Latin Americanist Students Represent UNM at ILASSA Conference

February 25, 2013

Several University of New Mexico graduate students in the Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese programs presented their research on February 7-9, 2013, at the Institute of Latin American Studies Student Association (ILASSA) conference in Austin, Texas. ILASSA is the student organization at the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. The conference serves as an interdisciplinary forum for students involved in Latin American research topics, providing students with the opportunity to present research activities, develop presentational skills, exchange ideas and information, and meet other scholars from around the world. The conference, now in its thirty-third year, is the oldest and largest student conference in the field of Latin American Studies.

Latin American Studies (LAS) graduate students Carolina Bonilla Elvira, Jeremy Falson, Elizabeth Halpin, Samuel Johnson, Deborah Sposito, Marina Todeschini (represented by Deborah Sposito), and Ashley Yoder, as well as Spanish and Portuguese graduate students Amber Jacks and Bryn Campbell, participated in the conference. Their interdisciplinary research represents the breadth of the LAS and Spanish and Portuguese programs at UNM. Their conference travel costs were offset with funding generously awarded by the Graduate and Professional Student Association.

Overviews of the research conducted by some of the participating UNM students are available below:

Bryn Campbell (Spanish and Portuguese): "La contribución religiosa de los haitianos a la literatura latinoamericana"

Jeremy Falson (MALAS '14): "From the Material Realm to Socio-Artistic Transcendence: A Marxist-Materialist Perspective of Peruvian Cumbia"

Elizabeth Halpin (MALAS '13): "Criminal Queens: Beauty and Power in Contemporary Mexico"

Amber Jacks (Spanish and Portuguese): "Utilizing the K'iche' Maya Oral History Project"

Samuel Johnson (MALAS '14): "Liberation Theology, Social Movements, and Civil War: Human Rights and the Catholic Church in El Salvador"

Marina Todeschini (MALAS '14): "Moral Restoration through Transitional Justice: A Comparison Between Argentina, Chile and Brazil"

Ashley Yoder (MALAS '14): "A Cultura do Drible: Brazil Revealed through World Cup"