Author Archives: Mariana Romo-Carmona

LALS 31998- A talk with poet, essayist, and educator, Cheryl Clarke

This coming March 11, 2021, 5:00-6:16 pm, we will welcome a special guest speaker for our Latinas in Latinx Studies class, LALS 31998. Dr. Clarke will be talking with our class as part of our curriculum, and we would like to invite all interested students to attend. Please contact Prof. Romo-Carmona to register for the event. Email: mromocarmona@ccny.cuny.edu

New Program from the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate at the NSF

The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate at the NSF has developed a new program to increase underrepresented groups to pursue PhD studies in computer science.

It is aimed at CS alumni, who finished an undergraduate degree in CS between 2016 and 2019, and who have not pursued any form of graduate studies since. The deadline is April 13, 2021.

The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Graduate Fellowships (CSGrad4US) aim to increase the number of diverse, domestic graduate students pursuing research and innovation careers in the CISE fields: computer science, computer engineering, or information science. In particular, CSGrad4US provides an opportunity for bachelor’s degree holders who may be working in industry or other sectors to return to academia and pursue research-based doctoral degrees. In its inaugural year, a diverse cohort of 70 CSGrad4US Fellows will be selected based on their demonstrated interest and potential in pursuing a Ph.D. degree in a CISE field.

https://www.nsf.gov/cise/CSGrad4US/

We encourage all interested alumni to apply!

Dr. Iris Lopez, Director of LALS at City College speaks on CBS News about Covid-19 vaccine and Latinx communities

Professor Iris Lopez speaks on CBS News about current hesitancy in Latinx communities regarding vaccination for COVID-19. See the clip HERE!

The Biden administration faces several hurdles to inoculating the U.S. against COVID-19 as quickly as possible, including hesitancy among Latino communities. A recent poll shows nearly half of Latinos in the U.S. will wait and see how the vaccine affects those who receive the shot. Professor Iris Lopez, the director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at City College of New York, spoke to CBSN’s Tanya Rivero about the history of mistrust among Latinos with the medical community.

Dr. Iris López is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Program in Latin American and Latin@ Studies at City College, a program she has directed for several terms beginning in 1999. Previously, Dr. López has chaired the Sociology Department (2013-2016).

In addition to establishing key academic connections between Latin American, Caribbean, and Chicano/a Studies programs, her research and publications on the Puerto Rican Diaspora in Hawai’i and on sterilization abuse of Puerto Rican women has highlighted crucial connections to globalization, reproductive freedom, and social justice. As an invited speaker and panelist at numerous U.S.-based and international conferences, Dr. López continues to present critical work and speak about her areas of expertise in Latino/ education, gender issues, pre-natal care, and sterilization abuse.

The Latin American & Latin@ Studies Program at City College of New York welcomes Dr. Juanita Díaz-Cotto

Professor Díaz-Cotto is a professor of Sociology, Women’s Studies, and Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies at SUNY Binghamton. Within Latin America and the Caribbean her special areas of interest have been: revolutionary movements, state formation, political economy, peasants, the military, feminist and lesbian-feminist movements, and the African Diaspora. Additional specialties include: Latinas(os) and women of color in the U.S. and the impact of criminal justice system on women and men of color in the U.S. and Latin America. One of Diaz-Cotto’s primary academic and scholarly objectives is to “help students bridge the gap between theory and practice inside and outside the classroom.”

Juanita Díaz-Cotto, also Juanita Ramos

Active in human rights for more than 30 years, she has given lectures and presentations all across the globe.  Díaz-Cotto is the author of Chicana Lives and Criminal Justice, winner of an International Latino Book Award and Foreword Magazine Book Award.  She has published several other books including Gender, Ethnicity and the State: Latina and Latino Prison Politics, and Compañeras: Latina Lesbians, compiled and edited as Juanita Ramos.

Hispanics in the U.S.:  Migration and Adjustment. LALS 12600  – 3:30 pm-4:45 pm (with Prof. M. Romo-Carmona). To attend this talk on Zoom, contact Prof. Romo-Carmona at mromocarmona@ccny.cuny.edu.

Sponsored by the Latin American and Latin@ Studies Program, Iris López, Director.

 

Kaye Scholars Program, for Undergraduates in Humanities & the Arts, applications due March 15

Dear Students: The H. Austin and Florence R.S. Kaye Foundation has joined with City College to provide
funds for a program to attract and support talented students who are pursuing a major in the Humanities & Arts.
Kaye Scholars will be chosen by a panel of City College faculty on the basis of:
• academic merit
• creative promise
• financial need
Recipients of Kaye Scholarships must, in order to maintain the award:
• be full time undergraduate students (taking a minimum of 12 credits) at City College
• maintain a 3.0 GPA
• pursue a major in the Division of Humanities & Arts (American Studies, Art, Asian Studies, Black Studies, Comparative Literature, English, Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, History, Jewish Studies, Media and Communication Arts, Music, Philosophy, or Theatre and Speech). No other major is acceptable.
• Second degree students are not eligible to apply to the Kaye Scholars Program.

Benefits: Stipends equal to in-state tuition per semester (currently approximately $7,400 per year). Timetable: The deadline for applications from students who are currently enrolled at City College is March 15th. And, most importantly: How to apply!
To apply students must complete the College’s General Scholarship Application online and indicate that they want to be considered for the Kaye Scholars Program.
Next, once a student has completed the General Scholarship Application, they continue on to the specific application page for the Kaye Scholars Program, page 9. 
If a student does apply, they should notify our office (kayescholars@ccny.cuny.edu) so that we know to look for their application.
For additional information please contact the:
Kaye Scholars Program, NAC 6/316,
The City College of New York, NY 10031 
212/650 – 8388 
kayescholars@ccny.cuny.edu.

Live CLAG webinar series

https://clagscholar.org/conferences/2021-live-clag/

Over the next three months, in lieu of a Spring 2021 conference, the Conference of Latin American Geography will be hosting a series of free LiveCLAG webinars. Details about the full slate of sessions can be found at: https://clagscholar.org/conferences/2021-live-clag.

The first LiveCLAG webinar, titled “Reassessing Vulnerability and Solidarity in Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID-19 Pandemic” will be held on Thursday, February 4 at 5pm (EST). Panelists will provide updates on their contributions to the Journal of Latin American Geography and discuss recent research on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Panelists
Viviana Buitrón Cañadas, Asociación Geográfica del Ecuador, and Danilo Borja, University of Calgary
Christian Abizaid, University of Toronto
Robert Huish, Dalhousie University
Annette Idler, Harvard University, and Markus Hochmüller, University of Oxford

Moderator
James Biles, City University of New York

For further information and to register, please visit the LiveCLAG website (see above) or click on the following Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reassessing-vulnerability-solidarity-in-lac-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-tickets-137506047289. You will receive a confirmation e-mail after registering.

Congratulations to our Students!

Here are some news for December, 2020: The Racial Justice Fellows Program at City College is run by the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership, in partnership with the Black Studies Program

This Fall 2020 semester, two students from our LALS Program classes have been selected to participate. Congratulations to Lesly Calle and Max García!

Photo of Lesly Calle
Lesly Calle is one of the students from LALS 31210 Race, Gender & Latinidad – Fall 2020

Lesly Calle is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Macaulay Honors Program at The City College of New York pursuing a BA in Economics with a minor in Public Policy. She was born and raised in New York City and is a first-generation college student. Lesly is interested in social justice, economic inequality, and environmental policy and is looking to understand how economics can serve as a bridge for equality. As a junior, she was selected to the inaugural cohort of Climate Policy Fellows at the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership, where she co-authored a policy brief on single-use plastic mitigation and its effects on climate change. Through the fellowship, she had the opportunity to intern with the World Resources Institute, a global research organization working to scale ideas on environmental action. As a research intern for the US Climate team, Lesly performed research on carbon pricing initiatives and learned of the disproportionate impacts carbon emissions have on low-income communities and communities of color. For the 2020-2021 academic year, Lesly was selected for the Edward I. Koch Fellowship in Public Service at CCNY, which helped her develop a partnership with the CUNY School for Labor and Urban Studies and the Community and Worker Ownership Project where she is helping to develop and enhance communications strategies. In the coming months, she will help to promote the understanding of cooperatives and economic democracy as part of the solution for our current economic injustices.

Max Garcia
Max García is one of the students from LALS 10200 Latin American & Caribbean Civilization – Fall 2020

Max Garcia was born in Washington Heights to Dominican immigrants. His family arrived in New York in 1996 looking for a better life. The issues that have always interested him have been racial/social justice-oriented just based on the experiences he felt firsthand growing up in a Black immigrant family. He had witnessed discrimination against both of his parents due to color and a language barrier, and later experienced it himself, so he knew that he wanted to learn how to bring about racial/social justice. His hobbies include acting, creative writing, rapping, and playing music and video games for fun (not necessarily in that order). He came to CCNY because his guidance counselor told him that it was the best public college in the city. He chose to major in Political Science in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the American political system and how it directly impacts his community in turn. He wants to work for racial justice, and it was in the title of the fellowship, so it caught his attention immediately.

Dominican Studies Association Conference: DSA Virtually @ Hostos Biennial – Dec 4-5, 2020

Mission Statement
The Dominican Studies Association supports the diffusion of intellectual production by providing Dominican Studies scholars the opportunity to create supportive networks, cultivate alternative agendas beyond their respective institutions and address polemic issues impacting the homeland, local, and global Dominican diasporic communities.

Registration

This year, due to the biennial’s online format, we are offering the conference free of charge for both participants and panelists. Instead, we are kindly asking for a $30 donation to help offset the cost for this year’s 2020 DSA Biennial Conference.

REGISTER AT THE FOLLOWING LINK: https://hostos-cuny-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wJHseIuHR6yfFIuUYUA88A:

Welcome (Open to All)

I

Dr. Ana Maurine Lara

Panel 13: Streetwalking: LGBTQ+ Activists in the Dominican Republic and its Diaspora
Chair: Ana-Maurine Lara, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Presenters:
Rosanna Marzán, Executive Director, Diversidad Dominicana, Santo Domingo, DR  
Deivis Ventura, Founder, Red de Voluntarios de Amigos Siempre Amigos, Santo Domingo, DR
Carlos Rodríguez, Individuos Unidos por el Respeto y la Armonía (IURA), Santo Domingo, DR
Ana-Maurine Lara, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

 

Dr. Norma Fuentes Mayorga, LALS

Panel 26: Social and Cultural Perspectives on COVID-19
Moderator: Norma Fuentes-Mayorga, Sociology/Latin American-Latina/o Studies, City College
Presenters:
Lina N. Cordero, Sociologist, Events Coordinator, Verania Consulting, Santo Domingo
“Muerte, cultura funeraria, entierros masivos y dolientes ausentes en la pandemia”
Stephen Ippolito, University at Albany Ph.D. Student/School of Professional Studies Instructor
“Killer Pandemics: Diabetes and COVID-19 Crisis”
Nelson Santana, Assistant Professor/Reference Librarian, Bronx Community College, CUNY
“The COVID-19 Dominican Oral History Project”
Maria Cristina Fumagalli, Professor of Literature, University of Essex, Colchester, England
“Stranger than Fiction: Toward a New Haitian-Dominican Narrative under Covid-19”
Bridgette Wooding, Director, Caribbean Migrants Observatory (OBMICA), Santo Domingo
“Stranger than Fiction: Toward a New Haitian-Dominican Narrative under Covid-19”

Panel 34: Ethnic Studies in the Ivy League: A Roundtable Discussion
Chair: Lorgia García-Peña, Romance Languages and Literatures Department, Harvard U
Presenters:
Aracely Alicia García, student activist, ‘20 graduate, Stanford University
Alondra Ponce, student activist, currently attending Harvard University
Ana Ramos-Zayas, American Studies and Anthropology, Yale University
Jonathan Rosa, Center for Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University
Frances Negrón-Muntaner, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

Dr. Frances Negrón Muntaner

Lorgia García-Peña, Romance Languages and Literatures Department, Harvard U

 

Elena Valdez, Modern/Classical Languages & Literatures, Christopher Newport U, VA

Sharina Maillo-Pozo, Romance Languages Department, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Rachel Afi Quinn, Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies/Cultural Studies, U of Houston, Texas
Scherezade García, Visual Artist, Co-founder of the Dominican York Proyecto/Gráfica

Dulcina Abreu, Independent Curator, Artist, and Museum Advocate in Washington D.C.

Closing / Farewell / Open to All

Virtual toast, Directory of DSA2020 Virtually@hostos participants sent to all.
Projections for 2022

Film Screening: Paris Stalingrad

This film screening is being presented by The Institute for the Study of Human Rights. the Committee on Forced Migration, and the European Institute. The film is set in the summer of 2016, in Paris, when refugees are camping in the Stalingrad district while waiting to regularize their situation.

Refugees arriving from Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Afghanistan
have no other choice than to sleep in the streets. Paris- based filmmaker Hind Meddeb witnessed the French state’s violence against these new immigrants and decided to film their daily life, marred by police raids, massive arrests, and closed immigration offices. She made this film to share her experience of their side of the story.

Introduction and post-film discussion with Hind Meddeb
Moderated by Dr. Lara J. Nettelfield

To register for the screening, click here.

Please submit any questions to: mm4178@columbia.edu

Date & Time: Nov 20, 2020 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Radiating Black ~ Puerto Rican ~ Feminist Studies from CUNY

November 1, 2020 – January 31, 2021

About the Residency 

This residency will share archives and learning/organizing lessons on the entwined legacies of Black ~ Puerto Rican ~ Feminist Studies and movements at CUNY in the 1960s and 70s, in order to nourish bridges between community organizers, cultural workers, educators, and students in the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. 
These radiant histories will be broadcast through a three-month series of seven online public dialogues on the lives of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, and Audre Lorde; explorations in Black~Puerto Rican~Third World Feminist Studies at CUNY now; histories of how CUNY movements created Open Admissions and Ethnic Studies; and present efforts to decolonize CUNY and New York City. All programs will be conducted online via Zoom, and several of the presentations will feature live Spanish interpretation. 
We actively welcome working-class Black, Indigenous, Asian, Caribbean, Latinx, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander, and beyond (BIPOC)—especially women, gender non-binary, and queer and trans—individuals and groups to attend and participate. The events and materials will be available for all, but we will intentionally center these participants in our process. 
The residency will culminate in the creation of digital and print materials for free distribution at Wendy’s Subway. For more information, contact rachel@wendyssubway.com

Conference Schedule:
Thursday, November 12, 2020, 3:30pm
Activating June Jordan’s “Life Studies”: Notes, Conversation, and Workshop: Maryam Parhizkar, Talia Shalev, Conor Tomás Reed https://yale.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwlduCtqjgvGNd_IK7UogyBgPRwNNajS4yC

Monday, November 30, 2020, 6:00 pm
Translating Audre Lorde Now: Diarenis Calderón Tartabull, Julián González Beltrez, AnouchK Ibacka Valiente, Tito Mitjans Alayón, Geo Vidiella

Tuesday, December 15, 2020, 6:00pm
The School of Toni Cade Bambara: Makeba Lavan, Thabiti Lewis, Louis Massiah

Wednesday, January 20, 2021, 6:00pm
Transforming CUNY Admissions, Studies, Movements: Ricardo Gabriel, Amaka Okechukwu, Anna Zeemont

Friday, January 29, 2021, 6:00pm
Decolonize CUNY and NYC!

Register here to attend. Spanish interpretation available.