EC Ohio News

Ohio University Spanish students and scholars will spend two days exploring Latin American themes, from Andean and Amazonian culture to inclusion and recognition for indigenous peoples, at the 19th Ohio Latin Americanist Conference on Feb. 24 and 25.

The 2023 conference is sponsored by Ohio University and will be held each day on the Athens campus from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Gordy Hall. The Friday evening program features a film screening of "Return to the Andes" at 6 p.m. in Walter Hall 145. The film will be accompanied by the pop-up exhibit: “Hidden Life of Things: Andean and Amazonian Cultural Artifacts and the Stories They Tell.”

More than 70 presenters, many of them OHIO undergraduate and graduate students, will talk about all themes Latin American. This year a group of Brazilian teachers and Fulbright scholars who are experiencing a six-week intensive language training study abroad(opens in a new window) through the Ohio Program of Intensive English will also be participating. All events are free and open to the public.

Coordinator Betsy Partyka(opens in a new window), associate professor of Spanish in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the conference began at Ohio State University under a Title VI grant in 2002 with the idea of bringing together all Latin Americanist and Latinx Studies scholars, educators, and students from institutions of higher education in Ohio and surrounding states. Since 2008 the conference has traveled around the state to Ohio University, Bowling Green, Wittenberg, and Case Western. Research areas include literature, linguistics, history, education, business, geography, political science, economics, anthropology, sociology, art, international studies, gender studies, creative writing, sports, and more.

Ohio University hosted the conference in 2008, 2009, and 2010, then again in 2020, 2022 and now in 2023, providing experiential learning opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students from departments including Latin American studies(opens in a new window) in the Center for International Studies, geography(opens in a new window) and modern languages(opens in a new window) in the College of Arts and Sciences, and music(opens in a new window) in the College of Fine Arts.

Original source can be found here.