About this Event

Panelists will engage in conversation and reflection on everyday practices of democracy during a period of deep polarization at the national level, proposing pathways for meaningful civic engagement.

Panelists

• Jason Chang - Director, Asian & Asian American Studies Institute; Head of the Department of Social & Critical Inquiry; Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies; Faculty Affiliate in American Studies, El Instituto, and Maritime Studies
• Sandy Grande - Director, Native American & Indigenous Studies; Professor of Political Science and Native American & Indigenous Studies; Faculty Affiliate in American Studies, Philosophy, and the Race, Ethnicity & Politics program
• Evelyn M. Simien - Director, Africana Studies Institute; Professor of Political Science; Faculty Affiliate in American Studies and Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies
• Charles R. Venator-Santiago - Director, El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, & Latin American Studies; Associate Professor, Political Science and El Instituto; Faculty Affiliate in American Studies and Asian American Studies

Moderator

• James Waller - Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice; Director, Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs; Professor, Literatures, Cultures, & Languages

Sponsors

This event is hosted by Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs. It is co-sponsored by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute; Africana Studies Institute; Asian & Asian American Studies Institute; El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, & Latin American Studies; and Native American & Indigenous Studies Initiative.

Every academic year, El Instituto awards Pre-doctoral fellowships to support pre-doctoral graduate student research or creative projects related to Latina/o and/or Latin American Studies.

This semester, join El Instituto’s Pre-doctoral Fellowship Awardees research presentations!

Presenter: Daniela I Domínguez Tavares

Title: “The afterlives of Mexican oil expropriation: tourism, development, and natural resources propaganda. 1939-1960”

Daniela Domínguez Tavares will present part of her dissertation prospectus and
expects feedback and comments to help her complete it. Tavares’s PhD project
examines the post-revolutionary Mexican state and the importance of oil for development, natural resource narratives, and US-Mexico bilateral relations.

There is limited space; RSVP today!

FILM SCREENING: The Eternal Night (La Noche Eterna) + Q&A with Coco Fusco (director) and Enrique del Risco (screenwriter)

The Eternal Night-La noche eterna is the story of three young Cuban men who were condemned for their beliefs and their creations. It is about the power of the imagination to transcend circumstance.

Sponsors: John N. Plank Cuban Lecture Series, Department of Literatures, Cultures and Languages (Spanish)

“ELIN’s Graduate Research Forum: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies”

Saturday, March 1, 2025
9:45am-2:15pm
Ryan Building, Room 204

Join El Instituto’s Graduate Research Forum, where graduate students will share and defend their research! This research forum showcases new interdisciplinary collaboration and academic exchange across multiple departments: valuable feedback and networking opportunities with peers and faculty.

Schedule Overview:

• 3 Sessions with presentations along with Q&A
• Breaks in between sessions
• Lunch provided to conclude event

Please enter through El Instituto’s main entrance on the side of the building passing the (InCHIP) Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy. You can find information for directions in El Instituto’s website.

There is limited space, RSVP today! 

Join us for a book talk and fireside chat, where Scott presents images and stories from his new book, based on seven years of frontline reporting from the warzones of Central America in the 1980s. He will join a panel of experts to discuss the current relevance of those events on immigration and our treatment of immigrants, the critical role of the press as a counterweight to disinformation, and the treatment of civilians in wartime.

About the Book

Central America in the Crosshairs of War: On the Road from Vietnam to Iraq is an unforgettable account of how misguided and illegal U.S. policies in Central America during the 1980s resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, created many of today’s problems along America’s Southern Border, and helped perpetuate a legacy of hawkish militarism at the expense of democracy and diplomacy.

During the 1980s, the United States financed and directed wars against popular movements in Central America. Vowing to block “Soviet expansion” in the hemisphere, the U.S. waged a Vietnam-style counterinsurgency in El Salvador while orchestrating a covert and illegal war to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Some 75,000 died in El Salvador, the vast majority at the hands of the U.S.-supported military and security forces. More than 35,000 were killed during the so-called Contra War in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, with tacit U.S. support, the Guatemalan military razed hundreds of Indigenous communities and killed more than 200,000 people during a civil war that claimed the lives of 100,000 Mayan villagers.

Scott Wallace covered these conflicts throughout the decade for some of the world’s most prestigious media, including CBS News, Newsweek, and The Guardian. Traveling along the frontlines of war, Wallace evolved a distinctive reporting style that included photojournalistic portraits of startling intimacy, page-turning tales of high adventure, and incisive analysis of the events he witnessed. The result is this unforgettable account in words and images of a reporter coming of age on the battlefield as he seeks the truth amid a landscape rife with death and deception.

About the Author

Scott Wallace is an award-winning writer, television producer, and photojournalist who has covered armed conflict, the environment, vanishing cultures around the world for the past four decades. He joined the Journalism Department at the University of Connecticut as an Associate Professor in 2017. He is an Affiliate Faculty member of El Instituto: UConn’s Institute of Latino/a, Caribbean and Latin American Studies.

In addition to his work in Central America, he has reported on war, organized crime, and the environment from Africa, South America, the Arctic, the Himalaya, Southeast Asia, China, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East.

As a frequent contributor to National Geographic, he has reported extensively from the deep recesses of the Amazon rainforest on environmental conflict and Indigenous cultures. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes, a firsthand account of his trek through the land of a mysterious tribe living in extreme isolation deep in the Amazon rainforest.

About the Event

Following a presentation by Scott Wallace, there will be a fireside chat with refreshments. Copies of Central America in the Crosshairs of War will be on sale at this event.

This event is hosted by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, in collaboration with the University of Connecticut’s El Instituto, Department of Journalism, Humanities Institute, Global Affairs, and the Research Program on Arts & Human Rights.