Category Archives: Events and Happenings

The Revolution Recodified Conference: Two Memorable Days of Discussion

Posted on 04/03/2013 by clacsblogadmin | Leave a comment

Plenary Session of the Revolution Recodified Conference

On Saturday and Sunday March 16-17, CLACS continued its partnership with the New School of Design to host the symposium, The Revolution Recodified: Digital Culture and the Public Sphere in Cuba. The two-day academic conference— kicked off by an energetic keynote on Friday by Cuban blogger, Yoani Sánchez— brought together academics from around the country, experts on the international blogosphere phenomena, and Cuban bloggers to explore the ways that digital technology is transforming Cuba’s cultural and political landscape. Despite the academic material presented, the conference drew an audience as diverse as its presenters. The attendees represented the many points along the political spectrum in terms of Cuban politics and history, and they engaged in a lively discussion about the current political climate on the island and questions of the future for US-Cuban relations. Continue reading →

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The Revolution Recodified Conference: Keynote Speaker, Yoani Sánchez

Posted on 04/01/2013 by clacsblogadmin | Leave a comment

Conference keynote speaker, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez

On Friday, March 15th, CLACS hosted the opening session of The Revolution Recodified: Digital Culture and the Public Sphere in Cuba conference in conjunction with The New School. The three-day conference brought together leading bloggers, writers, artists and scholars from Cuba and the U.S. to examine the rise of communication technology and social media in Cuba, which have given voice to a changing social and political atmosphere. Despite the government’s control of media and the Internet, Cubans have found ways to embrace blogs, websites, Twitter and other forms of digital communication, forging a new space to correspond with one another and the international community. Organizers of the conference, Jill Lane, Director of CLACS and Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Latin American Studies at NYU, and Coco Fusco, Director of Intermedia Initiatives and Associate Professor of Fine Arts at The New School, opened the conference on Friday evening, introducing widely regarded leader of Cuba’s digital movement and keynote speaker, Yoani Sánchez. Continue reading →

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Perspectives from the Field: Zamaly Diaz Lebron

Posted on 03/28/2013 by Elizabeth | Leave a comment

Zamaly Diaz Lebron, Program Officer at the Institute of International Education (IIE) & CLACS Alumnus

On Friday, February 22nd, we had hosted another CLACS Alumn during our Perspectives from the Field Series, a speaker series that invites CLACS alumni from a wide range of professions to speak about their experiences since graduation, and how their studies at CLACS prepared them for the work that they are doing today. The topics that our invited speakers discuss in the series include development, education, human rights, business, public health, and more.

On this day, we welcomed, Zamaly Diaz Lebron a 2006 CLACS MA alumnus and currently is a Program Officer for university placement services at the Institute of International Education (IIE). Zamaly, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, and also completed another NYU Master’s program in Performance Studies (completed in 2007) while studying at CLACS. Continue reading →

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Posted in Alumni Achievements, Events and Happenings

“What’s Left of Cuba” Colloquium: The Cuban  Argument With Itself

Posted on 03/14/2013 by clacsblogadmin | Leave a comment

Jorge Cortinas

On Monday, February 25th, CLACS hosted its fourth lecture as part of the Spring 2013 colloquium series, “What’s Left of Cuba? Culture, Politics, and Civil Society.” The lecture, entitled “The Cuban  Argument With Itself,” was given by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, a Cuban-American playwright and director best know for his play, Blind Mouth Singing, which was translated and produced in Havana, Cuba in 2010. Cortiñas is the first Cuban-American playwright to be produced in Cuba. Continue reading →

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The Life and Work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot: A Symposium

Posted on 03/08/2013 by Elizabeth | Leave a comment

Presentation being made at Trouillot Symposium.

On Friday, March 1st, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) in conjunction with the Anthropology Department at NYU hosted the The Life and Work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot: A Symposium, an all-day event celebrating the life and work of prolific anthropologist and historian, Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Trouillot was born in Haiti in 1949 and immigrated to the US when he was nineteen, during the peak years of the Duvalier Regime. He would later go on to become a professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, with interests in ethnographic methodologies, historiography, and theory-building. Trouillot left behind a major body of work, among which most famous are Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Haiti: State against Nation and Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World. This symposium brought together a diverse assortment of individuals ranging from intellectuals and academics to activists and students, all gathered to commemorate the remarkable accomplishments and contributions of Michel-Rolph Trouillot to the humanities and social sciences. Continue reading →

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“What’s Left of Cuba” Colloquium: Queer Cuba

Posted on 02/25/2013 by Elizabeth | Leave a comment

On Thursday evening CLACS hosted the Queer Cuba Symposium in conjuction with NYU’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Department of Performance Studies, a part of the CLACS Research Colloquium series entitled, “What’s Left of Cuba? Culture, Politics, and Civil Society.” José Muñoz, Professor of Performance Studies at NYU Tisch and author of Feeling Brown: Ethnicity, Affect and Performance and Cruising Utopia: The Politics and Performance of Queer Futurity amongst other publications, moderated lectures by José Quiroga and Jafari Allen. The insights of Dr. Muñoz and the two speakers offered a nuanced understanding of queer history in Cuba and exposure to themes of recognition, expression, commitment and agency. Continue reading →

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Perspectives from the Field: Ben Aplin

Posted on 02/21/2013 by Elizabeth | Leave a comment

Benjamin Aplin, Director of Institutional Advancement at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience & CLACS Alumnus

On Friday, December 7th, we had hosted another CLACS Alumn during our Perspectives from the Field Series, a speaker series that invites CLACS alumni from a wide range of professions to speak about their experiences since graduation, and how their studies at CLACS prepared them for the work that they are doing today. The topics that our invited speakers discuss in the series include development, education, human rights, business, public health, and more.

On this day, we welcomed Benjamin Aplin, a 2006 CLACS MA alumnus and current Director of Institutional Advancement at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, to speak about the non-profit world and how his experiences at CLACS helped him get to where he is today.

Ben, who has been working in international NGOs since graduating from CLACS, has always been interested in working in an international environment because he traveled a lot with his mother when he was a teenager, including working at a summer arts camp in Haiti when he was 15. Ben graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in English, and came to CLACS interested in international development issues. He wrote his thesis on Protestantism in Latin America and its dominance in certain parts of the region. Continue reading →

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Posted in Alumni Achievements, Events and Happenings

“What’s Left of Cuba” Colloquium: Coco Fusco

Posted on 02/07/2013 by clacsblogadmin | 1 Comment

Coco Fusco on “The Symbolic Use of the Plaza of the Revolution by Cuban Artists and Activists”

Coco Fusco, Director of Intermedia Initiatives at Parsons Center at The New School for Design, and a well-known New York-based interdisciplinary artist, performer, and writer, visited us here at CLACS on Monday, February 4, to present a lecture entitled “The Symbolic Use of the Plaza of the Revolution by Cuban Artists and Activists” and her latest video La Plaza Vacia as a part of CLACS’ Spring 2013 colloquium series titled, What’s Left of Cuba? Culture, Politics, and Civil Society. Continue reading →

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“What’s Left of Cuba” Colloquium: Tomás Robaina

Posted on 02/04/2013 by clacsblogadmin | Leave a comment

Tomás Robaina on “The Fight Against Discrimination & For Visibility of the Denied History of Afro-Cubans in the Current International Context”

Dr. Tomás Fernández Robaina, a longtime researcher at the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba “José Martí” and prolific author on the topic of Afro-Cuban issues, visited our department on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, to offer a lecture titled “The Fight against Discrimination and for Visibility of the Denied History of Afro-Cubans in the Current International Context” as a part of CLACS’ Spring 2013 colloquium series titled, “What’s Left of Cuba? Culture, Politics, and Civil Society.” Both his lecture and the larger series deal with recent cultural movements in Cuba that are increasingly challenging the Cuban state and its unfinished revolutionary projects, and demanding for recognition and inclusion in a new civil society. Continue reading →

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NACLA Partners with CLACS

Posted on 02/01/2013 by clacsblogadmin | Leave a comment

NACLA Winter Issue: “Elections 2012: What Now?”

As we embark on a new semester, CLACS is thrilled to welcome the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) to NYU! NACLA is most widely known for its quarterly journal, NACLA Report on the Americas. the oldest and most widely read progressive magazine offering comprehensive analysis of Latin America and its relationship with the United States. NACLA has moved its offices to CLACS-NYU, and we anticipate many new opportunities for work, research, and collaboration for the NYU community and for the NACLA readership at large. Continue reading →

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Posted in CLACS News, Events and Happenings