Faculty Development

Faculty Development Trip to Chile

May 16-26, 2005

Latino/Latin American Studies organized a faculty development trip to Chile. The Chile trip was intended to 1) strengthen the new study abroad program in Viña del Mar, Chile by familiarizing potential future directors of the program with Chile and by forging links between faculty at CSB/SJU and the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, 2) explore possibilities of establishing May-term (or other non-semester) programs in Chile, 3) promote the study of Latin American issues throughout the CSB/SJU curriculum, and 4) expand faculty participation in the Latino/Latin American Studies Learning Community. Dr. Gladys White and Dr. Gary Prevost led the program, which included11 faculty participants from several departments, including Economics, Political Science, Social Work, English, and Modern and Classical Languages.

The faculty delegation split its time between Santiago, Chile's capital, and Viña del Mar (less than two hours away from Santiago by bus). The program consisted of seminars and site visits. The themes of the program included globalization, free trade, and economic development; faith expressions, especially the trajectory of liberation theology in Chile; gender relations; US-Chile relations; Chilean popular culture, particlary music; and Chilean history from the rise of socialism with Allende, through the Pinochet dictatorship (including the legacy of the disappeared), to the transition to democracy. Participating faculty prepared for the development trip by reading a collection of essays and a general history of Chile before arrival.

Faculty Development Trip to El Paso/Ciudad Juárez

May 16-24, 2004

Latino/Latin American Studies organized a faculty development trip to El Paso/Ciudad Juárez, intended to promote the study of Latino communities, culture, and issues throughout the CSB/SJU curriculum. Dr. Bruce Campbell (Spanish) and Dr. Brian Larkin (History) led the program, which included 11 faculty participants.

The program consisted of daily seminars and site visits led by specialists working with the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. The themes of the program included Mexican immigration to the United States, NAFTA and economic development, the changing demographics of the border region, the transformation of border indigenous communities, Latino public art, Latino faith expressions, Latino gender relations, and Latino history.  Faculty visited a maquiladora (assembly plant in northern Mexico), Latino murals in El Paso, the Casa del Migrante (a shelter and orphanage run by the Diocese of Juárez), and various neighborhoods of rural-to-urban migrants and indigenous communities in Ciudad Juárez.  Faculty members met with agents of the US Border Patrol and activists working with immigrant and women’s advocacy groups.