By KRWG News
Las Cruces – The College of Arts and Sciences Fall 2011 Colloquium Series at New Mexico State University will present an interdisciplinary perspective of the U.S.-Mexico border. The first lecture of the series will be from 4-5:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, in Science Hall, Room 107.
"Southern New Mexicans have always had compelling reasons to be interested in issues of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands region. It has a complicated history, which continues to shape our linguistic, economic and cultural identities," said Monica Torres, associate professor and head of the Department of English at NMSU.
Spencer Herrera, an assistant professor of Spanish at NMSU will deliver the first presentation "La Soledad: A Trip into the Chicano Labyrinth." Herrera teaches Chicano/Chicana literature and film, and is the Chair of the Hispanic Faculty/Staff Caucus for 2011-2012.
He will read from his compilation of essays, photographs and poems, "Sagrado: A Photopoetics across the Chicano Homeland," which details the Chicano identity in the southwestern United States and along the U.S.-Mexico border. He also will share photographs by Robert Kaiser and poems by Levi Romero.
"Sagrado is a book that is overdue and will undoubtedly be well-received for its simple beauty and depth of detail," Herrera said. "These photographs are not detached snapshots of a moment; they are markers of history and our place in it."
Upcoming talks in the colloquium series include "On Cross-Border Bond Markets and Strategic Infrastructure Development: A Different Way to Look at Regulatory Harmonization" (Nov. 7) and "Critical Regionalism and Studies of the Southwest," (Nov. 14).
"The lectures in this series will give us three rather distinct perspectives on that history and its impact on contemporary life," Torres said.
The lectures are free and open to the public. For more information contact Monica Torres at 575-646-2319. A parking permit for off-campus visitors may be obtained at https://corridor.nmsu.edu/auxadmin/ParkingForms/epermit.aspx.
The Fall 2011 Colloquium Series is sponsored by the NMSU Southwest and Border Cultures Institute.