University Seminar on Latin America

03/14/2025

02/26/2025

To RSVP, email [email protected]

Zoom Link: https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/j/96283576152

01/09/2025

Class and Race in Brazil: Black labor leaders and “racial democracy” (1940s-1960s)
Paulo Fontes - Professor at the History Institute of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute (2024-2025)

Meeting Date: Thursday, February 6, 2025
● Time: 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
● Location (in person): Faculty House of Columbia University, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027
● Zoom link (for online attendees): Email [email protected] to get access to the link https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/j/3842139667

RSVP: Email [email protected] or respond directly to this email confirming if you are attending in-person or online, and coming for dinner.

Please confirm your attendance by Thursday, January 30, 2025.

SEMINAR ABSTRACT

This presentation is part of a broader research agenda that seeks to analyze the connections between racial relations and labor movement in Brazil post World War II, a period of industrial growth, urbanization and national-developmentalist government rhetoric. It was also a moment of a hegemonic discourse that portraited Brazil as a "racial democracy". By highlighting the trajectory of black trade unionists in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the project seeks to address an aspect still little studied both in the field of the labor history and in the analysis of racial relations in the country. I argue that "racial democracy" and labor policies that began in the 1930s were two sides of the same coin. One cannot be fully understood without the other. Therefore, the trade unions as a space and the trajectory of black trade unionists as objects seem particularly interesting elements to understand the complex relations between racial relations, the worlds of labor, the meanings of citizenship, nationalism and the political game in Brazil.

SPEAKER

Paulo Fontes is an Associate Professor at the History Institute of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (UFRJ) and a Researcher of the Brazilian Scientific Research Council (CNPq) and the Rio de Janeiro State Research Agency (FAPERJ). Currently he is a fellow at Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University (2024/25). At UFRJ he is the coordinator of the Laboratório de Estudos de História dos Mundos do Trabalho (LEHMT), that leads the most important Brazilian labor history website as public history (lehmt.org). Paulo received his PhD in Social History from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) in 2003. Paulo was also a Visiting Professor at Duke (2004) and Princeton (2006/7) Universities in the US and Visiting Fellow at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam in 2013 and the re:work Institute of Humboldt University in Berlin (2014). A historian of Brazilian labour and working-class culture after the WorldWar II, Paulo is the author of several articles, book chapters and books. His book Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo (Duke U Press) was the winner of the first Thomas Skidmore Prize, sponsored by the Brazilian National Archive and the Brazilian Studies Association.

10/07/2024

The next #515 University Seminar on Latin America meeting in Fall 2024 will be a presentation about the Afterlives of the Spanish Civil War in Latin America with Professor Kirsten Weld.

This event will be on Thursday, November 7, 2024, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Faculty House, Columbia University, with a hybrid option on Zoom for people who can’t attend in person.

● Meeting Date: Thursday, November 7, 2024
● Time: 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
● Location (in person): Faculty House of Columbia University, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027

RSVP: Email [email protected] or respond directly to this email confirming whether you are attending in person or online and coming for dinner.

GIVEN CAMPUS ACCESS RESTRICTIONS, if you want to attend in person and/or dinner, we will need to get your confirmation by October 31 (a week before the event).

08/20/2024

Our first #515 University Seminar on Latin America meeting of Fall 2024 will be a panel about Transitional Justice and Education in Colombia: The Perspectives of Youth. Dr. Garnett Russell, Dr. Paula Mantilla-Blanco, and Dr. Daniela Romero-Amaya will join us as speakers, and Joan Camilo Lopez will be the respondent.
This event will be on Thursday, September 12, 2024, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Faculty House, Columbia University, with a hybrid option on Zoom for people who can’t attend in person.

● Meeting Date: Thursday, September 12, 2024
● Time: 7 p.m - 9 p.m.
● Location (in person): Faculty House of Columbia University, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027
● Zoom link (for online attendees): https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/j/3842139667
● RSVP: Email Sara Pan-Algarra ([email protected]) or respond directly to this email confirming if you are attending in-person or online, and if you are coming for dinner.

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND EDUCATION IN COLOMBIA:
THE PERSPECTIVES OF YOUTH

Abstract: Despite the globally promoted idea of transitional justice (TJ) as a solution to past conflict (Teitel 2003), little is known about how TJ processes are incorporated within the education sector and how the material they generate is used for broader pedagogical purposes. Only in recent years have scholars begun to examine the crucial function that education systems can play in the aftermath of a violent conflict to address broader structural inequalities and discrimination linked to underlying causes of a country’s conflict (see Bellino, Paulson, and Worden 2017; Cole 2007; Davies 2017; Ramirez-Barat and Duthie 2016; Russell et. al. 2024).

We draw on the case of Colombia, which signed a peace agreement in 2016 after more than five decades of armed conflict and massive internal displacement, to analyze how TJ processes are incorporated within the education system. To understand how schools, students, and teachers are navigating lessons about justice, peace, and violence in Colombia, this study focuses on youth voices—capturing their experiences and opinions across Bogotá/Cundinamarca, Antioquia, and Norte de Santander. We analyze qualitative and quantitative data collected in 12 secondary schools during the 2022 academic year. Our research explores the following questions: To what extent have notions of TJ been implemented in educational institutions across urban and rural areas in diverse regions of Colombia? How do students and teachers understand and engage with concepts related to TJ and peacebuilding?

We argue that the relationship between education and TJ is complex and multifaceted, where students not only learn about TJ content but also where education and schools promote TJ ideals. Understanding how students and teachers engage with TJ concepts in the classroom has important implications for promoting long-term sustainable peace and social cohesion in post-conflict contexts.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Garnett Russell
Garnett Russell ([email protected]) is an Associate Professor of International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Director of the International and Comparative Education Program (ICEd). Her research focuses on areas linked to education and conflict, peacebuilding, transitional justice, human rights, and forced migration. Dr. Russell’s recent publications have appeared in the Comparative Education Review, the American Educational Research Journal, the American Journal of Education, and the Journal on Education in Emergencies. In addition, her book on education and peacebuilding in post-genocide Rwanda, Becoming Rwandan, is published by Rutgers University Press.

Dr. Paula Mantilla-Blanco
Paula Mantilla-Blanco is Charles E. Scheidt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University. Her research focuses on education in crisis, conflict, and post-conflict contexts, and specifically on the role of non-formal spaces of education in memory- and state-building in countries transitioning to peace. She holds a PhD in Comparative and International Education, an MA in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies, and a BS in Mathematics.

Dr. Daniela Romero-Amaya
Daniela Romero-Amaya ([email protected]) is a Lecturer in the International and Comparative Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her scholarly work relates to history and citizenship education in conflict-affected contexts, with emphasis on the interplay between education and transitional justice measures. Her research engages with youth perspectives and decision-making concerning the legacies of systematic violence and their daily navigation of social life. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with a PhD in Social Studies Education, an MA in International and Comparative Education, and a BA in History.

RESPONDENT
Joan Camilo Lopez
Since 2015 I have been doing ethnographic fieldwork in Medellin, Colombia among forcibly displaced communities. Because my work has been developed within communities affected by the Colombian internal conflict, I have become interested in how forcibly displaced people experience violence and how they organize to respond peacefully to that violence. I have followed and documented the lives of youth community leaders in Medellin’s northern comunas, and in that process, I have learned about the aesthetics of grassroots peacebuilding practices and the poetics that accompany such processes. I am associate director of the Youth, Peace, and Society program housed at AC4-Climate School at Columbia University, and lecturer at the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution MS program at Columbia University. Currently, I am conducting my PhD dissertation in the Department of Human Geography at the London School of Economics, LSE.

DINNER DETAILS
Before the event, there will be a dinner held at the Faculty House from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dinner is optional and separate from the talk itself. The full-course dinner costs $30 per guest for non-students and $20 for students. Payment can be made with a credit card, US bank checks, or cash. Checks should be made payable to "Columbia University," and the following should be written on the memo line: “[Latin America] Dinner Payment." It is a full-course dinner buffet with white and red wine, soft drinks, dessert, and coffee/tea.

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. The University Seminars participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or [email protected]. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer if they need assistance accessing campus.

03/22/2024

The Landscape of Violence in Venezuela: A Focus on Policing and Women's Responses

Date: Thursday, April 4, 2024
Location: Faculty House, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027. A Zoom link will be available to those who cannot attend in person (https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/j/97858462423)
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (as usual)
Dinner from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

RSVP: Email me at [email protected] to register indicating if you are joining us in person or via Zoom

Speaker: Maria Veronica Zubillaga Gabaldon
Bio: Verónica Zubillaga is a Venezuelan Sociologist. She holds a Doctorate in Sociology from the Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (2003). She is a Professor at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas and currently, she is a Tinker Visiting Professor at the Institute of Latin American Studies, Columbia University. For the past twenty years, she has devoted herself to studying urban violence in Latin America; youth gang violence in Caracas; gender, public policy, and qualitative methods. In recent years Zubillaga has combined academia with public impact on social and armed violence, advocating for arms control and disarmament public policy in her country. Currently, she is actively promoting discussions about the search for justice vis-a-vis police violence in Venezuela. Her publications include the co-authored books: The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela (the University of Pittsburgh Press, forthcoming) with David Smilde and Rebecca Hanson; and La muerte nuestra de cada día. Violencia armada, y políticas de seguridad ciudadana en Venezuela (2021, Editorial de la Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá) with Manuel Llorens and Francisco Sánchez. In 2016, in Caracas, with her colleagues, she founded the Red de Activismo e Investigación por la Convivencia, REACIN, an association devoted to research on urban violence and activism on human rights and public policy for pacific coexistence.

Respondent: Professor Rebecca Hanson
Bio: Rebecca Hanson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law and the Center for Latin American Studies and director of UF's International Ethnography Lab at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on policing, politics, and violence in Latin America and the epistemology of qualitative methods. She is the co-author of Harassed: Gender, Bodies, and Ethnographic Research (University of California Press 2019) and co-editor of The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela: Revolution, Crime, and Policing (University of Pittsburgh Press 2022). Her current book project looks at how the left-wing political project in Venezuela known as Chavismo altered the security landscape in the country. Her work has been published in Latin American Research Review, Journal of Latin American Politics, Sociological Quarterly, Sociological Forum, and Violence: An International Journal.

DINNER DETAILS

Before the event, we will host a dinner at the Faculty House, Columbia University (64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Dinner is optional and separate from the seminar meeting. The full-course price is $30 per guest for non-students and $20 for students. Now online payments can be made via credit card. These are strongly preferred. The form to pay can be found here:

https://columbiaseminars.securepayments.cardpointe.com/pay. Checks should be made payable to "Columbia University," and the following should be written on the memo line: “[Latin America] Dinner Payment."

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. The University Seminars participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or [email protected]. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer if they need assistance accessing campus.

02/26/2024

Please RSVP for our two upcoming events:

Thursday, March 7, 2024: A seminar meeting about “Technology, Design, and Memory in Chile: The History of Project Cybersyn.” Prof. Eden Medina will be the keynote speaker, and Prof. Hugo Palmarola and Prof. Pedro Ignacio Alonso will be the respondents.
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Dinner from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Friday, March 8, 2024: Book Launch of “How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design” (2023). Edited by Hugo Palmarola, Eden Medina, and Pedro Ignacio Alonso. Lars Müller Publishers.
Time: 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
No dinner, but refreshments will be provided.

Location: Both events will be at the Faculty House, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027. Later on, we will send a map of how to enter the Faculty House given that the main entrance on 64 Morningside Dr is locked.

To RSVP to either or both events: Please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/vNcYJk86RokHZhdw9

Seminar Meeting Abstract: In this talk, Eden Medina, Hugo Palmarola, and Pedro Ignacio Alonso will discuss the recent exhibition they curated, How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design, that opened at the Centro Cultural La Moneda to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the military coup. The exhibition included the first full-scale, functional reconstruction of the cybernetic operations room from Project Cybersyn, an initiative begun by the socialist government of Salvador Allende to improve the management of the Chilean economy through new data, communication, and computational capabilities. This talk will share the history of Project Cybersyn, how interpretations of this history have changed over time, and how the reconstruction of the room has furthered historical understandings of the project and its context. It will also discuss the process of reconstructing the operations room for public display, how the history of Project Cybersyn forms part of a larger story of Chile bringing together design, democracy, and socialism, and how these stories of design are shaping public memory of the Allende period fifty-years after the military coup took place.

Speaker: Professor Eden Medina
Historian of science and technology and associate professor of science, technology, and society at MIT. She is the author of Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile and coeditor of Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Technology and Society in Latin America.

Respondent: Professor Hugo Palmarola
Associate professor in the School of Design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He was curator and editor of Flying Panels: How Concrete Panels Changed the World at ArkDes Stockholm and the Chilean Pavilion Monolith Controversies at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Respondent: Professor Pedro Ignacio Alonso
Associate professor in the School of Architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and head of the PhD Program in Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies. He was curator and editor of Flying Panels: How Concrete Panels Changed the World at ArkDes Stockholm and the Chilean Pavilion Monolith Controversies at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale.

02/11/2024

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2024

Location: Faculty House, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027. A Zoom link will be available to those who cannot attend in person (https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/j/97858462423)
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (as usual)
Dinner from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. that day as well.

Speaker: Professor Barbara Stallings

Abstract: The eruption of China into Latin America is one of the most surprising and important changes of the 21st century. Professor Barbara Stallings was one of the first US experts on Latin America to realize its significance and to study it. Unlike most US experts she has lived and taught in China, Latin America, and the US. She has also researched and written some of the best accounts and analyses of China and Latin America. Her performance as a Speaker is not to be missed.

Bio: Barbara Stallings is a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Before arriving at Brown in 2002, she was Director of the Economic Development Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile, and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2016, she has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University (Beijing). She holds doctorates in Economics (University of Cambridge, UK) and in Political Science (Stanford University, USA). She is a specialist in development economics, with an emphasis on development strategies and international finance. In addition, she works on issues of economic relations between East Asia and Latin America and comparisons between the two regions. Her most recent books are Dependency in the 21st Century? The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations (Cambridge, 2020) and Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017 with Eun Mee Kim).

DINNER DETAILS

Before the event, there will be a dinner held at the Faculty House, Columbia University (64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Dinner is optional and separate from the talk itself. The full-course dinner’s price is $30 per guest for non-students and $20 for students. Now online payments can be made via credit card and these are strongly preferred. The form to pay can be found here:

https://columbiaseminars.securepayments.cardpointe.com/pay. Checks should be made payable to "Columbia University," and the following should be written on the memo line: “[Latin America] Dinner Payment."

01/29/2024

The first event of Spring 2024 will be a conversation with Professor Barbara Stallings about "China and Latin America's Political Economy: Obstacles and Opportunities."

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2024
Location: Faculty House, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027. A Zoom link will be available to those who cannot attend in person (https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/j/97858462423)
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (as usual)
Dinner from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. that day as well.

RSVP: Please respond to this email, or email [email protected] confirming attendance. Specify if you are attending in person or over Zoom and if you are joining us for dinner.

Speaker: Professor Barbara Stallings
Abstract: The eruption of China into Latin America is one of the most surprising and important changes of the 21st century. Professor Barbara Stallings was one of the first US experts on Latin America to realize its significance and to study it. Unlike most US experts she has lived and taught in China, Latin America, and the US. She has also researched and written some of the best accounts and analyses of China and Latin America. Her performance as a Speaker is not to be missed.

Bio: Barbara Stallings is a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Before arriving at Brown in 2002, she was Director of the Economic Development Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile, and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2016, she has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University (Beijing). She holds doctorates in Economics (University of Cambridge, UK) and in Political Science (Stanford University, USA). She is a specialist in development economics, with an emphasis on development strategies and international finance. In addition, she works on issues of economic relations between East Asia and Latin America and comparisons between the two regions. Her most recent books are Dependency in the 21st Century? The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations (Cambridge, 2020) and Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017 with Eun Mee Kim).

DINNER DETAILS
Before the event, there will be a dinner held at the Faculty House, Columbia University (64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Dinner is optional and separate from the talk itself. The full-course dinner’s price is $30 per guest for non-students and $20 for students. Now online payments can be made via credit card and these are strongly preferred. The form to pay can be found here:
https://columbiaseminars.securepayments.cardpointe.com/pay. Checks should be made payable to "Columbia University," and the following should be written on the memo line: “[Latin America] Dinner Payment."

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. The University Seminars participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or [email protected]. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer if they need assistance accessing campus.

11/29/2023

Argentina Turns Hard Right

Since its turn of the century meltdown under neoliberal rule, Argentina (with rare exception) has elected center-left governments with heterodox economic policies. But now, after giving the center-left candidate a plurality in the first round of the recent presidential election, Argentine voters have elected Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian neo-liberal as their next president. Milei has been compared to Donald Trump, who hailed his election. To understand the results of Argentina's three recent elections and their implications for Argentina and the region the University Seminar on Latin America on November 30, 2023, from 7 PM to 9 PM will host two leading experts on Argentine politics Victoria Basualdo (FLACSO) and Jordana Timerman.

It will be a hybrid seminar, with members able to participate in person or via Zoom.

Please register your preference by return email at [email protected].

Meeting Date: Thursday, November 30
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Location: Faculty House, 64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027 and hybrid (over Zoom, using this link: https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/meeting/98712572604)
Speakers

VICTORIA BASUALDO
Latin American Social Sciences Institute (FLACSO)

JORDANA TIMERMAN
A freelance reporter and editor of the Latin America Daily Briefing

Victoria Basualdo holds a BA from the University of Buenos Aires and an MA, MPhil, and PhD in History from Columbia University (New York). She is currently a researcher at the CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technological Research) in Argentina and coordinates the program “Labor Studies, Trade-Union Movement and Industrial Organization” in the area of Economics and Technology of FLACSO Argentina. She is the author of many academic publications about Latin American and Argentine labor history, economic and business history, and also about human rights. Among many other publications, recently she coordinated with Hartmut Berghoff and Marcelo Bucheli, is “Big Business and Dictatorships in Latin America. A Transnational History of Profits and Repression”, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2021.

Jordana Timerman is a Buenos Aires-based reporter, and editor of the Latin America Daily Briefing. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Americas Quarterly, Le Monde Diplomatique, Foreign Policy, and The Nation.

The University Seminar on Latin America (USLA) at Columbia University.png

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DINNER DETAILS
Before the event, there will be a dinner held at the Faculty House, Columbia University (64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Dinner is optional and separate from the talk itself. The full-course dinner costs $30 per guest for non-students and $20 for students. Payment can be made with a credit card, US bank checks, or cash. Checks should be made payable to "Columbia University," and the following should be written on the memo line: “[Latin America] Dinner Payment."

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ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. The University Seminars participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or [email protected]. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer if they need assistance accessing campus.

11/15/2023

Collective rights and Human Rights Education: Lessons from the Indigenous Navigator by Dr. Romina Quezada Morales.

EVENT DETAILS
Meeting Date: Thursday, November 16

Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Location: International Affairs Building at Columbia University, 420 W 118 St, 8th floor, Room 802, New York [only in person]

Reply Request (RSVP): Please RSVP by emailing the seminar rapporteur Sara Pan ([email protected])

Speaker: Dr. Romina Quezada Morales
Discussant: Dr. Felisa Tibbitts

Collective rights and Human Rights Education:
Lessons from the Indigenous Navigator

The collective human rights to which Indigenous peoples are entitled are part and parcel of seminal international law documents that should guide the United Nations’ approach to Indigenous peoples. Yet, the human rights-based approach largely uses the language of individual human rights. How does a collective human rights-based approach look like in international partnerships focusing on Indigenous peoples? What role does human rightseducation play for Indigenous peoples in the spread and fulfillment of their collective human rights? In her doctoral dissertation[1], Romina Quezada studied whether education projects in Bolivia administered by the Indigenous Navigator international partnership enhanced Indigenous participation, notably in the east of the country. The theoretical framework built on political science, education, and development studies. The results touched on the assets of the human rights-based approach for all partners, with human rights education being only mentioned as an added benefit. In this seminar, Quezada incorporates to her analysis human rightseducation definitions and models, notably those put forth by Tibbitts[2], to expand on her conclusions about the Indigenous Navigator’s potential for transformation.

[1]Quezada Morales, R. (2023). Indigenous Peoples’ Participation in Global Education and the Indigenous Navigator in Bolivia.

[2] Tibbitts, F. (2017). Evolution of human rights education models. In Bajaj, M. (Ed.), Human rights education: Theory, research, praxis (pp. 69-95). University of Pennsylvania Press.

Dr. Romina Quezada Morales (speaker)
Romina Quezada Morales, from Mexico, researches the participation of Indigenous peoples in education. Her current lines of work are public diplomacy toward Indigenous peoples, Indigenous peoples in global education, and human rights in Indigenous education. Over the past years, Romina was Rapporteur of the Indigenous Studies Seminar, Teaching Assistant of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights MOOC, and Assistant of the Indigenous peoples’ rights program, all at Columbia University. Romina’s regional focus has been Latin America; she also holds a specialization in North East Asia. Romina has written reports for international NGOs like IWGIA and reviewed Indigenous knowledge papers for publishing houses like Routledge. Romina holds a PhD in International and Comparative Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and currently co-chairs the Indigenous Knowledge and the Academy Special Interest Group at the Comparative and International Education Society.

Dr. Felisa Tibbitts (respondent)
Felisa Tibbitts is dedicated to the role that education can play in advancing human rights. She is UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Higher Education and Chair in Human Rights Education at the Human Rights Centre of Utrecht University (Netherlands). She is also a Visiting Professor at Nelson Mandela University (South Africa).

Her interests include peace, human rights, ESD and global citizenship education; curriculum policy and reform; critical pedagogy; and human rights and higher education transformation. In addition to her widespread scholarship, she has written practical resources on curriculum, program development and evaluation on behalf of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNICEF, UNESCO, OSCE/ODIHR, the Council of Europe and non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and the Open Society Foundation.

Felisa was a full-time lecturer in the International Education Development program at Teachers College/Columbia University (2016-2022), a Fulbright Fellow at Lund University, Sweden (Fall 2014) and a Human Rights Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2011-2013). Felisa is the co-founder and director of Human Rights Education Associates (www.hrea.org).

Before the event, there will be a dinner held at the Faculty House, Columbia University (64 Morningside Dr, New York, NY 10027) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Dinner is optional and separate from the talk itself. The full-course dinner’s price is $30 per guest for non-students and $20 for students. Payment can be made with a credit card, US bank checks, or cash. Checks should be made payable to "Columbia University," and the following should be written on the memo line: “[Indigenous Studies/Latin America] Dinner Payment."

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. The University Seminars participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or [email protected]. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer if they need assistance accessing campus.