In May, four members of the St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) faculty took part in the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congress in Paris, France: Jeannine Ortega (English), George MacLeod (ILC-French), Ximena Postigo and Argelia González Hurtado (ILC-Spanish). LASA is the largest professional association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America.
- Asst. Prof. of English Jeannine Ortega presented the paper “Mothering Otherwise: Kinship, Citizenship, and Queer Futures in Julio Torres’s Problemista” as part of a panel on Latin American queer cinema.
- Assoc. Prof. of Spanish Ximena Postigo delivered a presentation on neo-indigenist futurisms in Bolivian speculative literature during the panel “Reimagining the Andes: Dynamic Cartographies and Cultural Turns.” As chair of the LASA Bolivia Section, she also led the section’s business meeting, reporting on recent achievements and ongoing initiatives, and chaired a session on colonial violence in Bolivia.
- Assoc. Prof. of French George MacLeod organized the panel “Imagining Haiti Beyond Borders: Literature, Art, and Diasporic Worlds,” where he presented research from his current project on the Haitian diaspora in Tijuana and Washington, D.C.
- Assoc. Prof. of Spanish Argelia González Hurtado participated in the roundtable “Critical Reflection on Constructed Latinx Identities and Racialized Bodies in Visual and Textual Culture,” which highlighted the recently published volume of the same title. During the session, she discussed her contribution to the collection. She also presented a paper on Tzotzil cinema as part of a panel on regional cinemas.
In addition to their individual presentations, Ortega, MacLeod and González Hurtado joined a roundtable on cinematic motherhood in Latin America, where they discussed their contributions to a collaborative project coordinated by González Hurtado.
The conference also provided an opportunity to welcome new faculty member Gisabel Leonardo, who joins SMCM this fall as assistant professor of Spanish. She participated in LASA by organizing and presenting on the panel “Citizenship, Belonging, and the Grammar of ‘We’ in the Caribbean.”
