Summary: Emmanuel Levinas’s concept of ‘alterity’, a term for absolute difference, has influenced a number of scholars who have recently come to be grouped under the label of ‘decolonial’ thinking, such as Enrique Dussel and Nelson Maldonado-Torres. In this talk, I argue that Édouard Glissant’s framing of an ethical relation as emerging from ‘contacts’ with others, defending the ‘opacity’ of others, and ultimately standing in solidarity with others, is more fruitful for decolonial and other Left political pursuits than Levinas’s framing of an ‘encounter’ with a single Other, whose difference is understood in terms of ‘alterity’, and who is ultimately served through reverence. By suggesting a politics through his language of a ‘right to opacity’, Glissant provides actors a path forward.

Bio: Benjamin P. Davis is Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethics at the University of Toronto, Centre for Ethics. Influenced by how thinkers such as Claudia Jones and Édouard Glissant leveraged rights claims to demand fair labor standards, preserve distinct cultural practices, and call for the self-determination of colonies, his work investigates the potential of human rights to challenge enduring inequities rooted in colonial projects.

Artist, poet, and musician José Montoya (1932–2013) was a leading figure of the Chicano movement, producing iconic works in many genres, cofounding the art collective Royal Chicano Air Force, and helping to organize for the United Farm Workers, while also teaching at California State University, Sacramento, and establishing the Barrio Art Program there.

In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk, Ella Maria Diaz, associate professor of Latina/o Studies and Literatures in English, will discuss her recently published book on the life and work of this prominent artist, educator, and activist: José Montoya (Volume 12 of the A Ver Series, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, 2020). Utilizing oral histories, archival, and digital humanities research, Diaz examines Montoya’s long and diverse career while proposing a new model for the study of Latina/o/x artists who transcend boundaries between art, education, and activism. José Montoya is also a visual delight, richly illustrated with reproductions of Montoya’s art from his collections at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at UC Santa Barbara and other institutional collections.

A live Q&A will follow the talk. The audience is encouraged to submit their questions in the chat.

In this talk, we will present an orthographic and lexical analysis of three of the first printed documents in Papiamentu, a Portuguese-based Creole spoken in Curaçao: Prefecto Apostolico di Curacao na Cristian di su mision and Catecismo Corticu, both by M. J. Niewindt (1833, 1837, respectively), and Kamiena di Kroes, by J. J. Putman (1850). Our goal is to show that, even though two contemporary Dutch missionaries wrote them, the texts display significant variations, suggesting a quest for an orthographic standard in Papiamentu's earliest stages.

However, these orthographic standards were divergent. On the one hand, Niewdindt's Prefecto Apostolico and Catecismo contain a Hispanicized etymological orthography. On the other hand, Putman's Kamiena shows some influence from Dutch orthography. Consequently, we defend that both writers tried to establish unique orthographic systems for Papiamentu, forming the basis for the models that would end up as the official standardization of the language at the end of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, using a more Hispanicized orthography or one influenced by Dutch reflects its author's world view on Curaçao and the Netherlands as a political unit. At the same time, these two missionaries were able to propose innovations regarding methodology, objectives, recipients and pedagogical strategies that affected profoundly that society. To analyze the convergent and divergent characteristics of the Niewindt and Putman orthographies, we concentrate on the formal relationships between the graphemes in the texts. Our second objective is to study the lexicon of these documents and evaluate the degree of Iberian or Dutch influence on Papiamentu. From the socio-historical viewpoint, in the context of the nineteenth century Curaçao, Niewindt and Putman were living under an increasing influence from The Netherlands, as the influence from Iberia was fading away whilst Curaçao was also becoming more relevant to the Dutch state. However, Curaçao's society remained divided, marked by the scourge of slavery. It should be understood that within the segregated system in Curaçao in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Jews and the Calvinists neither obliged nor permitted slaves to follow any Jewish or Calvinist rites. Therefore, the Catholic religion practised by slaves was closely linked to their language, Papiamentu (Lampe 2002: 110-3). Thus, we consider that the lexicon of the three texts in Papiamentu is principally Iberian, with an irrelevant number of items of Dutch origin. Hence, the influence of Catholicism on Curaçao was also a linguistic one.

Zoom link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_k5ce9mxUS1uw2S5puZSfRg

References

Lampe, Armando. 2001. Mission or submission? Moravian and catholic missionaries in the Dutch Caribbean during the 19th century. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.

Niewindt, M. J. 1833 [2001]. Prefecto Apostolico di Curacao na Cristian di su mision. Fac-simile edition. Bloemendaal/Curaçao: Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma/Stichting Libri Antilliani.

Niewindt, M. J. 1837 [2001]. Catecismo corticu pa uso di catolicanan di Curaçao, pa M.J. Niewindt. Curaçao. Fac-simile edition. Curaçao/Bloemendaal: Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma/Stichting Libri Antilliani.

Putman, Jacobus Josephus. 1850 [2001]. Kamiena di kroes: ku historia, meditasjon i orasjon kortiekoe, pa J. J. Putman. Fac-simile edition. Bloemendaal: Stichting Libri Antilliani.

Come to the LRC to practice your language skills and meet new people. Conversation Hours provide an opportunity to use the target language in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere. Have fun practicing a language you are learning! Gain confidence through experience! Just using your new language skills helps you learn more than you might think, without instruction or correction. Conversation Hours are are open to any learner, including 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.

The Lingua Mater competition invites students to translate Cornell's Alma Mater into a different language and submit a video of the performed translation. The inaugural Lingua Mater student competition took place in 2018 as part of Cornell's Global Grand Challenges Symposium. The top three videos received cash prizes.

2021 competition details

Can you translate Cornell’s Alma Mater into your mother tongue (or a language you are learning/have learned at Cornell) and sing it? We invite you to translate “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” and submit a video of you (and your friends!) performing it somewhere on any of Cornell’s campuses.

Translations do not need to be exact or perfectly in meter but should capture the feel and tune of our university’s Alma Mater. As is customary, include the first verse, refrain, second verse, and refrain in your video submission (for guidance, listen to a performance and read the lyrics).

Video submissions need to be MP4 files at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Please ensure that you have copyright permission for any images/videos you use.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Submissions will be judged equally on the translation, the musical quality, and the creativity in visual presentation.

The top three entries will win cash prizes.

Winners will be announced during International Education Week (November 15-19, 2021) and the top three videos will be posted online that week.

Entries may be submitted by any registered Cornell student or group of students.

Submission deadline: Monday, November 8, 2021 at 5 pm ET

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO AND LYRICS HERE

Please contact Angelika Kraemer, Director of the Language Resource Center, if you have any questions.

The Lingua Mater competition is co-sponsored by the Language Resource Center and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.

The Africana Studies & Research Center (ASRC) at Cornell University will host a lecture by Meagan Sylvester: People Power Movements in Caribbean Festival Culture

Meagan Sylvester, - Senior Lecturer, Music Sociologist, Author, Researcher.

Meagan Sylvester is a published author from the Caribbean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a UWI, St. Augustine graduate and a Caribbean scholar whose doctoral research focused on Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music. Her continuing interrogation within the academy centers on Music, Gender, and National Identity in Calypso and Soca, Music of Diasporic Carnivals, Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music, Steelpan and kaisoJazz musical identities. Teaching and research interests are Caribbean Music Cultures and African Diaspora Popular Culture.

Registration is required:

https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvf--hrjwuG9UNU8OxHGrUUBkjqH…

This event will occur via Zoom. Please register for the event at the following link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hIX1iOuGSlODljETDSThLQ