NIU’s Center for Latino and Latin American Studies has announced the lecturers for its March Colloquium Series Speakers.
Tuesday, March 8
Katherine M. Donato, professor and chair of Sociology and director of the Program for Medicine, Health & Society at Vanderbilt University, will present her lecture, “How Many Women? How Many Men?: Gender in International Migration,” at noon in the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center.
The lecture will address the ways in which gender structures international migration.
The event is organized by the Women’s Studies Program and is co-sponsored by the Graduate Colloquium Committee, the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, the Latino Resource Center, the Department of Political Science, the Department of Sociology and the Division of International Programs.
Tuesday, March 22
Rick A. López, associate professor of history, Amherst College, will present a lecture, “Centennial Commemorations and the Crafting of the Mexican Nation” at 7 p.m. in the Latino Center, Room 121, 515 Garden Road.
The lecture will discuss the ways in which Mexican elites used the opportunity of the 1910 centennial to present official narratives of Mexican history and national identity within the context of historical memory. López has produced inventive research and analysis on the place of Mexico’s contemporary indigenous population in shaping visions of national identity, and his use of indigenous crafts, ethnicity, and gender have been applauded by historians.
Wednesday, March 23
López will present a seminar, “Alternative Narratives of Popular Experience in Mexican Nation Formation,” at 10 a.m. in the Latino Center, Room 121. He will discuss research and analytical techniques that have allowed him to understand the place of Mexico’s contemporary indigenous population in the formation of modern Mexico.
Monday, March 28
Marie E. Francois, chair of the History Department and the Chicano Studies Department, California State University, will lecture on “Laundering Identity: Laundresses of Mexico City in the Nineteenth Century” at 7 p.m. in the Latino Center, Room 121, 515 Garden Road.
The lecture will address the work of laundresses, work that produced presentable wardrobes and public personas among other “goods.” Francois’ work contributes to and bridges literature on women’s work and urban demography as well as foundational studies in gender history.
Tuesday, March 29
Francois will present a seminar, “Laundry as Labor: Evidence from Mexico and Buenos Aires,” at 10 a.m. in the Latino Center, Room 121. The seminar will discuss the types of historical evidence used to reconstruct the lives and work of women working as laundresses in Mexico City and Buenos Aires in the nineteenth century.
The Graduate Colloquium program was established in 1966 to bring scholars, artists, professionals and public figures to lecture or perform at NIU.
All events are open to the entire NIU community and the public. For more information, call (815) 753-1531.
