2^nd Biennial Conference

Nov. 5-6, 2010

J. Wayne Reitz Student Union

Gainesville, FL

Welcome

The University of Florida (UF) will host the Conference on Amazonian and Andean Studies on November 5 & 6, 2010. The purpose of the conference is to bring together scholars throughout the U.S. and abroad who work on Amazonian and Andean studies.

In 2008 the inaugural Southeast Conference on Amazonian and Andean studies was hosted by the Program for Caribbean and Latin American Studies, together with the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, the Department of Anthropology, and the Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature, Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, FL. The 2008 conference featured keynote speakers Dr. Regina Harrison (University of Maryland, College Park) and Dr. Norman Whitten (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign). In addition, FAU also hosted the traveling art exhibition “Of Rage and Redemption: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamín.” Participants’ enthusiasm for founding a national association led to the re-naming of the organization as the Society for Amazonian and Andean Studies and the decision to hold a biennial conference.

The 2010 conference will be held on the UF campus at the J. Wayne Reitz Union with overnight accommodations at the Holiday Inn University (located at the northeast corner of the University of Florida campus), and will feature two keynote speakers: distinguished professor of anthropology at UF Dr. Michael Moseley, and professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland Dr. Janet Chernela. Dr. Moseley is a renowned expert in Andean prehistory, and Dr. Chernela is a leading scholar of cultural anthropology specializing in the Brazilian Amazon.

The conference events have been planned in tandem with the Harn Museum of Art, which is featuring a Dr. Madelyn M. Lockhardt Faculty Focus Exhibition curated by conference organizer Maya Stanfield-Mazzi, entitled “The Versatile Vessel: Ceramics of Ancient Peru.” Two acclaimed Peruvian artists will also attend and display their work at the conference: Nicario Jiménez, who creates multi-figural tableaux in portable boxes known as retablos, and Flora Zarate, who creates cloth relief sculptures known as arpilleras.

Two films will be screened. Soy Andina, from director/producer Mitch Teplitsky, documents the journeys of two women who return to Peru to rediscover their cultural roots. Mi chacra by Jason Burlage presents the life story of a subsistence farmer from a village near Cusco, Peru and illustrates the intersection of his life with the tourism industry. There will also be a poetry reading by Fredy Amílcar Roncalla. Originally from the southern Peruvian region of Apurímac, Mr. Roncalla is a poet as well as a cultural and literary critic. His poetic production is trilingual with verses drawing from Quechua, Spanish, and English language universes. The reading will be held in memory of anthropologist Dr. Elayne Zorn.

The conference will feature presentations in English and Spanish on topics from a variety of disciplines, including archaeology, art history, cultural anthropology, economics, cultural studies, environmental studies, linguistics, history, literature, visual and media studies, and political science.

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