Don't miss these highlighted events this fall!


Monday, 9/24: An evening with Latin American film director Fernando Birri, List Art, 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Acclaimed Argentine director Fernando Birri will speak at the List Art Center on September 24th at 6:00 p.m. in an event sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Born in Santa Fé, Argentina, Fernando Birri is known as the Father of Latin American Cinema. He studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome before returning to Argentina to found the first school in Latin America devoted to documentary filmmaking. Exiled during the Argentine military regime, he returned to Italy and later traveled to Cuba, where was the founding director of the International School of Film and Television.



Tuesday, 9/25: CLACS / History Fall Inaugural Lecture. Barbara Weinstein, President of the American Historical Association, New York University, “Erecting and Erasing Boundaries: Can We Combine the ‘Indo’ and the ‘Afro’ in Latin American Studies?” Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer St., 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Barbara Weinstein, professor of history at New York University and 2007 President of the American Historical Association, will deliver the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies / History Department Fall Inaugural Lecture on September 25th at 6:00 p.m. in the Joukowsky Forum at the Watson Institute. Her talk will be entitled, “Erecting and Erasing Boundaries: Can We Combine the ‘Indo’ and the ‘Afro’ in Latin American Studies?”

Prof. Weinstein’s publications include The Amazon Rubber Boom,1850-1920 (Stanford University Press, 1983) and For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paulo 1920-1964 (University of North Carolina Press, 1996), as well as articles and essays in the Hispanic American Historical Review, ILWCH, the Journal of Women’s History, the International Review of Social History, and the Revista Brasileira de História. She is currently completing a book on race, region, and national identities in twentieth-century Brazil, to be published by Duke University Press, and co-editing a volume on the global history of the middle class.



Wednesday, 10/3: Former Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Ricardo Lagos of Chile, Salomon 101, 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Former Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Ricardo Lagos of Chile will hold a joint event on October 3rd at 4:00 p.m. in Lower Salomon. The talk will be sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil, will return this October for his fifth year as visiting professor at the Watson Institute and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He is a renowned scholar in sociology and political science. He also served as member of Brazil's federal senate, as foreign affairs minister, and as finance minister. Professor Cardoso received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of São Paulo.

Also joining the Watson Institute this year will be former president of Chile Ricardo Lagos. During his term, Lagos was known for aggressively pursuing free-trade agreements, improving healthcare and education legislation, and addressing the crimes of Augusto Pinochet’s military regime. Lagos earned a law degree from the University of Chile in 1960 and then attended Duke University, where he received a Ph.D. in economics in 1966.



Thursday, 10/4: The Annual Maury Bromsen Lecture, co-sponsored by the JCB and CLACS. Karen Racine, University of Guelph, “Love, Liberty, and Lobbying: The Transatlantic Life of Francisco de Miranda, Precursor to Spanish American Independence,” and Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, John Carter Brown Library, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the John Carter Brown Library will co-host the Annual Maury Bromsen Lecture on October 4th at 5:30 p.m. at the John Carter Brown Library. The event will include a talk by Karen Racine, professor at the University of Guelph, and remarks by Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera. Prof. Racine’s lecture will be entitled “Love, Liberty and Lobbying: The Transatlantic Life of Francisco de Miranda, Precursor to Spanish American Independence,” and Ambassador Herrera will give speak on the legacy of Francisco de Miranda. The conference will celebrate both Francisco de Miranda’s role in Latin American independence as well as his relationship with Brown.

In 1783, Miranda toured Providence and the Brown campus (then called Rhode Island College). Miranda listened to Reverend James Manning, first president of the College, deliver a sermon at the meeting house of the First Baptist Church, and later observed Miranda baptize a young man in the Providence River. At thirty-three years old, Miranda had served as a captain in the Spanish military and was engaged in two allied campaigns with French forces in the American Revolution against Great Britain. Fleeing a sentence for illegal trading with the British (for which he was later exonerated), Miranda traveled to the United States and from here to Europe and Russia. His travels set the stage for his eventual plan for the independence of the entire Spanish-American continent.



Thursday, 10/18: Jorge Domínguez, Harvard University, “Race, Nation, Revolution, and Communist Rule in Cuba” (Cuba Lecture Series), Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer St., 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Harvard University professor and Vice Provost for International Affairs Jorge Domínguez will give a talk entitled “Race, Nation, Revolution and Communist Rule in Cuba” on October 18th at 7:00 p.m. in the Joukowsky Forum at the Watson Institute. Prof. Domínguez’ talk is part of the Cuba Lecture Series sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies’ Caribbean Initiative.

Prof. Domínguez is Antonio Madero Professor of Mexican and Latin American Politics and Economics, Vice Provost for International Affairs, Senior Advisor for International Studies to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His current research focuses on the international relations and domestic politics of Latin American countries.



Monday, 10/29: Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco Isakson, Salomon 001, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Carolina Barco Isakson, Colombian Ambassador to the United States, will speak at Brown on October 29th, at 6:00 p.m. in Lower Salomon in an event sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Carolina Barco was appointed Ambassador of Colombia to the United States in August 2006 by President Alvaro Uribe. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Social and Economic Sciences and a Masters Degree in Business Administration and Urban and Regional Planning. Ms. Barco also served as Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs between August 2002 and August 2006. In this position, Carolina Barco focused her objectives on three specific areas: to strengthen the Ministry´s diplomacy in order to increase efficiency, mainly in terms of direct support for the Colombian Community abroad; to develop a strong communication policy in order to improve Colombia’s international image and contribute to a real understanding the country’s realities; and to promote trade and international cooperation, particularly for development programs.