Michigan State University’s Programs in Chiapas

Michigan State University has continuous contact with several collaborators and their institutions in Chiapas:  ECOSUR, CIESAS, INIFAP and UNACH. This field course, a collaboration with Cornell University, is an annual event (previously operated in Yucatán, Tabasco and Veracruz), and has involved students from Mexican universities.  Supported by the following web-based learning materials, field activities range from one side of Chiapas to the other in an array of ecologies, cultures and socioeconomic settings, from Tapachula to the mountains (Tuxtla Gutierrez, San Cristobal and surrounds) and to the selva (Palenque, Lacandona).

 

Experience Latin America I: Bridging Worlds--Rural and Urban Realities

Experience Latin America: Through Another Lens

contain substantial materials, including videographic productions about Chiapas and issues that are pertinent to southern Mexico.  

 

Experience Latin America II: Chiapas Edition

contains the travel itinerary for Michigan State University’s field course, Dec 27 - Jan 10

 

Other joint study, rapid appraisal and research activities are on the planning board with these and other institutions in Chiapas and other southernmost states. For example, a follow-up international symposium April 21-22 at Michigan State, Regional Inequality in Times of Globalization, complements the recent field work and Mexico's 2010 centennial/bicentennial celebrations.  Keynote speaker Alejandro Villanueva, W. K. Kellogg Foundation Regional Director for Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, will address "The Opportunity Gap:  Comprehensive Development Platforms in Latin America."  An international session, "Rural Realities:  What We Do, What We Need", provides voice to program leaders from several institutions targeting marginalized communities and families in southernmost Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones Regionales "Dr. Hideyo Noguchi" of the Autonomous University of Yucatán, el Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia en Yucatán (DIF-Yucatán), CIESAS-Sureste, and ECOSUR-San Cristóbal.  Another featured symposium presentation, focusing on immigration discourse, Children Between Two Nations, will be presented by Prof. Debra Castillo of Cornell University.

 

Click here to download the “Call for Papers”

(Regional Inequality in Times of Globalization Symposium)

 

Further Information and to Download the Program’s Flyer, please visit: http://isp.msu.edu/clacs/ExperienceLatinAmerica.html

 

By Robert W. Blake

Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

300 International Center, Michigan State University. East Lansing, MI 48824.

Tel in the US: (517) 353-1690 rwblake@msu.edu