Latin American and Caribbean Studies
International Archives Explainer
Tips for Grad Students from a Global PhD Research Scholar
Government PhD candidate Vincent Mauro shares his strategies for making the most of your time at an international collection of primary materials.
“The scope did not change much, but the methodological approach evolved. This development was ultimately fruitful for my project’s strength and depth.”
Vincent Mauro’s 2021–22 Amit Bhatia ’01 Global PhD Research Award from the Einaudi Center took him to archival collections in Brazil and Colombia to study how Latin American party systems shape social reform and economic inequality. He was new to archival research when he started his fieldwork.
Mauro’s research aligns with Einaudi’s work on Democratic Threats and Resilience. Read about his research experiences in Latin America.
On this page: Mauro shares what he learned when the pandemic forced him to shift from primarily in-person interviews to archival data.
A Conversation with Vincent Mauro
Briefly set the stage for us: What question is at the center of your dissertation?
At its core, my research seeks to understand why certain democracies are able to redistribute income and ameliorate inequality more effectively than others.
Party systems are present in virtually every democracy and are the key set of organizations that link society to formal political systems. The project draws on an eclectic array of cross-national data and two longitudinal case studies—Brazil and Colombia—to test how dynamics within party systems affect the advance of social reforms, income redistribution, and levels of inequality.
What did you find in the archives you explored?
I was able to find extremely rich collections of primary sources that provide significant access to the inner world of political parties, allowing me to trace how dynamics such as elite capture, intraparty factionalism, and party organization contributed to the advance or inhibition of redistributive social reforms.
I primarily analyzed private correspondence among political elites and party members from the major parties in Brazil and Colombia’s traditional party systems (1946–64 and 1930–2002, respectively).
What would you tell a graduate student planning a similar field experience?
I had no formal training or experience in archival methods, so I didn’t have clear expectations going into the field—and I underestimated how much time the analysis of archival materials would take. To make the most of limited time and resources, I have four major pieces of advice to share.
- Stay Nearby
It’s best to find accommodation as close to the archives as possible. Some archives are essentially first come, first served, and there may be fewer spots than people who want to use them. Staying nearby makes it easier to arrive early. More importantly, spending hours in the archives each day is incredibly draining. Adding on a commute wastes unnecessary energy.
- Get Acquainted in Advance
Try to get a strong grasp of the contents of the archives before you arrive. This is not always possible, but depending on the archive, there may be guidebooks that give you some details.
Portions of the archive may also be online. Spending a couple of weeks going through these before you arrive is extremely helpful for getting a feel for other parts of the collection. Lastly, consider contacting the head archivist or librarian to inquire about individual collections.
- Develop Filters for Speed
Archives always contain a large amount of material that is wholly irrelevant to your project. You need a set of heuristics or “filters” that help you zero in on pertinent materials. As you cull through materials, try to limit how much you allow yourself to thoroughly analyze, since this level of attention is the most time-consuming. You may need multiple rounds of applying different sets of filters to reach a manageable set of highly relevant materials to analyze closely.
For example, I found that telegrams rarely, if ever, contained enough substantive information to make it worth the time it took to read or analyze them—which meant I saved a substantial amount of time simply skipping stacks of telegrams and moving on to other documents in the box. Another filter I used was to have a set of keywords in my head—for instance, “parties,” “divisions,” and “factions”—that I would scan for when quickly going through documents.
- Balance Collection and Analysis
Understand that collecting materials is infinitely faster than analyzing them. If you spend too much—or all—of your time each day simply collecting, you will quickly overburden yourself with material that needs to be analyzed.
Make the conscious decision to split your time into separate collection and analysis blocks. There are different ways to do this—blocks of time each day, alternating weeks, or other approaches. Staying on top of analysis as you go along also helps you refine your filters for more efficiency.
Learn more about Einaudi's Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, including graduate funding opportunities.
Additional Information
What Polls Say about Bolsonaro vs. Lula Just Ahead of Brazil’s Election
Gustavo Flores-Macias, LACS
“Polls suggest Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva enjoys a sizable advantage and might avoid a second round of voting, but President Jair Bolsonaro has discredited the electoral process and blamed the media for an uneven playing field,” says Gustavo Flores-Macias, professor of government and associate professor of public policy.
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Book: Policymakers Are Failing ‘Climate Refugees’
María Cristina García, LACS
María Cristina García, professor of history, discusses her new book, “State of Disaster: The Failure of U.S. Migration Policy in an Age of Climate Change” in an interview with the Cornell Chronicle.
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"The Guardian of Memory" (El Guardian de la Memoria)
October 18, 2022
4:30 pm
Cornell Cinema, Willard Straight Hall Theater
This film event is FREE and the 1hr and 33 minute film will be followed by a panel discussion that includes the Director of the film Marcela Arteaga. Pizza will be served as well.
“According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mexico became one of the deadliest conflict zones in the world in 2017, second only to Syria. In 2008, the Mexican government sent the army to Chihuahua on the Mexico-Texas border to fight drug traffickers. What seemed like an attempt to control the cartels turned into state-sponsored disappearances and the murder of journalists, human rights activists and civilians. The survivors and those threatened by the conflict pushed at the unwelcoming border of the United States, hoping for asylum. With stunning visual poetry, director Marcela Arteaga weaves together a record of their memories told over the backdrop of the once-vibrant landscape of the Juarez Valley. She also highlights the extraordinary work of Carlos Spector, an immigration lawyer born in El Paso, Texas, who fights to obtain political asylum for those Mexicans fleeing violence.” (Heather Haynes, Hot Docs)
Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program.
website: chickeneggpics.org/grantee/the-guardian-of-memory
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Emilio Rojas: GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM!
October 3, 2022
5:15 pm
Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium
Bio:
Emilio Rojas is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily with the body in performance, using video, photography, installation, public interventions, and sculpture. He holds an M.F.A. in Performance from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.F.A. in Film from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada. As a queer, Latinx immigrant with Indigenous heritage, it is essential to his practice to engage in the postcolonial ethical imperative to uncover, investigate, and make visible and audible undervalued or disparaged sites of knowledge, narratives, and individuals. He utilizes his body in a political and critical way, as an instrument to unearth removed traumas, embodied forms of decolonization, migration, and poetics of space. His research-based practice is heavily influenced by queer and feminist archives, border politics, botanical colonialism, and defaced monuments. Besides his artistic practice, he is also a translator, community activist, yoga teacher, and anti-oppression facilitator with queer, migrant, and refugee youth.
His work has been exhibited in exhibitions and festivals in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Japan, Austria, England, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Colombia, and Australia, as well as institutions such as The Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual Museum and Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, The Vancouver Art Gallery, The Surrey Art Gallery, The DePaul Art Museum, and The Botin Foundation. From 2019-2022 Rojas was a Visiting Artist in Residency in the Theater and Performance Department at Bard College in New York. He is also currently visiting faculty in the M.F.A. programs at Parsons the New School and the low-res M.F.A. programs at PNCA in Portland, Oregon, and University of the Arts, in Philadelphia.
Abstract:
GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM! is a lecture/performance by artist Emilio Rojas, departing from this xenophobic phrase to trace histories of colonialism, the open wounds of borders, and the emptiness of monuments. This embodied lecture considers his practice in relation to decolonization, de-linking, archives, queerness, and contaminations into public space. It is not an attempt to re-write history but rather to view it from a different orientation, in a non-linear way which opens spaces of liminality and possibility, remembrance and healing. It urges us to ask ourselves: How are we complicit with the past we inherited? How are we accomplices of the history of what we consume in the present?
Emilio Rojas is the fall 2022 Teiger Mentor in the Arts.
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
David Cordero-Heredia
Visiting Scholar ’22-’25
David Cordero-Heredia, J.S.D. ’18 is an Associate Professor of Law, at Universidad Católica del Ecuador currently visiting Cornell University as Visiting Fellow of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. He is a Visiting Professor at the Andean University Simón Bolívar (UASB).
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Carolyn Fornoff
Associate Professor, Romance Studies
Carolyn Fornoff is an assistant professor in the Department of Romance Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research explores cultural responses to the environmental crisis in Latin America, with a particular focus on Mexico and Central America. It asks how art helps narrate and make sense of problems like climate change that are temporally expansive and often difficult to see with the naked eye.
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Vanessa Gubbins
Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies
Vanessa Gubbins is an Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies in the Department of Romance Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Yale University. She writes and teaches about Latin American literature of the Andean Region and the Southern Cone, poetics and poetologies, critical theory and critical theory in the Global South, Andean and European philosophies, Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminist theories, and Third Cinema.
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Career Info Session: U.S. Department of State and Public Service Careers
September 27, 2022
5:00 pm
Are you interested in a possible career in public service, and maybe specifically with the U.S. Department of State? Ever wondered what it's like to work in various capacities at State -- ranging from a Foreign Service Officer to policy analyst and intelligence officer -- or how to go about preparing yourself to be a successful applicant for jobs at State?
Please join the Einaudi Center for a virtual discussion about career paths and opportunities at the State Department and in public service, featuring three Cornell alumni who will share their insights:
Benjamin Brake, Director, Office of Cyber Affairs and Emerging Technology, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, U.S. Department of StateJason Oaks, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, U.S. Department of StateEric Anderson, Foreign Service Office, Political Counselor in Islamabad, Pakistan, U.S. Department of StateThis career info session is presented by the Einaudi Center's International Studies Minor, and its outgoing director (Christopher Way) and incoming director (Oumar Ba). The International Relations Minor is open to all Cornell undergraduate students interested in learning about the politics, economics, history, languages, and cultures of the world.
Contact: irm@einaudi.cornell.edu
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Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
East Asia Program
Southeast Asia Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute for African Development
Institute for European Studies
South Asia Program
Children and Youths’ Migration in a Global Landscape Talk
October 5, 2022
10:30 am
Contributing authors of Children and Youths’ Migration in a Global Landscape (Emerald, 2022) are joining the Migrations initiative to speak about their work and writing.
The edited volume asks how transnational mobility shapes the lives of young people and in each chapter, scholars present the stories of children from areas such as Myanmar, India, Hungary, the U.S., and Central America. Individually, these case studies address issues related to educational attainment, family reunification, social mobility, and identity. Collectively, these studies push us to question our assumptions about what it means to be a transnationally mobile child or youth.
The discussion will be moderated by Migrations postdoc Angel Escamilla García and one of the book’s editors, Adrienne Lee Atterberry.
Additional Information
Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Southeast Asia Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute for European Studies
South Asia Program