The Institute of Caribbean Studies (IEC-Instituto de Estudios Caribeños) at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras announces the next lecture in its Conferencias Caribeñas 4 series. Juan Flores, professor of Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies (Hunter College) and Mayra Santos Febres, writer and professor of Hispanic Studies (UPR-Río Piedras) will host an open dialogue about Dr. Flores’ latest book The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning (Routledge, 2009). The conversation will take place on April 15, 2009, 1:00-3:00pm in Amphitheater 108, Carmen de Alvarado Building at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras.
Dr. Flores’ teaching, research, and publications center on Puerto Rican Studies, social and cultural theory, popular music, theory of Diaspora and transnational communities, and Afro-Latino culture. His many publications include Cortijo’s Wake (2004), From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity (2000), and Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity (1993). He was recently awarded the Casa de las Americas Extraordinary Prize for studies on Latinos in the United States for his book Bugalu y otros guisos: ensayos sobre culturas latinas en Estados Unidos [Bugalu and other Fusions: Essays on Latin Cultures in the United States].
In The Diaspora Strikes Back, Flores examines what happens to the home country when it is being constantly fed by emigrants returning from abroad. He looks at how ‘Nuyoricans’ (Puerto Rican New Yorkers) have transformed the home country, introducing hip hop and modern New York culture to the Caribbean island.
For more information on The Diaspora Strikes Back, see http://www.routledge.com/books/The-Diaspora-Strikes-Back-isbn9780415952606
For information on the conference series, contact Humberto García Muñiz, Director, Instituto de Estudios del Caribe, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, at hgarcia@prw.net
For more information on The Institute of Caribbean Studies, see http://graduados.uprrp.edu/icaribe/
