Fall 2020 Events
Science and Latin America
Mexica Experts and The New Science of the Sixteenth-Century
Antonio Barrera-Osorio
Professor of History
Colgate University
September 30, 6:15 pm
This talk presents an overview of the scientific activities pursued by Spaniards in the Atlantic World during the sixteenth century. I argue that the commercial and imperial expansion of Spain in the Atlantic fostered the development of empirical practices for the study of the natural world (natural history, reports, and questionnaires, gardens and cabinets of curiosities, expeditions). This talk explores the significant role played by Native Americans in the development of empirical practices.
Viral Colonialism: Epidemiology and the Facts and Fictions of Indigenous Difference
in Brazil
Rosanna Dent
Assistant Professor of History
New Jersey Institute of Technology
October 7, 6:15 pm
As SARS-CoV-2 hits Indigenous communities with particular force throughout the Americas, some mainstream media commentators have turned to genetic explanations for the spread of disease. Tracing these scientific fictions of racial difference from the Cold War to present racialized discourses of the COVID-19 crisis, this talk explores the intertwined histories of epidemiology and colonial expansion in Brazil. It discusses how scientists—drawing on notions of purity, contagion, and nature—have configured and reconfigured Indigenous difference in ways that both justify and challenge colonial dynamics.
Latin American and Latinx Studies
Welcome Back Fiesta 2020
Wednesday, September 2, 7 pm, Zoom
Connect with LALS students, faculty and staff to kick off the new year!
