Hemispheric Dialogues: Interrogating Social Justice in the Americas
Mónica Domínguez Torres, Gladys Ilarregui, Alvina Quintana, Carla Guerron Montero,
The Hemispheric Dialogues Research Cluster is a collaborative, cross-disciplinary research initiative that brought together six Latina scholars from the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education and Public Policy with a common interest in research that interrogates social justice in the Americas. They have created an intellectual and social community to support their individual research projects and to share theories, methods and practical strategies for archival and field research in Latin American and Latin@ topics. They meet regularly in research incubation sessions, reading each other’s work, offering each other feedback through intensive and lively discussions and coming to know each other not only as scholars but also as whole and integrated people.
During the year 2010-2011, the research cluster focused its energies on one collaborative project carried out in two stages: a symposium in the fall, and the preparation of a publication during the spring. Multidisciplinary and hemispheric in scope, the aim of the publication is to build upon emerging studies and publications critically addressing definitions and redefinitions of the fields of Latin American and Latina/o Studies. Individual essays reflect on the theories and methods that have shaped specific disciplines (Anthropology, Art History, Education, English, Spanish Literature, and Women Studies) and their bearings into interrogations of social justice in the Americas. The overall book seeks a bidirectional engagement: it builds from personal experiences to explore larger methodological frameworks, while examining the relevance of theoretical and critical tools in our own research and pedagogical practices.