February 14-16, 2013
The University of Texas at Austin
Abriendo Brecha (Opening a Path) is an annual conference on activist scholarship held at The University of Texas at Austin. This conference brings together artists, community activists and scholars whose work is directed toward social justice. Our goal is to build a vibrant community supporting research, creative production, performance and teaching that connects the university in sustained collaboration with community-based mobilizations for social change, in Austin and beyond. In this sense, we take the university’s prominent motto — “What Starts Here Changes the World”— quite seriously and literally, giving progressive values of social change an institutional anchor in our training programs. We are particularly excited about this year’s conference, Abriendo Brecha’s tenth anniversary. We have invited nearly 50 alumni of our programs to discuss their distinctive approaches to activist scholarship, and to reflect on their experiences carrying on these efforts throughout the hemisphere, both inside and outside the academy.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
3 p.m. – Opening Address: 10th Anniversary Celebration (CLA 1.302 B)
Welcome:
Dr. Eric Tang, assistant professor, African and African Diaspora Studies, Center for Asian American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Introduction to Conference:
Dr. Shannon Speed, associate professor, Department of Anthropology, director, Native American and Indigenous Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Charles Hale, director, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin
Special Remarks:
Dr. Richard Flores, associate dean for academic affairs, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin
Occasion:
Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement, The University of Texas at Austin
Opening Keynote:
Ms. Winona LaDuke: Activism, Justice and Future Generations: Moving Forward with Grassroots Strategies to Mitigate Global Climate Change
5 p.m. – Opening Reception (Liberal Arts Building Atrium)
Friday, February 15, 2013
8:30 – 10 a.m. – Concurrent Sessions
1A – Diasporic Perspectives on Activist Scholarship (CLA 1.302 D)
Christen Smith (Chair), Kia Caldwell, Roosbelinda Cardenas, Maryam Kashani, Courtney Morris
1B – Black and Indigenous Rights in Central America: Two Decades of CCARC’s Activist Engagement (CLA 1.302 B)
Galio Gurdian (Chair), Joseph Berra (Organizer), Ruth Matamoros, Fernanda Soto, Irma Velasquez Nimatuj
1C – Immigration and the State: Policing, Detention and Resistance (CLA 1.302 E)
Hector Dominguez (Chair), Juan Carrillo, Luis Placencia, Chloe Schwabe, Rocio Villalobos
10:15 – 11:45 a.m. – Concurrent Sessions
2A – Art, Activism and Social Justice (CLA 1.302 E)
Malaquias Montoya (Chair), Amit Gilutz, Nicole Gurgel, Shaka Paul McGlotten, Juan Mejia, Tatiana Reinoza
2B – The Red Star of Texas: Zapatismo and Activist Scholarship at The University of Texas at Austin (CLA 1.302 D)
Shannon Speed (Chair), Pablo Gonzalez (Organizer), Melissa Forbis,Mariana Mora, Vivian Newdick
2C – Feminist Theory, Pedagogy and Politics (CLA 1.302 B)
Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez (Chair), Jennifer Goett, Gail Sue Kasun, Brenda Sendejo
11:45 – 1 p.m. – Lunch (on your own)
12 Noon – 1:30 p.m. - Film Screening: The Battle for Land (SRH 1.320)
Filmed throughout the Colombian Pacific and the capital city of Bogotá, The Battle for Land delves deep into the complexities of the mass displacement of Afrocolombian communities. Through a character-driven style, the film pushes us past prevailing ideas in which displacement is seen as an aberration, a sad outcome of the civil war, and progressively reveals a much more intricate picture where violence and uprooting are exposed as an intrinsic part of the government’s project for “progress” where the Colombian Pacific represents a new frontier for development. The film is above all a journey deep into the heart of uprooting and the dark side of progress.
1:15 – 3 p.m. – Concurrent Sessions
3A – Chicana/o and Latino Politics (CLA 1.302 E)
John McKiernan-Gonzalez (Chair), Manuel Callahan, Emmet Campos, Connie McGuire, Lilia Rosas
3B – Violence and Policing (CLA 1.302 D)
Joy James (Chair), Jaime Alves, Elvia Mendoza, Junaid Rana, Bruno Renero, Gabe Solis
3C – Indigenous Epistemologies in Resistance (CLA 1.302 B)
Luis Cárcamo-Huechante (Chair), Gio Batz, Emiliana Cruz, Ajb’ee Jimenez, Edwin Roman-Ramirez, Tane Ward
3:15 – 5 p.m. – Concurrent Sessions
4A – Violence and the Politics of Memory (CLA 1.302 D)
Ariel Dulitzky (Chair), Claudia Chávez, Claudia Cervantes-Soon, Hisyar Ozsoy, Andrea Roberts, Elizabeth Velasquez
4B – Activist Austin (CLA 1.302 E)
Paula X. Rojas (Chair), Haile Eshe, Sean Sellers, Christina Tzintzun, Geoffrey Valdes, Noriega Orta
4C – Ethical and Political Reflections on Activist Anthropology (CLA 1.302 B)
Bjorn Sletto (Chair), Mark Anderson, Brandt Peterson, Heather Teague, Traci Ann Wint
5 – 6:30 p.m. – Resettlement City? Austin’s Refugee Communities (CLA 1.302 E)
Cosponsored with the Center for Asian American Studies
Austin is recognized by the federal government as a refugee resettlement city. Of the nearly 5,000 refugees who resettle to Texas each year, many are choosing the capitol city as a place to rebuild their lives after years of political violence followed by confinement to international camps. Refugees are also part of the city’s rapidly expanding Asian American community, and yet they are often dropped from broader discussions on race, immigration and the economy. This forum provides an overview of Austin’s refugee communities; it highlights the histories, struggles and community-building efforts of this largely forgotten population. The forum will also feature scholars and community activist working on refugee resettlement issues from around the country.
Dr. Peter Kiang, director, Asian American Studies Program, professor, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Ms. Chhaya Chhoum, founder and director, Mekong Center, Bronx, New York
Ms. Lesley Varghese, executive director, Austin Asian American Resource Center,
Austin, Texas
Ms. Meg Goodman Erskine, co-founder and executive director, Multicultural Refugee Coalition, Austin, Texas
Mr. Suresh Pokhrel, Center for Survivors of Torture, Austin, Texas
Mr. Aaron Rippenkroeger, Refugee Services of Texas
Dr. Eric Tang (moderator), assistant professor, African and African Diaspora Studies, Center for Asian American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
7 p.m. – Teaching and Practicing Activist Scholarship at UT: Reflections on the Past, Thoughts for the Future (Bellmont 328)
Dr. Ted Gordon, chair, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies,
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Charles Hale, director, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American
Studies and Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Omi Jones, associate professor, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Shannon Speed, associate professor, Department of Anthropology, director, Native American and Indigenous Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Kamala Visweswaran, associate professor, Department of Anthropology, Department of Asian Studies, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin
Saturday, February 16, 2013
10 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. – Double Plenary Session
Conversations on Activist Scholarship Beyond UT Austin (CLA 1.302E)
Angela Stuesse, Keisha-Khan Perry (Chairs), Mohan Ambikaipaker, Nick Copeland, Chris Loperena, Amanda Walker Johnson, Cristobal Valencia, Teresa Velasquez
12:30 p.m. – Closing Keynote and Lunch (CLA 1.302 B)
Dr. Peter Kiang, director, Asian American Studies Program, professor, University of Massachusetts at Boston
About the Speakers
Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe) is an author, orator and activist. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities with advanced degrees in rural economic development, LaDuke has devoted her life to protecting the lands and life ways of Native communities. She is the founder and co-director of Honor the Earth, a national advocacy group encouraging public support and funding for Native environmental groups, and founder of the White Earth Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation-based nonprofit organizations in the country, that promotes culturally based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy and food systems. She is the winner of many national awards, and served as Ralph Nader’s vice-presidential running mate on the Green Party ticket in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections.
Dr. Peter Nien-chu Kiang (江念祖) is professor of education and director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he has taught since 1987. Peter’s research, teaching, and advocacy in both K-12 and higher education with Asian American immigrant/refugee students and communities have been supported by the National Academy of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Association for Bilingual Education, and others. At UMass Boston, he has received both the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and Distinguished Service Award. Among many contributions to local communities, Peter served for six years as chair of the Massachusetts Advisory Committee for the US Commission on Civil Rights, and eight years as co-president of the Chinese Historical Society of New England. He holds a B.A., Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Harvard University and is a former community fellow in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.
CO-SPONSORED BY:
Caribbean Central American Research Council
Center for Asian American Studies
Center for Mexican American Studies
Center for Women and Gender Studies
College of Liberal Arts
Department of African and African Diaspora Studies
Division of Diversity and Community Engagement
Humanities Institute
Native American and Indigenous Studies
Social Justice Institute
Teresa Lozano Long Center for Latin American Studies
Warfield Center for African and African American Studies
