LAS Alumni News and Notes
Caleb P.S. Finegan (PhD History 1999) is Associate Professor of History at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He recently won a Distinguished Faculty Award for "providing students at IUP with valuable opportunities for service." Dr. Finegan established the Latin American Studies minor at IUP in 2002.
Orlando Fals Borda (PhD Sociology 1955) was the recipient of the 2007 LASA-Oxfam America Martin Diskin Memorial Lectureship. This distinguished award is presented at each LASA International Congress to an individual who combines a commitment to both activism and scholarship. Fals Borda was recognized as being one of the founders of Participatory Action Research (PAR). He also founded the Sociology Faculty at the National University of Colombia. Among his best known works are: The Challenge of Social Change (1985), Conocimiento y Poder Popular: Lecciones con Campesinos de Nicaragua, Colombia y Mexico (1986), and Action with Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action Research (1991). Fals Borda is Professor Emeritus of the Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and has been honored previously by an honorary degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, the Bruno Kresky Human Rights award, the Paul Hoffman United Nations award, and the Malinowski Award of the Society for Applied Anthropology.
Bolivar Fraga (MALAS 1997), after serving as a US Air Force intelligence officer, completed a Masters in Social Work and a MA in Pastoral Studies (2006) in a dual degree program offered by St. Louis University and the Aquinas Institute of Theology. He is now a faith-based community organizer with Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) in St. Louis, MO. MCU works for systemic change in education, health care, economic development, and immigration reform.
Tito Gobbi (MALAS 1994, PhD Interdisciplinary Ecology 2006) works at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) in Argentina on quantification and valorization of ecosystem services in the Chaco Region.
Marixa Lasso (PhD History 2002) is Assistant Professor of Latin American History at Case Western Reserve University. Her book, Myths of Harmony: Race & Republicanism during the Age of Revolution. Panama 1795-1831, was recently published by University of Pittsburgh Press.
Elva Manzanero (BS Marketing & LAS Certificate 2002) earned an MA in Latin American Studies at FIU, writing a thesis on the role of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a factor in the changing demographics of South Florida. She works for a marketing and production company, ICO UGO Productions, which develops marketing campaigns aimed at South Florida’s Hispanic community. She recently married and is expecting her first child.
Maggie McCleland (MALAS 2007) is working as the Volunteer Coordinator at the New Tampa YMCA.
Geraldine Slean (MALAS 2005) started a new job as the program coordinator for Stanford's Center for Latin American Studies.
Francisco Kennedy A. de Souza (MALAS 2006) is pursuing a PhD at Indiana University. He is working with the Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change.
Angela C. Stuesse (BA Anthropology & LAS Certificate 1998) is a Weatherhead Fellow at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM. A doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, she is completing her dissertation on the role of undocumented workers in the chicken processing industry in the US South.