The Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies

JOIN US TOMORROW!

How we Talk about Tunisia:
Interrogating Dominant Narratives

Monday, June 17th, 2024

9:00 AM (PDT) | 6:00 PM (CET) | 5:00 PM (Tunisia)

LINK TO LIVE WEBINAR:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/84284582124

This webinar will focus on national/international structural constraints in Tunisia, contrary to typical Western-heavy narratives of the failures of the liberal democratic. The webinar will provide a comprehensive analysis and summary of “how we got here,” and the speakers will debate and interrogate dominant narratives, rhetorical binaries and discuss the importance of decolonizing knowledge, providing critical alternatives and discussing how we can envision and build an alternative and more equitable future in Tunisia.

Security in Context

International Webinar Conference

Black Geographies: Racial Capitalism, Geo-Ontological Uprootedness, and Struggles for Life in Brazil

Monday, 17th June 2024, 2pm (PDT) | 18h (BRT)

Link to Live Webinar in Portuguese with Translated Captions:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/81335735478

This webinar brings together perspectives from Sociology, Anthropology, and Geography to explore the intricacies of spatial production, with a particular emphasis on understanding the anti-black dynamics that underlie territorial, urban, and national development in Brazil. What types of spatialities are produced in contexts structured by racial domination? What forms of subjectivity and modes of resistance emerge from Brazilian spatial history? In a reality where the Black experience is often characterized by both spatial and ontological exile, how does the Black individual navigate the geographies of dominance and resistance?
________________________________________________________

Webinar Internacional

Geografias Negras: Capitalismo Racial, Desterro Geo-ontológico e Lutas pela Vida no Brasil

Segunda-feira, 17 de junho de 2024, 18h (BRT)

Link para acessar o Webinar:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/81335735478

Este webinar reúne intervenções teóricas da Sociologia, Antropologia e Geografia para pensar a produção do espaço, focando nas dinâmicas antinegras do fazer território, fazer cidade e fazer nação. Se o espaço, na teoria lefebvriana, é sempre expressão e resultado de relações de poder, que tipos de espacialidade são produzidos em contextos estruturados pela dominação racial, como é o caso do Brasil? Quais as subjetividades e pedagogias de luta que emergem da nossa história espacial? Se a experiência negra é marcada pelo desterro (espacial e ontológico), como o sujeito negro se posiciona nas geografias de dominação e resistência?

How we Talk about Tunisia:
Interrogating Dominant Narratives

Monday, June 17th, 2024

9:00 AM (PDT) | 6:00 PM (CET) | 5:00 PM (Tunisia)

LINK TO LIVE WEBINAR:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/84284582124

This webinar will focus on national/international structural constraints in Tunisia, contrary to typical Western-heavy narratives of the failures of the liberal democratic. The webinar will provide a comprehensive analysis and summary of “how we got here,” and the speakers will debate and interrogate dominant narratives, rhetorical binaries and discuss the importance of decolonizing knowledge, providing critical alternatives and discussing how we can envision and build an alternative and more equitable future in Tunisia.

Security in Context

TOMORROW!

Undergraduate Student Orfalea Center Fellows' Presentations

Orfalea Research Cluster Forums III

Wednesday, June 5th, 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Girvetz 2320
FREE CATERED LUNCH

Environmental Justice & Climate Justice Studies
Global Gender & Sexualities
Global Carceral States
Future Infrastructures

Orfalea Center Undergraduate Fellows are all successfully completing the special, advanced Global Studies EAP-preparatory research seminar course Global 196, led by Lecturer Omar Mansour, a UCSB Global Studies alum who also serves as Public Education Academic Coordinator at the Orfalea Center. In this special presentation, the undergraduate seminar student-fellows will present their current research project plans and visions before traveling abroad in the summer and/or next academic year to conduct mentored fieldwork mostly in the context of UC EAP programs.

In addition to taking the GL 196 seminar, each student is a member of one of the Orfalea Center's Thematic Research Clusters, where these undergrads collaborate with Grad Students, UCSB Faculty, and global-south community-based researchers. This will be a diverse set of research projects exemplifying the potential and intellectual rigor of the undergraduate students on this campus.

Each student will showcase a short mini-documentary based on their research topic, showing the extensive research they have already conducted before traveling abroad.

TODAY!

Grad Student Orfalea Center Fellows' Presentations

Orfalea Research Cluster Forums III

Wednesday, May 29th, 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Girvetz 2320

FREE CATERED LUNCH

Environmental Justice & Climate Justice Studies
Global Gender & Sexualities
Reimagining Social Data and the Archive
Global Carceral States

International Webinar Conference

Empowering Indigenous and Black Communities through Audiovisual Storytelling: Favela Cineclube Project in Brazil

Thursday, May 30th, 2pm (PDT) | 18h (Brazil)

Link to Live Webinar in Portuguese with Translated Captions:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/88527471373

Founders and members of the Favela Cineclube Project will discuss their groundbreaking initiative, which has significantly expanded access to cinema and visual arts for residents of Rio de Janeiro's peripheral areas. This transformative endeavor adeptly utilizes audiovisual mediums as powerful tools for both resistance and representation. Central to the discussion will be the documentary “Retomada no Asfalto” (20 min, 2024), a collaborative production with the Orfalea Center. This film portrays the lives and aspirations of indigenous people residing in Rio de Janeiro's favelas and outskirts, shedding light on their struggle for identity recognition. The talks will also explore how audiovisual storytelling has emerged as an important tool in building anti-racist narratives and fostering the empowerment of Indigenous and Black communities in Brazil.

_______________________________________________________
WEBINAR INTERNACIONAL

Empoderamento de Comunidades Indígenas e Negras
através do Audiovisual: O Caso do Projeto Favela Cineclube

Quinta-feira, 30 de maio, 18h

Link para acessar o Webinar:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/88527471373

Este webinar internacional reunirá fundadores e membros do projeto Favela Cineclube, uma iniciativa que tem ajudado a democratizar o acesso ao cinema e às artes visuais de moradores de regiões de periferia do Rio de Janeiro, fazendo do audiovisual um instrumento de resistência e representatividade. Um dos principais tópicos abordados será o documentário “Retomada no Asfalto” (20 min, 2024), desenvolvido em parceria com o Orfalea Center. O filme, dirigido por Fatinha Lima e Suellen Cloud Atlas, retrata a vida e o trabalho de indígenas que residem em favelas e periferias do Rio de Janeiro, mostrando a luta deles para ter as suas identidades reconhecidas. Também será abordado como o audiovisual tem sido uma ferramenta importante na construção de narrativas antirracistas e no fortalecimento de comunidades indígenas e negras no Brasil.

TODAY!

"Rising Global Conflicts, Indigenous Peoples, and Women’s Fight for Peace, Justice & Survival:" A talk by Bina Nepram

&

A Premier Screening of "Manglaan: Q***r Peacebuilding"


Thursday, May 23
11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

McCune Conference 6020 HSSB


LUNCH PROVIDED
Binalakshmi ‘Bina’ Nepram is an Indigenous scholar, author, and human rights defender, whose work focuses on women-led peace, security, and disarmament in Manipur, Northeast India, and in seven socio-cultural Indigenous regions of the world. She is currently the Senior Adviser on Indigenous issues at the Centre for Thematic Excellence at the United States Institute of Peace and a Fellow at Asia Centre, Harvard University. She is also the founder of three organizations: the Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI) in 2004, the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network (MWGSN) in 2007, and the Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, Gender Justice and Peace in 2019.

Discussant: Prof. Anshu Malhotra (Chair, Department of Global Studies).

Manglaan is a documentary film on the Asia-Pacific region’s first all-transmen soccer team, set in the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur. The film is co-produced by Maisnam Arnapal (Feminist Studies PhD student & Orfalea Center fellow) in collaboration with Ya_All, an LGBTI youth organization in Manipur.
Join us for the post-screening Q&A with the production and the soccer teams.

Co-sponsors: Hull Chair in Women’s Studies, Center for Feminist Futures, UCSB Sociology, UCSB Global Studies.

Trailer for the Film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8oV47CMR4o

Bina Nepram's profile link on USIP:
https://www.usip.org/people/binalakshmi-nepram

TOMORROW!

Race and Gender in a Tropical Democracy: Xica da Silva and Black Women' Agency in Colonial Brazil

A Talk by Raquel Luciana de Souza
(Federal University of Bahia)

Thursday, May 23nd, 2024

Girvetz Hall 2320, 2:30 PM

Since the beginning of colonization, women of African descent have developed and utilized a variety of strategies to resist racism, sexism, homophobia, and multiple intersecting forms of oppression and exploitation. These strategies of resistance, despite their significance in shedding light on the lives of enslaved women, have yet to be adequately investigated. This talk aims to address these intersections through the historical and mythical figure of Xica da Silva, a woman of African descent who lived in eighteenth-century Brazil.

TOMORROW!

Changing Business and Investment Models in the Angola-China Nexus: Projects, Schools and Commerce

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024

7AM (PDT) | 15H (LUANDA) | 22H (BEIJING)

Online Event in English and Portuguese
with Translated Captions:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/88303955272

In this new episode of the “China-Angola Relations Webinar Series,” the presentations will center on the evolving business and cooperation models between the two countries, spanning key sectors such as education, agriculture, technology, and construction. The webinar will shed light on the diversification of investments, illustrating how the current landscape extends beyond traditional large-scale, standardized, and high-yield commercial ventures to embrace regionally focused enterprises buoyed by Chinese private investment. This shift's impact on daily sociocultural interactions between Angolans and Chinese will be a key topic. Drawing from compelling case studies, these presentations will vividly depict the dynamic nature of these emerging business models. We will delve into the sociocultural impacts of investments in areas like Kilamba, Hoje Ya Henda, and Cidade da China, alongside discussing the establishment of the first Chinese international school in Angola.

TOMORROW!

China-Angola Relations Over the Past Two Decades:
Urban and Technological Development

Thursday, May 16th, 2024

7:00am (PDT) | 15h (Luanda) | 22h (Beijing)

ONLINE EVENT

LINK TO LIVE WEBINAR:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/88303955272

In a project supported by the Ford Foundation, the Orfalea Center collaborates with research partners in Angola and China to explore the intricate landscape of urban and rural development in Angola. Their research delves into various aspects of Angola's socio-economic fabric, with a particular focus on the expanding collaboration with China. This webinar will address several key topics, including: (1) the similarities and differences in media coverage of China-Angola relations by Chinese and Angolan newspapers; (2) the evolution of Chinese investments in Angola's real estate sector over the past two decades; and (3) the role of the online market for Chinese products in providing vital economic opportunities for young students in Angola.

HAPPENING TODAY!

Apartheid Remains
Book Launch by Sharad Chari

Commentary Provided by Prof. Jasbir Puar

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Girvetz Hall 2320

IN-PERSON, Light Dinner Served
______________

Sharad Chari will share insights from his new book, Apartheid Remains, published by Duke University Press in May 2024. Through long-term historical and ethnographic research, this book explores how people handle the remains of segregation and apartheid in South Africa as witnessed through portals in an industrial-residential landscape in the Indian Ocean city of Durban. Part I, 'Racial Palimpsest,' shows how South Africa’s twentieth-century conserves the remains of multiple pasts in Durban, including attempts by the racial state to remake territory and personhood while instead deepening spatial contradictions and struggles. Part II, 'Remains of Revolution,' shows how these struggles took specific shape as they coursed through the late apartheid city.

________

Sharad Chari is Associate Professor of Geography and Critical Theory at UC Berkeley, and has held appointments at Michigan, LSE, and the University of the Witwatersrand. Sharad is the author of Gramsci at Sea (Minnesota, 2023) and Fraternal Capital (Stanford, 2004). He is currently working on a book on the critique of sexuality at apartheid's end and also on the fetishism of the 'ocean economy' at the confluence of the Black Atlantic and the Southern Indian Ocean.

Jasbir K. Puar is a Professor at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of the award-winning books The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017) and Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Q***r Times (2007), re-issued as an expanded version for its 10th anniversary (2017). Her articles have been published in journals such as Social Text and South Atlantic Quarterly, mainstream venues such as Al-Jazeera and The Guardian.

TOMORROW! “Graphic Novels, Art Making & Zines as Trans/Q***r Archives”

Monday, May 6, 2024

11:00am - 12:15pm (PST)
11:30pm - 12:15am (India)

Online and In-Person Event

UCSB, GIRV 2116

LIVE WEBINAR LINK:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/88476165444

Artists and activists from India will talk about the role of zines, graphic novels, and art in archiving Trans/Q***r experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us as we explore pages from the graphic novels, and engage with artists & activists in order to understand a q***r account of the pandemic.

TONIGHT!

FILM SCREENING WITH DIRECTOR

"Bad Women of China"

Q&A session with film director Xiaopei He
and dialogue with Lisa Rofel (UC Santa Cruz) and Paul Amar (UC Santa Barbara)

Tuesday, April 30th, 2024, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

I.V. THEATER 2 (960 EMBARCADERO DEL NORTE,
ISLA VISTA, CA 93117)

The Orfalea Center invites you to a film screening of an incredibly powerful and timely documentary, "Bad Women of China" (82 min), directed by Xiaopei He. The film offers a refreshingly irreverent perspective on historical experiences, while wryly documenting the potential of le***an and polyamorous lifestyles to challenge established ideas of feminine propriety. Through intimate conversations, "Bad Women of China" demonstrates how women are unconsciously led to belittle their own desires, experiences and hopes. The film screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the director.

He Xiaopei is a film director and activist whose films explore invisible desires and lives. Since the 1990s, she has devoted herself to feminist and le***an movements in China. She completed a PhD in sexuality and cultural studies in the UK and, after graduating, returned to China to set up the NGO Pink Space.

FILM SCREENING WITH DIRECTOR

"Bad Women of China"

Q&A session with film director Xiaopei He
and dialogue with Lisa Rofel (UC Santa Cruz) and Paul Amar (UC Santa Barbara)

Tuesday, April 30th, 2024, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

I.V. THEATER 2 (960 EMBARCADERO DEL NORTE,
ISLA VISTA, CA 93117)

The Orfalea Center invites you to a film screening of an incredibly powerful and timely documentary, "Bad Women of China" (82 min), directed by Xiaopei He. The film offers a refreshingly irreverent perspective on historical experiences, while wryly documenting the potential of le***an and polyamorous lifestyles to challenge established ideas of feminine propriety. Through intimate conversations, "Bad Women of China" demonstrates how women are unconsciously led to belittle their own desires, experiences and hopes. The film screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the director.

He Xiaopei is a film director and activist whose films explore invisible desires and lives. Since the 1990s, she has devoted herself to feminist and le***an movements in China. She completed a PhD in sexuality and cultural studies in the UK and, after graduating, returned to China to set up the NGO Pink Space.

Happening Today!

TOMORROW!

Global Human/ities: Robots, Retroviruses, and the Rest of Us

Book Launch by Long T. Bui (UC Irvine)

Wednesday, April 24th, 2024, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

GIRVETZ HALL 2320
________________

IN-PERSON EVENT, Light Dinner Served

This two-book talk will discuss the Model Machine: A History of the Asian as Automaton (Temple University 2022) and a forthcoming book Viral World: Global Relations during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Routledge Press 2024). Insofar as the former speaks to a futuristic imaginary garnered through a dehumanizing past, the latter discusses our pandemic present as a process and product of violent humanisms. Both books address the human and humanity as global issues that require new humanistic imaginaries. By probing the human-centered discourses weaponized against Others the talks consider the ways that we humans are beginning to understand the ethical limits of ourselves and the politics of our relationalities.

TOMORROW!

Global Human/ities: Robots, Retroviruses, and the Rest of Us

Book Launch by Long T. Bui (UC Irvine)

Wednesday, April 24th, 2024, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

GIRVETZ HALL 2320
________________

IN-PERSON EVENT, Light Dinner Served

This two-book talk will discuss the Model Machine: A History of the Asian as Automaton (Temple University 2022) and a forthcoming book Viral World: Global Relations during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Routledge Press 2024). Insofar as the former speaks to a futuristic imaginary garnered through a dehumanizing past, the latter discusses our pandemic present as a process and product of violent humanisms. Both books address the human and humanity as global issues that require new humanistic imaginaries. By probing the human-centered discourses weaponized against Others the talks consider the ways that we humans are beginning to understand the ethical limits of ourselves and the politics of our relationalities.

Navigating the Data Deluge
A Panel on Social Data and Research Methodology

TOMORROW, Friday, April 19th

12pm - 1:30pm (PST)
16 - 17h30 (Brazil)

Online Event in English and Portuguese with Translated Captions

https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/87055011316

Have you ever found yourself swimming in a sea of data, unsure of how to navigate it to uncover meaningful insights and to create new information? In a time flooded with data, this UCSB Orfalea Center and the QMSS Ph.D. Emphasis* panel will discuss how to produce impactful research results in Social Sciences and Humanities from the digital transformation of data in recent decades. This international panel will address the limitations of current social science methodology and discuss pathways towards the integration of big data and contextual knowledge to develop valid and useful findings. If you want to understand how to navigate the data deluge in today's digital landscape and turn it into an asset for your research, this panel will offer an excellent opportunity to delve into these topics!

This event is intended for undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and practitioners interested in applied social research methodology.

TOMORROW!

From Zines to Scholarly Publishing

Guest Lecture by Dylan Kyung-lim White - Stanford University Press Editor for Anthropology and Asian Studies

Wednesday, April 17th, 2024

1:30 PM - 2:30 PM, GIRVETZ HALL 2320
________________

IN-PERSON EVENT, Free Catered Lunch Served

In this presentation, Dylan Kyung-lim White will discuss his unexpected career as a university press acquisitions editor. He will touch on his first publishing passion, zines and other DIY printed matter, his experiences in university press publishing, and the day-to-day work of an acquisitions editor.

UCSB's Orfalea Center Digital Humanities and Social Change Series Presents

Digital Humanities in India:
Towards an Infrastructural Critique Of and With E-Lit

Lecture by Samya Brata Roy

Wednesday, April 10th, 2024

9am (California)
9:30pm (India)

Online event in English with simultaneous translation into other languages

Zoom Link: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/89653830433

This talk will shed light on a broader question of digital cultures and performances in the online space in India. The material, social constraints and varied social geographies influence, mould, and shape what we understand to be the subjective act of creation. Such epistemic considerations are vital to rethink the generational typology of Electronic Literature that can unconsciously privilege technological access. To emphasise an alternative mode of theorisation, this talk problematises the notions of reading, writing and spaces. Samya Brata Roy (School of Liberal Arts, IIT Jodhpur) will ponder on the infrastructural issues of accessibility, computational awareness, knowledge of the field, institutional networks etc. and how they all create networks, hierarchies and power imbalances. The investigation's point would be to better understand digital divides by Implementing Electronic LiteratureS (Ensslin and Roy 2023) as a method.

"Making Digital Tools for Egalitarian Archival Practice" by Juan Cobo Betancourt (UC Santa Barbara)

Wednesday April 10th, 2024

In Person Only
1:30 PM, Girvetz 2320

Archives, key sites for negotiating visions of the past, present, and future, have also always been sites of inequality. Decisions on what to collect, preserve, and make available powerfully shape whose stories can be told and whose are silenced. Digital tools have the potential to address some of these inequalities, but unequal access to technology has meant they have more often reinforced and entrenched them. This talk discusses an ongoing effort to address these failures of the digital by creating tools for a more egalitarian, decentralized, and collaborative archival practice.

TOMORROW!

Global & Comparative Education Research

Link Here: https://ucsb.zoom.us/s/81950688336

Current issues in education policy can be observed globally. Please join the UCSB Orfalea Center for a premier research panel discussing current issues in global & comparative education. This virtual panel will reflect on interdisciplinary perspectives on educational and social science research. The panel will discuss interdisciplinary approaches to social science and educational research with leading experts conducting research internationally. This event is intended for undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and practitioners interested in social science theory and applied research.

This event was organized by Orfalea Center fellow Travis Cadieas

Happening TODAY!

It's Tomorrow!

Undergraduate Orfalea Center Fellow Research Project Presentations

📅 Wednesday, March 13

🕛 12:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Girvetz 2320

Orfalea Center Undergraduate Fellows are all successfully completing the special, advanced Global Studies EAP-preparatory research seminar course Global 196, led by Lecturer Omar Mansour, a UCSB Global Studies alum who also serves as Public Education Academic Coordinator at the Orfalea Center. In this special presentation, the undergraduate seminar student-fellows will present their current research project plans and visions before traveling abroad in the summer and/or next academic year to conduct mentored fieldwork mostly in the context of UC EAP programs. In addition to taking the GL 196 seminar, each student is a member of one of the Orfalea Center's Thematic Research Clusters where these undergrads collaborate with Grad Students, UCSB Faculty, and global-south community-based researchers. This will be a diverse set of research projects exemplifying the potential and intellectual rigor of the undergraduate students on this campus.

It's Tomorrow!

Undergraduate Orfalea Center Fellow Research Project Presentations

📅 Wednesday, March 13

🕛 12:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Girvetz 2320

Orfalea Center Undergraduate Fellows are all successfully completing the special, advanced Global Studies EAP-preparatory research seminar course Global 196, led by Lecturer Omar Mansour, a UCSB Global Studies alum who also serves as Public Education Academic Coordinator at the Orfalea Center. In this special presentation, the undergraduate seminar student-fellows will present their current research project plans and visions before traveling abroad in the summer and/or next academic year to conduct mentored fieldwork mostly in the context of UC EAP programs. In addition to taking the GL 196 seminar, each student is a member of one of the Orfalea Center's Thematic Research Clusters where these undergrads collaborate with Grad Students, UCSB Faculty, and global-south community-based researchers. This will be a diverse set of research projects exemplifying the potential and intellectual rigor of the undergraduate students on this campus.

New Orfalea Podcast Episode

The Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies is happy to announce the first episode of our new podcast series on Governance, Security and Democracy in Contemporary Tunisia

The first episode is entitled:

Tunisia's Amateur Autocrat: The Rise of Kais Saied

A conversation between Omar Mansour and Tarek Megerisi
Link Below 👇🏻

https://orfaleacenter.ucsb.edu/tunisia-series-episode-1-tunisias-political-landscape-and-saieds-ascension/?fbclid=IwAR3P9KslQ28PQzayePGCnRvb4xTT3SC7UX8utQotNjX39bsyFkh1D353i0Y

Tunisia Series Episode 1: “Tunisia’s Political Landscape and Saied’s Ascension” Episode 1: Tunisia’s Amatuer Autocrat: The Rise of Kais Saied This episode delves into the current state of democracy in Tunisia and traces the country’s political journey since the Ara…

TOMORROW!

International Webinar Conference


Ecuador State of Emergency?

Feminist, Indigenous and Critical Perspectives on Region’s Erupting “Narco-Crime Explosion” and Militarization of the State


Thursday, February 15, 2024

10am-11:30am (PST)

1:00pm - 2:30pm (Ecuador)

Link to Webinar in Spanish with simultaneous subtitle captions available in English
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/82661066232


Last month, Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa, declared a 60-day state of emergency in the country following several episodes of violence: gang members invading a TV station, university students fleeing to safety, uprisings in several prisons, gunfire, and burning vehicles. Ecuador went from being one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America to one of the most violent in the region, with a homicide rate that has increased by almost 500% in recent years. What is at the root of this security crisis? How did Ecuador's organized criminal groups become so influential? In this international webinar, scholars and activists discuss these issues, analyzing both Ecuador's internal context and implications of regional shifts for the country. They will also discuss the political, economic, and social challenges that lie ahead.

_______________

¿Estado de Excepción en Ecuador?

Perspectivas Feministas, Indígenas y Críticas Sobre la “Explosión del Narcocrimen” y la Militarización del Estado en la Región


Jueves, 15 de febrero, 2024

10am-11:30am (PST)

1:00pm - 2:30pm (Ecuador)


Enlace al Webinar en español con subtítulos simultáneos disponibles en inglés:
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/82661066232


El mes pasado, el presidente de Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, declaró el estado de emergencia por 60 días en el país después de varios episodios de violencia: grupos de delincuencia organizada invadieron una estación de televisión, estudiantes universitarios fueron atacados, levantamientos en varias cárceles, disparos y quema de vehículos. Ecuador pasó de ser uno de los países más pacíficos de América Latina a uno de los más violentos de la región, con una tasa de homicidios que ha aumentado casi un 500% en los últimos años. ¿Cuál es la raíz de esta crisis de seguridad? ¿Cómo llegaron a ser tan influyentes los grupos criminales de Ecuador? En este webinar, académicos y activistas discuten estos temas, analizando tanto el contexto interno de Ecuador como las implicaciones de los cambios regionales para el país. También discutirán los desafíos políticos, económicos y sociales que quedan por delante.

TODAY!

Racial Justice in Rio de Janeiro's Carnival:
"To Think with Black Consciousness is to Hear the Voices of Samba Schools"

Live Lecture by Vítor Antunes

Tuesday, February 13th, 2024

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (PST)
19h - 20h (Brazil)

Link to Webinar in Portuguese with simultaneous subtitle captions available in English:

https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/83465620860

Abstract:

In Brazil, marked by the attempted erasure of the Afro-Black historicity, Carnival is more than a parade--it is an important tool of recognition and identity. Samba schools ratified their Black origins mainly from the 1970s onwards, and in recent years, they have become powerful voices for advancing racial justice and equity. This live lecture will address the concept of empretecer o pensamento through a Global Studies lens, analyzing how Carnival has been reshaping connections between Brazil and Africa and paying special attention to religious groups that have been systematically persecuted throughout Brazilian history. This talk will explore the case of the Beija Flor Samba School, which was founded in Nilópolis, a peripheral city in Rio de Janeiro and also Vítor Antunes' hometown. He will analyze how Carnival became a tool for sociability and how this samba school preserved its Afro and Afro-Carioca roots.