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/
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)
resulting from CLLAS research funds
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