Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences Program Presents

Latin American Popular Culture and Social Justice: Argentine Tango, Art, and Activism, from Istanbul to Buenos Aires

Social media and the internet have changed dramatically the field of global cultural studies in the last decades. This presentation will highlight the global diffusion of Latin American popular culture, specifically Argentine tango, and the connections that it has fostered among international activists and dancers who are using it to bring about campaigns for social justice. The presentation will underscore the efforts of a global network that has used the dance to protest, champion, or publicize creatively various causes, including social justice for LGBTQ communities, the use of urban public space, the growing global surveillance culture, elder abuse, the rights of people with disabilities, the rarely persecuted murders of trans individuals, and religious intolerance. The presentation, direct from Buenos Aires, will underscore the circulation, production, and consumption of global cultural manifestations online (YouTube, Facebook, etc.) that are related to this global subculture, using as a point of departure theories related to participatory culture on the internet.

Presented in conjunction with the Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences course Exploring Human Connections through Argentine Tango.

Melissa A. Fitch (PhD 1995) holds the rank of University Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona. She is a second-generation Mexican-American who was born in Los Angeles and raised in the city of San Francisco. Her research is focused on global popular culture, digital culture, social media, and critical theory, particularly within the regions of Asia and Latin America. She is author of Global Tangos: Travels in the Transnational Imaginary (Bucknell UP, 2015) and Side Dishes: Latin/a American Women, Sex and Cultural Production (Rutgers UP, 2009), and coauthor of Culture and Customs of Argentina (Greenwood Press, 1998). Since 2002 she has been editor in chief of the academic journal Studies in Latin American Popular Culture (University of Texas Press). At UA, in additional to serving as a senior scholar in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Dr. Fitch is a member of the executive board of the Global Studies Program and also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Iranian Studies as well as the Center for Latin American Studies.
 

---

For more information, call 503-901-0031, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Bertelsmann Campus Center, Weis Cinema

Subscribe: Save this Event: Subscribe / .ics File