The Latin American Studies Conscortium of Northern California (LASC-NorCal), comprised of San José State University (SJSU), the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas (HIA) at the University of California, Davis, and the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Stanford University, invites you to the LiterNatura: Environmental Humanities in the Americas Conference.

This one-day conference at San José State University will bringing together writers, scholars, activists and artists from across the Americas to share how the environmental humanities are being employed in their regions to express new realities and propose new visions for our future. Additionally, SJSU students and local high school students will share creative projects related to local and hemispheric environmental concerns. 

Sponsored by the US Department of Education Title VI and The Artistic Excellence in Programing Grant from SJSU. 

9:15am-9:30am: Inauguration (Cheyla Samuelson, Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, Juan Diego Díaz, Damian Bacich: Chair of World Languages and Literatures, Shannon Miller: Dean of The College of Humanities and Arts

9:30am-10:35am: LiterNatura: Mexican Ecologies and a New Literary Genre 

• Moderator: Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University
• Presenters: Andrés Cota Hiriart, Zoologist, Author, Public Science Educator; “Axolotl, el anfibio mássobresaliente del mundo: ciencia, leyenda y literatura de los monstruos hermosos”.
• Emily Celeste Vasquez, Assistant Professor of Spanish, UC Davis; “Border Biomes and MultispeciesMigration in La nostalgia no se marcha como el agua de los ríos / Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ by Irma Pineda”.

10:40am-11:45am: Environmental Humanities, Hemispheric Visions

• Moderator: Juan Diego Diaz, Director, Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, UC Davis
• Presenters: Santiago Acosta, Author and Assistant Professor, Yale University; “The Climate of Poetry: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Environmental Humanities”
• Carlos Torres-Astocóndor and Leigh Marlene Houck, Ph.D. Students, UC Davis; “Las humanidadesmedioambientales: la relación entre lo humano y lo no humano en la producción cultural hispanoamericana”.

11:50am-12:55pm Environmental Activism: Global Realities and Local Organizers.

• Moderator: Cheyla Samuelson, Associate Professor, World Languages and Literatures, SJSU
• Presenters: Yanely Martinez, Safe Ag Safe Schools; "Justicia ambiental y la juventud en acción en elValle de Salinas.”
• Kike Arnal, Photographer; “AMAZONAS: Landscapes and People”

Lunch Break: 1:00pm - 2:00pm

2:00pm - 4:30pm | MLK Library Conference Space | Room 225

• Introduction by Dr. Cheyla Samuelson, Associate Professor, Department of World Languages and Literatures, SJSU
• Welcome by Shannon Miller: Dean of The College of Humanities and Arts Sustainable Futures/Futuros Sostenibles: Presentation of environmental humanities projects: poetry, short stories, essays, and photography by SJSU Students
• Yo y mi medio ambiente /Me and My Environment: Creative writing prize for high school students

3:30pm - 4:30pm: Conversation and reading with Andrés Cota Hiriart.

Sponsored by Latin American Studies Consortium of Northern California (LASC-NorCal) Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University; Department of World Languages and Literatures, San José State University; and The Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, University of California, Davis, and UC Mexicanistas.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education under the auspices of Title VI, Section 602(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and The College of Humanities and Arts Artistic Excellence in Programing Grant, SJSU.