Letter from the CLACS Director
This is an exciting time
for CLACS.
First established
in 1966, CLACS continues to be the university’s hub for teaching, scholarship,
and outreach on Latin America and the Caribbean,
past and present. Our interdisciplinary MA in Latin American Studies attracts
wonderful students with a range of academic interests and professional goals;
some pursue joint MA degrees with Journalism, others with Museum Studies. To
get a sense of our students, the program, and its graduates, browse through our
website, with links to course lists, student and alumnae profiles, and
opportunities for funding, from FLAS fellowships for the study of less commonly
taught languages to CLACS grants for exploratory summer research abroad.
The Center is very proud to support the work of six faculty-graduate
student working-groups (some in conjunction with our Department of Education
Title VI consortium partner, Columbia
University’s
Institute of Latin American Studies).
As before, we will be hosting international symposia, lecture series, and film
festivals, and inviting scholars, artists, and public figures from the region
to present in public venues for the NYU and NYC communities. To get a
sense of this year’s schedule of events, please consult our online calendar,
which is updated weekly.
While we strive to
fulfill our longstanding mission to enrich academic and public knowledge and
understanding of Latin America and the Caribbean,
we are also innovating and growing. Last year, we launched a new program in Quechua,
featuring acclaimed Peruvian poet Odi Gonzales as the Quechua language
instructor. This year, instruction will reach the advanced intermediate level,
and students and community members will be meeting regularly for Quechua
conversation evenings. In 2009-2010, we will continue our Research
Colloquium Series. These series pair up
faculty from different departments to team-teach interdisciplinary seminars
attached to public lecture series on the same subject. Last spring’s
course/series, organized by Tom Abercrombie (Anthopology) and Jo Labanyi
(Spanish), was titled Hauntings: Memory, Patrimony, and the Contested Past.
This semester, Ana Dopico (Spanish) and I (History) have organized one timed to
coincide roughly with the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution of 1959,
and which brings to campus and the classroom scholars and writers from the U.S.,
Spain,
and Cuba.
The series for Spring 2010, organized by Carmen Medeiros (CLACS) and Sinclair
Thomson (History), focuses on the Andes.
All these
events are free and open to the public.
In all our
efforts—both new and longstanding—we count on the collaboration of approximately 130 affiliated faculty in 20
departments in Arts and Science and eight professional schools; nearly 150
affiliated doctoral students across the university, the Department of Spanish
and Portuguese’s undergraduate program in Latin American Studies, and an active
and dedicated core of MA students and alumnae of CLACS. We thank them all for
their participation and contribution. And we invite you to take a look and to
consider collaborating and participating with us as we strive to make our
program even more vibrant and exciting.
Sincerely,
Ada Ferrer
