“Caribbean Religion and Female Esthetic” will take place Thursday, March 10, from 12:30 to 2:30pm in the Conference Centre on the fifth Floor of the 91��ɫ Research Tower, Keele campus.

In particular, Duncan will look at the religious dress in the Spiritual Baptist faith as a site of meaning-making and identity construction. Drawing on ethnographic research, multiple associations of religious dress, including modesty, leadership and African diasporan religious identities are discussed.

“My research suggests that religious clothing is simultaneously material culture, artistic production and narrative in cloth, linking contemporary life experiences in large urban centres, to which Caribbean people have emigrated, and Caribbean past,” says Duncan.

Left: Carol Duncan

She is the author of This Spot of Ground: Spiritual Baptists in Toronto (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008) and co-author of Black Church Studies: An Introduction (Abingdon Press, 2007).

The event is co-sponsored by Founders College, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, the Department of Humanities, Vanier College, African Studies, Culture & Expression and Religious Studies.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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At the undergraduate level, international studies student Margaret Bancerz won for her essay “Counter-Hegemony and ALBA: The Answer to the FTAA”, while at the graduate level, Osgoode Hall Law School PhD candidate (IMBA '08) won for her paper, “The Convention on Biological Diversity, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation of Biodiversity”.

Evaluators called Bancerz’s paper comparing two economic trade pacts in the Americas today “an excellent example of counter-hegemony” with “extensive documentation from a wide variety of sources.” They went on to say, it provides “both an in-depth description (substance, activities and historical narrative) involving the two treaties, drawing on empirical data taken from official sources, as well as a significant critique, based on what seems like a very extensive reading of a wide variety of secondary sources (historical, economic, social and political).”

For Becker’s paper, evaluators said it was “very well argued, very well researched and very thoughtful work on an important issue” and prize-worthy in terms of “quality of writing, level of sophistication of the analysis and coherence.”

The essays were nominated by 91��ɫ faculty members and each was evaluated by a different committee comprised of Fellows from the Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC). Both prize-winning papers are available online as part of CERLAC's Baptista Prize-Winning Essays Series.

The other undergraduate student papers nominated for the 2010 prize were: Jan Anderson's “Searching for Black Canadians: Contestations over Citizenship”; Laura Liberatori's “Handling Venezuela: The Rise and Success of the Hands off Venezuela Campaign"; Nadine Ramharack's “Overcoming Adversity: The Life of Jaffroon Ali, 84 Years and Counting”; and Adrian Reyes' "Corporate Social Responsibility and Due Diligence: The Case for Ex Ante Human Rights Impact Assessments".

Paulo Ravecca was the other graduate-level student nominated for his paper "Political Science and the Politics of Science in Latin America".

The Michael Baptista Essay Prize was established by the friends of Michael Baptista and the Royal Bank of Canada. This $500 prize is awarded annually to both a graduate and an undergraduate student at 91��ɫ in recognition of an outstanding scholarly essay of relevance to the area of Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the humanities, social science, business or legal perspective.

The Michael Baptista Essay Prize & Lecture are named in honour of Michael Baptista in recognition of the areas central to his spirit and success: the importance of his Guyanese/Caribbean roots, his dedication to and outstanding achievement at the Royal Bank of Canada and his continued and unqualified drive and love of learning.

For more information about the essay prize, visit CERLAC’s Michael Baptista Essay Prize & Lecture web page.

Republished with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Published by Duke University Press, Homophobias looks at these questions through critical interrogations and analysis of diverse sites where homophobic discourses are produced, including New 91��ɫ City, Australia, the Caribbean, Greece, India and Indonesia, as well as American Christian churches. The idea is to uncover the complex operational processes of homophobias and their intimate relationships to nationalism, sexism, racism, class and colonialism.

In the book's preface, Murray notes that the term "homophobia" had moved into the global sphere. This got him thinking about the term's meaning and the existence of homophobia. "Homophobia had gone global, and to be accused of being homophobic was to be accused of something more than just not liking homosexuals; furthermore, this accusation now carried potentially serious economic and political repercussions." He hopes the book will be the initial step in answering some of the questions the term homophobia raises.

Left: David Murray

Murray gathered researchers from a diverse range of ethnographic sites "to demonstrate how homophobia is a phenomenon that has no centre or origin, but more importantly, to examine how, or if, a transnational, comparative and ethnographically informed perspective might extend, challenge or change our understandings of homophobia."

In part one – "Displacing Homophobia" – some of the issues the contributors examine include homophobia in New 91��ɫ's gay central, American Christian homophobia and homophobia as racism. In part two – "Transnational Homophobias" – they look at homosexual hate in Jamaica, political homophobia in Indonesia, as well as the Barbadian media. In examining these issues, Homophobias provides innovative analytical insights that expose the complex and intersecting cultural, political and economic forces contributing to the development of new forms of homophobia.

Murray, the director of the Graduate Program in Women’s Studies at 91��ɫ, is the author of .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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“Listening to Paintings: Cultural Mythologies of Gender in the Caribbean”, part of the Caribbean Lecture Series, will take place Thursday, Nov. 11, from 12:30 to 2:30pm in the Conference Centre, 519 91��ɫ Research Tower, Keele campus.

Right: Patricia Mohammed

Mohammed’s research explores the ways Caribbean people’s understanding of class, ethnic and gender identities influences the culturally specific ways in which they produce and live.

Her research interests, which have largely focused on gender and feminist theory, are now amplified through the lens of visuality. She is interested in the reading of the image, whether still or moving, and in understanding what the Caribbean has created as an esthetic as a result of its peculiar New World history.

Mohammed's publications include Imaging the Caribbean: Culture and Visual Translation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Gendered Realities: Essays in Caribbean Feminist Thought (University of the West Indies Press, 2002), Gender Negotiations Among Indians in Trinidad, 1917-1947 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) and Caribbean Women at the Crossroads (University Press of the West Indies, 2000).

The Caribbean Lecture Series is presented by the Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC).

For more information, visit the CERLAC website.

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The deadline for nominations for the 2010 Michael Baptista Essay Prize competition is Aug. 29. Nominations are limited to 91��ɫ students only. Winners receive $500 and essays selected to receive the prize will be considered for publication by the Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC) at 91��ɫ.

The essays may be from a full- or half-course during the 2009-2010 academic year or a summer 2009 course. Major research papers at the graduate level may also be nominated. Submissions should be no longer than 35 pages, including all references, tables, figures and notes. Deadline extensions are available in instances where significant rewriting is required to shorten the work to within that limit.

The papers submitted will be reviewed by two to three faculty readers with research interests in Latin America and the Caribbean. Both the prize winners and the nominating faculty members will be advised of the decision by the end of October 2010.

To make a nomination, request a nomination form by sending an e-mail to cerlac@yorku.ca. The nominated paper and accompanying form should be submitted to CERLAC, 8th Floor, 91��ɫ Research Tower, no later than Aug. 29. Also send an electronic copy of the paper by e-mail to cerlac@yorku.ca.

Only faculty members can nominate a paper. Students cannot be self-nominated. Students who have received outstanding grades on their papers should bring the existence of this prize to the attention of their instructors, so that they might nominate the paper if they so choose.

The prizes are funded by the friends of Michael Baptista and the Royal Bank of Canada, where he was a senior vice-president until his untimely death.

For more information, contact the CERLAC office at 416-736-5237 or e-mail cerlac@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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