2011 – 2012 Grant Recipients
The following is a summary of the upcoming work supported by the grant funds from the Americas in a Globalized World Initiative 2011 – 2012 Call for Proposals.
Title: Climate and Culture in the Americas
Recipient: Mark Carey
Offered: Spring 2012
Project Abstract: The course will focus on climate change and indigenous peoples throughout the Americas over the last several hundred years. There will be a student‐faculty conference on campus in which students in the course will present their research alongside other faculty.
Mark Carey is an assistant professor of History in the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon, where he teaches environmental history and the history of science. His research focuses on climate change, natural disasters, water, health, and mountaineering in Latin America, especially the Peruvian Andes. His book, In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers: Climate Change and Andean Society, was published in 2010 by Oxford University Press, and his article, “The History of Ice: How Glaciers Became an Endangered Species,” won the Leopold-Hidy Prize for the best article in the journal Environmental History in 2007. Ongoing interdisciplinary research in collaboration with human and physical geographers at Ohio State University, University of California – Santa Cruz, and University of Texas – Austin examines water and climate change in the Andes; the three-year project is funded by the National Science Foundation and involves four honors college undergraduate students in the research.
RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS
“Mountaineers and Engineers: The Politics of International Science, Recreation, and Environmental Change in Twentieth-Century Peru,” Hispanic American Historical Review 92, no. 1 (in press).
“Inventing Caribbean Climates: How Science, Medicine, and Tourism Changed Tropical Weather from Deadly to Healthy,” Osiris 26, no. 1 (2011): 129-141.
In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers: Climate Change and Andean Society (Oxford University Press, 2010).
“Latin American Environmental History: Current Trends, Interdisciplinary Insights, and Future Directions,” Environmental History 14, no. 2 (April 2009): 221-252.
“The History of Ice: How Glaciers Became an Endangered Species,” Environmental History 12, no. 3 (July 2007): 497-527.
“Living and Dying With Glaciers: People’s Historical Vulnerability to Avalanches and Outburst Floods in Peru,” Global and Planetary Change, vol. 47, no. 2-4 (July 2005): 122-134.
Title: Latina/o Literature and Environmental Thought
Recipients: Allison Carruth and David Vazquez
Offered: During 2012 – 2013
Project abstract: A two-quarter, team-taught capstone seminar in English that investigates the complex meanings of ecology, environmentalism, place, and agriculture in Latina/o literature. The seminar explores topics such as migration, borderlands, diasporic communities, industrial agriculture and farmworker movements, and environmental racism.
Title: Seminar in Latin American Studies
Recipient: Pedro Garcia-Caro
Offered: Spring 2012
Project abstract: The seminar explores cultural production and a wealth of secondary bibliography from different disciplines dealing with industrial mining activities in five specific sites of the Americas: California, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The comparative methodology will allow students to analyze a rich and diverse cultural history and to think critically about trends, commonalities, and contrasts.
Title: Public Engagement and Immigrant Integration in a New Destination State
Recipient: Gerardo Sandoval
Offered: Winter 2012
Project abstract: The collaborative class will travel through the state of Oregon to expose students to Latino immigration taking place in regions of Oregon that have witnessed significant Latino growth during the last 10 years—Woodburn, Salem, Hillsboro, Hermiston, Medford, and Madras.
Title: Hispanic Literature in the US course and two seminars on Cultural production and cultural identities among trans-border communities within the Americas
Recipients: Analisa Taylor and Juan Epple
Offered: Fall 2012
Project abstract: Redesigning the course Hispanic Literature in the US and creating two new undergraduate/graduate seminars that will focus on cultural production and cultural identities among trans-border communities within the Americas.
Title: Ethnic Studies: Indigeneity in the Americas
Recipient: Brian Klopotek
Offered: Fall 2013
Project Abstract: TBD
Research Centers
Partnering with various research centers at the University of Oregon the Americas Initiative provides support to faculty, students and staff. Please visit the websites of our partners to learn more about the programs and funding opportunities available.
Center on Diversity and Community
Center for Indigenous Cultural Survival (CICS)
Center for Latino and Latin American Studies (CLLAS)
Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality Studies (CRESS)
Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS)
Northwest Indian Language Institute (NILI)