Corpses and Capital: Narratives of Gendered Violence in Two Costa Rican Novels

In a region prone to violence and political corruption, Costa Rica has been touted as an ecological paradise, a stable democracy, and an egalitarian society. However, Costa Rican fiction from the late twentieth century contests this idyllic image and presents instead a world of intrigue, violence, and criminality. El año del laberinto (2000) by Tatiana Lobo and Cruz de olvido (1999) by Carlos Cortés are two novels that serve as an excellent introduction to developments in postwar fiction and scholarship from Central America. In my analysis, I first situate the novels in the context of Central American cultural and political developments in recent decades and then consider the linking of narrative, gender, and violence in the novels. My study centers on the authors\u27 use of crime to challenge national myths and to deconstruct narratives that have been instrumental in constructing cherished national identities. Of particular importance is the depiction of gendered bodies and the violence practiced upon them, as well as the politics surrounding bodies and violence in national narratives and in the authors\u27 contemporary stories

Healthy eating & active living in childhood in Latinx households in Spartanburg, SC: a community-engaged qualitative research study on assets and challenges

Spartanburg County organizations have engaged in coalition-driven, data-informed work for over a decade related to healthy eating and active living in the community. Work has been exceptional with regard to data gathering, data sharing, and the piloting of evidence-based interventions. Quantitative data, such as BMI data gathered by the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) countywide through schools, as well as survey results from the Road to Better Health initiative, give some sense of community demographics and needs. However, this large-scale picture reveals little about experiences at the household level and is of limited use in determining ways to move forward for reducing disparities

Teaching “Global Learning” through the Ecotestimonio: Ojos negros by Eduardo Sguiglia in Class

This essay uses Eduardo Sguiglia’s Ojos negros (‘Black Eyes,’ 2010), a border-crossing, transnational ecotestimonial novel, to demonstrate step-by-step how instructors can effectively use ecotestimonial narratives in teaching undergraduate students to achieve global learning outcomes. Ecotestimonial texts prompt readers, and especially those readers removed from problems depicted, to confront the multiple facets of wicked problems of environmental degradation and to become aware of how the representation (or lack of representation) of those problems in different contexts shapes social responses to them. By moving students intentionally from comprehension of narrative and context to a focus on higher order thinking and on the process by which one interacts with a text and with others, instructors of humanities classes can create course units in which students both meet global learning outcomes and reflect upon the process by which they have done so

Epistemic Location and Discussions of Place: Ecocritical Methods for a Pluriversal World

In a special 2014 issue of the Latin American Research Review, scholars Jeffrey W. Rubin (history), David Smilde (human relations), and Benjamin Junge (anthropology) develop the idea of “zones of crisis,” or “spaces of material deprivation, exclusion, violence, and environmental destruction” (8) in which “struggles for rights, recognition, and survival are enacted” (7). Zones of crisis appear frequently in environmental literature, and their representation figures in more general imaginaries of crisis, apocalypse, and dystopia, as well as occasional representations of resilience and resurgence, that recur in contemporary written texts, films, and digital media. How does the scholarly exploration of imaginaries of crisis (which are often portrayed as the product of conflicting worldviews), as well as those of escape and resilience (many of which involve retreats from Western, capitalist worldviews) benefit from methodologies that incorporate an understanding of epistemic location into discussions of “place” and crisis? I advocate for ecocritical methodologies for a pluriversal world, and in particular, ask how the integration into the study of literature and the environment of the work of proponents of decolonizing knowledge, such as Linda Martín Alcoff, Enrique Dussel, and Walter Mignolo, might serve to advance environmentally-oriented scholarship and teaching. Methods for a pluriversal ecocritical practice, I argue, facilitate a sort of “Google-Earth style reasoning that permits us to zoom in and zoom out on issues” (Bennett, et.al. 37) in ways that reveal interconnections among imaginaries, worldviews, geopolitical configurations, and their underlying epistemologies. They orient practitioners toward a consideration of processes, relationships, and interplays of discourse, as well as the exploration of competing, overlapping, and intersecting epistemologies at work in cultural products that circulate in scholarly research, classrooms, and society at large

Bringing innovation theory to practice in a program model for collaborative knowledge building: The Curriculum Fellows Program

We share a transferable program model that applies innovation theory to partnership-centered civic engagement hosted and facilitated by an institution of post-secondary education. To address the issue of college readiness, our model created multiple 3-person, cross-sector teams operating with a shared mission and multiple points of contact over the course of a year to prepare classroom-ready curriculum units for area high schools. Teams were comprised of a high school teacher, a college faculty member, and a college student. The cross-sector team model disrupts traditional hierarchies, promotes creativity, and invites multiple actors to draw upon their resources of knowledge and influence to grow, and help others grow, while achieving common goals. In this essay, we present the theory behind our program model; the context from which our program emerged; and details about our practice, including the structure, implementation, and assessment of the program. We conclude with framing questions that invite readers to explore the transferability of the model to other challenges in which partnerships might advance collaborative engagement in their community or organizational context

Connecting Curriculum to Context: Our Story of Two Liberal Arts College Spanish Programs Engaged in a Changing South

The purpose of this article is to refl ect upon the process by which two professors in Spanish programs at small liberal arts colleges in the southeastern United States developed courses with civic engagement components that enabled our students to engage with the local Hispanic community in meaningful ways. From the outset, we focused on what we saw as an opportunity for connecting the curriculum we taught to our specific regional context, which had been shaped by new immigration patterns that brought large populations of Latin Americans to our region during the 1990s. We also explain how our interactions with local community leaders framed our work in such a way that it grew out of a dialogue about shared interests and goals. In addition to offering details about our specifi c courses, we explain the rationale behind our efforts and elucidate the unexpected impacts that the inclusion of one engagement course had on our respective curricula and other programming at our institutions, such as study abroad

Recommendations for Food Systems Work Based Upon Research and Data Related to Latinx Residents of Spartanburg County

The following recommendations are informed by data gathered in Spartanburg County, analyzed, and published in several reports. Reports are open access; titles and links follow the recommendations in the references section of this document. The recommendations here were remitted to the Spartanburg Food System Coalition on April 16, 2020

Health Equity Module: The Latino Paradox

This project aims to educate participants about health inequities and the Latinx community, particularly first and second generation immigrants. Participants may be students who plan careers in health care or professionals and community experts new to working with Latinx community members. The module equips participants with foundational knowledge; shares resources for continued learning; and invites participants to reflect critically about their own intersectional identities and how different intersectional identities impact health care experiences

Inclusive Place-Making in Spartanburg, SC: Amplifying Latinx Voices through Community-Based Research

In response to a growing local interest in “place-making” work, our team developed and carried out a research project centered on the ideas of inclusive place, community, and health, with a focus on the inclusion of the growing Latinx community in the Spartanburg area. The project is a first step in what we imagine to be a long arc of community-based research and is in response to the desire of community collaborators for better information to inform their decision-making, particularly with regard to inclusion of Latinx residents. The long-term arc of the research will be shaped by ideas from community partners related to inclusivity; thriving and welcoming community spaces; health equity; and food access and is adaptable to a focus on particular areas or demographics within Spartanburg County. The goal of the present phase of research was to generate qualitative data (1) to inform the implementation of upcoming community projects; (2) to be available to community leaders as a complement to existing quantitative data about areas related to the research focus; (3) to inform the scope, design, and methods of other groups interested in doing related research work, including program evaluation or assessment. Our qualitative approach has sought to respect the “Don’t do anything for us without us” imperative for inclusive community work and aims to create a way to include and amplify the voices of those who will be affected by coming community projects, in informing the implementation of those projects