past events

Past Symposiums and Exhibits 

  • March-May 2016 Ediciones Vigía’s Rare Artist Books Exhibition at the Babbidge Library Organized by Odette Casamayor-Cisneros and UConn’s librarian Marisol Ramos, this exhibition, showed an impressive collection, owned by the University of Connecticut, of rare artistic books published in Matanzas, Cuba, by worldwide renowned Ediciones Vigía.
  • April 2009 Symposium “New Perspectives on Race, Politics and Cultural Agency,” Keynote Speaker: Coco Fusco, Organized by Jacqueline Loss, Odette Casamayor, and Melina Pappademos.
  • February 2007 International Symposium “Cuba-USSR and the Post-Soviet Experience,” organized by Jacqueline Loss and José Manuel Prieto. Many presentations developed into essays published in Caviar with Rum: Cuba-USSR and the Post-Soviet Experience.

Past Cuban Studies Invitees

  • 2016 Juan Carlos Cremata, Award-winning filmmaker, screening of film and discussion (in collaboration with Spanish 3250)
  • 2015 Danae Diéguez, Professor at ISA (Instituto Superior de Arte), Specialist on Gender and Film, “Tensions and (Dis)Tensions between Cuban Film and “Institutionalism”
  • 2015 Lester Tomé, Assistant Professor of Dance, Smith College, “Black-and-White Pas de Deux: Spectacles of Racial Democracy and Interracial Eros in the National Ballet of Cuba.”
  • 2015 Ariana Hernandez-Reguant, Editor-in-chief of Cuba Counterpoints, Anthropologist and Co- Founder of Miami’s Hialeah Contemporary Cultural Project (HICCUP), Participated in Cuba Teach-In at PRLACC.
  • 2014 Víctor Fowler, multi-awarded, well renowned Cuban writer and scholar, Talk at PRLACC.
  • 2013 Yana Elsa Brugal, “Rite and Multidisciplinary Representation: Crossing Languages in Caribbean Culture,” Talk at PRLACC and in Spanish classroom.
  • 2013 Charlie Vázquez, “A Conversation with Writer Charlie Vázquez,” at PRLACC.
  • 2013 Ricardo Bacallao, “A Conversation with Filmmaker Ricardo Bacallao,” in PRLACC and workshop of film in course in Spanish.
  • 2012 Roberto Zurbano (Afro-Cuban scholar, author of the New York Times article “For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun,” Talk at the Dodd Research Center.
  • 2012 Anna Lidia Vega Serova, “Vengo a ofrecer mi corazón,” in PRLACC and workshops Women’s Writing Class and Conversation Class in Spanish.
  • 2011 Maria Caridad Cumaná (Cuban Film Professor). “Cuban Film and the Burden of Revolutionary Representation,” talk at PRLACC.
  • 2011 Pedro Manuel González Reinoso, Performance of “La Rusa Roxana Rojo” and talk “’Bananification’ of a ‘Russian’ Woman in the Caribbean,” and Q and A, in PRLACC.
  • 2011 “Afro-Cuban Arts in Post Soviet Cuba” Roundtable associated with the groundbreaking exhibition “Queloides: Race and Racism in Contemporary Cuban Art,” curated by Alejandro de la Fuente (Harvard University), with Cuban Visual Artists René Peña, Elio Rodríguez, and Marta María Pérez-Bravo.
  • 2011 UConn’s Research Foundation Guest Professorship. Nomination of Cuban Writer Reina María Rodríguez (2013 winner of Cuba’s National Prize of Literature). Application submitted by Professors Jacqueline Loss (LCL), Manisha Desai (Sociology and Women Studies) and Odette Casamayor (LCL). This resulted in a handful of workshops and talks to undergraduate and graduate students at UConn.
  • 2007 José Quiroga (Emory University, author of Cuban Palimpsests and Tropics of Desire: Interventions from Queer Latino America), Keynote Speaker for Cuba-USSR and the Post-Soviet Experience, Eyzaguirre Lecturer.
  • 2007 Héctor Delgado, “Living with the Orishas: A Photographer’s Journey,” introduced by Alan West-Durán, at the Department of Modern and Classical Languages (currently LCL)