volume 40 FALL 2016 Recent Brazil Initiatives Brazilian alumni and CLAS recently established a Vanderbilt-Brazil Advisory Board to strengthen the ties that connect Vanderbilt to Brazil and raise the profile of Vanderbilt in Brazil. The founding members of the Advisory Board are leaders in their respective fields and are committed to building Vanderbilt’s reputation as an innovator in the field of Brazilian Studies. They are: Luis Paulo Rosenberg (Chair), Virgilio Almeida, Claudio de Moura Castro, Ibrahim Eris, Mauro Benevides STEVE GREEN Filho, Jorge Jatobá, Francisco “Chico” Communidad Performance at Vanderbilt Stadium Mussnich, Ricardo Pratesi, Maria Regina Soares de Lima, Tom Trebat, and James Wright. Members of the Performance Artist Regina Jose Galindo new board were welcomed at the Alumni Reception in São Paulo on Involves Nashville in the Creation of Her October 14, 2016. Our annual Brazil Week was a great Latest Work, Comunidad success! The week began with a lecture by Vanderbilt alumnus James n November, CLAS hosted Guatemala’s leading performance artist, Regina José Galindo, as our Wright (FIA) and Professor of History visiting resource professor in collaboration with Candice Amich (English) and Mel Ziegler (Art). Born Marshall Eakin on “Brazil after Dilma.” in Guatemala City in 1974, Galindo began publishing poetry in the 1990s, but today is the most well- On Monday, CLAS hosted a reception Iknown member of a group of young women poets and artists who turned to provocative forms of body to welcome forty of Wright’s executive art in response to the amnesia of Guatemala’s post-dictatorship culture. Her work explores the universal MBA students who were in residence ethical implications of social injustice, racial discrimination, violence against women, and unequal power at Vanderbilt for the week. Other activi- relations in today’s society. Many of her works address the human rights violations perpetrated against ties included the annual futebol game, women and the indigenous both during and after Guatemala’s civil war. Galindo has received major inter- a screening and discussion of Eduardo Coutinho’s Ultimas Conversas, and a national awards for her work, including the Golden Lion award at the 2005 Venice Biennale for ¿Quien talk by Edilza Sotero (Brown University), puede borrar las huellas? (Who Can Erase the Traces?) and Himenoplastia (Hymenoplasty). ¿Quién puede “Mulheres em Movimento: Women, borrar las huellas? was composed in 2003 in protest of General Efraín Rios Montt’s recently announced Displacement and Action in the Flows presidential candidacy. Wearing all black, Galindo walks barefoot from Guatemala’s Constitutional Court of the African Diaspora.” to the National Palace, carrying a white basin of bright red human blood. Every few paces she dips her feet into the bowl, leaving the trace of her bloody footprints and memorializing the dead left in Ríos New this year was a program to host FIA undergraduate students at Montt’s wake. In Himenoplastia, Galindo undergoes reconstructive hymen surgery, which is forced upon Vanderbilt for the week. Eight Brazilian victims of sex trafficking to recreate their virginity. students were paired with Vanderbilt In a more recent performance, La Verdad (Te Truth), Galindo reads from the testimonies of Maya Ixil students, attended classes, and partici- women who witnessed atrocities committed by the army during the civil war. Seated at a small table at the pated in Brazil Week activities. The visit- Centro Cultural de España in Guatemala City, Galindo reads from transcripts of the April 2013 trial charg- ing students were also treated to a tour ing Ríos Montt with acts of genocide while a dentist periodically anesthetizes her mouth. She continues of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, reading as her speech becomes increasingly slurred and inaudible over the duration of the seventy-minute accompanied by Turner Family Center performance. In Looting, a dentist drills holes in Galindo’s eight molars and fills them with gold mined in for Social Ventures Director Mario Avila Guatemala, which is later extracted in Germany and displayed as art. and CLAS staff. The week ended with Galindo was in residence at Vanderbilt from November 6–16. During her time on campus, she a churrasco and capoeira presentation worked closely with senior art students, provided critical feedback to their work, led Candice Amich’s by Grupo Balança Capoeira Nashville, Gilman Whiting (African American and graduate seminar and graduate students on their own performance pieces, and delivered a powerful Diaspora Studies) and the Vanderbilt public lecture on her art. Te highlight of her residency was the creation of a new performance piece Capoeira Club. (Cont. on Pg. 3) titled Comunidad, which brought together over one hundred Latino and other residents Cont. on Pg. 11 DIRECTOR’S CORNER: EDWARD F. FISCHER he Provost has formed a new working in Nashville, both to enliven things here with group to develop an international strategy greater diversity of perspectives and to increase for the university. Ingrid Wuerth and I are our profile and impact in countries around the chairing this initiative, and our goal is to support world. 230 Buttrick Hall T PMB 351806 your work more effectively, and we welcome We have an exciting series of events lined 2301 Vanderbilt Place your advice and suggestions. Our broad charge up for this academic year, including five Nashville, TN 37235-1806 is to look for ways to facilitate international conferences and a performance artist who will Tel: 615-322-2527 research and to raise Vanderbilt’s global profile. involve the Vanderbilt and Nashville communi- Fax: 615-322-2305 Web: vanderbilt.edu/clas Tis involves lowering barriers to international ties in the creation of a new work. Last year collaborations by faculty—making it easier to do we sponsored over 160 events on-campus and Director: Edward F. Fischer work abroad. But we also want to look for ways to off-campus, from visiting speakers to majors Executive Director: Avery Dickins de Girón Assistant Director: Nicolette Kostiw make our Nashville campus more international— conferences and teacher workshops. The Outreach Coordinator: Lisa Finelli our faculty, students, and physical plant never fail vibrancy of our community depends on our Administrative Assistant: to impress visitors, who then become our most meeting at such events, and we hope to see you Alma Paz-Sanmiguel effective ambassadors. at one soon. LAS Bibliographer: Paula Covington At a recent alumni reception in São Paulo, Marshal Eakin, Nicolette Kostiw, and I met Steering Committee 2016–2017 CLAS Fulbright FLTA for 2015-16, Diogo Candice Amich several generations of impressive Vanderbilt Oliveira do Espiritu Santo, created a series Jose Cardenas Bunsen alumni and visiting scholars. We had gradu- of three online instructional modules for Ashley Carse ates from A&S, Owen, and Peabody; former Portuguese called Say 33. The modules Celso Castilho recipients of FIPSE/CAPES and Humphrey were originally created for healthcare Markus Eberl fellowships; and a couple of previous visiting Jon Hiskey professionals, faculty and students, but professors. It was invigorating to hear them Marshall Eakin undergraduates and others wanting to learn Doug Morgan speak with such fondness and passion for Portuguese have found them useful. Check Vanderbilt; and it is amazing to see these Vandy out Say 33 at: canvas.instructure.com/ CLAS-Affiliated Faculty graduates using their education to make their courses/1004674 Rhonda Collier, Tuskegee University country and the world a better place. Events Join us for weekly Portuguese tables! (English) like these remind us of the life-changing impact Theron Corse, Tennessee State University This year, batepapo is led by doctoral (History) we have on our students and the importance student in Spanish and Portuguese Jacob C. Gregory Hammond, Austin Peay State of our teaching mission. It also brought home Brown, and is held on Friday evenings University (History) to me the importance of having more interna- at SATCO. Larry Harrington, Chief Deputy, Attorney tional students and visiting scholars on campus General, State of Tennessee Michael LaRosa, Rhodes College (History) Jana Morgan, University of Tennessee (Political Science) Stephen Morris, Middle Tennessee State University (Political Science) CLAS Welcomes Nicolette Kostiw Richard Pace, Middle Tennessee State University (Anthropology) as New Assistant Director Gerald Reed, Middle Tennessee State University (Political Science) icolette Kostiw has been appointed as the gender, and childhood. She will teach the Introduc- Christoph Rosenmuller, Tennessee State new Assistant Director of CLAS, and will tion to Latin American Studies and Introduction to University (History) serve as Director of Gradu- Brazilian Studies courses, advise LAS ate and Undergraduate Studies and as students, and coordinate our sum- Teacher Advisory Board N Andrea Beebe-Lopez, Hillwood FLAS Coordinator. Kostiw received mer awards. Before joining CLAS, High School her Ph.D. in History from Vanderbilt Nicolette was the Research Coordina- Allison Brazzel, Glencliff High School University, with a specialization in tor for the Preschool Development Elyssa Cross, McGavock High School Brazil. Her research examines the end Grant (PDG) project at the Peabody Ana Christina da Silva, Peabody College, of slavery in Rio de Janeiro, looking Research Institute at Vanderbilt. Tis Dept. of Teaching and Learning Becky Hornsby, Glendale specifically at the ways