Re-Imagining Latin American and Caribbean Studies
NC Conference in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Saturday, February 21, 2025
Presented by the UNC-CH and Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the UNC Charlotte Latin American Studies Program.
An in-person conference hosted by The Duke University Center for Latin American Studies and Romance Studies. Durham, North Carolina, Duke University East Campus.
Location: Richard White Auditorium. East Duke 108; East Duke 209; East Duke 204D; East Duke 204B; Pink Parlor. Duke East Campus, 712 Broad St, Durham; entry also via Main Street and North Buchanan Blvd, NC 27705. Parking is free on Saturdays in Duke East.
Free and open to the public.
LOCATION MAPS, PARKING, AV NEEDS.
Conference Program
(All sessions 75 minutes)
8:00 AM. Registration / Welcome.
White Lecture Hall LOBBY. (Coffee and Pastries)
BLOCK 1. 8:30 am – 9:45 am. (concurrent sessions)
East Duke 108
Exploring Violence in Mexico through Literary and Cultural Studies.
This panel examines how contemporary Mexican literature and popular media engage with violence. The presentations collectively interrogate the intersections of state power, gender, and resistance through analyses of various media. The first paper analyzes the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco and their use of forensic architecture and open-source technologies to counter official accounts of forced disappearance at Rancho Izaguirre in Teuchitlan, Jalisco. Through a critical reading of their digital and spatial interventions, the study highlights how these citizen investigators construct counter-forensic archives that expose state complicity in necropolitical violence. The second paper revisits Carmen Boullosa’s Son vacas, somos puercos in light of recent scholarship on pirate utopias and the radical Enlightenment. Drawing on David Graeber’s work on social experimentation in Madagascar’s pirate settlements, it argues that Boullosa’s novel reimagines the Enlightenment from the margins as a project of insurgent egalitarianism. The third paper turns to the Huevocartoon franchise to explore its satirical treatment of machismo and violence in Mexican popular culture. Through humor and anthropomorphic fragility, the series destabilizes twentieth-century constructs of masculinity and proposes alternative, non-violent modes of ethical subjectivity. Together, these papers illuminate how diverse cultural forms in Mexico confront, reinterpret, and resist pervasive structures of violence through practices of testimony, irony, and imagination.
Ángel Díaz. Hollins University. Spanish. Faculty.
“Forensic Architecture: The Rancho Izaguirre case or How to fight the Mexican State with Technology”
Rafael Acosta Morales. UNC Charlotte. Spanish and Latin American Studies. Faculty.
“Libertalia y Tortuga: La Ilustración Pirata”
David S. Dalton. UNC Charlotte. Spanish and Latin American Studies. Faculty.
Cracking Bravado: Toward an Ethics of Violence in the Huevocartoon Web Shorts
Organizer: David S. Dalton. UNC Charlotte. Spanish and Latin American Studies. Faculty.
East Duke 204D
Mapping Otherwise: Counter-Cartographies of Encounter in Ecuador
Centering Indigenous and feminist geographic practices in the Andes and Amazon, this panel examines the convergence of counter-cartography, memory, and self-determination in Ecuador. Organized by the Tinkuna Lab working group – whose name comes from the Kichwa word tinkuna, meaning “encounter” and “coming together” – the session traces crossings of epistemology, language, and affect across multiple territorialities. Grounded in our collective’s experience-centered approach, the panel takes encounter itself as a method, bringing three presentations into conversation that ask: (1) How can (counter)mapping practices interrogate and disrupt hegemonic representations and knowledge production? (2) What kinds of relations emerge from the memories embedded in language and orality? and (3) How can Indigenous cartographic practices illuminate the personal and political dimensions of autonomy and resistance beyond the state?
Kleber Naula. UNC-Chapel Hill. Anthropology. PhD. Student
Yuyarina (Remembering): Indigenous Memory in the Andes of Chimborazo
Gabriela Valdivia. UNC-Chapel Hill. Geography & Environment. Faculty
Cartographic Intimacies in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Ina Shkurti. UNC-Chapel Hill. Geography & Environment. PhD. Student
Mapping with Self-Determination in Amazonian Ecuador
Organizer: Ina Shkurti. UNC-Chapel Hill. Geography & Environment. PhD. Student
East Duke 204B
Rethinking Recent Latin American History
Three papers examine issues of critical importance in recent Latin American history: government-Indigenous conflict over highway construction in Bolivia’s TIPNIS in the Evo Morales era: Mexico’s gender quota laws that helped pave the way for Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency, and Mexico’s abdication of its key role in fighting for global economic justice during and after the 1981 North-South summit.
Leah Walton. UNC Charlotte. Latin American Studies
Contesting the Indigenous Right Consultation in the Communities of the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS)
Grace McGuire. UNC Charlotte. Latin American Studies. Faculty
Parity as Democracy: Gender Quota Laws in Mexico, 2014- 2019
Jürgen Buchenau. UNC Charlotte. History. Faculty
The “Spirit of Cancún:” Mexico, the United States, and the Mirage of “South-South” Cooperation, 1981-1982
Organizer: Jurgen Buchenau. UNC Charlotte. History. Faculty
Commentator: Gregory S. Crider. Winthrop University. History. Faculty
9:45 am – 10 am BREAK
BLOCK 2. 10:00 am – 11:15 am. (concurrent sessions)
East Duke 108
Speculating from Latin America: Bets, Extractivism, and Musical Imagination
Speculation -economic, political, imaginative, affective- has become a defining feature of life in contemporary Latin America. From extractive economies and volatile financial markets to digital platforms and artistic experimentation, speculation generates both possibility and precarity. This panel approaches speculation ethnographically as a mode of world-making: a way of calculating, hoping, wagering, and imagining futures amid conditions of structural uncertainty. Drawing on diverse field sites, this panel explores speculation as a lived practice shaped by capitalism’s uneven landscapes yet open to unexpected outcomes. Federico examines speculative logics at the core of the rise of sports gambling in Colombia. His research focuses on how sports gambling reveals new forms of entanglement between desire, technology, and finance. He examines how Colombians, many facing economic precarity, engage with sports gambling as both an opportunity and risk. Jan investigates the speculative temporalities of extractive capitalism in Chile through contemporary metal music. His research explores how metal musicians, sound engineers, and luthiers engage with metal music’sheavy, distorted, and loud sound to develop unconventional forms of relationship with their surroundings, thereby imagining alternative futures amid Chile’s overlapping forms of precarity. Maddy explores the intersections between Latin American popular music and diasporic identity in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Her research considers how liminal musicking spaces become venues for overt and covert political expression through sound, embodiment, and interpretations of national identity. By discussing these varied approaches, this panel aims to ask: How can we reinterpret speculation as a performative, communal, and diverse phenomenon in contexts historically marked by precarity and uncertainty? We would like to recognize speculation as a vibrant, evolving negotiation among individuals and communities. Through this engagement, we seek to contribute to broader conversations towards an understanding of speculative practices forms in Latin American contexts.
Federico Dupont Bernal. Duke. Anthropology. PhD. Student
Betting on the Future: Sports Gambling and Speculative Capitalism in Colombia
Jan Koplow. Duke. Ethnomusicology. PhD. Student
Step away from me or I’ll release my spores:” Screaming as a Channel for Embodying Human/More-than-hu-man Transformations
Madison Allwein. UNC-CH. Department of Music. PhD. Student
DEBÍ TIRAR MÁS FOTOS: A Continuation of Salsa Conciente?
Organizer: Federico Dupont Bernal. Duke. Anthropology. PhD. Student
East Duke 209
Impacts of Transitory Migration on Human Health and Local Economies in the Darien Gap: Reflections on Interdisciplinary and International Research
Over the last 7 years the Darien Gap has experienced unprecedented change. In 2018 the region recorded just 9,000 transiting migrants. This rose rapidly to over 500,000 in 2023 and has since dropped to near 0 as of July 2025. Concurrently, there has been an extreme rise in malaria cases with just 715 cases reported in 2018, over 15,000 were recorded in 2024. Additionally, migration has hugely altered local economies in communities traditionally reliant on agriculture and fishing leading to rapid development, nutrition transitions, cultural loss, and shifted resource access. The Indigenous Embera-Wounaan and Guna Yala communities in the Darien whom are receiving migrants, experiencing rapid local change, and represent 85% of Panamanian malaria cases are largely characterized by extreme inequity and poor access to healthcare.
We have formed an interdisciplinary Bass Connections group at Duke University to explore how these extreme changes are influencing health, as related to malaria outcomes and nutrition, as well as local economies in these at-risk communities. This project team ties together faculty, PhD team leaders, graduate, and undergraduate students with the aim of conducting impactful research to inform relevant policy in Panama. The purpose of this panel will be to discuss: reflections on past and current research plans, challenges to implementation working in Latin America from the US, training students to engage in ethical research practices in an international context, the importance of developing and maintaining strong relationships with our Panamanian collaborators, and the intentionality to appropriately frame and carry out research for vulnerable populations in the Darien.
Sara O’Malley. Duke. Nicholas School of the Environment/ Environment-Global Health. PhD. Student
Ana Andino. Duke. Sanford School of Public Policy. PhD. Student
Daniela Trujillo Hassan. Duke. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology. PhD. Student
Organizer: Sara O’Malley. Duke. Nicholas School of the Environment/ Environment-Global Health.
Commentator: Hannah Postel. Duke. Sanford School of Public Policy. Faculty
East Duke 204D
Cities in Motion: Housing and Environmental Struggles across the Americas.
Across cities in the Americas, communities are confronting overlapping crises of housing and environmental degradation rooted in extractive and exclusionary urban models. In response, emerging forms of territorial and social resistance are reimagining planning through cooperation, solidarity, and care. This panel explores approaches to just cities through three experiences: tenants, women-headed households in Bogotá navigating precarious rental markets and local housing policies; FUCVAM’s cooperative housing model in Uruguay, redefining ownership and participation in public housing projects through Professional Assistance; and grassroots water governance initiatives in some counties in North Carolina asserting water as a common good and a right. Together, these cases show how local actors weave lived experiences and collective organization to face the crises of housing and the environment, proposing alternative visions of the city. The discussion seeks to reflect on the intersections of housing, environmental justice, and local urban policies across cities in the Americas.
Grant Holub-Moorman. UNC-CH. City and Regional Planning. PhD. Student
How water negotiates with a utility
Alejandro Cotté Alsina. UNC-CH. City and Regional Planning. Master’s Student
Professional assistance to transform public housing: lessons from cooperative public housing development projects by FUCVAM in Uruguay
Cristhian Parrado Rodríguez. UNC-CH. City and Regional Planning. PhD. Student
María’s keys: rental housing and women in Bogotá.
Commentator/Organizer: Ashley C. Hernandez. UNC-CH. City and Regional Planning. Faculty
East Duke 204B
Religion, Love, and Development in 20th Century Latin America
This panel will address the historical conditions of social critique in 20th century Latin America through three case studies. Starting with the prison letters of Brazilian Communist Luis Carlos Prestes, the first paper will offer a wide-ranging examination of his intellectual production behind bars, from his social networks to his ahead-of-their-time ideas about the environment and Brazil’s indigenous people to the question of agrarian reform. Second, it will turn to a theological approach to songs by Nas and the Brazilian hip-hop group Racionais MCs that offer reflections on carcerality. This paper highlights hip hop’s contribution to world Christianity as a transnational theological practice, where rhyme and rhythm testify to the Spirit’s power to create solidarity, sustain survival, and generate hope across U.S. and Brazilian contexts. Finally, the third paper will analyze the Mexican comic “Ayúdame, Doctora Corazón” (Help me, Doctor Heart), a lesser-known romance comic from the 1960s made by the famous Mexican writer, Yolanda Vargas Dulche. Analyzing the visual depiction of indigenous peoples’ religiosity, it will argue that comics also offer a window into ideas and social attitudes about religiosity in mid-20th century Mexico.
Julián Álvarez. Duke. History. PhD. Student
Developing the Brazilian Interior? The Maggi Family and the Soy Boom in Mato Grosso
Travis Williams. Duke. Theology. PhD. Student
Diário de um Detento, Diário do Espírito: Hip Hop as a Pneumatological [Re]source
Natalie Gasparowicz. Davison College. History. Faculty
From the “pueblo” to “la ciudad”: Religiosity in ‘modernization’ narratives in 1960s Mexican Romance Comics
Travis Knoll. Independent Scholar
The Terra’s Terreiro: Black Catholics and Environmental Philosophy in Brazil
Organizer: Julián Álvarez. Duke. History. PhD. Student.
11:15 am – 11:30 am BREAK
BLOCK 3. 11:30 am – 12:45 pm (concurrent sessions)
East Duke 108
Orientalisms in Latin America
Latin America is experiencing a cultural shift driven by the growing presence of East Asian (mostly Chinese) investment and migration in the past two and a half decades. However, upon his arrival in Latin America in 1492, Christopher Columbus believed that he had reached Asia. Since then, oriental imaginaries have informed how colonizers, imperialists, and authoritarians have contemplated the region’s peoples and cultures, in ways that both reflect and depart from the idea of Orientalism that Edward Said famously developed in his work of the same title. Today (as well as for Said), the “Orient/Yellow menace” comes to represent the West’s antithesis; this roundtable aims to explore how the Orientalist framework functions, or malfunctions, in the Latin American context through a trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic lens. The three panelists, part of the Duke University Franklin Humanities Institute Working Group “Latin America and Asia: Orientalisms from Columbus to Today,” will discuss literary and artistic works from Argentina, Cuba, Brazil and Colombia that shape, reflect, and reimagine the relations between Latin America and the “Orient” across geographies and time. Their presentations will examine how Latin American discourses of race, environment, nation, and identity influence and engage with depictions of East Asia, the Muslim World, and “Orientalized” European countries (such as Italy), and how they frame relations across the East-West geographical axis. The discussion, then, will invite us to explore the connections between Said’s definition of orientalism and its manifestations in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Americas, with the goal of understanding its importance in the literature and art of Latin America both historically and in the present day.
Daria Kozhanova. Duke. Romance Studies. PhD. Student
“Oriental Indolence”: Race and Nationality in Early Nineteenth-Century Italy and Cuba
Grant Azevedo Beleza-Schutzman. Romance Studies. PhD. Student
Grocery Fires and Government Contracts: Argentina, China and the Economic “Other” in Federico Jeanmaire’s Tacos altos
Miguel Rojas-Sotelo. Duke. Romance and Latin American Studies. Faculty/Staff
Squares as Land Fields: Transpacific compressions and the continent within
Organizer/Commentator: Teddy Romey. Duke. Romance Studies. PhD. Student
East Duke 209
Understanding, measuring, and addressing social determinants of health among transgender women in the Dominican Republic. Transgender (trans) women experience pervasive stigma and poor health outcomes.
Despite this, there is limited research focused on their health concerns, the role of social determinants of health, and health promotion interventions. Our team collaborated with researchers and trans community leaders in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to address these research gaps. First, we present findings from interviews with middle-aged and older trans women about their perspectives on aging (n=19). Participants described mixed experiences managing their chronic conditions but shared a common vision of what gender-affirming healthcare looked like. Lack of discrimination from providers emerged as a cornerstone of good care. Where the healthcare system left gaps, participants explained how they give and receive health support in their social networks. Next, we present the development of a measure of family environments called the Transfeminine Adult Family Environment Scale (TAFES). Following an iterative, mixed methods process, we determined that a 23-item TAFES with a three-factor solution (Gender Affirmation, Rejection, General Acceptance, and Support) best explained the data. Gender Affirmation and General Acceptance and Support were significantly negatively correlated with depressive symptoms, while correlations between the other subscales and mental health outcomes were not significant. Finally, we present results from a pilot randomized controlled trial of a multilevel intervention called GAP (Gender Affirming Abriendo Puertas) to improve HIV and mental health outcomes among trans women with HIV by reducing stigma and increasing social cohesion. Early process analysis suggests high levels of engagement with the GAP intervention and compelling narratives of improved HIV outcomes, wellbeing, and community cohesion. Informed by the findings from these three studies, we will consider the implications for future research and intervention scale-up processes to sustainably improve trans women’s health and wellbeing.
Gaby Sandor. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Graduate Student
Health concerns and experiences among older transgender women in the Dominican Republic
Dirk Davis. Wake Forest University. Faculty
Claire Barrington. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Faculty
GAP: outcomes of a multilevel intervention for transgender women with HIV in the Dominican Republic
Organizer: Claire Barrington. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Faculty
East Duke 204D
On the Nature(s) of Resources and Communities in Latin America’s Extractive Economies
Focusing on Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela, this panel explores the contradictory ways resources and communities have been practically and discursively imagined from the late 19th century to the present. Using transdisciplinary approaches bridging history, sociology, philosophy and geography, we seek to understand how different political communities have shaped and defined resources in unique ways, and in doing so, created new understandings and practices of community, nation, class, indigeneity, buen vivir/the good life, sustainability, and belonging. Working both from the “bottom up” and from the “top down,” the panelists share a common concern with understanding the eco-social relations implied by “extractivism,” their historical mutability, geographical heterogeneity, and effects on human and more than human life. Considered collectively, our different research illuminates the importance of trans-local and inter-subjective social sciences and humanities research towards understanding extractivism as a process of socio-environmental and political differentiation.
Pedro Monque. UNC-Charlotte. Department of Philosophy. Faculty
Extractivism and Sustainability: What Do We Want these Concepts to Do?
Carmen Soliz. UNC-Charlotte. History. Faculty
Between Resistance and Extraction: Popular Economies and the Everyday Politics of Resource Dependence in Bolivia
Chris N. Lesser. UNC-Charlotte. Global Studies. Faculty
Human (and more-than-human) Resources and Labor in Brazil’s Long Post-Abolition
Organizer: Carmen Soliz. UNC-Charlotte. History. Faculty
Commentator: Caitlin Schroering. UNC-Charlotte. Global Studies. Faculty.
East Duke 204B
New Approaches to Mexican Studies: Memory, Migration, and Drugs
A panel of graduate students from three different programs at UNC Charlotte on four topics in Mexican studies, focusing on the period since 1945.
Jules Geaney-Moore. UNC-Charlotte. History. Graduate Student
A Transcontinental History: Anna Seghers in Mexico
Kurt Garfield. UNC-Charlotte. History. Graduate Student
Tenochtitlán in the Textbooks: Constructing the Indigenous Past and National Identity in Mexico’s Free Textbook Program, 1960-2008
Diana Maruri. UNC-Charlotte. History. Graduate Student
Singing Memory: The Mexican narcocorrido as Cultural and Political Narrative
Emma Nantz, UNC Charlotte. Spanish. Graduate Student
The Drug Wars in Mexico in Elmer Mendoza’s Balas de Plata
Jules Geaney-Moore, UNC Charlotte. History. Graduate Student
A Transcontinental History: Anna Seghers in Mexico
Organizer: Jurgen Buchenau. UNC Charlotte. History. Faculty
LUNCH 12:45 pm – 1:45 pm | Richard White Lecture Hall | LOBBY
BLOCK 4. 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm (concurrent sessions)
East Duke 108
Horror and Social Space in Latin American Literature
El retorno del horror en la literatura latinoamericana contemporánea idea las tensiones existentes en un tejido social cada vez más fragmentado. Este panel adopta una perspectiva histórica, mediante un studio de la evolución de la estética gótica como alegoría de las contradicciones materiales de su entorno. Primero, Thomas Juneau examinará una novela política romántica del chileno Daniel Barros Grez, El huérfano (1881). En ella, se narra el conflicto entre un joven provinciano ascendente y su antagonista, un bandido. La relación de este con el mundo fantástico, con diablos y brujería, naturaliza lo irredimible del villano, opuesto al proyecto económico de la nación. El sujeto burgués imaginará la regeneración del Chile rural mediante la aniquilación del otro. Ángela Marín analizará cómo Samanta Schweblin configura en Distancia de rescate (2014) una subjetividad materna atravesada por un trauma imposible de procesar: la pérdida del hijo. Estudiará cómo el pensamiento materno resulta insuficiente ante la amenaza difusa y persistente del entorno contaminado. La imposibilidad de proteger a los hijos fragmenta las voces de las narradoras, atrapándolas en la repetición del trauma, donde la reconstrucción narrativa emerge como síntoma de una subjetividad quebrada. Alejandra Gaeta presentará “Grita” (2020) de María Fernanda Ampuero desde la perspectiva del gótico latinoamericano, entendiendo el horror como una expresión de la violencia social y patriarcal. Ampuero reconfigura los espacios tradicionales del gótico—el hogar, el cuerpo, la noche—para revelar cómo el miedo se origina en lo cotidiano y en las estructuras de poder que sostienen la opresión. El texto convierte el trauma en denuncia, visibilizando el horror real que atraviesa las experiencias femeninas en Latinoamérica. En conclusión, esta mesa recalcará el papel del horror para desfamiliarizar lo cotidiano, haciendo que las violencias pasadas recobren importancia en la conciencia social colectiva presente.
Alejandra Gaeta. UNC-CH. PhD. Romance. PhD. Student
El horror y lo cotidiano: el gótico latinoamericano en “Grita” (2020) de María Fernanda Ampuero
Ángela Marín Ambrosio. UNC-CH. PhD. Romance. PhD. Student
El hilo sisal: vínculo que conecta el trauma y el pensamiento materno en Distancia de rescate de Samanta Schweblin
Thomas Juneau. UNC-CH. PhD. Romance. PhD. Student
Superstition, Banditry, and Economy in Daniel Barros Grez’s El huérfano (1881)
Organizer/commentator: Marina Sola Alonso. Duke. Romance. PhD. Student
East Duke 209
Prevalence and lived experience of multimorbidity among women with HIV in the Dominican Republic
The health context of many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean reflects a triple burden of infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, and mental health conditions. Managing multiple conditions can be challenging for individuals and health systems, which are frequently organized around specific diseases. The purpose of this study was to improve understanding of the triple burden among women with HIV in the Dominican Republic. The first aim was to determine the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (e.g. type-2 diabetes, hypertension) and mental health conditions (e.g. depression, anxiety) through a survey and biological screening with 200 women living with HIV. We identified high levels of diabetes (5%), prediabetes (28%) and hypertension (42%). We also found high levels of moderate-to-severe depression (46%) and anxiety (66%). The second aim was to explore the lived experience of multimorbidity through qualitative in-depth interviews with women with HIV and at least one non-communicable disease (n=25). We found that the main enablers of successful self-management were family and social support, reminders and routines, coordinating care, and self-efficacy. Barriers to self-management included access to medication and care, balancing multiple conditions, the burden of lifestyle changes, and stigma. With regard to accessing healthcare, participants faced fragmented healthcare that led to high costs, transportation challenges, and disruptions to treatment. Experiences and fears of discrimination caused many to avoid healthcare for diabetes and hypertension, while trusted HIV clinics offered respectful and supportive environments. Finally, while access to HIV medication was consistent, medications for diabetes and hypertension were costly and sometimes unavailable, leaving women to rely on social networks or home remedies. Findings highlight the need for improved integration of care to improve access and support wellbeing among women with HIV and other chronic conditions in the Dominican Republic.
Carolina Ruiz. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Graduate Student
Triple burden of HIV, cardiovascular disease, and mental health conditions among women in the Dominican Republic
Meredith Dockery. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Graduate Student
Self-management of diabetes and hypertension among women with HIV
Wolfgang V. Bahr. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Graduate Student
Access to care for diabetes and hypertension among women with HIV
Organizer: Clare Barrington. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Faculty
Commentator: Deshira Wallace. UNC-CH. Health Behavior. Faculty.
East Duke 204D
Dissident Peace: Autonomous Struggles and the State in Colombia (Book Roundtable)
During this roundtable, participants will discuss Dissident Peace: Autonomous Struggles and the State in Colombia (Stanford University Press, 2025). In 2016, the peace accords between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People’s Army (FARC–EP) and the Colombian government promised to bring an end to over fifty years of armed conflict. Yet, despite widespread international acclaim and heavy investments in the peace process, war continued. Dissident Peace provides a rigorous reassessment of the terms of peacebuilding through an ethnography of ongoing struggles for autonomy, based on over fifteen years of research and activism in Colombia.
Short presentation by the author: Anthony Dest. UNC-CH. Geography. Faculty
Commentators:
Nadia Mosquera Muriel. UNC-CH. African, African American and Diaspora Studies. Faculty
Miguel La Serna. UNC-CH. History. Faculty
Angela Suesse. UNC-CH. Anthropology. Faculty
Maya Berry. UNC-CH. African, African American and Diaspora Studies. Faculty
East Duke 204B
Finding Home in the South: Haitian Migration, Isolation, and the Power of Community
This roundtable session will explore the distinct migration journey of two Haitian immigrants from traditional settlement hubs such as Florida and Massachusetts to emerging communities in North Carolina. Through personal stories and community reflections, they will discuss themes of displacement, identity, isolation, and the transformative power of collective belonging. Their journeys, though unique in origin and experience, converge in North Carolina through a community organization (Haitians Of The Triangle (HOTT)) that helped them find connection, new found purpose and an evolved sense of identity. It’s this connection that keeps them grounded, wanting to expand Haitian representation and community engagement in this region. These two transplants—professionals, community members, and leaders—seek to advocate for increased visibility and support for the Haitian community. Additionally, participants will be encouraged to reflect and share their own stories. They can discover their voice, and connect with others who are shaping what belonging means in North Carolina and beyond. Through story-sharing and open discussion, participants will learn how advocacy begins with finding and using one’s voice to build connections that foster visibility, resilience and empowerment.
Mirlesna Azor-Sterlin. Co-Founder & Chair, Haitians of The Triangle
&
Christ-Aldane Jean-Simon. Vice Chair & Creative Director, Haitians of The Triangle
Finding Home in the South: Haitian Migration, Isolation, and the Power of Community
3:00 pm – 3:15 pm BREAK
BLOCK 5. 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm (concurrent sessions)
East Duke 108
Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Book Roundtable)
This roundtable brings together an interdisciplinary collection of scholars for a critical engagement with Maya J. Berry’s first book, Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons (Duke University Press, 2025). In Defending Rumba in Havana, anthropologist and dancer Maya J. Berry examines rumba as a way of knowing the embodied and spiritual dimensions of Black political imagination in post-Fidel Cuba. Historically a Black working-class popular dance, rumba, Berry contends, is a method of Black Cuban struggle that provides the community, accountability, sustenance, and dignity that neither the state nor the expanding private market can. Berry’s feminist theorization builds on the notion of the undercommons to show how rumba creates a space in which its practitioners enact deeply felt and dedicatedly defended choreographies of reciprocity, refusal, sovereignty, devotion, and pleasure, both on stage and in their daily lives. Berry demonstrates that this Black corporeal undercommons emphasizes mutual aid and refuses neoliberal development logics, favoring instead a collective self-determination rooted in African diasporic spiritual practices through which material compensation and gendered power dynamics are negotiated. By centering rumba to analyze how poor Black Cubans navigate gendered and racialized life, Berry helps readers better understand the constraints and yearnings that move diasporic Black struggles to seek refuge beyond the bounds of the nation-state.
Short presentation by the author: Maya J. Berry. UNC-CH. African, African-American & Diaspora Studies. Faculty
Commentators:
Lisa Calvente. UNC-CH. Communications. Faculty
Anthony Dest. UNC-CH. Geography & Environment. Faculty
Jarvis C. McInnis. Duke, English. Faculty
Todd Ramón Ochoa. UNC-CH. Religious Studies. Faculty
East Duke 209
Interdisciplinary Strategies to Increase Health Insurance Enrollment Among Latinos in North Carolina: Research, Education, and Community Perspectives
This proposed panel highlights project FIEL-NC (Fostering Insurance Enrollment among Latinos in North Carolina), an interdisciplinary initiative based in the Duke Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, combining policy, education, and community engagement to improve health insurance enrollment among Latine populations in NC. The panel includes a FIEL-NC policy analyst, education lead, and CHW. The policy panelist will explore innovative strategies for gathering local data and contextual insights even when formal data is limited or incomplete. Key findings from a focus group of CHWs and key informant interviews will highlight community priorities, challenges, and experiences navigating health coverage. Panelists will also touch on preliminary approaches to navigating rapidly evolving policy changes and adapting interventions to meet emerging community needs. The education panelist will discuss the development and implementation of culturally tailored health insurance educational materials for Latine community members. In the most recent classes, held in spring 2025, 7 CHWs were trained to deliver the classes, reaching 54 participants. Post-class surveys demonstrated that among community members that were previously uninsured, all indicated they were likely or very likely to enroll in coverage after attending. The CHW panelist will discuss her experiences with FIEL-NC’s CHW health insurance training program, which includes an education component and practicum hours focused on engaging community members through culturally appropriate outreach. 100 Spanish-speaking CHWs across NC were trained across 2 cohorts, reaching 10,782 community members. In the 2024–2025 cohort, 100% of CHWs reported feeling confident applying what they learned to their work with Latine communities. Overall, the panel will highlight how interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement can translate research into impact, demonstrating practical approaches for tailoring interventions and uplifting the expertise of CHWs to advance health equity.
Kristin Podsiad, MCRP, MPH. Duke Margolis Institute for Health Policy
How States Can Improve Medicaid Outreach Among Unenrolled and Eligible Latine Populations
Jacob Pinto, BSN, SCRN. Duke. Family Medicine and Community Health
Medicaid Expansion for La Comunidad Latina in North Carolina: Community Health Workers’ Role in Outreach
Jacqueline Hernandez Alvarez. Duke. Latin-19. Community Health Worker
¿No Hay Racismo?: Application of the levels of racism framework to Latinx perspectives on barriers to health and wellbeing
Organizer: Paulina Ruiz. Duke. Family Medicine and Community Health. Project Manager
Commentator: Viviana Martinez Bianchi, MD, FAAFP. Duke. Associate Professor and Director of Community Engagement (Duke); President (WONCA). Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
East Duke 204D
Political Beliefs, Institutions, and Democratic Resilience in Latin America
Panel Abstract: This panel explores how public opinion and political institutions bolster or undermine democracy in Latin America. João Cardoso Lara Camargos uses a network analysis to explore how authoritarian attitudes shape political belief systems across 15 Latin American countries. He finds that authoritarian attitudes are the most central political beliefs in most countries and are significantly associated with left-right ideology, especially in contexts marked by charismatic leadership. Andrés Vásquez leverages AmericasBarometer data in 18 Latin American countries to understand whether citizens who identify with their president are more or less likely to support democracy, both generally and for specific features of liberal democracy. He finds that citizens who support the president in power have higher levels of incongruence between their support for democracy generally and attributes of liberal democracy than those who do not. Andrés analyzes the case of Venezuela during Hugo Chávez’s government to illustrate this argument. Winston Ardoin uses survey data in Rio de Janeiro to explore variation in informal structures of governance in favelas. When well-organized, informal structures of governance—such as residents’ associations—can provide important public goods to citizens in communities where the state is absent. Together, these three research projects deepen our understanding of how both individual belief systems and community-level institutions shape the resilience of democracy in the region.
João Cardoso Lara Camargos. UNC-CH. Political Science. PhD. Student
The Authoritarian Ideology in Latin America
Andrés Vásquez. UNC-CH. Political Science. PhD. Student
Supporting the Leader and Incongruent Views of Democracy
Wiston Ardoin. UNC-CH. Political Science. PhD. Student
Grassroots Governance: Resident Associations and the Informal State in Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas
Organizer/Commentator: Isabella Randle. UNC-CH. Political Science. PhD. Student
4:30 pm to 4:45 pm BREAK
BLOCK 6. Richard White Lecture Hall 107.
PLENARY ROUND TABLE
4:45 pm – 6:15 pm.
Re-Imagining Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Introduced by Leo Ching. Duke University Dean of Humanities and the Arts
We gather at a moment of profound transformation. Latin American and Caribbean Studies stands at a crossroads shaped by shifting political landscapes, ecological crisis, institutional and political change, and renewed struggles over knowledge, power, and representation. To re-imagine this field is not an abstract exercise; it is an urgent and collective task.
This roundtable calls for new forms of collaboration across institutions, disciplines, and geographies, and for shared commitments to research, teaching, and public engagement that respond to the region’s social, cultural, economic, environmental, and political realities. Re-imagining means rethinking how knowledge is produced, for whom, and toward what ends.
More than ever, we are asked to work together as a scholarly community grounded in historical understanding and accountable to the present, while remaining open to radical possibilities for the future. This gathering is an invitation to rethink, to realign, and to act together.
Panelists:
Jocelyn Olcott. Professor of History, Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. Duke
Jürgen Buchenau. Dowd Term Chair of Capitalism Studies, Professor of History and Latin American Studies, UNC Charlotte
David Dalton. Professor of Spanish & Director of Latin American Studies. UNC-Charlotte
Moderated by: Gabriela Valdivia. William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in Geography. Director, Institute for the Study of the Americas. UNC-Chapel Hill
*We invite all participants and the interested audience to join and participate in this forum.
6:30 pm – 7:15 pm. PERFORMANCE.
A Tango Love Story (Alma Coefman collective)
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm.
RECEPTION | PINK PARLOR. Duke East.
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NCCLAS 2026 |
LIT / ANTRO / CULT STUDIES | HEALTH / GLOBAL HEALTH | ENV / GEO / POLSCI |
HIST / SOCIO |
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| 75-MINUTE SESSIONS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| East Duke 108 (40) | East Duke 209 (100) | East Duke 204D (35) | East Duke 204B (50) | ||
| 8:00 AM. (Coffee and Pastries) Registration / Welcome. | White Lecture Hall LOBBY | ||||
| 1 | 8:30 am – 9:45 am. (concurrent sessions) | Exploring Violence in Mexico through Literary and Cultural Studies | Mapping Otherwise: Counter-Cartographies of Encounter in Ecuador | Rethinking Recent Latin American History | |
| 9:45 am – 10 am BREAK | |||||
| 2 | 10:00 am – 11:15 am. (concurrent sessions) | Speculating from Latin America: Bets, Extractivism, and Musical Imagination | Impacts of Transitory Migration on Human Health and Local Economies in the Darien Gap: Reflections on Interdisciplinary and International Research | Cities in Motion: Housing and Environmental Struggles across the Americas. | Religion, Love, and Development in 20th Century Latin America |
| 11:15 am – 11:30 am BREAK | |||||
| 3 | 11:30 am – 12:45 pm (concurrent sessions) | Orientalisms in Latin America | Understanding, measuring, and addressing social determinants of health among transgender women in the Dominican Republic | On the Nature(s) of Resources and Communities in Latin America’s Extractive Economies | New Approaches to Mexican Studies: Memory, Migration, and Drugs |
| LUNCH 12:45 pm – 1:45 pm | |||||
| 4 | 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm (concurrent sessions) | Horror and Social Space in Latin American Literature | Prevalence and lived experience of multimorbidity among women with HIV in the Dominican Republic | Book Roundtable: Dissident Peace: Autonomous Struggles and the State in Colombia | Finding Home in the South: Haitian Migration, Isolation, and the Power of Community |
| 3:00 pm – 3:15 pm BREAK | |||||
| 5 | 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm (concurrent sessions) | Book Roundtable: Maya J. Berry’s, Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and the Black Corporeal Undercommons | Interdisciplinary Strategies to Increase Health Insurance Enrollment Among Latinos in North Carolina: Research, Education, and Community Perspectives | Political Beliefs, Institutions, and Democratic Resilience in Latin America | |
| 4:30 pm to 4:45 pm BREAK | |||||
| White Lecture Hall 107 | |||||
| 6 | 4:45 pm – 6:15 pm / PLENARY ROUND TABLE (90min) | Introduction: Leo Ching, Dean of Humanities and the Arts. Duke | Moderated by: Gabriela Valdvia. UNC-CH. Geography | Jocelin Olcott, Duke History | Jürgen Buchenau, UNC-Charlotte, History, and David Dalton. UNC-Charlotte Program in Latin American Studies. |
| 6:30 pm – 7:15 pm SHOW | A Tango Love Story (Alma Coefman collective) | ||||
| 7:15 pm – 8:00 pm. RECEPTION | PINK PARLOR. Duke East. | ||||
* For forty years (1986-2026), the UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American & Caribbean Studies has facilitated regular collaboration among faculty and students working on interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the Americas. For its work, the Consortium has received major funding from the Andrew W. Mellon, Ford, and Tinker Foundations, and since 1991, it has been designated a Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) by the U.S. Department of Education. For the past decade, it has also been collaborating with UNC Charlotte to expand its reach through joint initiatives, exchange, research, symposia, and conferences. This partnership includes the North Carolina Conference on Latin American Studies (NCCLAS), interdisciplinary coursework, and shared resources to promote, analyze, and understand the region.
