Title: Massacres and Protesting Hateful Capitalism: Lessons to be learned from Mexico's activists



Abstract: Protests sparked by news of the September 26 massacre of rural students in Iguala, Mexico have spread across the country as people demand their return. Even with news of their deaths, the demand for their return, ALIVE, does not change. This demand echoes four decades of protest for the return of the desparecidos, those who were forced to disappear by corrupt governments. Such a declaration indicates the fight of the eternal revolutionary, that is of the one who will stop fighting once the dead can be brought back to life. The revolutionaty potential in this message explains, in part, the government's violent repression of this demand and of the refusal of the US government to acknowledge it. In Mexico, such protests have woven together with those against feminicidio (the killing of women with impunity) and against the juvencidio(the killing of youth with impunity) as part of the Mexican drug war funded by the United States. In this paper, I triangulate the struggles sparked by the Iguala massacre, feminicidio and juvenicidio to show how they seek to generate an international and activist public engaged in related struggles across the Americas, including in northern North America, where socially vulnerable populations battle the forces to disappear them from history and geography. Such struggles require a theoretical and activist openness to the lessons to be learned from Mexico and other struggles across the Americas where a vernacular of protest reveals insightful theorizations of these neoliberal times.

Research workshop on the unfinished Flavian Epics, Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica and Statius' Achilleid presented by students enrolled in CLA 525/625. There will be coffee breaks, lunch and a reception, followed by dinner with our Keynote Speaker.

Ödön von Horváth’s plays, although popular in Germany, are notoriously difficult to translate due to the stylized speech and cultural references von Horváth used in his desire for a realistic portrayal of the bourgeoisie of the Weimar Republic. Under the guidance of the skilled Scottish director and writer Alan McKendrick, students in GER 352 will perform a dramatic reading of their own translation of von Horváth's Kasimir und Karoline. There will also be a Q&A with the students and director after the reading. Reception with refreshments to follow.

Viewer discretion is advised. Both the original text and the translation contain phrasing that is sexual in nature which might make some viewers uncomfortable. 

The event features Dr. Anne Prescott, Director of Five College Center for East Asian Studies, Smith College, and will be the combination of koto performance and commentary of the music she will play.  This event is free and open to the public, and is organized by the UK's Japan Studies program with support from the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures & Cultures and the International Studies Program.





Dr. Anne Prescott has a BM (music education) from Cornell College in Iowa and an MM (clarinet performance) and PhD (ethnomusicology) from Kent State University. She has been studying the koto since she was a sophomore at Cornell College, and she spent eight years living and studying koto and shamisen in Japan, including one year as a research student at Tokyo University of the Arts. While in Japan she performed with Kisokai and Group Aya, and she is a member of the Miyagi Koto Association. Her dissertation focused on the life and works of koto master and composer Miyagi Michio. She is currently the Director of the Five College Center for East Asian Studies located at Smith College in Northampton, MA, and previously worked and taught at the University of Illinois, Indiana University, and Augustana College in Illinois.