Latin American Studies in Motion

Catherine Benamou
Film and Media Studies
UC Irvine

Adriana M. Johnson
Comparative Literature
UC Irvine

This project is an active partnership between the Latin American Studies Center at UCI and the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California for the purpose of developing bilingual, Latin America-themed public programs of relevance to the local community. The programming drew on the research strengths of LASC core and affiliate faculty, and brought guest speakers (mediamakers and academics) to present at both UCI campus and Bowers over AY16-17. The focus for the year was on sustainability and audiovisual cultural heritage, titled “Sustainable Cinema”. Beyond increasing the regional visibility of LASC, the project enriched the Latin America-related offerings at the Bowers, facilitated access to museum programs for the local SoCal Latina/o community, and promoted interactions between UCI faculty and students and Santa Ana residents through community-based pedagogy. It also enabled participating artists and academics to provide career mentoring to local teens through the Teen Arts Council and presentations to high school students.