Filmmaker Alex Rivera Named MacArthur Fellow

October 1, 2021—Alex Rivera, the filmmaker who last October delivered the CLLAS Distinguished Lecture The Border as a Way of Seeing and also led a CLLAS teach-in, has been selected as a 2021 MacArthur Fellow. Known popularly as the MacArthur “genius grant,” the Fellowship is a $625,000 “no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential.” Twenty-five people from a variety of disciplines were selected this year to receive this prestigious award.

The MacArthur Foundation website lists three criterion for selection of Fellows: 1) exceptional creativity; 2) promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments; 3) potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. 

Rivera has been telling ground-breaking Latinx stories for more than twenty years. His first feature film, a cyberpunk thriller set in Tijuana, Mexico, Sleep Dealer, won multiple awards at Sundance and was screened around the world.  Rivera’s second feature film, a documentary/scripted hybrid set in an immigrant detention center, The Infiltrators, won both the Audience Award and the Innovator Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.  Rivera’s work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Tribeca Film Institute, and the Open Society Institute, among many other sources.

Tags: Alex Rivera, CLLAS Distinguished Lecturer, MacArthur Fellowship

CLLAS Executive Board Member John Arroyo Named Faculty Fellow

Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted from Around the O / September 23, 2021

Faculty fellows program begins for UO’s Environment Initiative

The Environment Initiative at the University of Oregon has announced a new faculty fellowship program funded by the Office of the Provost and has named its first faculty fellow.

The Environment Initiative Faculty Fellows Program aims to enhance transdisciplinary research and advance the Initiative’s strategic priorities. Faculty fellows will receive a course buyout to complete a project that contributes to the goals of the initiative, which include a just and livable future that addresses the intersections of environmental research and teaching with social and environmental justice.

John Arroyo, assistant professor of engaging diverse communities in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the College of Design, has been appointed as the inaugural faculty fellow for fall 2021. Arroyo is also the director of the Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice, a regional collaboration led by UO.

Arroyo’s research, teaching and work in these roles aligns with the mission of the initiative and exemplifies the initiative’s guiding principles. 

“Professor Arroyo is an excellent choice as the inaugural fellow for this fellowship,” said Provost and Senior Vice President Patrick Phillips. “He is an outstanding, inclusive contributor and his work models the innovative, relevant and responsive research that the Environment Initiative was envisioned to support.”

Adrian Parr, dean of the College of Design, also praised Arroyo’s new role.

“John’s work to combat intersectional environmental disparities makes him an excellent choice to represent the College of Design in this role,” Parr said. “By studying ways to restructure marginalized communities’ access to resources, education and representation, John demonstrates his commitment to a holistic approach, which is exactly what the Environment Initiative Faculty Fellows Program seeks to promote, support and celebrate. We hope everyone at the University of Oregon will join us in congratulating John.” 

As the Environment Initiative Faculty Fellow, Arroyo will draw on the work of the Just Futures Institute to develop a workshop and resources around transdisciplinary research, best practices and implementation for faculty members interested in developing or furthering their equity-oriented environmental research. Details of this upcoming workshop will be announced soon.

“I am delighted that Professor Arroyo will be serving as our inaugural fellow,” Environment Initiative Executive Director Adell Amos said. “His fellowship project is designed to help all of us consider the nature and structure of our research in light of historically excluded communities. Further, I am thrilled that the Environment Initiative is able to launch this fellowship program and can’t wait to see the difference these fellows can make.” 

The Environment Initiative is now accepting applications for a second faculty fellow for spring 2022. All teaching and research faculty are welcome to apply. Those who are interested can learn more about the process on the Environment Initiative website.

—By Anna Glavash Miller, University Communications

RELATED LINKS

New grant will create an institute for racial and climate justice

The University For Oregon: Provost and Faculty Collaborate on Strengths

UO professor’s family history detailed in Common Reading book

2021 CLLAS Notes Part 3

CLLAS Impact & Events Report

CLLAS Impact During the Pandemic

During this unprecedented time, we at CLLAS had to reconsider how we evaluate our impact on the community. The center was able to maintain a robust event calendar by transitioning to virtual events. Also, CLLAS hosted Zoom sessions for researchers to learn from each other on how to conduct research during the pandemic and how to deal with uncertainty. The moment presented an opportunity to shift the center’s professional development focus onto working through adversity. CLLAS was even able to bring national and international scholars and activists together in an online symposium.

In addition to events, CLLAS was able to operate on a more limited budget due to the lack of in-person activities. These funds were then used to pilot the center’s first undergraduate award program. CLLAS gave out four awards for outstanding undergraduate coursework. This is a program that we hope to sustain for years to come.  

CLLAS Events, 2020-2021

As highlighted by Gabriela Martínez in her Director’s Letter in Part 1 of this year’s CLLAS Notes, CLLAS held over a dozen remote events during the past academic year. In addition to bringing our Latinx Heritage Month events, Distinguished Lectureship, Symposium, and Undergraduate Award Ceremony to our community via Zoom, we also hosted several remote professional development and research series events. 

During the fall of 2020, CLLAS followed up on the Remote Research event we had offered just a few months after the COVID 19 pandemic shuttered universities across the world. That first conversation had made it clear that faculty and graduate students were both struggling and innovating as they devised new strategies to continue with their research projects. Our follow-up fall conversation, led by Lanie Millar (Romance Languages) and Ricardo Valencia (University of California, Fullerton), was a welcome space to again share research strategies and challenges related to the ongoing pandemic restrictions. Several participants shared their progress in publishing as well as their successes building global scholarly networks from home.

Over the winter term, CLLAS engaged junior faculty and graduate students with grant-writing workshops. Stephanie Wood (Center for Equity Promotion) led a NEH workshop, drawing an enthusiastic audience as she shared her many insights into writing successful NEH grant proposals. The CLLAS team led our annual graduate student grant-writing workshop, focusing on the application process for CLLAS grants as well as more general grant proposal writing tips. This event is a staff-favorite; it’s always a wonderful opportunity for CLLAS to meet graduate students researching Latinx and Latin American studies from departments across campus and to learn about their exciting research projects.

In spring 2021, CLLAS was honored to present the research of our faculty and graduate student grantees. Stephanie Wood (Center for Equity Promotion), gave a well-attended and fascinating WIP report on her research on Aztec hieroglyphs. The CLLAS Graduate Student Colloquium, “Researching Experiences of Uncertainty and Collective Care,” featured presentations by graduate students Polet Campos-Melchor (Anthropology) and Lola Loustaunau (Sociology). John Arroyo (College of Design), shared the final 2021 CLLAS research series presentation, entitled, “Shadow Suburbanism: Mexican Settlement and Immigration Enforcement in the Nuevo South,” where he explained how Mexican communities have bypassed historic, urban ethnic enclaves to settle in and physically transform suburban areas of U.S. South.

Latino Roots Update

The CLLAS Latino Roots project has a new and improved website, over a dozen new documentaries, and an expanded panel exhibit! Visit our website to learn more: https://latinoroots.uoregon.edu/

Watch the CLLAS Symposium

The 2021 CLLAS Symposium,Languages on the Move: Linguistic Diaspora, Indigeneity, and Politics in the Americas, was a great success. Recordings of each symposium session are available online. If you were unable to participate or want to watch your favorite session again, please find the panels, keynote address, and musical presentation linked below.

• Panel One: Translational Research with and for Indigenous Language Communities
• Keynote Address: Saberes Ancestrales, Arte y Mujeres Indígenas/Ancestral Knowledge, Art and Indigenous Women
• Panel Two: Jewish Americas: The Many Diasporas and their Languages
• Panel Three: Graduate Research Showcase on Linguistic Diasporas
• Musical Presentations: Una Isu and Hip Hop Hoodíos

CLLAS Metrics

Funding (2008-2020)

• Graduate Research Grants awarded: 64
• Faculty Research Grants awarded: 31
• Funding for Graduate Students: $109,180
• Additional funding raised by grad students (resulting from CLLAS grants provided): $479,677.00
• Funding for faculty research projects: $70,998
• Additional funding raised by faculty (resulting from CLLAS grants provided): $1,510,834.00

Events

• 2019-2020: 16 with 693 in attendance
• 2020-2021: 13 with 526 in attendance

Cosponsorships

• 2019-2020: 10
• 2020-2021: 3

Communications

• Email Subscribers: 1,214 
• Social Media Followers: 830

Undergraduate Engagement, 2020-2021

• Undergraduate Awards ($250.00 each): 4
• Undergraduate Employees: 1

Faculty Awards

Faculty Latinx Studies Seed Grant

• Daniel Gómez Steinhart (Cinema Studies)
  Cross-Border Hollywood: Production Politics and Practices in Mexico

Faculty Research Seed Grant

• Maria Fernanda Escallón (Anthropology)
  Becoming Heritage: Recognition, Exclusion, and the Politics of Black Cultural Heritage in Colombia

Graduate Grant Recipients

Summer Research Grant Awards

• Marina Peñalosa (Romance Languages)
  An Intellectual Field in Tension. The Other Borges
• David Peña (School of Art and Design)
  Ecotone

Field Research Grants in Latin America

• Alejandra Pedraza (Global Studies)
  Womanhood, remittances, and COVID-19: Insights from a migrant-sending community in rural Mexico
• Elizabeth Sotelo (Romance Languages)
  Beyond Gender: Inequalities and Invisibilities Among Female Literary Chroniclers in Peru and Mexico
• Magela Baudoin (Romance Languages)
  Poetry and Popular Song in Matilde Casazola and Violeta Parra: The Journey of the Seed
• Marena Lear (Comparative Literature)
  Revolutionizing the Revolution: Cuban New Media and Independent Cinema

CLLAS Undergraduate Award Recipients

• Emily Chavez Romero – Latino Roots Film: Dreams that Cross Borders
• Thomas Parker – Research Paper: Wild Tales
• Caitlin Scott – Honor’s Thesis: Reinforcing Push Factors in the Northern Triangle: An Investigation of Trump’s Attempts to Deter Immigration through Humanitarian Aid Reduction
• Eva Shannon – Art Cover: La cena miserable, Eduardo Kingman, Ecuador

CLLAS Undergraduate Award Honorable Mentions

• Taylor Henry – Art Cover: Manos de la protesta, Oswaldo Guayamin, Ecuador
• Adrianna Vaca-Navarro – Honor’s Thesis: Chapter on immigration and border imperialism

CLLAS Events, 2020-2021

• 10/14/2020 The 2020 Election and the Latinx Community: A conversation with Jaime Arredondo 
• 10/22/2021 CLLAS Distinguished Lecture: “The Border as a Way of Seeing,” Alex Rivera
• 10/27/2021 Teach-In with Alex Rivera              
• 11/16/2020  Lunch-Talk with Nelly Rosario: The (un)Masked Writer: Writing, Language, and Empathy          
• 1/7/2021  Latinx Studies Celebration     
• 2/3/2021  Grad Student Grant-Writing Workshop         
• 2/17/2021 NEH Grant-Writing workshop with Stephanie Wood
• 3/5/2021  Remote Research: Lanie Millar; Ricardo Valencia
• 4/7/2021  Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphics with Stephanie Wood
• 4/22-23/2021  CLLAS Symposium: Languages on the Move: Linguistic Diaspora, Indigeneity, and Politics in the Americas     
• 5/12/2021  CLLAS Graduate Colloquium: Researching Experiences of Uncertainty and Collective Care with Polet Campos-Melchor and Lola Loustaunau 
• 5/25/2021  Shadow Suburbanism: Mexican Settlement and Immigration Enforcement in the Nuevo South with John Arroyo
• 6/2/2021  Undergraduate Award Ceremony      

2021 CLLAS Notes Part 1 &2

2021 CLLAS Notes Part 1

2021 CLLAS Notes Part 2

Tags: CLLAS Impact Report, Spring 2021 CLLAS Notes p3

2021 CLLAS Graduate & Faculty Grant Recipients

CLLAS announces its 2021-22 graduate and faculty grant recipients. They are:

Graduate Grant Recipients

Summer Research Grant Awards

• Marina Penalosa (Romance Languages)
  An Intellectual Field in Tension. The Other Borges
• David Peña (School of Art and Design)
  Ecotone

Field Research Grants in Latin America

• Alejandra Pedraza (Global Studies)
  Womanhood, remittances, and COVID-19: Insights from a migrant-sending community in rural Mexico
• Elizabeth Sotelo (Romance Languages)
  Beyond Gender: Inequalities and Invisibilities Among Female Literary Chroniclers in Peru and Mexico
• Magela Baudoin (Romance Languages)
  Poetry and Popular Song in Matilde Casazola and Violeta Parra: The Journey of the Seed
• Marena Lear (Comparative Literature)
  Revolutionizing the Revolution: Cuban New Media and Independent Cinema

Faculty Awards

Faculty Latinx Studies Seed Grant

• Daniel Gómez Steinhart (Cinema Studies)
  Cross-Border Hollywood: Production Politics and Practices in Mexico

Faculty Research Seed Grant

• Maria Fernanda Escallón (Anthropology)
  “Becoming Heritage: Recognition, Exclusion, and the Politics of Black Cultural Heritage in Colombia”

Laura Pulido is the newest recipient of a Collins Chair

Editor’s Note: Laura Pulido is a CLLAS affiliated faculty member. This story originated in Around the O.

Around the O, February 21, 2020—Laura Pulido, a professor in two UO departments who has had a wide-ranging influence on campus and beyond, has been named a Collins Chair in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Collins gift specifies that the recipient of the endowed chair be an outstanding scholar in the humanities disciplines or one who studies “aspects of the social sciences that employ historical or philosophical approaches.”

Pulido holds a joint appointment in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, where she has also served as department head, and the Department of Geography. Her research focuses on how working-class people of color struggle for their rights within the confines of what she calls “racial capitalism,” the idea that racism is an endemic aspect of capitalist economies.

More recently, her work has shifted to structures of domination, especially white supremacy and nationalism and how they shape the U.S., including its historical geography.

“Dr. Pulido has a truly outstanding record of scholarly achievements, with an international profile,” said Bruce Blonigen, Tykeson Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who cited Pulido’s 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2018 Harold Rose Anti-Racism Award from the Association of American Geographers, and 2018 Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography by the Association of American Geographers as recent examples of her scholarly achievements and recognition.

Pulido’s arrival on the UO campus was heralded by colleagues across campus. Alec Murphy, professor of geography and Rippey Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences, noted that “Laura’s arrival was widely viewed as a coup for UO’s geography department because of her visibility as a disciplinary citizen and the far-reaching impact of her scholarly work on the geographic roots and implications of racial inequality.”

David Vázquez, department head for English and a specialist in Latinx literature, also was enthusiastic about Pulido’s contributions.

“She is one of the leading figures in both the study of race and social movements and in the field of environmental justice studies,” he said. “As one of the top researchers in the world on environmental justice, she further consolidates UO’s reputation as the premier university in the U.S. for environmental studies.”

Pulido has spent much of her career studying how activists create meaningful social and environmental change. She said her interest in political activism began when, as a child, she first learned about Harriett Tubman and the Underground Railroad.

“My inability to understand her courage and actions led me to study how people become activists, their visions for changing the world, how they create change and the obstacles they encounter,” she said. “The fact that the first person I ever admired was a black woman is also meaningful. Although my work is anchored by the study of ethnic Mexicans, I knew that I could never draw too tight a boundary around them. Consequently, I have written a good deal about comparative and relational ethnic studies.”

Pulido said she was delighted to be the recipient of a Collins Chair.

“The University of Oregon attracted me because it was an excellent fit intellectually, but I have found it to also be a very welcoming place.” She said. “As a faculty member of indigenous, race, and ethnic studies, I am especially pleased to be recognized in this way because far too often people do not think ethnic studies is a serious field of scholarship.”

Pulido joins David Li, Collins Professor of the Humanities, who has held the Collins Chair in English since 1999.

—By Lisa Raleigh, College of Arts and Sciences

Tags: Laura Pulido, UO