LACS FILM SERIES with Zoom Q&A with Director Michele Stephenson

Kaufmann Auditorium (G64 Goldwin Smith Hall) 6 PM

Stateless looks at the complex politics of immigration and race in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, using a combination of magical realism and hidden camera techniques.

Hear from four Latin American and Caribbean political cartoonists on the challenges of their craft and creativity across the region. The session will be moderated by Nicaraguan political cartoonist Pedro X. Molina, IIE Artist Protection Fund Fellow and Visiting Critic at the Einaudi Center's Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS). A hybrid event.

Panelists
Angel Boligan (Boligán – Cartooning for Peace), Cuba/Mexico
Rayma Suprani (RAYMA – Cartooning for Peace), Venezuela
Xavier Bonilla (BONIL – Cartooning for Peace), Ecuador

Moderator
Pedro X Molina (PxMolinA), Nicaragua/USA, winner of the 2021 Gabo Award for Excellence

Join us in person in G-01 Stimson Hall (to the right of Day Hall) at 5:00 pm. Portions will be in Spanish with simultaneous translation available on Zoom.

Join us online by registering at: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_F90ezDImTkiMkxFJ7jhA8w

Join us for an informative information session on Africa summer internships on October 22, 2021 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. in G-08 Uris Hall. Summer 2021 interns will also be presenting on their summer research projects, so it will be a great opportunity to learn about what our Africa summer internships entail!

Register here: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEtd-6opj8pGtWmcjCUTsXHcne-3p…

The new film from the critically acclaimed filmmaker of American Promise, looks at the complex politics of immigration and race in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, using a combination of magical realism and hidden camera techniques. Director Michèle Stephenson will do a Q&A session via Zoom with the audience.

Co-sponsored by the Migrations Initiative, Department of Anthropology, and Department of History

Please register through the following link:
https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5jrGp_7CRniDXYgvKp_s7g

Sugarcane was one of the first crops introduced into Brazil by the Portuguese, and it has dominated the country’s political and economic formation since. In recent years, the highly modern, input-intensive ethanol industry has taken hold in a new region of Brazil, the former soybean fields of Mato Grosso do Sul. In this talk, Fernanda will outline her research into conflicts in this new sugarcane region between large-scale, highly-capitalized agro-industrialists and indigenous peoples who claim historic rights to the land in Mato Grosso do Sul. Through a case study of the Raízen-Caarapó ethanol plant, she will examine changing land use patterns, livelihoods and norms as expressed through claims to the land.

Fernanda Santa Roza Ayala Martins is a PhD student in the Social Sciences Graduate Program on Development, Agriculture and Society (CPDA) in the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ). She is a visiting PhD student with Global Development in CALS with a scholarship from the Brazilian Federal Foundation for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES).

Abstract

The dynamics of aggregate public opinion|particularly Stimson's (1991) measure of policy mood|have been long used to explain electoral outcomes and government responsiveness in the United States. However, we still know little about policy mood outside the US and a few Western European countries. Understanding the relationship between policy and electoral preferences outside the pool of advanced democracies is crucial as voters outside that particular context are often depicted as outcome-oriented. This paper extends the study of opinion dynamics by estimating Uruguayans' policy mood between 1993 and 2019, using 79 different questions administrated 297 times. In doing so, we first show that Uruguay's policy mood is largely thermostatic, responding to changes in government, suggesting that movements in aggregate policy preferences are relevant in an other-wise outcome-oriented region as Latin America. Second, we provide strong evidence in favor of the distinctiveness of operational and symbolic preferences in a new and previously unexplored context. Overall, the article contributes to the scarce literature on aggregated public opinion measures of policy preferences, ideology and political preferences in Latin America and shows the relevance to measure preferences in public opinion studies.

"Critical Thinking in World Language Teaching"
Mariame Sy
Director of the African Language Program and Lecturer of Wolof and Pulaar, Columbia University

Critical thinking, an essential element across academic fields, has been at the heart of education for decades. While research on language education and critical thinking remains somewhat timid, it continues to gain ground among academic communities. Available studies strongly suggest that pedagogical practices that wed world language teaching and critical thinking can facilitate language acquisition and enhance general proficiency. Despite this progress in the research field, there is nonetheless a general reluctance to integrate critical thinking in language teaching practices (Li, 2011; Pica, 2000) because, arguably, its integration presents more challenges for language educators than for teachers in other fields (Lin, Preston, Kharrufa, & Kong, 2016). However, while this statement may be true for teachers of major languages, teachers of the so-called less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) might be more inclined to take on these challenges. As decision-makers of their courses, teachers of LCTLs have opportunities to create innovative practices by engaging in three types of decisions: educational outcomes (what learners can do), content (what should be/is taught), and manner (how the goals of teaching language are achieved).
While recognizing the many challenges – including historical marginalization and inadequate institutional support – in this presentation I aim to shed light on the importance of integrating critical thinking in the language teaching and to explore models and ways of designing materials that can facilitate the integration of critical thinking in the African language classroom. While examples are provided from African languages classrooms, the principles and ideas are applicable to all languages.

Bio: Dr. Mariame Sy is a Lecturer in African Languages and the Director of the African Language Program in the Department of Middle Eastern South Asian and African Studies at Columbia University. She began teaching Wolof in 2001 in the Linguistics Department at UCLA and has since taught Wolof and Pulaar at several institutions, including the Summer Cooperative African Language Institute (SCALI) and The Colorado Project study abroad program in Senegal. She also teaches French in the African Languages Flagship Initiative summer program. Her publications include academic articles on the morpho-phonology and syntax of Wolof and she has two upcoming elementary-level textbooks in Wolof and Pulaar (with Africa World Press and the National African Language Resource Center).
She is also a co-developer of a Wolof video course and has designed a flipped classroom for beginning Introductory Wolof to provide students with supplemental technology-based opportunities to enhance proficiency in key areas of difficulty by practicing outside the classroom setting. Her current work focuses on developing a curriculum based on performance assessments and what learners should understand, know, and be able to do.
She is the current President of the African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) and the Vice President of the Senegambian Studies Group.

This event will be held in person in G25 Stimson and will also be streamed live over Zoom. Join us at the LRC or on Zoom.

The event is free and open to the public. Campus visitors and members of the public must adhere to Cornell's public health requirements for events, which include wearing masks while indoors and providing proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test.

Co-sponsored by the Language Resource Center and the Institute for African Development at Cornell University.

Join the Institute for African Development for our conversation hour in Tumbuka on 10/5! Learn about traditional and cultural norms in Malawi as well as greetings, basic vocabulary and phrases in Tumbuka! (No previous knowledge of Tumbuka or African languages necessary!)