2012 Spring Semester Events


Graduate Colloquium Speaker Series

Brodwyn Fischer, Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University.

Seminar: March 7th, 3:00 p.m., Latino Center, Room 121 “Inequality from the Margins: Social Difference and Social Politics in Abolition-Era Recife”
Lecture: March 7th, 7:30 p.m., Latino Center, Room 121 “The Dirty Politics of Shantytown Radicalism: Murder, Slander, and Associational Life in mid-twentieth century Rio de Janeiro”

Sponsoring Departments: Center for Latino and Latin American Studies and the Graduate School

Susie S. Porter, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Utah

Lecture:  March 26th, 4:30 p.m., Latino Center, Room 121 “Of Suffragists and Secretaries: commercial education, women’s networks, and female empowerment in Mexico   City”

Seminar: March 27, 2012; 10:00 a.m., Illinois Room, Holmes Student Center “Of workers, señoritas, and secretaries: women, office work, and class identity in Mexico City, 1890-1920”

Sponsors: the Department of History, the Graduate School, the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, and the Women’s Studies Program

Charles Walker, Professor of History and the Director of the Hemispheric Institute of the Americas at the University of California at Davis.

Lecture: April 10th, 6 p.m., Latino Center, Room 121 “Natural Disasters and Society: Some Lessons from the 1746 Earthquake/Tsunami in Lima, Peru”

Seminar: April 11th, 10:00 a.m., Latino Center, Room 121 “Kill the Puka Kunkas (Red Necks): Violence in the Tupac  Amaru Rebellion, 1780-1783”

Sponsors: Department of History, the Graduate School, the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, and Genocide and Human Rights Institute

2^nd Annual Latino Film Festival

"Maquilapolis: City of Factories"  Film Screening and Discussion

Tuesday, March 27th, 6 p.m.

Latino Center, Room 121

Join us for a screening of this award-winning documentary. The film examines two women's struggle to improve working conditions in maquiladoras, or multinationally-owned factories, that lie on the border between Mexico and the U.S. Vanessa Segundo, Research and Project Specialist for NIU's Latino Resource Center, will lead a discussion after the screening.

Sponsors: Women's Studies Program, The Center for Latino & Latin American Studies, and The Latino Resource Center

“Precious Knowledge” Film Screening and Discussion
Wednesday, March 28th, 6:30-8:40 p.m.
Montgomery Hall 

Meet and Greet with the director, Eren McGinnis, from 4:30-5:30 p.m at the Latino Center. 

The documentary Precious Knowledge interweaves the stories of students in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School. While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of high school, Tucson High’s Mexican American Studies Program has become a national model of education success, with on average, 93 percent of enrolled students graduating from high school and 85 percent going on to attend college.

The filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom filming this innovative social justice curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students who become engaged, informed, and active in the their communities.

As of January 10, 2012 the program has been eliminated, the students and teachers continue to fight for the program.

Sponsored by:  Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations and The Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, The Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy, and the Women’s Studies Program.


“Even the Rain” Film Screening
Tuesday, April 3rd, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
GA 126, Cavan Auditorium

Even the Rain (Spanish: También la lluvia) is a 2010 Spanish drama film directed by Icíar Bollaín about Mexican director Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and executive producer Costa (Luis Tosar) who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting Christopher Columbus’s conquest. Sebastián and Costa unexpectedly land themselves in a moral crisis when they and their crew arrive at Cochabamba, Bolivia, during the intensifying 2000 Cochabamba protests, which their key native actor Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) persistently leads.

Sponsored by: The Center for Latino and Latin American Studies

Join students, staff, and faculty for a night of salsa dancing and musical performance by the NIU Latin Jazz Ensemble. Everyone will gather at 8:30 p.m. for salsa lessons. Appetizers will be served.

Sponsored by School of Music and Center for Latino & Latin American Studies