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Latin American and Caribbean Studies


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May 2013

Paper workshop - Doglincuents and semi-stray dogs: A theoretical approximation to multi-species ethnography on globalization

Wednesday May 22, 2013
3:30 - 5:00 pm
Thomson 403.

Presenter: Iván Sandoval Cervantes, PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Oregon

Critical Animal Studies Working Group and Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Contact: lasuw@uw.edu / 206-685-3435

This paper is an attempt to theoretically construct a concept of multi-species ethnography that addresses the ways in which the inequalities produced by processes of globalization affect nonhuman animals. In this sense, a multi-species ethnographical project should see nonhuman animals not only as symbols or as part of the natural resources available to humans but as part of complex historical interspecies trajectories (Kirksey and Helmreich 2010). These trajectories include notions about ownership that regulate the relations between human and nonhuman animals. It is by analyzing these trajectories that multi-species ethnographies can question how different nonhuman animal species have been placed in what I call (based Aiwha Ong’s (2006) concept of “graduated citizenship”) “graduated humanness” that encompasses ideas about animal and human rights, and the agency of nonhuman animals, and that influences how humans interact with nonhuman animals. To exemplify the use of this theoretical framework I will analyze an event that took place in Mexico City in January 2013 that involved a pack of “wild” dogs “attacking” and “killing” a group of people in Mexico City’s most populated borough.

This workshop is organized by the Critical Animal Studies Working Group at the UW. Please note, this is not a talk about this incident, but rather a workshop designed to allow a close reading of this text and to offer feedback to Ivan. If you would like to attend, please come to the workshop having read the draft of the paper circulated by the author (a draft will be available by Friday, May 17).  


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Borders of Kinship: Species/Race/Indigeneity, Speakers: Noenoe Silva & Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, University of Hawaii and Kimberly Tallbear, University of California, Berkeley

Thursday May 23, 2013
4:00pm | Reception following
Communications 120, University of Washington, Seattle Campus

Generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Latin American & Caribbean Studies program, the Jackson School of International Studies, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, and the Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, & Sexuality (WISER).

Contact: lasuw@uw.edu / 206-685-3435

Bringing the Land to the Fight: Biotechnology and Hawaiian Ontology

Noenoe Silva (Political Science, University of Hawai’i, Manoa) and Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller (Social Sciences, Public Policy Center, University of Hawai’i, Manoa) examine current political struggles of native Hawaiians over the increasing presence of biotechnology corporations in Hawai’i. Biotechnology depends upon conditions that facilitate genetically modified organism (GMO) research and profit from ever-increasing production of genetically modified organisms. Legal regimes of property recognize new organisms that can be controlled, sold, and exploited; analogously, multiculturalist policies recreate identity through denial of indigeneity, refusing land claims by indigenous people that would interfere with biotechnology industries. This impacts Hawaiians’ ability to survive on the land and to (re)create a Hawaiian world, which would include native species, many of them kino lau or native deities. We consider Hawaiian ideas of kalo, for example, as kin and sacred ancestor, and other plants, animals, and natural elements as kino lau or body forms of deities, as crucial elements in the struggle against further colonization and towards a resurgence of native lifeways.

Indigenous Approaches to Critical Animal Studies and the New Materialisms?

Kimberly Tallbear (Environmental Sciences, University of California, Berkeley) highlights what indigenous thought has to offer academic theorizing as new critical fields work to dismantle hierarchies in the relationships of “westerners” with their non-human others. For example, “multi-species ethnography” now studies humans and their relations with nonhuman-beings such as dogs, bears, cattle, monkeys, bees, mushrooms, and microorganisms. But the starting points of these inquiries can only partially contain indigenous standpoints. Indigenous peoples never forgot that nonhumans are agential beings engaged in social relations that profoundly shape human lives. Moreover, their non-human others may not even be understood as living. “Objects” and “forces” such as stones, thunder, or stars are known within our ontologies to be sentient and knowing persons. Indigenous approaches also critique settler colonialism and its management of non-human others, linking violence against animals to violence against particular humans historically accorded less-than-human or animal status.

Our speakers are Noenoe Silva & & Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, University of Hawaii and Kimberly Tallbear, University of California, Berkeley

Noenoe’s Bio: She was born in O’ahu and is of Kanaka Maoli descent. She grew up in California and returned to Hawaii in 1985. In 1991, she earned her bachelor’s in Hawaiian language, and immediately began teaching Hawaiian at UH Manoa. In 1993, she completed a master’s degree in Library and Information Studies, and in 1999 earned her doctorate in political science. Noenoe joined the faculty of political science in Fall 2001, and now serve as associate professor. She now teaches courses in Hawaii and indigenous politics.

Kim’s Bio: Her research and teaching cross the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS), feminist science studies, anthropology of science, cultural studies, and Native American Studies (NAS). She critically integrate frameworks and methods from these disciplines as I examine the politics of scientific knowledge production and its impacts on Native Americans and other peoples who historically suffer uneven power relations in scientific research. Kim focuses on the cultures and politics of genominc, forensic, and environmental science and technology as they intersect with U.S. American conceptions of race and nation. 

Jonathan’s Bio: Completed BA in political science at Reed College and MA and Ph.D at the University of Wisconsin, Madison with emphasis in public law, comparative politics, and Marxist theory. He has taught at Reed College prior to joining the faculty at the University of Hawaii. Now, Jonathan is teaching graduate courses in areas of sociolegal studies, public policy, and political theory, and undergraduate courses in law and society. 

Presented as part of B/ordering Violence: Boundaries, Gender, Indigeneity in the Americas, a John E. Sawyer Seminar in Comparative Cultures generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Latin American & Caribbean Studies program, the Jackson School of International Studies, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, and the Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, & Sexuality (WISER).

For more on the B/ordering Violence Seminar Series, visit depts.washington.edu/uwch/programs/initiatives/bordering-violence and www.borderingviolence.com


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Borderlands Graduate Student Coffee hour with Profs. Silva and Tallbear

Friday May 24, 2013
10:00 am
Location: Communications 206

Contact: lasuw@uw.edu or 206.685.3435

Borderlands Graduate Student Coffee hour with Noenoe Silva and Kim Tallbear. Come meet Profs. Silva and Tallbear for an informal chat with other graduate students interested in borderlands research.

Presented as part of B/ordering Violence: Boundaries, Gender, Indigeneity in the Americas, a John E. Sawyer Seminar in Comparative Cultures generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Latin American & Caribbean Studies program, the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, and the Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, & Sexuality (WISER).

For more on the B/ordering Violence Seminar Series, visit depts.washington.edu/uwch/programs/initiatives/bordering-violence and www.borderingviolence.com 


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Protecting Vulnerable Road Users: Pedestrian Safety and the Built Environment in Lima, Peru

Thursday May 30, 2013
12:00-1:00pm
Thomson 317. University of Washington, Seattle Campus.

Presenter: Alex Quistberg, PhD, MPH

Co-sponsored by Latin American and Caribbean Studies and PERLA

lasuw@uw.edu

We are excited to have our next PERLA (Program in Education and Research in Latin America) meeting and seminar on Thursday May 30th from 12-1 pm in Thomson 317. We will be hearing from Dr. Alex Quistberg about his dissertation research on pedestrian safety and the built environment in Lima.

Please join us and disseminate this announcement widely!

"Protecting Vulnerable Road Users: Pedestrian Safety and the Built Environment in Lima, Peru"

Alex Quistberg, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center
Department of Pediatrics

Past presentation: Alejandro Cerón. If you missed the April meeting, the recording of the presentation is available at the following link:

http://uwmedical.adobeconnect.com/p2trvth946b/


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Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Box 353650, 122 Thomson Hall
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 685-3435
►lasuw@u.washington.edu

Dr. José Antonio Lucero
Director
►jal26@u.washington.edu

Gai-Hoai Nguyen
Assistant Director
►ghoaitn@u.washington.edu

Dr. Linda Iltis
Academic Advisor
(206) 543-6001
►iltis@u.washington.edu

Deb Raftus
LACS Librarian
►draftus@u.washington.edu