Annual Latin American conference extended
Courtesy Photo / Professor Graciela Di Marco will be speaking at the Conference on the Americas
Nov 4, 2010
Oftentimes, conferences and events held at universities are forced to fit a large amount of information into only one or two days. But this month, the Latin American Studies Department at Grand Valley State University will break that trend by expanding their annual Conference on the Americas conference into a three-day event.
The conference will take place Nov. 4 through Nov. 6 at the Eberhard Center on GVSU’s Pew Campus.
“This is the 11th conference,” said Zulema Moret, director of Latin American studies and associate Spanish professor at GVSU. “In the past, we had only offered the conference for one day, but now we are extending the conference to 2 1/2 days. That way we have the opportunity to offer more workshops and to invite more speakers from different countries.”
The theme of this year’s event will be “Creative Agents of Change: Facing Challenges in Our Communities,” according to a GVSU press release. This year’s keynote speaker will be Doris Sommer, director of the Cultural Agency Initiative at Harvard University, with her address being set for 7 p.m. today.
Harvard’s Cultural Agents Initiative is a program that investigates and promotes the roles of art and artists in facing community challenges, Moret said.
“We are pleased to have Dr. Sommer come to the conference,” Moret said. “As the Faculty Director of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University, she will be able to give us insights on the challenges our communities face and how they can be transformed. The conference will promote knowledge and understanding of Latin America and Latinos living in the United States and West Michigan.”
Conference topics will include sustainable development, interactions between the community and cultural agents and the transformative role of the arts and women as agents of changes in the community.
The cost to attend is the event is $55 for faculty and staff member at GVSU, $10 for community members and free for all GVSU students. To view the full conference schedule, visit at www.gvsu.edu/las/coa.
