Event Information: PRSA Conference

As an intern of the Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Institute here at UConn one of my duties is to help spread awareness of events that can further unify and strengthen the Latino community. From October 21-23 the Puerto Rican Studies Association will be holding its biennial conference geared towards the advancement of Puerto Rican studies. 

I'd like to thank Charles R. Venator-Santiago, Assistant Professor within the Department of Political Science for providing the following information regarding the conference.

Cuerpos vigilados y castigados:

Resistance and Empowerment in the Body Rican

Hartford, CT

October 21-23, 2010

      Since our formation the topics discussed at our biennial meetings have always been related to scholarly trends (empirical and conceptual) in the inter-disciplinary field of Puerto Rican Studies, primarily across the social sciences and the humanities, although we also have had participation from the professional schools and the human services. For example and looking at our most recent conferences, the 2010 theme of Cuerpos vigilados y castigados: Resistance and Empowerment in the Body Rican, to be celebrated at Hartford, Connecticut on October 21-23, is going to center on sites of social control, both related to governmental practices and to everyday life within civil society. It will also explore the ways in which Puerto Ricans have pursued and continue to create critical, social, cultural, political and economic opportunities for civic action. In 2008 the main conference topic was “Cartographies of Identities: Puerto Ricans in the XXIst Century,” San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 1-4. This theme used the metaphor of mapping to reflect on the social and physical spaces that produce and frame social behavior, as well as identity categories, lived labels, and cultural performances. In 2006 the Conference focused on “Speaking the Unspoken: Race and Its Intersections in Puerto Rican Experience,” Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, October 5-8. This conference positioned “race” at the center of our collective discussions, including how “race” among--and in relation to--Puerto Ricans has emerged interdependently with gendered and class subordinations and their corollary identities. In 2004 the conference celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, its formation, impact, and legacies. It was held at the Graduate Center, CUNY, NYC, on October 21-24.

     Each conference since the Founding Conference in White Plains, New York (September 18-20, 1992) has had themes that brought together academic faculty, teachers, students, artists, and activists from diverse fields and professions.  For example, at the 1994 conference "Beyond Survival: New Directions in Puerto Rican Studies” held in the Westin Hotel in Waltham, Massachusetts, September 29-October 2, the title was an homage to Frank Bonilla, who was honored at this conference for his lifetime achievements. However, we have also considered additional linkages and issues. In 1996 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, September 26-29, the theme “Transcending Boundaries: Fostering Dialogues Between the Island and Its Diaspora,” examined the connections between research done on and from the Island as compared to research done on and from the Puerto Rican diaspora. The 1998 conference “Affirming Identity, Citizenship and Nationhood: Los Ultimos Cien Años” at Brooklyn College, CUNY, New York City, October 15-18, addressed issues of citizenship, nationhood and identity for Puerto Ricans after a century of being socio-politically tied to the United States. In 2000 the conference at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, October 26-28, brought together multiple conceptual frameworks and perspectives to Puerto Rican studies, comparing social science approaches to those originating in the humanities. The 2002 conference “En La Brega” at the Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago, Ill., October 3-5, considered issues ranging from feminist theories and activism, labor and working-class history, and Puerto Rican community formations in and outside the U.S., to analyses of political parties and social movements in the Island during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, together with questions of science, health, activism, education, popular culture, and literary expression.

For more information please visit: http://www.puertorican-studies.org/