University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies hosts Bacardi Family Lecture Series on “The State of Latino Studies”

January 24, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies will host the Bacardi Family Lecture Series on “The State of Latino Studies” during spring 2007.

With support from an endowment created by gifts from Bacardi Imports Inc., the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the state of Florida, the Center will bring six distinguished scholars from around the country to lecture on various topics related to the experiences of Latinos in the United States. The lectures are free and open to the public.

The first lecturer of the series is Jorge Duany, speaking on “Transnational Migration from the Hispanic Caribbean: Changing Settlement Patterns and Cultural Identities.” Duany is professor of anthropology and chairman of the department of sociology and anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. He is the author of “The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States” (University of North Carolina Press, 2002), and several other books on Dominican and Cuban migration.

The Bacardi Family Lectures will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Mondays.

Jan. 29, Keene Faculty Center
“Transnational Migration from the Hispanic Caribbean: Changing Settlement Patterns and Cultural Identities.”
Jorge Duany. Professor of anthropology and chairman of sociology and anthropology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras; 2007 Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar in Latin American Studies at the University of Florida

Feb. 12, Ruth McQuown Room, Dauer Hall
“New Latino Borderlands: Economic and Social Insertion of Latinos in New England.”
Miren Uriarte. Professor of sociology and interim director, Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Feb. 26, Keene Faculty Center
“The Cuban American Lobby: Myth and Reality.”
María Cristina García. Professor of history, Cornell University

March 19, Rion Ballroom, Reitz Student Union “Itinerant Cultures: Diasporic Imperatives in the Caribbean Experience.”
Silvio Torres-Saillant. associate professor of English and director of Latino-Latin American Studies, Syracuse University

April 2, Rion Ballroom, Reitz Student Union “Imagining the Puerto Rican Nation from within the Diaspora.”
Edna Acosta-Belén. Distinguished Professor of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies and Women’s Studies, University at Albany, SUNY

April 9, location to be determined
“Civic Bequests: Family Dynamics and Civic Engagement among Los Angeles’ 1.5 and 2nd Generation Immigrants.”
Louis DeSipio. Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California, Irvine