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Spring 2009 BROWN BAG & Lecture SERIES

 

 

Thursday 2/12      Zach Beier            Eggers 100 (Political Science Conference Room) at Noon

“Within the Walls of Fort Shirley, Dominica, 1760-1850: Some notes from the field"

Historical archaeologies of Caribbean colonial history have focused predominately on the economic, social and cultural aspects of the plantation system, while the military sites integral in the defense and maintenance of the Caribbean "plantocracy" have received far less attention. The goals of the following paper are 1) to describe my dissertation research at Fort Shirley, Dominica, 2) to consider the important role material culture and spatial relationships played in the daily practices of European and African groups occupying this site between the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and 3) to express my growing concern with connecting social and cultural contexts to their often ignored biological and environmental contexts.

 

 

Wednesday, 2/18 3:00 PM  Eggers 341

 

"Urban Space and Urban Governance in Post-conflict Medellín"

Round Table Discussion with Sergio Fajardo, Medillín Colombia

 

Sergio Fajardo is a former math teacher who served as the Mayor of Medellín, Colombia from 2003 to 2007.  Not only is he credited with lowering the crime rate of Medellín - once among the world's most violent cities - but he transformed the city's skyline and public spaces through ambitious architectural and urban planning projects.  Please join us for an informal conversation with him about contemporary political and social issues in Colombia.

 

Sergio Fajardo is on campus as part of a broader symposium on Latin American architecture and planning, sponsored by the SU School of Architecture.  For more information, please see:

http://soa.syr.edu/email/2009/cruz.html

 

Thursday 2/19      Catherine LaVoy       Eggers 341 (Moynihan Institute) at Noon

“Dealing with Freye’s Ghost: Preliminary Research on  Plantation Archaeology in Pernambuco, Brazil."

This past summer, I went to Brazil to begin preliminary research on for my dissertation on slave quarters in sugar plantations in Pernambuco. I left armed with a list of things I thought I needed to do; the closest I could come to a plan. While some things worked out better than I could have imagined, in other respects I was surprised and yet at the same time not surprised by things that happened. In this paper, I will discuss my encounters with the myths and ghosts of great men of Brazil and how, despite my wish to avoid them, they will become a part of my project.

Thursday 2/26      Will Helenbrook     Eggers 100 (Political Science Conference Room) at Noon

"Til death do they part: host-parasite relationships of New World monkeys

and the anthropogenic effects that influence them."

Seventy-five percent of emerging diseases are caused by pathogens found both in humans and animals.  Often the disease vector stems from primate populations, advancing with changes in ecological conditions such as deforestation, human encroachment on wildlife habitat, hunting or climate change.  Several studies have assessed the role that these ecological changes have on infection rate, yet there is still a poor understanding of the intermediate changes associated with emergence.  This research therefore measures specific disease indicators (e.g. parasite prevalence, abundance and genetic composition) associated with environmental disturbance in a Nicaraguan primate species.

  Friday 3/20            Susana del Granado  Eggers 341 (Moynihan Institute) at 2:00PM

“Bolivia’s natural gas: A blessing or a curse?”

In spite of Bolivia’s rich endowment of natural resources, it is still one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Recent discoveries of natural gas have increased Bolivia’s natural gas reserves by 730 percent, making them the second highest national reserves in South America. The wealth generated from these resources could be used towards sustainable development and poverty alleviation programs in Bolivia if we are able to identify the factors that have undermined sustainable development in the past. In Bolivia, differing political positions on how natural gas and its revenues should be used are contributing to tensions, especially between the national and local governments. In this presentation, I will share the information collected during my preliminary fieldwork in June 2008 where I interviewed the main actors of Bolivia’s natural gas extraction sector (central government, local governments, private petroleum companies, private business-institutions and experts) to formalize the different actors’ positions.  The results of these interviews indicated that although interviewees have starkly different ideological positions that hinder dialogue, they have similar interests and concerns. Most interviewees agreed on the importance of natural gas as Bolivia’s strategic resource, the need to supply internal markets, the need to fulfill exporting contracts, and the need to invest in industrialization projects.  These results indicate that interest-based negotiations may be a useful means of identifying common national interests and, ultimately, a long-term strategic resource management plan. I will also discuss future research directions based on this preliminary work.

 

 

 

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