Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., October 16, 2017—On Friday, Oct. 20, and Saturday, Oct. 21, the U.S. Colombianx Editorial Committee will host an inaugural interdisciplinary symposium on “U.S. Colombianidades and the Future of Latinx Studies” at Williams College. The symposium will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Oakley Center. It is free and open to the public.
Ten percent of the Colombian population lives outside of Colombia, and Colombians are becoming pluralities in key regions across the U.S. The conditions, lives and cultures of diasporic Colombians have captured the attention of Colombia-based and U.S.-based scholars. Working from the perspective of Latinx Studies, the symposium aims to build on this critical conversation by focusing on a set of questions motivated by the ethnoracial, classed, gendered, socio-economic class and cultural experiences of Colombianxs.
This conference will build a set of cross-disciplinary dialogues to support U.S. Colombianx Studies in and beyond Latinx Studies. It grounds the concept of U.S. Colombianx in the experience of marginalization and advocates an inclusive and expansive interpretation of the term. Presentation themes include: diasporic and graphic novels, U.S. empire, queer ballroom performance, urban studies and media studies.
FRIDAY, OCT. 20
9:30 – 10 a.m. Welcome
10 – 11:30 a.m. Panel 1: Mapping Colombianx Spaces Across the Americas
Moderator: Diane Garbow
“El Hueco: Theorizing a Colombian Metaphor for Undocumented Migration” Jennifer Harford Vargas (Bryn Mawr College)
“Colombia Park: Pan-Latino, Transnational Urbanism in the Midst of Gentrification” Johana Londoño (University at Albany, SUNY)
“Silence in the Terminals: Investigating U.S. Airport Surveillance of Colombian Immigrants between 1975-1995” Marcela Osorio (Williams College ‘15)
“‘The Fault of the Jelly’: Interpreting Colombianxamerican Dispossession in the U.S. Landscape from the Green Revolution to Plan Colombia” John Mckiernan-González (Texas State University) and Cary Córdova (University of Texas, Austin)
1:30 – 3 p.m. Panel 2: Screening Colombianidades: Scripts, Images, Audiences
Moderator: Camilo Andres Romero
“Moments of Recognition: Globalizing Latina/U.S. Colombiana Girlhood
in Bomba Estéreo’s ‘Soy yo’” María Elena Cepeda (Williams College)
“(Un)Modern Family: Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, the Myth of the U.S.
Colombiana, and the Modern Quest for Belonging” John Rodríguez (Williams College ‘18)
“The Future of a Brown Nation?: Manny as the Incorporated Latin(o) Citizen
in Modern Family” Yamil Avivi García (Independent Scholar)
3:20 – 5 p.m. Panel 3: Theorizing Literary Diaspora and Exile
Moderator: Isabel Porras
“The Dialectics of Exile in The Veins of the Ocean” Astrid Lorena Ochoa Campo (University of Virginia)
“Imposed Exile and Diasporic Estrangement in Vida” Catalina Esguerra (University of Michigan)
“Gabo’s Journeys: Spiritual Experiences Lived by Colombians in the United States” Néstor Gómez Morales (University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology)
“Imagining a U.S. Colombianx Diasporic Literature” Arielle Concilio (University of California, Santa Barbara)
SATURDAY, OCT. 21
9 – 10:30 a.m. Panel 4: Queering Aesthetics of Violence
Moderator: Angie Ocampo
“Dialogue across Artistic Borders in the Colombianx Diaspora” Eileen McKiernan González (Berea College)
“Mi casa, su casa: Shakira and the Colombo-Transnational Queer Performance of Home” Sergio Manrique (Williams College ‘15)
“Fatness and Violence in the U.S.-Colombian Borderlands” Yesenia Barragan (Dartmouth College)
“en ese terrible día…: Performing the Trans-American Gothic in Carlos Motta’s Réquiem” Cathryn Josefina Merla-Watson (University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley)
10:50 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. Panel 5: Political Awakenings
Moderator: Catalina Esguerra
“‘¡Paz, paz, que entre dos bandos no hay más!’: The Critical Role of Colombia’s Youth Diaspora in the Creation of Peace” Camilo Andrés Romero (Independent Scholar)
“Transposing Transnational Trans Identities: Classroom Disciplines, Bodies, and State Identities” Paula Natalia Mejía (Williams College ‘19)
“The Political Attitudes of Colombian-Americans” Angela X. Ocampo (University of California, Los Angeles) and Angie N. Ocampo (University of Pennsylvania)
“On Butterflies, Viruses, and Visas: Comics and the Perils of Diasporic Imagined Communities” Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste (Georgia State University)
2:15 – 3:45 p.m. Panel 6: Navigating Assimilation Imperatives
Moderator: Astrid Lorena Ochoa Ocampo
“Crafting Colombianidad in Philadelphia: Dialogues of Here and There, Then and Now” Diane Garbow (Independent Scholar)
“Navigating Ethno-Racism in the American Workplace: The Experiences of Colombian and Puerto Rican Computer Engineers in the U.S.” Lina Rincón (Framingham State University)
“Female Beauty in New York’s Little Colombia” Viviana Benjumea (Williams College ‘14)
“Colombian and Dominican Children of Immigrants Growing Up in New York City: Parallel Experiences of Identity Negotiation, Divergent Life Trajectories” Debora Upegui Hernández (City University of New York)
4:05 – 5:35 p.m. Panel 7: Spaces of Embodiment: Race and Gender in Diaspora
Moderator: Angela Ocampo
“Embodied Geographies of Colombianidad: Race, Citizenship and Colombianx Transnationalism in New York” Ariana Ochoa Camacho (University of Washington, Tacoma)
“Belleza natural: Nature, Beauty, Race, and Politics in el Concurso Señorita Independencia de Colombia” Michelle Nasser De La Torre (Independent Scholar)
“Blackness, Heritage, and Belonging in Cartagena’s Tourism Economy” Isabel Porras (University of California, Davis)
“‘Am I a Person of Color?’: Racial Migrations of White Bogotanx in the U.S.” Mercedes López Rodríguez (University of South Carolina)
END
For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map
Online:
williams.edu
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