The Future of Latinx Placemaking in the Academy
Gathering
July 29 – August 2, 2024
Wabash Center
Crawfordsville, IN
Leadership Team
Cristian De La Rosa, Boston University School of Theology
Gregory L. Cuéllar, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Gina Robinson, Wabash Center
Participants
Jonathan Calvillo, Candler School of Theology
Francisco Castillo, Loyola Institute for Ministry
David Escobar Arcay, Palm Beach Atlantic University
Oscar Garcia-Johnson, Fuller Theological Seminary
Chauncey Diego Francisco Handy, Reed College
Débora Junker, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi, Iliff School of Theology
Roberto Mata, Santa Clara University
Néstor Medina, Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Adriana Nieto, Metropolitan State University of Denver
Altagracia Perez-Bullard, Virginia Theological Seminary
Lis Valle-Ruiz, McCormick Theological Seminary
Honorarium and Fellowship
Participants will receive an honorarium of $3,000 for full participation in the Conversation.
Important Information
Description
This roundtable will gather Latinx faculty members from diverse scholarly specializations and institutional contexts to address the challenges and possibilities of Latinx placemaking within contradictory contexts. We will approach our cohort as a community of inquiry and practice, wherein we will collectively and creatively lament, innovate, and create places and spaces to celebrate our own resilience in the face of anti-border laws, state-sanctioned violence, institutional racism, and coloniality.
As a collaborative learning cohort of teacher-scholars, we will explore such topics as:
- Indigenous placemaking within Latinidad
- Afro-Latinidades, placemaking, and inclusion
- Latinx joy and healing (social, emotional, psychological)
- Border-crosssing as a life-giving strategy
Goals
- Retrieval of ancestral resources within our own academic journeys
- Carefully exploring and identifying our own journey in the academy by making ratablos
- Share and exchange wisdom on how to navigate strategically colonizing forces on our identities and practices.
- Exploring the future of placemaking for Latinx scholars in the academy
Questions
- How can Latinx studies consider placemaking in contradictory contexts?
- Hows do Latinx scholars create a sense of place and space in the face of harmful rhetoric?
- How do Latinx scholars celebrate their resilience in the face of anti-border laws, state-sanctioned violence, institutional racism, and coloniality?
- What can we learn from our ancestors who were displaced by empire and within our own academic discipline?
- What is the future of placemaking in the academy?