In the mid-nineteenth century, decades after independence in Latin America, borderlands presented existential challenges to consolidating nation-states. This talk examines how and why these spaces became challenging to governments and what their meaningfulness is for our understanding of the development of a global world by examining one of those spaces: the Trans-Andean, an Argentine-Chilean borderland connected by the Andes mountains and centered on the Argentine region of Cuyo. It answers these questions by interweaving three narratives: Chilean migration to western Argentina; mountain-crossing Argentine rebels; and the formation of plans for railroads to cross the mountains.

Out of these narratives emerges a twofold argument that, on the one hand, locates the causes and stakes of foundational national conflicts in Argentina in a Pacific-facing Trans-Andean and, on the other hand, sees the Trans-Andean as part of mid-nineteenth-century globalization, thus connecting national conflicts, non-national geographies, and globalization. As a result, this history challenges dominant narratives about social and political conflicts at this formative moment in Argentine and Latin American history while opening up discussion on the methodologies and meaningfulness of transnational, borderlands, and global histories.

Kyle E. Harvey is an Assistant Professor of History at Western Carolina University. He is a social historian whose current research focuses on spatial histories of Argentina and Chile. His research engages with broad questions of historical geography, human mobility, capitalism, technology and expertise, and materialist interpretations of history. He received his BA in History from the University of Michigan and his MA and PhD from Cornell University. His research has been published in the Journal of Latin American Studies and Historia Crítica. His book, In Place of Mobility: Railroads, Rebels, and Migrants in an Argentine-Chilean Borderland, was published in 2024 by the University of North Carolina Press as part of its David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History.

POSSIBLE LANDSCAPES PROJECT

Mario Lewis, an artist and agriculturalist practicing in Trinidad and Berlin, is one of several Trinidadian collaborators in the documentary film project making its debut at Cornell Cinema on Wednesday, September 25. On Wednesday September 25, just before the debut screening at Cornell Cinema, Mario Lewis will give an artist talk at Toboggan Lodge, with a micro exhibit of selected works connected to his talk.

More details about Possible Landscapes screening:

https://events.cornell.edu/event/possible-landscapes-world-premiere-scr…

More details about Possible Landscapes project:

https://as.cornell.edu/news/professors-feature-length-documentary-film-…

POSSIBLE LANDSCAPES PROJECT

Dr. Deborah Villarroel-Lamb is one of several Trinidadian collaborators in the documentary film project making its debut at Cornell Cinema on Wednesday, September 25.

On Tuesday, September 24, Dr. Villarroel-Lamb will speak about her research at the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Teaching Lab, B52 Hollister Hall.

Abstract

Caribbean coastal communities are confronted by diverse hazards whose adverse impacts will be exacerbated with anticipated future climate changes. Hurricanes and storms are examples of frequent events that destroy social, ecological and economic assets in coastal regions, but these vulnerable areas are susceptible to other natural and anthropogenic threats like earthquakes and tsunamis. However, with limited data and inadequate resources, proactive risk mitigation and disaster management strategies are not widespread throughout the region. In fact, there is a growth of valuable and critical assets in these at-risk areas driven by historical context and developmental goals. As the Caribbean region seeks to achieve genuine coastal resilience, mandated by a need to protect present and future generations, it is important to engage in meaningful transdisciplinary discourse on what necessary actions can be effectively achieved while seeking to optimize use of the region’s limited resources.

More details about Possible Landscapes screening:

https://events.cornell.edu/event/possible-landscapes-world-premiere-scr…

More details about Possible Landscapes project:

https://as.cornell.edu/news/professors-feature-length-documentary-film-…

The 2024 MexicanEast conference, held at Cornell University from September 20-21, 2024, brings scholars together to discuss transit through the lens of Mexican cultural studies. We welcome discussion about migration, movement, transition, trade, and trans and queer issues, as well as any other meaningful engagement with the topic of transit.

CANCELLED!!!

Ecuador is renowned for its extraordinary biodiversity, offering a rich mosaic of landscapes and ecosystems. Despite its small size, the country boasts the Amazon rainforest, the Andean highlands, coastal lowlands, and the unique Galápagos Islands. Each region supports a wide variety of flora and fauna, making Ecuador one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth. Cultural diversity is also remarkable, indigenous groups in all areas, have developed a profound relationship with these ecosystems, shaping their livelihoods and cultural traditions around the natural environment. This harmony between nature and culture makes Ecuador a unique nation, both ecologically and culturally.

Sadly, the contamination of food and marine life by heavy metals in Ecuador is an issue of growing concern, primarily linked to urban development, mining, industrial, and agricultural activities. Water bodies and rivers serve as conduits for these contaminants toward marine ecosystems, affecting key species for food security, such as fish and mollusks. The bioaccumulation of metals like mercury, cadmium, and lead in the food chain poses serious risks to human and ecosystems health.

Dr. Hugo Navarrete has been a scholar, professor, and Director of Research, among other roles, at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE). His efforts have focused on connecting civil society in general with academic activity, as well as disseminating the results of scientific research through the publication of informational material that is accessible for the general public. Furthermore, he has worked to strengthen ties with ministries and other governmental agencies to establish a fluent dialogue and mutual trust, which has allowed science to influence policy and public opinion. Navarrete’s research focuses on environmental contamination with heavy metals, biodiversity, and food safety. He is currently a researcher at PUCE and the Director of the Center for Applied Chemistry Studies (CESAQ-PUCE) at PUCE. With around 70 publications that have garnered more than 4000 academic citations, he is among the 100 most cited authors in Ecuador.

Title: Past and Present of the Ñuu Savi Codices makers

Abstract: The precolonial Mixtec codices contain the cultural memory of the Ñuu Savi (Mixtec) “People of the Rain”, one of the Indigenous Peoples of southern Mexico. Historically, these documents have been interpreted without fully consulting their cultural heirs, the Na Savi (Mixtec), in the living Mixtec communities or they are taken just as informants. In the last decades, more and more scholars and Mixtec scholars have shown how Ñuu Savi communities have maintained their own worldview, sacred places, cultural practices, and languages, despite the prolonged colonial trauma. It means that there is a cultural continuity, allowing us to understand the codices through the living heritage and cultural values of contemporary communities. In this talk, I will present the results of this methodology and its impact in the Ñuu Savi territory, how the knowledge of the codices is taken into account by the communities themselves to support their identity.

This event is co-sponsored by CIAMS, the Department of History of Art, the Johnson Museum of Art, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. Thank you.

Go global in summer 2025! Global Internships give you valuable international work experience in fields spanning global development, climate and sustainability, international relations, communication, business, governance, and more.

This session will discuss opportunities with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, a Cornell Global Hubs partner in Ecuador.

Register for this virtual session.

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The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

How do activists use historical memory? Examining the narratives expressed in recorded oral histories, I argue that Indigenous labor leaders from the haciendas of Cayambe, Ecuador constructed an empowering narrative politics that guided their allies as well as future activists in preserving and revitalizing the history of their local activism. In light of critiques from across the political spectrum about the waning salience of Marxist projects, I aim to show how, in mid-20th century Ecuador, Indigenous activists’ understandings of the significance of their communism were radically unorthodox, and in fact–because of the ways in which they recorded and archived their experiences of resistance– their perspectives continue to offer lessons about spaces for indigenous empowerment in the present. Understanding historical documentation as part of wider political projects allows for an analysis of historical self-representation as political action.

Marlen Rosas is assistant professor of History at Haverford College in Haverford, PA. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Pennsylvania. Her book project, Recording Indigenous Resistance: Literacy, Memory, and Narrative Power in Twentieth-Century Ecuador, employs critical archive scholarship, oral history, and memory studies approaches to the examination of Indigenous mobilization in twentieth-century Ecuador, arguably the most organized Indigenous movement in the history of the Americas. She is the co-founder and convener of the Thinking Andean Studies Interdisciplinary Conference.