CLAS Events > Winter Quarter 2007-08 Calendar

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Friday, January 11, 12:00 - 1:00 PM

Brazil Working Group

January 11, 12:15pm

DANIEL DALAROSSA

Brazilian Choro and American Ragtime: similarities, history and influences

Daniel Dalarossa is the founder of Global Choro Music Corporation, a recording and publishing company based in California, USA, focused on promoting Brazilian Choro Music. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dalarossa began his music studies with the flute recorder at the age of fourteen. From the age of nineteen, he studied transverse flute with late Professor Joao Dias Carrasqueira. Dalarossa has been involved with Choro Music since his teenage years and his dream of seeing this style of music promoted worldwide began to materialize in 2006, when Global Choro Music Corp was founded. Since then, Dalarossa has been extensively traveling throughout United States, Europe and Brazil, recording, playing and promoting Choro Music and the playalong albums.

Tuesday, January 15
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito), 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

January 15, 12:15pm

Dr. MARIZA SOARES

"Transplanted Africans and the Catholic Church: the Inquisition and the Black Brotherhoods in 18th century, Brazil"

The presentation will describe the variety of West African nations in Brazil during the Eighteen Century in order to show that Africans acted differently by practicing witchcraft, ethnic worships, converting to Catholic Church, and sometimes moving from one to the other, depending on the situation. The focus of the presentation will be to give an example of how transplanted enslaved Africans formally submitted to colonial power and ecclesiastical rules yet made use of the Inquisition to manage beliefs and religious power within the Black Catholic Brotherhoods.

Dr. Mariza Soares is an Associate Professor in the History Department at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is responsible for teaching courses on slavery and African diaspora. Prof. Soares is also the Director of the Núcleo de Estudos Brasil-África (NEAF), which is linked with the International Office at UFF. Since 2002, Prof. Soares has been a Network Professor of the Harriet Tubman Resource Centre on the African Diaspora at York University. Her book, Devotos da Cor. Identidade étnica, religiosidade e escravidão no Rio de Janeiro, século XVII, is currently under contract with Duke University Press and is being translated into English. She has worked on several research projects, including Mina People in Rio de Janeiro (funded by the Tubman Centre, Canada), and Ecclesiastical Sources and Historical Research on the African Diaspora in Brazil and Cuba, directed by Jane Landers (funded by NEH, U.S.). She is presently directing the project, Acervo Digital Angola Brasil (funded by CNP, Brazil) for digitalizing historical documents in Rio de Janeiro and Luanda. Her current research focuses on slave trade and African Diaspora in the period from 1680 to 1720.

Tuesday, January 15, 7:00 PM (Film Series)

Brazil Film Series

Screeing of O Auto da Compadecida (A Dog's Will), 108 minutes, Portuguese with English subtitles

One of the best Brazilian comedies ever made! Winner of the 2001 Cinema Brazil Grand Prize and 2001 Audience Award at the Miami Brazilian Film Festival. Directed by Guel Arraes

Plot: Two poor but resourceful young men, Jack and Chico, go looking for work. They get a job at a bakery, where the mean owner feeds them food so awful that when they give it to a dog, it kills the poor animal, leading the boys to fast-talk a priest into giving the dog a funeral mass. Later, shy Chico falls in love with beautiful Rosinha but Chico is too timid to approach her. Jack is able to fool Rosinha's boyfriends into leaving town, leaving the field open for his friend. And finally, a gang of ruthless criminals invades the town and goes on a murder spree.

Wednesday, January 16, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Santiago and Madrid: Bing Overseas Study Information Session & Reception

Panel Presentation and Discussion

Lunch provided

Are you interested in traveling abroad and getting Stanford credit? Come learn about the Bing Overseas Study sites in Santiago, Chile and Madrid, Spain. Dr. Herbert Klein and Dr. Susan Cashion will talk about their teaching experiences in these Stanford programs. And, students who have participated in the Overseas program will share their perspectives.

Wednesday, January 16, 7:00 PM

Latin American Microfinance Working Group

Talk by STEVE HARDGRAVE, Program Director at Gray Matters Capital

As Director of GMC’s Program area, Steve Hardgrave brings considerable international development and financial expertise to the task of identifying emerging opportunities that can be developed into viable ventures. Fluent in Spanish, Steve spent seven years in Mexico, first working with a Mexican community development NGO (AMEXTRA), and then launching a successful microfinance institution. He also worked in the Emerging Markets Solutions Group at Hewlett Packard, and was an Investment Manager for Omidyar Network.

Steve is President of the Board of Advisors for the Global Social Venture Competition, and serves on the boards of the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and Partners in Hope. He graduated with a BA in Economics & International Area Studies from UCLA, and earned his MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at UC, Berkeley.

Conference, Saturday, January 19, 8:30 AM - 6:00 PM

Increasing Access to Water by the Poor in Latin America: Institutional Innovations, Networks and Small Scale Providers

By invitation only. For more information, please contact Rebeca Hwang (rebecahwang@gmail.com)

Conference Overview

Lack of access to water by the poor in Latin America is a pressing problem. Recently, water cooperatives and other small scale providers have generated excitement in the international development community as an institutional mechanism for water delivery that has potential to serve low-income areas where water connections from centralized public and private utilities are not available. In addition, studies have shown the role of knowledge systems and social networks in creating institutional innovation and the diffusion of sustainable solutions for the water problem in Latin America. The goal of this interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together university researchers, officials from the public sector and international funding agencies to review and to investigate aspects of a crucial public policy dilemma: how to improve the access to safe water of the poor in South America.

Conference Objective

Water provision for the poor is an issue of global significance. With a fifth of the world without access to safe water and millions of people dying from water-borne health problems every year, addressing this problem has become a priority for the international development community and domestic policy-makers.

The lack of universal access to safe water in many Latin American countries is well known. Population in the South America is growing rapidly, and poverty is growing hand-in-hand with population. This population growth is not accompanied by the appropriate infrastructure that meets the demand for water both for consumption and other uses. The social, health and environmental consequences of inadequate provision of water are worrisome. This interdisciplinary workshop will gather perspectives from key researchers and decision makers that can contribute to finding efficient and sustainable solutions to this problem.

The workshop participants will come from several disciplines, including environmental engineering and management, ecology, sociology, and public policy. Discussions are expected to facilitate the exploration of innovative combinations of different research areas.

Tentative Agenda - January 19

8:30 AM: Registration and Breakfast
9:00 AM: Introductory Remarks and Objectives by Dr. Len Ortolano
9:15 AM: Welcome address and Keynote presentation by Judy Baker
10:00 AM: "Institutional Innovation and Water: The case of Bolivia" by Dr. Jenna Davis
10:30 AM: Coffee Break
10:45 AM: "Social Networks and Water Cooperatives in Argentina" by Rebeca Hwang
11:15 AM: "Social Capital in Water Provision in Argentina" by Nicolas Cha
11:45 AM:Discussion: "Networks, Institutional Innovation and Water Provision in Latin America"
12:30 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: "Linking knowledge with action in the pursuit of sustainable water management in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico" by Ellen McCullough
2:30 PM: Discussion: "Knowledge Systems, Diffusion of Innovation and Water"
3:00 PM: Coffee Break
3:15 PM: "The Policy Makers Perspective" by Gustavo Saltiel
3:45 PM: Discussion: "Promising Future Research Areas That Can Inform Public Policy on How to Improve Access of Water by the Latin American Poor"
5:00 PM: Closing Remarks
6:00 PM: Dinner

Notes on the speakers:

Judy Baker is a senior economist in the World Bank’s Transport and Urban Development network

Nicolas Cha is a Principal Investigator at the Centro de Investigaciones en Estadística Aplicada (CINEA) at the Universidad de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Argentina.

Jenna Davis is an Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University

Rebeca Hwang is a Ph.D. Candidate for the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University

Ellen McCullough is an economist in the Agricultural Development Economics division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (Rome )

Leonard Ortolano is a UPS Foundation Professor in the Civil and Environmental Department at Stanford University

Gustavo Saltiel is a Senior Water Specialist at the World Bank

Organized by Professor Leonard Ortolano and Rebeca Hwang.

Tuesday, January 22
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito), 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

January 22 , 12:15pm<

Dr. KARINA GALPERIN

"Ercilla´s "La Araucana" and the Critique of Empire"

Talk in Spanish

This lecture will focus on the episode of Dido in the third part of La Araucana, where Ercilla pauses to praise Dido´s African empire and to denounce Virgil for distorting historical reality in order to flatter Augustus. Dr. Galperin will show how Ercilla uses Dido to present a utopian counterexample to the Spanish brutal colonization of America. Moreover, by locating this utopian empire in Carthage (Tunis at the time of the poem), Ercilla inscribes the American campaigns at the heart of La Araucana within the larger context of the Spanish imperial exploits. At the same time, Dr. Galperin will argue that Ercilla´s rejection of Virgil as a servile tool of Augustus´ political needs has to be read in the light of Ercilla´s own relationship to Philip II, to whom the poem is dedicated.

Karina Galperín is an Assistant Professor at the Torcuato Di Tella University. She received her Ph.D. (2002) in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University, where she returned as a Visiting Scholar in the spring of 2006. She has been commended for her instruction of Spanish language and literature. Her current research examines female narrators in early modern Iberia. In 2003, she was a Visiting Professor at Stanford’s Spanish and Portuguese Department. As a Visiting Scholar in Latin American Studies, Dr. Galperín will investigate early modern Spain through painter and sculptor Alonso Berruguete and poet Alonso de Ercilla.

Friday, January 25, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Monica Miller Walsh Grant Presentations

January 25, 12pm: Student Presentations

Lunch served

The Monica Miller Walsh Grant awards up to $3,000 to Stanford students wishing to undertake an independent internship in Latin America. For more information, please see: www.stanford.edu/group/las/funding/undergrad_summer_intgrants.html

Recipients of the Monica Miller Walsh Grant for the summer of 2007 will present experiences from their Latin American internships and the work they conducted.

If you are interested in working abroad this summer, stop by to learn more about this exciting opportunity or contact Geraldine Slean (slean@stanford.edu).

Monday, January 28, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Graduate Lecture Series

MIKE ALBERTUS, Ph.D. candidate in Political Science

"Democracy and Persistent Inequality in Latin America"

The assumption that the majority of enfranchised voters in a democracy will vote to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, and that this will stymie or undercut democracy in societies with high economic inequality, has played a significant role in a number of influential studies on the causes of democratic transition and duration. Yet the histories of many countries in which democracy and acute inequality coexist, most prominently those in Latin America, frequently violate this assumption and provide cause to doubt its validity. What accounts for the persistence of inequality in Latin America despite democratic rule? A new data set on land reform in Latin America from 1951-90 demonstrates that authoritarian regimes are not only historically more likely to implement heavy redistribution, but have also varied in their redistribution policies more than democracies. The fact that authoritarianism is uncertain both in its effects and duration has been a major factor supporting a democratic equilibrium in many of these states. The elite generally prefer to support democracy when the outcome under an authoritarian alternative is sufficiently difficult to divine, and this uncertainty may simultaneously induce moderation in redistribution under democratic regimes, enabling both inequality and democracy to survive.

Tuesday, January 29
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito), 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

January 29 , 12:15pm

Dr. CHARLES WALKER

"Fear Behind the Lines: Priests and Treachery in the Tupac Amaru Rebellion (1780-1783)"

Documentation has been found on royalist priests who stayed behind enemy lines in the midst of the Tupac Amaru Rebellion. On the one hand, their correspondence provides a fresh perspective on the uprising, particularly the questions of violence, fear, and the racial definition of the enemy. On the other hand, it shows how the colonial state and church thwarted the Tupac Amaru rebels' efforts to control the area militarily and ideologically. This forms part of a narrative history of the rebellion that Dr. Walker is writing.

Dr. Charles Walker received an MA from Stanford's Latin American Studies Center in 1982. He lived in Peru and completed a doctorate at the University of Chicago. Charles is currently an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas at UC, Davis. In March 2008, Duke University Press will publish his book, Shaky Colonialism, on the 1746 earthquake and tsunami in Lima.

Wednesday, January 30, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Dr. MIEKO NISHIDA

“Whites with Slanted Eyes: Japanese Brazilians and Their Changing Identities in São Paulo"

This lecture explores the complexities of Japanese Brazilian identity in contemporary São Paulo, which holds the largest concentration of Japanese descendents outside Japan. In the city of São Paulo, Japanese Brazilians are racially placed as Whites and also identify themselves as such, based on their collective socio-economic position as participants in the urban middle class. Yet, their claims to participate in whiteness are widely undermined by racial/ethnic references or markers such as “slanted eyes.” Such social markers serve to keep them separated from general white Brazilian society. Based on extensive life-history interviews and archival research in the city of São Paulo, Nishida analyzes the meanings of the phrase “slanted eyes” for Japanese Brazilian identities. Japanese Brazilians’ prevalent practice of “whitening” through college education and interracial mixing, in relation to gender is discussed. Nishida also examines the significant effects that their large-scale “return” labor migrations to Japan (called “dekassegui”) have had on Japanese Brazilians since the mid-1980s, especially among the elite college students and young professionals and their recent movement to “revitalize” movement of Nikkei (Japanese descendent) identity.

Mieko Nishida is Associate Professor and Dewar Professor of History at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. She holds a Ph.D. in history from The Johns Hopkins University. Nishida’s research centers on race, ethnicity, and gender in nineteenth- and twentieth- century Brazil, with special emphasis on identity formation. She is the author of Slavery and Identity: Ethnicity, Gender, and Race in Salvador, Brazil, 1808-1888 (Indiana University Press, 2003). Nishida is a recipient of a pre-doctoral research fellowship at the Carter G. Woodson Institute of University of Virginia; and a Rockefeller Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin. She was also a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University’s Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts, as well as at the University of Maryland-College Park’s History Department and Center for Latin American Studies. She is currently at work on a book manuscript on Japanese Brazilian Women in São Paulo, Brazil.

Monday, February 4, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Dr. DAIN BORGES, Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago

"Residential Segregation in Brazilian Cities around 1872"

The first Brazilian census, conducted in 1872, shows very low levels of urban residential segregation by color and surprisingly high levels of segregation by occupation. This confirms some recent analyses of racial conditions in Brazil, but it challenges explanations of the historical development of race relations.

Dain Borges, Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago, has an M.A. in Latin American Studies and a Ph.D. in History from Stanford University. He is the author of The Family in Bahia, Brazil, 1870-1945, and of articles on Brazilian intellectual history.

Tuesday, February 5
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito), 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

February 5 , 12:15pm

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO

"Trayectoria Politica Indigena en los Paises Centroandinos"

Event in Spanish

El tema de esta presentacion es el desarollo politico indigena durante la vida republicana de Peru, Boliva, y Ecuador.

Jose Carlos Fajardo, Lecturer, teaches Quechua classes through the Stanford Language Center’s Special Language Program. He is a lawyer by training and is a Peruvian political scientist. He has studied in Peru, Spain, France, Italy, and the United States. He is a native of Peru.

CANCELLED! - Wednesday, February 6, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row) - CANCELLED!

Dr. CARLOS MARICHAL

"Bankruptcy of Empire: Mexican Silver and the Wars between Spain, Britain and France"

During the 18century in the western hemisphere, the Spanish empire proved more resilient – in many ways – than the colonial regimes of Great Britain or France. The French lost effective control of Canada and the vast territory of Louisiana after 1763 and of their richest Caribbean colony, Haiti, in 1803. The British were forced to let go their most important North American colonies (the United States) in 1783. In contrast, the huge Spanish American empire remained in place until the wars of independence, 1810–1825. This resiliency – in an era of revolution and war in the Atlantic world – undoubtedly merits more historical analysis and debate in the future. In any case, it bespeaks the capacity of the Spanish Bourbon administration in transforming the tax structure in the colonies into an effective engine of imperial defense. This talk focuses on the viceroyalty of New Spain, because in terms of colonial tax productivity, it is hard to find examples in history that surpass Mexico in the eighteenth century. Mexican tax silver not only covered the costs of its colonial administration and military forces but also served to finance deficits of Spain itself and of large parts of the empire. As the richest tax colony of the eighteenth century, the viceroyalty of New Spain served as a fiscal submetropolis that assured the capacity of the imperial state to defend itself in a time of successive international conflicts.

Carlos Marichal, who received his Ph D in History from Harvard University (1977), is professor of Latin American economic history at El Colegio de Mexico, a leading research and postgraduate institute. He has been visiting professor at Stanford University (1998-1999), the Universidad Carlos III at Madrid (1996), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1994), Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (1990 and 1993) among other academic centers. He is author of Bankruptcy of Empire, Mexican Silver and the Wars between Spain, Great Britain and France, 1760-1810, Cambridge University Press, 2007. He is also author of A Century of Debt Crises in Latin America: From Independence to the Great Depression, 1920-1930, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1989. Editor of over a dozen books in English and Spanish on Mexican and Latin American economic history, he has published over fifty articles in academic journals and over thirty chapters in scholarly books. He has been founder and past president (200-2004) of the Asociación Mexicana de Historia Económica, which groups 180 professors in the field, nationally and internationally. He received a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship in 1994/95. He is member of the Mexican Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, nivel III. At present and until 2008 he is an elected member of the Governing Board (Junta de Gobierno) of El Colegio de México.

Thursday, February 7, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Honors and Minor Degree Information Session

Presentation of Degree Opportunities in Latin American Studies

Lunch Provided

Are you interested in learning about the Amazon, the Aztecs, or FTAs? Latin American Studies has a regional focus that allows for interdisciplinary study of ecology, anthropology, political science, economics, and more. Over 65 faculty are affiliated with the Center across 23 departments. The Center offers minors, honors, and co-term programs.

For additional information, contact Megan Gorman (megorman@stanford.edu) or Geraldine Slean (slean@stanford.edu).

Minor

Complete ONLY 25 units of required Minor coursework, which are not redundant with Major coursework

Any 5-unit survey course on Latin America
20 units at 100 level or higher on particular issue or topic (e.g., culture and identity, sustainable development, political economy, etc.)
Courses at foreign universities can count towards the degree. Only 10 of the 25 units must be completed at Stanford.

Demonstrate proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese through coursework or ACTFL score
Apply by end of junior year by submitting online proposal of coursework

Honors

Complete 35 units of required coursework that can be double counted toward Major requirements

Any 5-unit survey course on Latin America
Three 4-5-unit courses at 100 level or higher on region
LATINAM 198, Honors Thesis course
LATINAM 301 Honors Thesis Seminar, Social Change in Latin America: Social Policy and Demographic and Social Change since 1900 (Fall of Senior year, 5 units)
Courses at foreign universities can count towards the degree.

Demonstrate proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese through coursework or ACTFL score
Submit a thesis
Maintain a 3.3 GPA in LAS coursework
Apply by end of junior year by submitting online proposal of coursework

Monday, February 11, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Graduate Lecture Series

CARLOS LEVER, Ph.D. candidate in Economics

"Implications of Strategic Competition for Centrality on a Social Network"

A long standing topic in Social Network Analysis is coming up with measures that capture who are the "central" actors in Social Networks. A salient one is Freeman centrality. Frequently, although many times implicitly, it's assumed that these centrality positions are a measure of more "desirable" positions in a network. These measures also implicitly use an intuitive notion of how information or services would flow through the network. My research analysis counter-intuitive phenomena that can happen when people strategically try to exploit for their "central" position.

Tuesday, February 12
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito); 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

February 12, 12:15pm

Dr. EDWARD MIGUEL, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley

"The Price of Political Opposition: Evidence from Venezuela's Maisanta"

Do individuals who join the political opposition pay an economic price? We study this question using unique information on individual political activity from Hugo Chvez's Venezuela, the Maisanta database. The names of millions of pro-opposition supporters who signed recall petitions (seeking to remove Chvez from office) during 2002-2003, and the names of pro-government supporters who signed counter-petitions, were made public. Media accounts detail how this information has been utilized by both sides: by the Government to punish opposition supporters and firms, and by the overwhelmingly pro-opposition private sector to discriminate against government supporters in hiring. After linking this political database to both national household survey and manufacturing firm data, we find that pro-opposition individuals experience significant drops in total earnings after 2003. There is extensive churning in the labor market: pro-opposition individuals disproportionately leave public sector employment and pro-government individuals leave private sector employment. Pro-opposition firms have falling total employment, less access to foreign exchange, and rising tax burdens (possibly due to selective audits). The misallocation of resources associated with political polarization between 1999-2004 contributed to a decline of 5% in TFP in our sample. To the extent other regimes can identify and punish the political opposition, these findings may help explain why dislodging authoritarian regimes often proves difficult in less developed countries.

Edward Miguel is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 2000. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow, and S.B. in both Economics and Mathematics from MIT. Prof. Miguel's research focus is African economic development, including work on the economic causes and consequences of violence; the impact of ethnic divisions on local collective action; and interactions between health, education, and productivity for the poor. He has conducted field work in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and India. He is a Faculty Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, co-Editor of the Journal of Human Resources, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Development Economics and Review of Economics and Statistics. He is the recipient of the 2005 Sloan Fellowship, and of the 2005 Kenneth J. Arrow Prize for the Best Paper in Health Economics awarded annually by the International Health Economics Association.

Wednesday, February 13, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Dr. MARCO PAMPLONA

"The History of Political Concepts and Nation-State Building in Brazil: The Concept of Nation in the Political Debates of the Early 19th Century."

Marco A. Pamplona is a professor of history at the Universidade federal Fluminense and at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica, in Rio de Janeiro. He deals with topics related to state making and nation building, citizenship, and the idea of republic in the Americas from a comparative perspective. He has published Riots, Republicanism, and Citizenship (1996), later translated to Portuguese (2003), Revendo o Sonho Americano: 1890-1972 (1996); he has edited Escravidão, exclusão e cidadania (2001); and, he co-edited Nationalism in the New World (2006) and Revoluções de Independência e nacionalismos nas Américas (2007). In addition he wrote several articles for international journals comparing nineteenth-century intellectuals and nationalism in Iberian America. He is the director of the Fulbright Chair at PUC-Rio, in Brazil.

Friday, February 15, 12:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Skills Workshop Series: Research Design

FOOD SERVED!

DR. HERBERT KLEIN

"Research Design Basics in Developing Countries"

This presentation will cover the following topics:

1. Issues in Picking a Research Topic: Its importance within a well defined field of research, its relevance to the field of inquiry, the practicalities of completing the research and writing within a fixed time limit, its relationship to your own abilities and limitations.

2. Defining the hypotheses which will be tested and the tools needed to test these hypotheses. How will the data be analyzed and when will you know that you have completed your research.

3. Defining the sources: What sources will you need to analyze the theme you have collected. How relevant and representative are these sources. How readily available are they and can they be collected in the time frame of your project.

4. Constructing a research proposal based on the first three themes.

Tuesday, February 19
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito), 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

February 19 , 12:15pm

DR. MARIA CHRISTINA ROJAS

"Colombia’s Regime of Governance 2002-2006: Securitization, Dispossession and Resistance"

Two portraits emerge from analyses of contemporary Colombia. In one, the country is eliminating conflict as a result of the demobilization of the paramilitary, a decreasing crime rate and rising economic prosperity. In the other, the structures of organized violence will likely persist despite the demobilization process, the concentration of wealth is worsening, the rights of victims are ignored and a paramilitary mentality is permeating the social fabric. This presentation argues that the two portraits are not contradictory. I contend that during Uribe’s presidency there has been a transformation in the way Colombians are governed that facilitates economic growth and a selective reduction of criminality but at the same time favours a movement in authoritarian directions in the relations between citizens and between citizens and the state. Uribe’s government encourages creative combinations of inclusive and productive practices of government with coercive and repressive practices. Productive technologies include the use of vigilante practices by citizens, the promotion of cooperatives of workers without rights, the re-drawing of the frontier between crime and politics, and the application of economic incentives that result in human rights violations; I characterize this strategy as “inclusive security”. These productive technologies run parallel with repressive forms of power such as arbitrary detentions, executions, and disappearances. As a reaction to these authoritarian tendencies, equally creative forms of resistance have emerged. One is the presence of a democratic left, the Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA – Democratic Alternative Pole), which rejects all forms of violence. However, the most vocal and innovative alternatives are formulated by Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peace communities and women’s organizations, which voice an opposition to neo-liberalism and free trade and propose alternative economies in the name of a politics of life. As a theoretical framework, the presentation uses a modified version of David Harvey’s (2003, 2007) accumulation by dispossession. A de-colonial perspective allows the incorporation of the views of those who refuse the terms and conditions of their dispossession. I incorporate a vision of neo-liberalism that is concerned with the practical problem of governing states and their population, as is proposed by the governmentality approach.

Cristina Rojas, Associate Professor, School of International Affairs, Carleton University; visiting scholar at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of North Carolina; CERLAC at York University and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Her most recent books are Elusive Peace. International, National and Local Dimensions of Conflict in Colombia (Palgrave 2005), co-editor; and Civilization and Violence. Regimes of Representation in Nineteenth Century Colombia (Minnesota 2002). Her recent articles have been published in Globlizations, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Revista Venezolana de Econoía y Ciencias Sociales, Review of International Political Economy, Alternatives.

Thursday, February 21, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

JENNIE POPP discusses her research,

" Language Attitudes and Mapuche Bilingual Education Policies in Nueva Imperial, Chile"

The Mapuche are the main indigenous group in Chile, with 87% of the total indigenous population. In recent years there has been a growing interest, both in the public and private sectors, in funding programs that promote Mapuche culture and traditions.Some of these programs go in the direction of bilingual education; however, little research has been done on Mapuche´s language attitudes. My research focuses on language attitudes among the Mapuche of Nueva Imperial, a town whose population is 54% Mapuche, and which is the gateway to the rural Mapuche communities. As it turns out, the Mapuche of Nueva Imperial are not as interested in bilingual education as they are supposed to be.

Jennie Popp was born in Chile into a multicultural family. She studied Literature and Linguistics at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where she received an M.A. in Hispanic Literature. Currently, she is working on her Ph.D. dissertation in Sociolinguistics (Universidad de Valladolid-Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile). She is a Spanish Lecturer at the Stanford University Center in Santiago, Chile. She also teaches at Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello, and has been a lecturer at Pontificia Universidad Católica and Universidad del Pacífico. She was also a Programme Coordinator and Spanish Lecturer at University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Thursday, February 21, 6:00 - 8:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Charlene Music photo exhibit Photo Exhibit

February 13, 6:00 pm: Reception, Photo Exhibit, and Film Screening

Bolivar House just inaugurated a new photo exhibit of life in Cuba by M.F.A. student, CHARLENE MUSIC. Please join us as we discuss these works, hear from the artist, and admire the collection.

FOOD SERVED!

6:00 PM: Exhibit Opens

6:30 PM: Film Screening, 'Hablemos' (Directed by Charlene Music; Costa Rica; 16 min.; 2007)

Life in much of downtown San José, Costa Rica is plagued by crime and destitution. After spending 15 years in prison, from the time he was 17, Koki takes a video camera back to the Red Light District to document this reality and to search for answers about his own fall.

'Hablemos' combines Koki's footage as he revisits the Red Light District with his personal experiences of poverty, drug use, crime, and the prison system. At the same time this is a story of hope, as Koki exemplifies the changes that can be made in one's life, for oneself, one's children and family.

6:45 PM: Discussion with artist, Charlene Music

CHARLENE MUSIC, Photographer and Filmmaker

When I discovered the world through my camera for the first time, a whole new creation of extraordinary details and powerful gazes stirred me awake. Suddenly I found beauty in everything around me.

From the time I started photography, I immediately realized my passion for showing people and their situations. My camera became an excuse to explore, and my photography became a way of living lives different from mine –– a way of establishing a connection with people I would never otherwise meet.

As the years pass, my passion grows. My challenge and inspiration is to use film and photography to explore human rights or other social concerns, to empower communities, and to effect change.

I took these photographs during a trip I made to Centro Habana, Cuba in 2002. They are some of the first pictures I made as a photographer, when I was first discovering a love for portraiture and street scenes. Most of the pictures were the result of everyday interactions with the people –– a smile, a look of recognition, a gesture, or simply a question, "Can I take your picture?"

I am inspired by the resilience and spirit of the Cuban people in the midst of their struggles in this crumbling city and hope this has been captured in some of these photographs.

Born and raised in Costa Rica, Charlene Music became interested in documentary photography and filmmaking while at Harvard University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2004. She is currently a graduate student in Stanford's M.F.A. program in Documentary Filmmaking. She has worked as a photographer in Cuba, China, Costa Rica, India, and the United States.

For more of Charlene's work visit her website www.charlene-music.com

For more information, you can contact her via email at cmusic@stanford.eduor by phone at 650-804-0481

Friday, February 22, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Skills Workshop Series: Grant Writing

KRISTI WILSON, Hume Writing Center, on Grant Writing Basics

FOOD SERVED!

Monday, February 25, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Graduate Lecture Series

MATTHEW CARNES, Ph.D. candidate in Political Science

"The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America"

Labor laws in Latin America have proven surprisingly resistant to market-oriented reform during the 1980s and 1990s; however, there has been significant variation in the legislation protecting workers across the region and through time. This presentation argues that countries with higher skill profiles and greater unionization rates were more protective of workers' rights prior to the reform period, and have preserved their labor friendliness in spite of significant economic restructuring. The stability of labor legislation has proven crucial in more recent changes in pension and welfare policies in the 2000s.

Monday, February 25, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Pigott Hall, Building 260, Room 216

Latin American Literary Dialogs Working Group

February 25, 12:00 pm: Discussion

Peruvian writer, DANIEL ALARCÓN, will be visiting Stanford on March 3, 2008. In preparation for his visit, we invite you to attend our meeting to discuss his book, Radio Ciudad Perdida.

Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch.

Please note that group meetings and discussions will be conducted in Spanish.

For more information, please contact Francisca Gonzalez Flores (fgflores@stanford.edu) or Angela Weikel (aweikel@stanford.edu)

Tuesday, February 26
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito), 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

February 26 , 12:15pm

Dr. ERNESTO SCHARGRODSKY

"Four Crime Papers"

The talk will summarize results from four papers on Crime Economics, including studies of the effect of police on crime, the distribution of crime victimization according to income levels, the effect of mandatory military service on criminal participation, and a comparison of criminal recidivism after prison vs. electronic monitoring.

Ernesto Schargrodsky received his Ph. D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1998. He is currently the Dean of the Business School of the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has been a visiting scholar at both Stanford University and Harvard University. His research includes studies of the effect of the use of electronic systems for the payment of welfare programs, the impact of police deployment on crime, the effect of the privatization of water companies on child mortality, the relationship between bureaucratic wages and corruption, the distribution of crime victimization across socioeconomic levels, and the effects of awarding land titles to squatters. His work has been published at the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, and Journal of Development Economics, inter alia. He has received the Bernardo Houssay Award for Young Researcher in the Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of Argentina, and he has been awarded fellowships, grants and prizes from Harvard University, Stanford University, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, United Nations, Tinker Foundation, International Finance Competition, Financial Times, PREAL, CONICET of Argentina, and the Global Development Network. At Stanford, he will be researching crime measurements to inform public decision-making. He will be teaching ECON 122: Economic Development of Latin America (Winter Quarter, 2007-08).

Thursday, February 28, 12:15 - 1:15 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Brazil working group

FOOD SERVED!

RICARDO SARDENBERG, Founder, Movelus Technologies

Ricardo Sardenberg has been delivering successful software products for more than 30 countries and during more than 15 years. An ardent advocate for the Latin America software industry, he has presented at Stanford, Georgia Tech and SJSU on the strengths and opportunities in that region, particularly in Brazil.

As one of the first Brazilian software developers to be invited to work in Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto in the late 80's, Ricardo developed an ERP product for small business units. While at HP/Agilent, he focused on delivering software products for Support, Sales, Distribution and Corporate initiatives. Upon relocating to the US in 2000, he was promoted to Global Software Product Manager for 4 different products and customers in Europe, Asia and Americas.

As founder of Movelus Technologies, his vision is to do to "location", what has been done to "search". He is currently focused on empowering the mobile workforce and smb companies with the best technology available. Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, Ricardo has a BS in computer science from Unicamp University (Brazil) and a MBA from Santa Clara University.

Friday, February 29, 12:00 - 1:15 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Skills Workshop Series: Giving Presentations

FOOD SERVED!

DOREE ALLEN, Oral Communications Program, Center for Teaching and Learning, on Giving Presentations

Professionally Speaking: A Workshop on Preparing and Delivering Effective Presentations

Learn more about the basic principles of effective speaking and lecturing. In this workshop you will be introduced to a variety of preparation strategies and delivery techniques to enhance both the quality of your professional presentations and your general facility and confidence in oral expression.

Space is limited! Please RSVP to slean@stanford.edu if you are interested in participating.

Monday, March 3, 12:00 - 1:15 PM, Philippines Conference Room, Encina Hall, 3rd Floor

TED MACK, Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Literature at the University of Washington

"Paracolonial Literature: Japanese-language Literature in Brazil"

This talk will examine the role of literature in the Japanese diaspora, with a particular focus on the pre-World War II community in Brazil. Both the production and consumption of literary texts will be considered: not only what has variously been called imin bungei (migrant literature), koronia bungaku (literature of the colonias), and Burajiru Nikkei bungaku (Japanese-Brazilian literature), but also the marketplace for texts published in Tokyo and imported into Brazil. Three award-winning texts from 1932 will function as lenses through which we will reconsider the implicit foundations of the field of modern Japanese literary studies.

Ted Mack specializes in modern Japanese literature, particularly prose fiction. His forthcoming book (from Duke University Press), titled Manufacturing Modern Japanese Literature: Anthologies, Awards, and the Ascription of Literary Value, focuses on the relationship between literature and the publishing industry. His current project continues his research on art in a capitalist marketplace and the flow of literary works throughout specific communities by focusing on the fiction of the Japanese diaspora, particularly to Brazil.

Sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies

Monday, March 3, 2:00 - 3:00 PM, Pigott Hall, Building 260, Room 237

Latin American Literary Dialogs Working Group

Conversación con DANIEL ALARCÓN, autor de la novela Radio Ciudad Perdida

Daniel Alarcón nació en Lima y se crio en los EE.UU. Es Editor Asociado de la revista peruana Etiqueta Negra y ha sido nombrado uno de los mejores novelistas jóvenes estadounidenses por la prestigiosa revista británica GRANTA.

Radio Ciudad Perdida plantea profundos interrogantes respecto a la guerra y su significado: desde su impacto arrasador sobre una sociedad sacudida por la violencia, hasta las cicatrices emocionales que cada participante, observador, y sobreviviente lleva a cuestas por largos años.

Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch. Light refreshments will be served.

Please note that group meetings and discussions will be conducted in Spanish.

For more information, please contact Francisca Gonzalez Flores (fgflores@stanford.edu) or Angela Weikel (aweikel@stanford.edu)

Tuesday, March 4
11:45 AM - 12:15 PM (Cafecito), 12:15 PM - 1:05 PM (Lecture Series)

March 4, 12:15pm

Dr. GUILLERMO SOLORZANO

"Materials Research and Education in Brazil"

Guillermo Solórzano is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. He received his Ph.D. (1983) in this field from McMaster University in Canada. His research interests include: nanotechnologies; electron microscopy microanalysis and characterization of metals; defects, diffusion, and transformation of physical metallurgy in solids; and archaeometallurgy. He has published 96 scientific journal articles and 107 conference proceedings articles. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble and the Max Planck Institut fur Metallforschung, and a NSF-funded Research Scientist at MIT. He is also the founding President of the Brazilian Materials Research Society and Past President of the Inter-American Society for Electron Microscopy. As a Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford, Dr. Solórzano will teach a course on Nanostructures and Characterization (Winter Quarter, 2007-08).

Wednesday, March 5, 8:00 - 9:00 PM

Microfinance working group presentation and discussion

KYLE SALYER, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management, MicroCredit Enterprises

In 2004, Kyle was a MicroCredit Enterprises Management Fellow. He co-researched and wrote an analysis of international lending to microfinance institutions and microfinance capital market trends. Prior to his fellowship with MicroCredit Enterprises, he was a regional manager with the Mexican Association of Rural and Urban Transformation, during which time he developed and managed their Chiapas-based microfinance institution. Kyle was responsible for creating savings and loan products, identifying new markets, managing the loan portfolio, and developing a strategic plan for program growth which led the institution to reach operational sustainability and exceed gross revenue projections by 73%. Kyle has a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA in international economics and international development studies and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of California at Davis, Graduate School of Management. Kyle is fluent in Spanish.

He will be speaking about MicroCredit Enterprises and his experience running an MFI in Chiapas.

Friday, March 7, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Bolivar House (582 Alvarado Row)

Dr. RICARDO PAES DE BARROS

"The Changing Dynamics of Inequality in Brazil: Policy or Markets?"

Income inequality in Brazil experienced a continuous and substantial fall in the 2001-2006 period. In addition to being an important result per se, this reduction in inequality led to an impressive reduction in both poverty and extreme poverty. In this study we show that thisrecent decline is due to a wide variety of factors, all of which may contribute to its sustainability. This continuous fall is a fundamental issue since, not withstanding the advances achieved in the period under analysis, Brazil still ranks among the most unequal countries in the world. In sum, in this study we measure the magnitude of the decline in poverty and inequality, evaluate its impact and relevance, identify its main determinants and, finally, draft public policy proposals to ensure its sustainability.

Ricardo Paes de Barros has been awarded a Tinker Visiting Professorship in Latin American and Iberian Studies for Winter Quarter 2008 at the Harris School, University of Chicago.

An expert on issues of poverty, Paes de Barros received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1987 and is currently a researcher and the coordinator for the evaluation of public policies at the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), which produces economic research for the Brazilian government. He has also served as an assistant professor at Yale University.

Monday, March 10, 12:15 - 1:30 PM

Mexican working group Discussion

GUILLERMO LOPEZ PORTILLO, Reporter with Noticieros Televisa

Lunch provided!

As a reporter, Guillermo has covered various important events, including the 2006 Mexican elections. Twelve years ago, he was at Stanford as a recipient of the prestigious John S. Knight Professional Journalism Fellowship. We hope you can join us on Monday to learn more about diverse themes in Mexican journalism.

Wednesday, March 12, 7:00 - 8:00 PM

Microfinance working group presentation and discussion

ERNESTO SCHARGRODSKY , Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford

"Microdeposits for the Poor"

Thursday, March 13, 8:00 - 10:00 PM, Hammarskjold (592 Alvarado Row)

Evening of Latin Dance

Dance Performances, Lessons, and Practice

Snacks provided

Interested in Samba, Salsa, Tango, and Ballet Folklorico? Come learn the basics to these bailes in exciting workshops! Free and open to the public.