Welcome and Introduction-9:00am

• Thomas J. Trebat, Columbia University
• Lilia Schwarcz, Columbia University, USP

Racial Relations-9:30am

• Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Columbia University, USP
• Anani Dzidzienyo, Brown University
• Antonio Sergio Guimarães, Princeton University

Gender and Age (Part I) 11:00am

• James Green, Brown University
• Bila Sorj, Universidad Federal do Rio de Janeiro
• Guita Grin Debert, UNICAMP

Gender and Age (Part II) 2:00pm

• James Green, Brown University
• Jerry Dávila, University of NC at Charlotte
• Bryan McCann, Georgetown University

The Institute of Latin American Studies, The Center for Brazilian Studies, and The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University

Jesusa Rodríguez is Mexico's leading cabaret and political performance artist, and the co-founder and co-director of the famous Teatro Bar El Hábito in Mexico City. In the aftermath of Mexico's highly contested 2006 presidential election, she organized more than 3,600 cultural activities for the millions who gathered in the streets and the central square of the Mexican capital. Jesusa is also a recipient of an Obie Award and the first Senior Fellow of the Hemispheric Institute.

Sponsored by the Hemispheric Institute at NYU, and the Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, the Center for Jazz Studies, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the School of the Arts at Columbia University. 

"Racial Migrations: Puerto Ricans in the Partido Revolucionario Cubano and the Comparative History of Race"

Reception

Prospective majors or concentrators get your questions about any of CSER's three programs: Asian American Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies & Latino/a Studies answered by faculty and students currently involved in these programs.

A time for everyone to mingle and get to know others from your cohort.

"'Learn Your Horn': Jack O'Dell and the Black Freedom Movement"

Reception

Dr. Michael Yellow Bird, Ph.D. Founder and Director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples' Critical and Intuitive Thinking and Associate Professor of Indigenous Nations Studies, University of Kansas Across the Great Divide: Cultures on Manhood in the American West

The Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and the Departments of History, Anthropology, and Psychology are pleased to present “Transcending Disciplines, Transcending Cultures: Native American Studies Today." This lecture series will feature five prominent scholars working at the cutting edge of contemporary Native American Studies.

Attendees should RSVP to Andrea Thomas at at2251@columbia.edu by Monday, February 18th.

"A Nation of Brothers: Black Citizenship as Racial Fraternity in 1920s Brazil"

Reception

"Losing Earth: Tomás Rivera and the Anti-Aesthetic Turn"

"Paranoia, Race and Cultural Literacy"

Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, Made in LA (2007) & Alex Rivera, The Sixth Section (2003)

Made in L.A. follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. In intimate verité style, Made in L.A. reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman’s life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Compelling, humorous, deeply human, Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice.

The Sixth Section blends digital animation, home video, cinema verité, and interview footage to depict the transnational organizing of a community of Mexican immigrants in New York. The men profiled in the film form an organization called ‘Grupo Unión,’ that is devoted to raising money in the United States to rebuild the Mexican town that they’ve left behind. Grupo Unión is one of at least a thousand “hometown associations” formed by Mexican immigrants in the United States, and they are beginning to have a major impact in the politics and economics of both the U.S. and Mexico.

This event is being co-sponsored with the Institute for Latin American Studies.

Arturo Perez Torres, Wetback (2004)

Arturo Perez Torres's heartbreaking tale of Central American border crossers.

This event is being co-sponsored with the Institute for Latin American Studies.

Rosie Perez, Yo Soy Boricua, Pa'que Tu Lo Sepas (2006)

Yo Soy Boricua, Pa'que Tu Lo Sepas! explores Rosie Perez's burning question: why are Puerto Ricans so damn proud? Her journey through Puerto Rico's history gains inspiration from the vibrant music, dancing and energy of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and she uses this starting point to speak to Puerto Rican people about their identity and culture. We follow Rosie and her collaborators through New York, Miami and to Puerto Rico to document what it really means to be "Boricua."

In her directorial debut, Rosie Perez ("Do the Right Thing," "White Men Can't Jump, Fearless") celebrates Puerto Rican pride. Alternately shocking and humorous, this documentary, which is narrated by Jimmy Smits ("The West Wing," "NYPD Blue"), puts the themes of family, language, and racism into a historical perspective. The film uncovers the complex and controversial history between Puerto Rico and the United States: Forced sterilizations and birth control testing in Puerto Rico; the imprisonment and torture of freedom fighter Pedro Albizu Campos; Pedro Pietri, the pre-eminent voice for Nuyoricans; The Young Lords, a group of activists agitating for Puerto Rican rights in New York City; and the protests against U.S. bombing of Vieques. Few Americans know about these subjects, which are not to be found in American history books. Academy Award-nominated producer Liz Garbus ("Girlhood," "The Farm: Angola, USA," "The Execution of Wanda Jean") and Emmy-nominated producer Rory Kennedy ("A Boy's Life," "Pandemic," "American Hollow") produce.

This event is being co-sponsored with the Institute for Latin American Studies.

Carles Bosch and Josep Mª Domènech, Balseros (2002)

In the summer of 1994, a team of public television reporters filmed and interviewed seven Cubans, and their families, beginning a few days before their risky venture of setting out to sea in homemade rafts to reach the coast of the United States. When the balseros were finally allowed to go to the United States, the film crew went with them to a string of cities that included Miami; the Bronx; York, Pennsylvania; Grand Isle, Nebraska; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and a host of other places to which the lives of these immigrants carried them. Seven years later, the film crew visits them again, to discover what their destiny has been in the United States.

This event is being co-sponsored with the Institute for Latin American Studies.

BRIAN KLOPOTEK is an Assistant Professor in the Program of Ethnic Studies and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon. His publications include “'I Guess Your Warrior Look Doesn't Work Every Time': Challenging Indian Masculinity in the Cinema” in Across the Great Divide: Cultures on Manhood in the American West edited by Matthew Basso, Laura McCall, and Dee Garceau, Routledge, 2001 and “Dangerous Decolonizing: Indians and Blacks and the Legacy of Jim Crow” in Narrating Native Histories in the Americas (forthcoming, Duke University Press).

The Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Center for Ethnomusicology, the Columbia Native American Council, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Departments of History, Anthropology, and Psychology are pleased to present “Transcending Disciplines, Transcending Cultures: Native American Studies Today." This lecture series will feature two prominent scholars working at the cutting edge of contemporary Native American Studies. The lectures are open to the public and to all members of the Columbia community.

Angel Muñiz, Nueba Yol (1995)

A hit in the Dominican Republic, the film follows the adventures of a good-natured man (played by Balbuena, one of the most popular actors on Dominican tv) who gives Nueba Yol (New York) a try, but goes back to the island in the end.

This event is being co-sponsored with the Institute for Latin American Studies.

JOE WATKINS is an Associate Professor of Native American Studies, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, and the Director of the Native American Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma. Among his publications are “Through Wary Eyes: Indigenous Perspectives on Archaeology” in the Annual Review of Anthropology, 2005; “Archaeological Ethics and American Indians” in Ethical Issues in Archaeology, edited by Larry Zimmerman, Karen D. Vitelli, and Julie Zimmer, Alta Mira Press, 2003; and Indigenous Archaeology: American Indian Values and Scientific Practice, Alta Mira Press, 2000.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Center for Ethnomusicology, the Columbia Native American Council, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Departments of History, Anthropology, and Psychology are pleased to present “Transcending Disciplines, Transcending Cultures: Native American Studies Today." This lecture series will feature two prominent scholars working at the cutting edge of contemporary Native American Studies. The lectures are open to the public and to all members of the Columbia community.

Come meet our new Assistant Director, Leon James Bynum, and Visiting Faculty, Carmen Lamas and Susanna Rosenbaum.

Refreshments will be provided.

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race and Eugene Lang College: the New School for Liberal Arts. This event is free and open to the public.

8:30am – 9:00am

Registration and Breakfast

9:00am – 9:15am

Welcome and Opening Remarks
Claudio Lomnitz
Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University

9:15am – 10:15am

Keynote Address
Roopali Mukherjee, Queens College

10:30am – 11:45am

Race, Ethnicity, and Popular Culture

• Brian Lewis, “Real Recognize Real: Black Youth Culture and the Post Hip-Hop Moment” (Eugene Lang College)
• May Lin, “With the Mic as a Hammer We Gon’ Break the Mold: Asian American Hip-Hop in New York City” (Columbia University)
• Alison Desir, “Reggaeton” (Columbia University)
• Sang Yi Choung, “Blackness and Burapan: Eastern Takes on Western Images” (Columbia University)
• Moderator: Professor Christopher Johnson, Eugene Lang College

12:00pm – 1:15pm

Race, Ethnicity, and Questions of Identity

• Kelly Webster, “Minority 101:The Formation of Blackness in the College Classroom” (Eugene Lang College)
• Devon Dunlap, “Identity and Coping with Rejection: A Comparative Case Study of the Experiences of Multiracial Individuals” (University of California, Berkeley)
• Brenda Cepeda, “The Bodega: A Scope of the Effects of Transnationality on Dominicans in New York” (Columbia University)
• Zoe Towns, “Deferred: Undocumented Youth and the Dream Act” (Columbia University)
• Moderator: Professor Ferentz Lafargue, Eugene Lang College

1:15pm – 2:30pm

Lunch with Special Presentation: “The Sean Bell Project”
Jamila Thompson, Amaya Noguera, and Adam Safer of Eugene Lang College

2:45pm – 4:00pm

Race, Ethnicity, and Women’s Issues

• Farida Ali, “Mother, Maid, and Migrant Breadwinner: Recentering the Triple Role of Undocumented Filipino Domestic Workers in New York City” (Columbia University)
• Tania Valdez, “Mexican American and Native American Women: A Comparative Analysis of Domestic Violence” (Colorado State University)
• Noa Mark, “Victimized or Empowered?: Representations in the Media of Palestinian Female Suicide Bombers” (Columbia University)
• Moderator: Professor Sandhya Shukla, Columbia University

4:15pm – 5:30pm

Ethnic Studies and the Community

• Candyce Phoenix, “Race in Sports Real Estate” (Columbia University)
• Vijaya Thomas, “Evaluation of Cultural Competency in Medical Education” (Brown University)
• Ayana Labossiere, “Romanticism in Black Activism” (Columbia University)
• Moderator: Professor Nicole Marwell, Columbia University

5:30pm – 6:00pm

The State of Ethnic Studies: A Student Report on Ethnic Studies at Columbia
Ethnic Studies Independent Studies Group, Columbia University

6:00pm – 6:15pm

Closing Remarks

6:15pm – 7:00pm

Reception

Jean & John Comaroff

Sandy Grande, Asssociate Professor of Education, Connecticut College

Audra Simpson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University

* This event is actually being presented by the Anthropology Department; it is tangentially a part of NALS.

The aim of this conference is to examine in depth what we are calling the public life of history. International and local speakers will share with us their experience of particular debates with a view to discerning emergent general patterns that may be suggestive of the future of the discipline. Among the themes and problems the conference will address will be those evident in Aboriginal history in Australia, legal cases involving gay history in the United States, debates on history text-books, the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the conflict over ‘Hindu’ history in India in the last two decades, and the work of the Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal in New Zealand.

Organizers:

• Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago
• Bain Attwood, Monash University
• Claudio Lomnitz, Columbia University

Participants:

• Nadia Abu-el-Hadj, Barnard College
• Neeladri Bhattacharya, Nehru University
• George Chauncey, Yale University
• Miranda Johnson, University of Chicago
• Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
• Deborah Posel, University of the Witwatersand

Co-Sponsors:

• Department of Anthropology
• Department of History
• Journal of Public Culture
• University of Chicago

Eric and Didier Fassin, on their recent book De la question sociale à la question raciale?

• Joan Scott, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton
• Ann Laura Stoler, New School for Social Research
• Kendall Thomas, Columbia University

Scott Stevens, Assistant Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of American Studies, University at Buffalo (SUNY)