A Week on the Verge of the World: Migration, Art, and Humanities
Monday to Friday | November 13-17, 2023 | Multiple Locations | Please register for the workshop
Felipe Baeza, "Untitled (so much darkness, so much brownness)," 2016
This series of talks and workshops focused on rethinking, discussing, and finding paths toward empathy in the context of one of the most profound problems of contemporary global society: migration. In particular, the phenomenon of migration from Latin America to the US will be addressed. This week of events is focused on the cultural production from both sides of the US-Mexico border. Two internationally recognized and award-winning Latin American artists and writers will visit BC. Both produce works on migration, using fiction and non-fiction literature and electronic art installations. Their works focus on Central American undocumented immigrants into the US, particularly the experience of migrant children.
This event is sponsored by:
Institute for the Liberal Arts
Romance Languages and Literatures Department
Sociology Department
Center for Human Rights and International Justice
Schedule and RegistrationMonday, November 13, 2023 | Multiple locations| Registration for Workshop Only | |
|---|---|
| 5:00-6:00 PM | Juan Pablo Villalobos´ workshop | Gasson 301 |
| 6:00-8:00 PM | Valeria Luiselli´s talk | Gasson 100 |
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| 5:00-6:00 PM | Juan Pablo Villalobos´ workshop |
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| 5:00-6:00 PM | Juan Pablo Villalobos´ workshop |
| 6:00-8:00 PM | Juan Pablo Villalobos´ talk
|
Thursday, November 16, 2023 | Gasson 303 | Please register to attend | |
| 5:00-6:00 PM | Juan Pablo Villalobos´ workshop
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Friday, November 17, 2023 | Stokes S195 | Open to All | |
| 5:00-7:00 PM | Juan Pablo Villalobos´ workshop showcase
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Speakers
Valeria Luiselli
Mexican author Valeria Luiselli’s literary work includes Faces in the Crowd (Coffee House Press, 2013), Tell Me How It Ends (Coffee House Press, 2017), which have been translated into more than 30 languages. She is the recipient of a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship and the winner of the Dublin Literary Award 2021, Rathbones Folio Prize in the UK, two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, the Carnegie Medal, and the American Book Award. She has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize, and the Booker Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, and McSweeney’s, among other publications. She has received a Bearing Witness Fellowship from the Art for Justice Fund. Luiselli is a Visiting Professor of Ethnicity, Indigeneity, and Migration in the Department of English at Harvard University.
During her campus visit, Luiselli will discuss her book, initially written in English, Lost Children Archive (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019), and other creative works that present contemporary migration.
Juan Pablo Villalobos
The Mexican writer Juan Pablo Villalobos is the author of a dozen books translated into English and a dozen other languages. These titles include Down the Rabbit Hole (And Other Stories, 2011), Quesadillas (And Other Stories, 2013), and published only in Portuguese No Jalisco Style (Realejo/Bateia, 2014), The Invasion of the Spirit People (And Other Stories, 2020). His fourth novel, I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me, won one of the most prestigious awards in the Spanish Language, the Herralde Literary Prize, in 2016. Down the Rabbit Hole was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award in the UK and the Kirkus Prize. He writes for several publications, including Granta, Letras Libres, Gatopardo, and the English Pen, and translates Brazilian literature into Spanish. He is a literature and literary creation professor at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona, where BC has a study abroad program, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Villalobos has agreed to do a week-long residency on campus, delivering a workshop and meetings with students. His talk will discuss his book The Other Side. Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border (Macmillan, 2019). This book seeks to give a central place to the voice of Central American migrant and refugee children and youth who cross the US-Mexico border. Additionally, he will address other forms of migration that form part of the core of his literary work, such as Latin American migration to Europe and the contemporary relevance of Barcelona as a multicultural city.
Campus Map and Parking
Campus Map and Parking:
Parking is available at the nearby Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue Garages.
Boston College is also accessible via public transportation (MBTA B Line - Boston College).
Boston College strongly encourages conference participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccination before attending events on campus.
Boston College strongly encourages conference participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccination before attending events on campus.