Tulane University
Xelaju Korda
Student - Ph.D Candidate
Xela Korda was awarded her M.A. in Latin American Studies with distinction from Tulane in 2006 after completing a thesis entitled "Aesthetics of (In)Security: Mentally Mapping Morumbi". She has traveled extensively throughout Latin America and Europe, particularly in Brazil. As a master's student, Xela served as a summer teaching and research assistant to Tulane faculty in both São Paulo and Curitiba, Brazil. She also served as a teaching assistant to Dr. Martha Huggins of the Department of Sociology during the spring of 2007 for courses on Brazilian society and the sociology of deviance. In addition to serving as a teaching assistant, Xela has taught for the Stone Center and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She has presented her research nationally and internationally, most recently in 2009 at the SECOLAS conference held in New Orleans where she presented her paper, "Sand Cinderellas and Lesbian Prostitutes: Sexuality, Gender Performances, and Secrecy in NE Brazil." Xela has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including two FLAS summer language immersion fellowships and a grant from the Tinker Foundation to conduct research in São Paulo. In 2007, she was awarded an SSRC Dissertation Prospectus Development Fellowship for summer pilot study and workshops and in 2010 she received an SLA merit fellowship from Tulane. While at the Stone Center, Xela has won both the Richard E. Greenleaf Award for best graduate paper in the Social Sciences written by a Latin American Studies graduate student as well as the Donald Robertson Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching in Latin American Studies. During the summer of 2010, Xela worked for the Robertson Scholar’s program out of Duke / UNC as an onsite liaison for their 10 scholars completing internships in New Orleans.
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LATEST SITE UPDATES
NEWS
- Higgins, Pereira paper highlighted in Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper
- Nora Lustig presents on fiscal policy at the World Bank
- Longtime love inspires gift to institute
- Latin American Resource Center Acquires New Films
- Local students learn about Carnival in Haiti
- Nora Lustig Presents at Ministerio de Hacienda in Costa Rica
- Diddier Santos presents two films on Cuban media and culture
EVENTS
- Persistent Inequality: Book Presentation at the Mexican Consulate
- Graduate Lunch Seminar with Dr. Robin Greeley
- Racism, Black Consciousness and the Problem of Unintended Dissidence in the Cuban Revolution, 1965-1971
- From Axis Mundi to Mappa Mundi: Great Temples and Sacred Bundles in Mesoamerican Traditions
- Social Policy in Latin America since the Left Turn: A Roundtable Discussion
- Paolo Spadoni presents new book on Cuban economy
- MARI Brown Bag: Ximena Chávez Balderas "Effigies of the death: ritual decapitation and modification of skulls from Offering 141, Great Temple of Tenochtitlan"
- The Pebbles Center turns 10!
- The African Presence in Venezuela Since President Hugo Chavez
- Materials in the Classroom Ecology: A Language Pedagogy Workshop
- The Traveling Illustrations of Sixteenth- Century Travel Narratives
- Guest Lecture and Reception: "Autoconstrucción's Dialectical Objects: Sculptural Materialism in the work of Abraham Cruzvillegas?"
- Candidate Talk for Research and Instruction Position at Latin American Library
- The Social System of White-Bellied Spider Monkeys in an Amazonian Rainforest: Insights from Long-Term Observations and Molecular Data
- Calendrics, Astronomy, and Math at the "Xultun Institute of Advanced Study"
- "How to Choose a Dissertation Topic?" Roundtable Discussion
MEDIA
Upcoming Events
Racism, Black Consciousness and the Problem of Unintended Dissidence in the Cuban Revolution, 1965-1971
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"
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
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
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
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
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
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Tulane University, 100 Jones Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 865-5164 rtsclas@tulane.edu