Bowling Green State University will host the 27th annual Latino/a/x Issue Conference, with the theme of “We Are Multitudes” on Wednesday from 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union.
The goal of the multilingual conference is to support student research, to increase the visibility of Latino/a/x cultures, politics and interventions in BGSU and the region, and to provide a venue for the recognition of the accomplishments of the Latino/a/x communities.
The School of Cultural and Critical Studies serves as the organizational hub for the conference, and the event is organized collaboratively by students, faculty, and staff from the Latin American and Latino/a/x Studies Cluster, the Department of Ethnic Studies, La Union de Estudiantes Latinos (Latino Student Union), the Office of Multicultural Affairs and other members of the LIC Organizing Committee.
The daylong event will include an opening session, morning and afternoon panel discussions, an afternoon keynote speech, awards and scholarship presentations, as well as trivia and a mixer event.
The opening session takes place at 9 a.m. at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union theater, with a Land Acknowledgement and Welcome by Amanda Anastasia Paniagua of the Latino/a/x Issues Conference organizing committee and Ana Brown, deputy chief Diversity and Belonging officer with the BGSU Division of Diversity and Belonging, respectively. The opening session of the conference also will award the Manny Vadillo Scholarship and opening remarks will be given by Professor Luis Moreno and Grace Katherine Ranft-Garcia of the Latino/a/x Issues Conference organizing committee.
Morning and afternoon panel discussions will address a variety of topics, with sessions titled At the Margins of Law, Policy, Activism and Politics; Confronting Violence: Rape, Environmental Injustice, Forced Migration; Community Perspectives: Diverse Latino/a/x Communities in Northwest Ohio; Art as Intervention in the Americas; Latino/a/x Racialization(s); and the Connections between the Multitudes.
The conference’s keynote luncheon event, from 11:30 a.m.-1:20 p.m., features remarks by BGSU President Rodney Rogers and members of the Latino/a/x Issues Conference Committee, the Latino/a/x Issues Conference Awards, and the keynote speech by filmmaker, artist and author, Michèle Stephenson. Stephenson’s latest project, the documentary “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” which she co-directed with Joe Brewster, won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Her feature documentary, “American Promise,” was nominated for three Emmys and won the Jury Prize at Sundance.
We Are Multitudes
This year’s theme addresses how representations of Latino/a/x populations in popular culture and scholarly literature have often focused on the largest national origins groups, reproduced narrow stereotypes, and implied that all Latino/a/xs share particular traits such as skin color and language. The conference seeks to expand beyond these limited representations by showcasing that Latino/a/x populations are not homogenous, they are multitudes.
