Art and Empowerment: Kadiwéu Women’s Pottery

March 24, 2021
4:30p.m. PST

The Kadiweu are an indigenous people currently living between the Paraguay River and the Bodoquena Mountains in Mato Grosso do Sul , Brazil. Viviane Luiza Silva’s talk will analyze Kadiweu pottery production in relation to the cultural, environmental, political, and economic contexts of Kadiwéu women’s labor.

Viviane Luiza Silva is a researcher at the Foundation for Support and Development of Education, Science, and Technology, Mato Grosso do Sul (FUNDECT/MS). She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Manitoba.

Defending Indigenous Lands and Culture

February 24, 2021
4:30 PM PST

Featuring Maudilia López Cardona

Maudilia López is a Mam-Maya activist and Catholic nun who brings together her Indigenous roots and a hybrid Christian mysticism in her work defending Indigenous lands and culture in northern Guatemala.  Her talk will focus on the work she has been doing for the last 20 years in defending 18 communities in Mam territory near the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan from the devastating effects of a gold mine and its threats to Indigenous sovereignty. Maudilia will discuss how the North American extractive industry has brought strife to the community, jeopardized the well-being of the land, contaminated the water and livestock, and has threatened to tear apart the very social fabric that has held these communities together for centuries.

Blackness and Producing the Black Subject in Mexico
October 7, 2020
4:30 PM PST

Featuring Dr. Anthony Jerry

Dr. Jerry studies the relationships between race and citizenship and investigates the influence that regional discourses of race and racism have on citizenship practices and overall access to citizenship. This lecture will explore how the concept of citizenship allows for a richer understanding of blackness in Mexico, the relationship of the black subject in the construction of mestizaje, and the manner in which a perceived Afro culture serves as the basis for the Mexican state’s control over Black identities.

Resilience and Hope in Colombia
October 21, 2020
4:30 PM PST

Featuring Oscar Quintero and Danny María Ramírez Torres

This lecture will explore the roost of colonial racism in Colombia, and trace the history of Black struggles for liberation through local practices of resistance in San Basilio de Palenque and other Afro-descendent communities throughout the country. The speakers will also share contemporary experiences of Afro-Colombian resistance in the midst of Colombia’s armed conflict, and the militarization of black bodies as targets and weapons in the war.

Afro-Brazilians Struggle for Citizenship
November 18, 2020
4:30 PM PST

Featuring Abner Francisco Sotenos, Monique Paula, and Watufani Poe

Abner Francisco Sotenos’ research examines Afro-Brazilian political activism in Cold War-era Brazil and state surveillance apparatuses during the same period. Monique Paula’s research analyzes political trajectories of Black congresswomen in Brazil through social media visibility and their role in the political arena. Watufani Poe’s research focuses on Black LQBTQA+ activism in the United States and Brazil to understand Black queer and trans social and political activism in both countries.

Policy and Politics for the Environment
October 5, 2020
12PM PST
https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/93034862502

A panel discussion on ecology, deforestation, and policy. Featuring Adriana Ramos and Dr. Ane Alencar, moderated by Dr. Erika Robb Larkins.

Climate Challenges and Territorial Protection
October 12, 2020
12PM PST
https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/93034862502

A panel discussion on national and village-based activism, featuring Sinéia do Valle and Marizate de Sousa and moderated by Dr. Leda Leitão Martins.

COVID-19 in Indigenous Amazonia
October 26, 2020
12PM PST
https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/93034862502

A panel discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic featuring Valeria Paye and Martha Fellow Dourado. Discussion to be moderated by Dr. Heloísa Vizcaino.