Many scholars and practitioners do not necessarily know that the United States occupied Haiti for nineteen years, between 1915 and 1934. It is also not common knowledge that the monies taken from the National Bank of Haiti helped to boost the U.S. economy in the context of the great depression. With the recent assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse followed by the powerful earthquake of August 14, 2021, Haiti has yet again been in the spotlight of mainstream media, and is recurrently labelled as the “poorest country of the Western Hemisphere,” a label that not only ignores the root causes of Haiti’s contemporary issues, but also completely ignores the country’s rich history and resources. Contrary to the general scholarship that has reaffirmed neocolonial tropes about Haiti, Professor Saint Paul will unpack the myth that Haiti is the poorest country, and will explain how U.S. economic interests have driven U.S. political interventions in Haiti, from 1915 to now. The overall goal of the lecture is to raise awareness about the fact that the Caribbean country has been impoverished by powerful transnational social forces, highly influenced by the United States of America. The discussion will also explore the question of whether or not the United States has a moral responsibility in Haiti’s current state of affairs.

Virtual Event via Zoom, please register through the following link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Py9gTMsFSta3oHkkmEQqyQ

What does it take to challenge entrenched judicial dysfunction? In this talk, Janice Gallagher previews the central argument from her forthcoming book, "Bootstrap Justice: The Search for Mexico's Disappeared." She shows how the sustained mobilization of families of the disappeared widens cracks in impunity produced by shifting state-criminal alliances, and highlights the key role of state allies. Speaker is in-person.

Cornell Community may attend in-person at 1pm G01 Stimson Hall

Event is free and open to the public via Zoom--Please register through the following link:

https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5VxY9YHDS5yCp1N-FwG2Lw

Often seen solely as a calamity, El Niño Southern Oscillation has impacted the Peruvian Andes for hundreds of years and has (re)shaped the means of agrarian life for Indigenous and campesino peoples. Based on archival and ethnographic work, this presentation discusses how El Niño and its “disasters” — floods, droughts, and mudslides, and others — are also responsible for spurring adaptation, resilience, and different forms of socioenvironmental organization.

Hybrid (speaker in-person for the Cornell Community)

Free and open to the public by Zoom:

https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iX3_SIpWQqWj4ltARiPQYg

In this moment of hyper-politicized border and migration issues, questions of representation are crucial. This roundtable of scholars, journalists, and practitioners will address the needs and challenges of producing stories about complex border issues along with the potential for different stories to effect real change. Our panelists are actively documenting, producing, circulating, and reflecting on migration stories through a range of media and will share from their own work, focusing especially on the contentious borderspaces of the southern U.S. and southern Europe. This discussion is organized by the Migrations initiative and co-sponsored by the East Asia Program, the Institute for European Studies, the Department of Sociology, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the School of Public Policy.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

Key questions that journalists, academics, and practitioners consider in producing and responding to stories and coverage of migration issuesHow different media shape what stories get told and who they reachHow the politicization of migration affects what stories do and do not get toldThe possibilities that different media and storytelling practices offer for challenging dominant narratives or providing more complex accountsThe role that images play in communicating migration and border issues to the public

Author Patrícia Lino will be presenting and discussing her recent book, O Kit de Sobrevivência do Descobridor Português no Mundo Anticolonial (2020).

Patrícia Lino (1990) is a poet, an essayist, and an Assistant Professor at UCLA, where she teaches Luso-Brazilian literatures and cinema. Lino is the author of O Kit de Sobrevivência do Descobridor Português no Mundo Anticolonial (2020), Não é isto um livro (2020), and Manoel de Barros e A Poesia Cínica (2019). She recently directed DAEDALUS 22/1 (BRA 2021), Anticorpo. A Parody of the Laughable Empire (US-POR 2019) and Vibrant Hands (US-POR 2019). She is also the author of the mixed poetry album I Who Cannot Sing (2020). Lino presented, published, and exhibited essays, poems, and illustrations in more than seven countries. Her current research focuses on contemporary poetry, visual and audiovisual culture, parody and anticolonialism, ​and Luso-Brazilian film. She works as a researcher member at the UCLA Latin American Institute and as a collaborator at Instituto de Literatura Comparada Margarida Losa. Lino is also the co-editor of escamandro, a Brazilian magazine dedicated to poetry and criticism.

Virtual Event Zoom link:

https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_31pGp-mdRGmtvhPvHMrTAw

Welcome, introduction to, and opening of the Fall 2021 semester's Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program's weekly seminar series.

Professor Cora Fernandez Anderson will be discussing her book "Fighting for Abortion Rights in Latin America: Social Movements, State Allies and Institutions," and analyzing the recent legalization of abortion in Argentina which happened after publication.

This chapter illustrates how after the Mexican Revolution in the 1920s, the Yucatan Peninsula became a prolific region for experimentation and development of modern apiculture in the tropics. To illustrate this aspect, I reconstruct the work of the first bee-experts that promoted the systematic relocation of the European honeybee or Apis Mellifera in the 1920s by designing what they called “tropical apiculture,” in the Yucatan Peninsula. By reconstructing the birth of the apiculturist figure in the countryside, this chapter shows how bee experts popularized this practice and installed apiaries, taught in communities the theory and practice of modern apiculture, and made the necessary adjustments to implement “modern hives” in the localities.

In-Person at G01 Stimson Hall-Cornell Community Only

and for the General Public, via Zoom registration link at:

https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u9OHfhlqRpyiYgAQfFiFOA

The Institute for African Development (IAD) Summer Africa Internship program provides sophomores, juniors and rising senior undergraduate students with challenging practical fieldwork in Africa. Application deadline is February 28th. Internships are available in Ghana and Zambia. Those interested in applying must attend two seminars in the IAD Special Topic Seminar Series (CRP 4770) and a pre-departure meeting.

Contact: iad@cornell.edu