Events

Critical Language Research: Applied Linguistic and Anthropological Approaches

Location: Howden Room, KGVI Building. Newcastle University
Date: 25 October 2019

Many advances have been made in critical sociolinguistics that challenge the received wisdom about the 'bounded' nature of language(s), and yet in the sphere of language policy and planning for speakers of indigenous languages in postcolonial settings, little use appears to be made of these advances. For example, in Latin America, language mixture in its many guises goes largely disregarded in the design of intercultural bilingual education programmes for indigenous people.
Secondly, in a similar way, neither do the contributions of linguistic anthropology appear to have influence in applied spheres. Essentialist or mechanistic understandings of what language is, purist ideologies, and Western precepts about the epistemological and ontological nature of language, all of which belie the ethnographic evidence, seem to prevail.

This one-day workshop brought together people from different disciplinary perspectives to share experience and understandings, both ethnographic and theoretical, discussing these paradoxes, identifying others, and exploring related questions.

We thank our sponsors: Institute of Modern Language Research, University of London (Open World Research Initiative, OWRI); CLACS; School of Modern Languages 

Decentred / Dissenting Connections: Envisioning Caribbean Film and Visual Cultures

Location: Armstrong Building, 2.16. Newcastle University
Date: 29-30 May 2018

Decentred / Dissenting Connections: Envisioning Caribbean Film and Visual Cultures’ was a two-day conference that hosted speakers from around the UK and featured a keynote talk by Professor Charles Forsdick (University of Liverpool) and a screening of A Winter Tale and a Q&A with the director, Frances-Anne Solomon, at Tyneside Cinema. The conference was co-convened by Dunja Fehimović and Francisco-J. Hernández Adrián [Durham University] with the support of the Institute of Modern Languages Research [IMLR], AHRC OWRI, and Newcastle University School of Modern Languages)

Vanessa Knights Memorial Lecture 2018

Location: Barbara Strang Teaching Centre, B.32.  Newcastle University 
Date: 15 March 2018

This was the third in a series of annual lectures in memory of Vanessa Knights (1969-2007) who was lecturer in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at Newcastle University from 1995 until her early death. Vanessa was well known and respected in her field. Her work dealt with Spanish-speaking cultures of the Iberian Peninsula and, especially, Latin America, focusing on music, literature, and popular culture.

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Symposium: Abolition of the Army in Costa Rica, 70 years on: Issues of Institutional Violence, Power, and Political Economy

Location: Research Beehive, Old Library Building, Newcastle University
Date: 24 April 2018

This international symposium was held to mark the 70th Anniversary of the abolition of the Costa Rican Army. The symposium opened with “El Codo del Diablo” (2014) a moving documentary about a little known state endorsed crime that followed the army abolition. Following the screening, each of our special guest speakers gave presentations followed by a group discussion.

Guest speakers:
Antonio Jara Vargas, Master of History, Researcher at the Central American Centre for Historical Research, University of Costa Rica.
José Enrique Castillo Barrantes, Costa Rican Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Sharon López, Master in Human Rights and Education for Peace, coordinator of the Master Degree in Human Rights, National University, Costa Rica.

International Conference: ¿La paz es ahora? Examining the question of peace and violence in Colombia

Location: Room 2.16, Armstrong Building, Newcastle University 
Date: 29 September 2017

The aim of this conference was to bring together scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds to discuss what we really mean when we talk about peace, and about violence, in the Colombian context. Discussions throughout the day ranged from meditations on the applicability of our theoretical concepts (what is the state and according to who?) to analyses of case studies where in some cases everyday peacebuilding has been put into practice (how do the Indigenous Guard in Northern Cauca do it?) and in other cases grand corruption continues unimpeded by grand gestures of peace. The practices of various state institutions, from lawmakers to educators, were compared and contrasted to those of activists, artists and filmmakers, with special attention paid to how different groups in different situations perceive and respond to questions of memory, human rights and media narratives.

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Researching Everyday Geopolitics In Latin America

Location: Research Beehive, Old Library Building, Newcastle University
Date: 8 September 2017

The ‘Researching everyday geopolitics in Latin America’ seminar (funded by the University’s International Partnership Fund) organised by the School of GPS and CLACS brought together ten international scholars working on geopolitical issues in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Falklands/Malvinas, Mexico and Peru. The presenters reflected on  a diverse set of topics including youth (counter) cultures in Lima and Bogota, the ‘war on drugs’ in Mexico, popular geopolitics and memory in Argentina, border contestations in Chile-Peru and the ‘geopolitics of the periphery’ in Chilean Patagonia. The day offered an opportunity for extended discussion, networking and future collective publications are planned. 

After the Thaw: Cultural approaches to research on Cuba

Location: Research Beehive, Old Library Building, Newcastle University 
Date: 12 May 2017

This seminar series, with the support ILAS Regional Seminar Grant Series, jointly organized by the University of Edinburgh and the University of Newcastle, followed the recent détente between the USA and Cuba to discuss the implications of the thaw to Cuba. Departing from an approach to Cuban cultural politics and its historic consequences for economic, scientific and international relations, experts on contemporary Cuban Studies (Michael Chanan, University of Roehampton and Dunja Fehimovic, University of Newcastle) addressed the complex dynamics of Cuban cultural production in a globalised context, analysing the impact of health and education in and beyond the island; and how Cuba can lead the way in the region in sustaining impressive accomplishments in human development, departing from examples in the arts, culture, and science.

Slavery: dialogues across time and place

Location: Research Beehive, Newcastle University

Date: 12 May 2017

The event (sponsored by School of History, Classics, and Archaeology and CLACS) brought together scholars working on human trafficking and enslavement in a wide variety of chronological periods and geographical locations, from Egypt in the sixth century to Britain today. The event showed the strengths of international slavery studies in the Northeast and at Newcastle in particular.

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Bregando: Navigating the Everyday

Location: Research Beehive, Old Library Building, Newcastle University 
Date: 28 April 2017

This postgraduate conference explored 'the art of bregar'. Coined by Arcadio Díaz Quiñones (2000), 'bregar' describes the constant hard work involved in navigating the processes of everyday life. Across the Caribbean and Latin America, the art of bregar describes not only historical and cultural heritage, but the unpretentious mechanisms of coping.

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Rethinking difference: Beyond Language, Culture, and Indigeneity

Location: Percy Building, Newcastle University 
Date: 30 - 31 March 2017

The innovative format of this event promoted an optimum amount of high quality debate around a crucial topic within the field of anthropology and adjacent disciplines. Our aim was to explore the range of scholarly approaches to the analysis of cultural difference, seeking to get beyond the pitfalls of relativism and binary thinking that this may entail.

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Vanessa Knights Memorial Lecture

Location: Barbara Strang Teaching Centre, Newcastle University
Date: 16 March 2017

This is the second in a series of annual lectures in memory of Vanessa Knights (1969-2007) who was lecturer in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at Newcastle University from 1995 until her early death. Vanessa was well known and respected in her field. Her work dealt with Spanish-speaking cultures of the Iberian Peninsula and, especially, Latin America, focusing on music, literature, and popular culture.

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New Perspectives on Hispanola, Past and Present

Location: BSTC and Herschel Building, Newcastle University

Date: 8 June 2016

Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz returned to Newcastle University in June 2016 to give a public lecture as part of the 11th annual ¡Vamos! Festival. The author gave a public lecture I will build a great wall: Immigration and Xenophobia in the Age of Disruption as part of a wider CLACS organised conference in his honour, titled ´New perspectives on Hispaniola Past and Present'.

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Society for Caribbean Studies Conference

Location: Percy Building

Date: 6-8 July 2016

It was our great pleasure to host the 2016 Society for Caribbean Studies (SCS) Annual Conference. This was a very special conference for SCS, as it was their 40th!  

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