Featured News
Spanish 165: Bilingual Arts
Prof. Doris Sommer is teaching a course on Bilingual Arts this semester on Tuesdays from 9:45am-11:45am in Boylston 104. The course will be conducted in Spanish and English.
Course description: Bilingual practices are everywhere, though we are just beginning to address them in academic disciplines. We will explore the aesthetic dimensions of bilingualism, and some effects in related areas, including politics, language philosophy, and psychology. How do bilingual language games increase political flexibility, or threaten personal or national coherence? Topics will include 1) formalist appreciations; 2) exile as incitation to write; 3) Gains and Losses of heteroglossia; 4) Hybrid Games; 5) Political dialogues; 6) Code-Switching and Creativity; 7) Bilingual Theater, Music and Film; 8) The art of translation; 9) Bicultural Spaces. Readings in prose and poetry by international authors and theorists. Taught weekly, including guest lectures by, and discussions with, anthropologists, linguists, writers, and cultural critics who have worked on this subject.
Afro-Latin American Counterpoints: History and Culture
Spanish 123 / African and African American Studies 124
Prof. Doris Sommer and Prof. Alejandro de la Fuente are teaching a course on Afro-Latin American Counterpoints: History and Culture this semester on Wednesdays from 9:45am-11:45am in Barker 230.
Course description: This course explores how African cultural expressions influenced colonial societies and later national cultures in Latin America. How did peoples of African descent shape the formation of Latin American national cultures in areas such as literature, religion, visual arts, music, dance, and cinema? Some scholars have debated whether African religious, musical, medical and communitarian practices were reproduced in the New World or whether they were creolized through fusion with other (European and indigenous) practices. Others have sought to explain how African cultural practices (music, religion, dances) that were derided as primitive and uncivilized in the early twentieth century became “nationalized” and transformed into key expressions of national cultures in many Latin American countries. What are the implications of this process for those cultural forms and their practitioners? How do they impact, if at all, other areas of social life? We explore these questions through historical and literary texts, films, visual arts, and recordings.
The Summer Institute of Civic Studies
The Summer Institute of Civic Studies is an intensive interdisciplinary seminar that brings together faculty, advanced graduate students, and practitioners from many countries and diverse fields of study. In 2020 it will take place from the evening of June 18 until June 26 at Tufts University in Medford, MA, and Boston.
To apply: Applications are now being received and should be submitted by March 31 for best consideration. The application consists of a resume, a cover letter about your interests, and an electronic copy of your graduate transcript (if applicable).
The Summer Institute was founded and co-taught from 2009 to 2018 by Peter Levine, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Tisch College, and Karol Sołtan, Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. Since 2019, it has been led by Peter Levine. Each year, it features guest seminars by distinguished scholars and practitioners from various institutions and engages participants in challenging discussions such as:
- How can people work together to improve the world?
- How can people reason together about what is right to do?
- What practices and institutional structures promote these kinds of citizenship?
- How should empirical evidence, ethics, and strategy relate?
You can sign up here to receive occasional emails about the Summer Institute.
Second Annual APSA Institute for Civically Engaged Research (ICER)
In 2019, the American Political Science Association (APSA) Presidential Task Force on New Partnerships launched the now-annual APSA Institute for Civically Engaged Research (ICER). ICER is intended for advanced graduate students in political science and political scientists at any stage of their careers who wish to shift to using civically engaged research. (It is not meant for scholars who are already experienced in that approach.)
To apply, please complete this form. Application deadline: March 1, 2020.
Topics covered will include:
- Expertise: what do political scientists uniquely contribute? What are the limitations of scholarly expertise? What types of expertise do those outside of academia have?
- The ethics of collaboration: sharing of credit, funds and overhead, navigating IRB, dealing with disagreements
- Communicating results: to partners, relevant communities, the press, and directly to the broader public
- How to navigate common social science values and norms while doing civically engaged work
- Career considerations: publication and credit, tenure and promotion, funding your research
- Mapping the different and varied ways that political scientists engage through research and beyond
The Institute will take place on the campus of Tufts University, in the Boston area, from June 15-18, 2020. Approximately twenty participants will meet each day for intensive discussions and workshops. Thanks to support from the Ivywood Foundation, participation in the Institute for Civically Engaged Research is free, and scholarships are available to defray costs of travel, food, and housing on the Tufts campus. Applicants are expected to seek financial support from their home institution, but admission to the Institute for Civically Engaged Research will not be affected by financial need. |
