Seven up-and-coming scholars from across the country, along with distinguished professor Charlene Villaseñor Black of UCLA, will headline the Young Scholars Symposium at the Institute for Latino Studies next week.
The virtual gathering on March 18th and 19th is part of an annual ILS initiative to bring together advanced graduate students and junior faculty working to complete a dissertation, book, or other form of research related to Latinx people in the United States.
Villaseñor Black, a Professor of Art History and Chicana/o Studies, will give a keynote address entitled “Thinking about Migration through Latinx Art” on Thursday at 4 p.m. via Zoom. The event is open to the public and is available on the ILS YouTube channel.
As part of the symposium, Villaseñor Black and junior faculty from Notre Dame will help participants workshop their research. The two aims of the symposium are to provide emergent scholars with support and to acquaint them with Notre Dame should they be on the job market in the future, says ILS Director Luis Fraga, Professor of Political Science.
“I am pleased to say that both goals have been achieved over the past seven years,” Fraga says. “YSS is yet another way that ILS places ND at the forefront of Latino Studies across the country."
Last year’s symposium was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which first shut down the country a year ago this month. Associate Director Paloma Garcia-Lopez says she is looking forward to seeing the event come to fruition this year given 2020’s challenges.
“Our goal has always been to provide an enriching environment for the work of these very exciting scholars,” says Garcia-Lopez.
In addition to carrying out her professorial duties, Villaseñor Black is Associate Director of UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, editor of the prestigious Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, and founding editor-in-chief of Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, a journal published by the University of California Press. For her research, she focuses on early modern Ibero-American art as well as contemporary Chicanx visual culture.
The seven young scholars presenting research are:
- Guillermo Avilés-Rodriguez, PhD Candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies (University of California, Los Angeles)
- Amanda Figueroa, PhD in American Studies (Harvard University)
- Juan Pablo Mercado, History Department Faculty (Chabot College)
- Tatiana Reinoza, Assistant Professor of Art History (Notre Dame)
- Carlos Rivas, PhD Candidate in Art History (University of California, Los Angeles)
- Alexis Salas, Assistant Professor of Art History (New Mexico State University)
- Rose Salseda, Assistant Professor of Art (Stanford University)