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Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples (ERIP)

A Section of the Latin American Studies Association


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Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples (ERIP) Section
Latin American Studies Association (LASA)

Activities Report 2021 - 2022

Prepared by
Mirna Carranza, ERIP Co-Chair
Elaine Rocha, ERIP Co-Chair

  • Membership

 

ERIP is one of the largest sections of the LASA. Due to COVID-19, the last two years have presented many challenges for our members. However, this year we have observed a small increased in our membership. For comparative purposes, these are membership numbers at the time of the most recent LASA International Congresses:

Month and Year

Conference

ERIP Members

May 2019

LASA Boston, MA

313

May 2020

LASA Guadalajara/COVID19

308

May 2021

LASA, Virtual Congress

272

May 2022

LASA, Virtual Congress

287

ERIP is also active on social media:

Platform

Followers

Facebook Group

500+

Twitter

910+

 

  • Funds: $7,498.56
  • ERIP Website:

Our website continues to be graciously administered by Marc Becker. Erip pays:
$5/month for hosting = $60/yr.
$10 for the domain name
Total per year: $70

 

  • ERIP 2021 Conference

Due to the Covid -19 pandemic (travel restrictions, access to vaccines, etc.) the Seventh ERIP bi-annual, planned for a virtual gathering on Sep 2021 at Stanford University had to be cancelled.
To fill the gap and to continue the engagement with the section’s members, ERIP and Stanford collaborated in organizing a smaller online event: “Conversations on Race & Ethnicity: Continuities and New Challenges in the Wake of the Covid-19”, Stanford University/ Center for Latin American Studies/ Center for Global Studies/ERIP. The online event happened in September 8-10, 2021.

  • ERIP 2022 Conference

Since October 2021, ERIP and Stanford have worked arduously (bi-weekly meetings) to plan and organize this conference in accordance to the current COVID-19 climate and restrictions. We are happy to report that this conference will take place in Mexico City on October 27-30, 2022 - in person!!.

The organizing committee is composed of the two ERIP Co-chairs, two representatives of the ERIP Council and (3) representatives from Stanford University. The Title of the event is: “The Power of discourse vs the discourse of power: Indigenous and Afro-descendants’ rights in the Americas”.

  • The African Diaspora in Latin America. Film Club

 

ERIP collaborated with the Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, in the organization of a debate on short films related to the African Diaspora in Latin America. The online event was on May 7, 2022.

 

  • AWARDS

The Consejo has accepted the proposal for the creation of 2 awards: one for best book and one for best academic article or essay, to be delivered during LASA conference, 2024.

 

  • LASA 2022 (Virtual Congress)

The ERIP’s Council made a call for proposals to its members and reviewed submissions before submitting them to LASA for inclusion in the Conference’s Program. ERIP sponsored a total of four panels, workshops and/or roundtables in the Congress. However, accessibility issues such as the high costs for LASA registration and health issues related to the COVID pandemic, two panels were cancelled.

Due to the COVID19 pandemic, the Section held its annual Business Meeting (May 27, 2021 @ 7:00 pm ET) via Zoom. See Appendix I for Agenda. 9 Attendees

 

 

  • Concerns

During the section business meeting, the high cost of membership and registration for the LASA conference were discussed as a primary concern. Members shared that many colleagues had the expectation that registration for the conference would be at lower cost, because it was held online, as there were less accrued expenses in comparison to organizing an in-person conference. It was also stated that the high costs of membership and conference participation has excluded individuals that had been members for years, but are facing financial problems, such as members coming from countries outside United States, Canada or European countries, as well as those who are retired or unemployed. There was a consensus that the classification of countries for payments must be revised.
Another area of concern is LASA’s control of the ERIP members’ list of emails. It is impossible to maintain contact with our members without being granted access to such a crucial information.

Finally, members of LASA and ERIP that had not registered for the 2022 conference were blocked from receiving information about ERIP’s Section’s Annual Business Meeting, hence, not able to participate.

  • Current Consejo Section Officers (2020 - 2022)

 

Co-Chair:

  • Elaine Rocha (elaine.rocha@cavehill.uwi.edu), Senior Lecturer, Dept. History and Philosophy, The University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Barbados). 2019 - 2022 - Ending
  • Mirna Carranza (carranz@mcmaster.ca), Professor, School of Social Work, McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). 2020 - 2022 - Ending

Council Members

  • Election for the ERIP Council - August 1, 2022 - July 31, 2024

 

  • Members of ERIP attended the call for nomination to fulfill the positions that are about to become vacant. Names were presented and approved during the Section Business Meeting. Therefore, the new ERIP Consejo from August 1, 2022:

is as follows:

Chairs:

  • Joel Correia1. joel.correia@ufl.edu Center for Latin American Studies. University of Florida. Tropical Conservation and Development Program. 2022-2024.
  • Maria de Lourdes B. de Alcântara2. loubeldi@usp.br Medical Anthropology. Universidade de São Paulo. 2022-1024.

Secretary:

  • Tiffany D. Creegan Miller. tmiller@colby.edu Assistant Professor of Spanish. Associate Director, Oak Institute for Human Rights. Colby College. 2022-2024

Council members:

  • Mneesha Gellman. mneesha_gellman@emerson.edu Associate Professor of Political Science at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. 2021-2023.
  • Robert McKenna Brown. mbrown@vcu.edu Professor at School of World Studies. Virginia Commonwealth University. 2022-2024.
  • Renzo Aroni Sulca. ra3089@columbia.edu Lecturer, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER) Columbia University. 2022-2024.
  • Rene' Harder Horst. Latin American and Indigenous History. horstrh@appstate.edu Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA

 

Appendix I

Section Officers (2020 - 2022)

Co-Chair:

  • Elaine Rocha (elaine.rocha@cavehill.uwi.edu), Senior Lecturer, Dept. History and Philosophy, The University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Barbados). 2019 - 2022 - Ending
  • Mirna Carranza (carranz@mcmaster.ca), Professor, School of Social Work, McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). 2020 - 2022 - Ending

Council Members

  • Mneesha Gellman. mneesha_gellman@emerson.edu Associate Professor of Political Science at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. 2021-2023.
  • Joel Correia. joel.correia@ufl.edu Center for Latin American Studies. University of Florida. Tropical Conservation and Development Program. 2017-2022.
  • Leslie Bary (leslie.bary@gmail.com). Department of Modern Languages, University of Louisiana (Lafayette, LA). 2020 - 2022 - Ending
  • Nicole Legnani. Assistant Professor. Department of English and Portuguese, Princeton University. 2020 - 2022 - Ending
  • Joao Lisboa. Department of Anthropology. Federal University of Parana (Brazil). 2020 - 2022 - Ending
  • Vacant (2) 2020 - 2022

Appendix II

Agenda for Business Meeting

Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples (ERIP) Section
XXXVIII Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (Virtual) - COVID-19 2021
Date and Time: May 05, 2022 @ 1:00 pm Eastern Time
Zoom Conference Call

  • Introductions
  • Reviews and discussion of Co-Chair applications
  • ERIP 2022 Conference with Stanford University - Mexico City
  • Award
  • Discussion of members Council positions: Secretary & Council positions
  • Other business

Appendix III

New Members Biographies

Dr. Maria de Lourdes Beldi de Alcântara
My work with indigenous youth began while I was coordinator of the Centre, in July 1999, and I have since been working in this area with the support of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). However, over the last twenty years, I have had close contact with the cultural dialogue between indigenous youth and western society, which is extremely tense and conflict-ridden. The prejudice and racism to which the surrounding society subjects indigenous young people makes them feel humiliated and without any prospects for the future. They suffer every kind of social exclusion, which is accentuated by the way in which they are denied their rights. One result is their extremely low self-esteem, which leads them to try and keep a low profile in any contact with western society. However, on several occasions, I have personally witnessed these young people being thrown out of public places in the town of Dourados.The situation in their own communities and their relations with older people and their families, that is, the dialogue between the generations, is also full of conflict. They face rejection because they do not follow “traditional” models and this makes them feel that they do not belong. Their response is a high suicide rate and an increase in violence between them. Thirteen years of living among young people that are really suffering has allowed me to understand a little more about this generation. I have known many young people who have either committed suicide or tried to do so. We are now trying, through Action with Indigenous Youth (Ação dos Jovens Indigenas) to work with extremely vulnerable young people.  My focus is on three main problems: suicide, rape and sexually transmitted diseases.

Dr. Joel Correia
Correia is an Assistant Professor in the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies. His research and teaching focus on geographies of justice by investigating intersections of human rights, development, and environmental change with attention to Indigenous politics and decolonization in Latin America. At University of Florida, Joel co-coordinates the Indigenous Studies Specialization for the Center for Latin American Studies.
Correira writes about struggles for justice and emancipatory futures in the context of radical social- ecological change in Latin America. Much of that work examines dynamics of Indigenous rights, expanding extractive frontiers, deforestation, large-scale infrastructure development, and social movements, particularly climate and environmental justice. His field research is primarily based in the Gran Chaco (Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina) and more recently in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Since 2018, Correia has collaborated with colleagues at University of Arizona to coordinate a series of workshops that bring together Indigenous and Afro-descendant social movement leaders from across Latin America to discuss contemporary human rights struggles and identify strategies to support environmental justice.

Dr. Tiffany Creegan Miller
Miller is an assistant professor of Spanish and the Associate Director of the Oak Institute for Human Rights at Colby College. Her published work focuses on contemporary Indigenous literature and decolonial critical theory, with an emphasis on orality, performance, and linguistic revitalization initiatives. She is the author of The Maya Art of Speaking Writing: Remediating Indigenous Orality in the Digital Age (University of Arizona Press, 2022). Challenging the distinctions between “old” and “new” media and narratives about deprecation of orality in favor of inscribed forms, Miller draws from Maya epistemologies of recorded knowledge (tz’ib’) and orality (tzij, choloj, ch’owen) to look at expressive work across media and languages. As a speaker of Kaqchikel Maya, she is also an advisor for Wuqu’ Kawoq: Maya Health Alliance, a medical NGO in Guatemala that provides health care in Kaqchikel and promotes Indigenous language rights.

Dr. Renzo S. Aroni Sulca
I am a Quechua scholar and historian of modern Latin America. I obtained my Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Davis, with dual emphases in Human Rights and Native American Studies. I also hold an M.A. in Anthropology, with a focus on Ethnomusicology, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Presently, I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Society of Fellows in the Humanities and a lecturer at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER) at Columbia University. As a researcher, I am completing my manuscript on Indigenous peasant resistance to Shining Path in Peru. I’m also a self-taught musician and play Andean traditional instruments, including the 12-string pumpin guitar, and co-founder of Kuskalla Abya Yala, a non-academic initiative dedicated to revitalizing the Quechua, my native language.

 

1 See Appendix II

2 See Appendix III

 

 
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