Latina/o Studies Scholars Gather at Dartmouth

UPDATE: Due to the storm, a shorter program of panels and presentations will begin Friday, February 14 at 2:00 p.m. in Haldeman 041.

Dartmouth welcomes scholars and activists who are shaping the future of Latina/o Studies for a two-day conference February 13-14, 2014. Sessions take place in Haldeman 041.

Set within the context of growing Latina/o presence and impact in the U.S., the meeting, says associate professor of Spanish and conference organizer Israel Reyes, “provides members of the Dartmouth community the opportunity to engage with well-established scholars and young academics and activists who are setting the research, curricular, and political agendas for the future of Latina/o Studies.”

The conference includes two plenary addresses: Thursday night’s keynote from Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez, professor of Spanish at Mt. Holyoke College; and Friday’s talk on  “Latina/o Politics in the 21st Century,” by Cristina Beltrán, associate professor of social and cultural analysis and director of Latino studies at New York University. Panels will addresses patterns of transnationalism, diaspora, and migration; U.S. religious and spiritual practice; sexuality, scholarship, and activism; and the state of the field of Latina/o studies itself. The full conference schedule is published at the website of the Leslie Center for the Humanities.

Reyes expects the conference’s mix of perspectives will generate “a lively debate on the status of Latinas and Latinos in higher education, culture, the arts, and politics at the local, national, and transnational levels.”

“The Latina/o Century” benefits from a wide range of Dartmouth co-sponsors, including: the Leslie Center for the Humanities; Dean of the Faculty; Office of the President; Associate Dean of Arts & Humanities, Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Department of Religion; Department of Government; Department of History; the Department of Theatre’s Voices Program; Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Program; African and African American Studies Program; Institute for Writing and Rhetoric; Dickey Center for International Understanding;  Gender Research Institute at Dartmouth; Office of Pluralism and Leadership; and Sigma Lambda Upsilon (Señoritas Latinas Unidas).