative of the Cuban revolution, and in the process, it reveals the internal divisions and resistance to the revolution at the popular level. It received a Special Mention for the 2013 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Award (Caribbean Studies Association) and was a 2013 Choice Outstanding Academic title.

Guerra is also the author of The Myth of José Martí: Conflicting Nationalisms in Early 20th Century Cuba (UNC Press) and Popular Expression and National Identity in Puerto Rico (University of Florida). Her work has appeared in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Social History, and Cuban Studies. She is currently working on a new project, Making Revolutionary Cuba, on Cuban political culture from 1947-1958.

MARI Brown Bag: Ximena Chávez Balderas "Effigies of the death: ritual decapitation and modification of skulls from Offering 141, Great Temple of Tenochtitlan"

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Ximena Chávez Balderas, Doctoral Student in the Department of Anthropology, will present a talk about her dissertation work at the Templo Mayor in Mexico City entitled “Effigies of the death: ritual decapitation and modification of skulls from Offering 141, Great Temple of Tenochtitlan”

M.A.R.I.'s Brown Bag talk series is meant to provide a venue for students and faculty focusing on topics related to Mesoamerica to discuss their latest research in an informal and friendly setting. If you are interested in presenting, please email Marcello Canuto (mcanuto@tulane.edu) for more information. For the current speaker list of this talk series, please click here.

From Axis Mundi to Mappa Mundi: Great Temples and Sacred Bundles in Mesoamerican Traditions

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David Carrasco, the Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America at Harvard University, will present a talk on March 14th at 4 PM entitled: “From Axis Mundi to Mappa Mundi: Great Temples and Sacred Bundles in Mesoamerican Traditions.”

Professor Carrasco will give an illustrated lecture about his journey, discoveries, and changes of mind in the study of Mesoamerican religions. Working as an historian of religions, Carrasco helped decipher the patterns of the axis mundi/sacred centers in the ceremonial world of the Great Aztec Temple and more recently in the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan #2. His lecture will trace this interpretive journey by showing images from the Aztec Templo Mayor and the Cuauhtinchan Codex.

A reception will follow.

Sponsored by the Tulane Anthropology Student Association (TASA), the Center for Scholars, the Associated Student Body, Stone Center for Latin American Studies, and the Department of History.

For more information please contact TASA at tulaneasa@gmail.com.

Materials in the Classroom Ecology: A Language Pedagogy Workshop

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This hands-on workshop for language teachers demonstrates activities and materials designed to promote language learners' listening and speaking fluency. These activities allow university and high school students to engage in meaningful use of the target language. Materials demonstrated at this workshop can be readily adapted by participating language teachers and implemented in their own classrooms. These innovative pedagogic activities bridge language teaching theory and practice, and recent research on language teaching materials and learning will also be presented. University instructors and high school teachers working with language learners of any proficiency level will benefit from this presentation. The workshop will be conducted in English, and teachers of any language are welcome to attend. Participants may wish to read the article Materials in the Classroom Ecology in advance of the event, although this reading is not required in order to participate in this interactive workshop. All interested language teaching practitioners are encouraged to attend.

The workshop will be led by Anne Marie Guerrataz. She earned a PhD in Second Language Studies at Indiana University and has extensive experience teaching Spanish, French, and English as foreign/second languages at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels. She has worked with teachers of many diverse languages, including less-commonly-taught languages such as Arabic, Yucatec Maya, and others. Dr. Guerrettaz has trained language teaching practitioners from across the world, from pedagogy workshops she facilitated for instructors at the Defense Language Institute in California to graduate-level seminars for language teachers in Central America and Maryland. In addition to her publications on language pedagogy, she is also deeply interested in the political dimensions of language and has researched Indigenous language rights in Mexico.

Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies the Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

The event is free but prior registration is required.

Engaging the Caribbean Space: A Talk by Earl Lovelace

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Earl Lovelace, Trinidadian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, and winner of the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize, will give a talk entitled “Engaging the Caribbean Space.” A reception will follow the talk.

This event is sponsored by Center for Scholars, GSSA, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, African Diaspora Studies, Department of English, the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Latin American Graduate Organization (LAGO), Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching, the Center for Public Service, and the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute.

Please contact Cherif Diatta (cdiatta@tulane.edu) for more information.

For the event flyer, click here.

Tulane Maya Symposium Teacher Workshop: On the Maya Trail: Ancient Travelers, Epic Voyages

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The Stone Center for Latin American Studies, the Middle American Research Institute, and the Audubon Aquarium are joining together to sponsor a K-12 teacher workshop in conjunction with the 11th annual Tulane Maya Symposium. This year the workshop will be held at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans, in celebration of the opening of a new exhibit on reefs in the Maya area. The workshop will focus on the symposium theme: traveling and voyages among the Maya. The workshop will integrate information about the geography and environment of the Maya area and the ancient and modern Maya utilization of environmental resources. The resources discussed will provide a great way for teachers working with the Common Core requirements to integrate information about the Maya into discussions of a variety of topics!

This year the teacher workshop will begin on Thursday evening, March 20th, with a special reception and talk at the Aquarium specifically for teachers. The main component of the workshop will take place on Friday, March 21st. For more information and to register, please visit the symposium website.

Event Schedule:

Thursday (Audubon Aquarium)
6:00 – 8:00 PM
Opening reception

6:00 – 6:30 PM
Introduction and Opening Remarks

6:30 – 7:00 PM
What do we really know about the Ancient Maya? – Marcello Canuto, Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University

Friday (Audubon Aquarium)
9:00 – 9:50 AM
Introduction to the Geography/Environment of the Maya – Kristine Grzenda, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas

10:00- 10:50 AM
Historical Perspectives on the Maya – Valerie Feathers, Louisiana State University

11:00- 11:50 AM
Introduction to Maya Sea Traders – Heather McKillop, Louisiana State University

12:00 – 1:00 PM
Lunch

1:00 – 1:50 PM
Integrating the Standards to Create Engaging Curricula on the Maya – Denise Woltering Vargas and Tricia LeBlanc

2:00 PM
Conclusion and Evaluation

4:00 – 5:00 PM
Tour of the NOMA Mesoamerican Collection

6:00 – 7:15 PM (NOMA)
Keynote – Karl Taube, University of California Riverside