Accolades
CLACX seeks to enrich the academic and public profile through knowledge production and community engagement of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies—to draw on these histories and cultures, and their interconnections, as a way to engage the pressing questions and debates of our time.
Here are a few examples of lauded research by our outstanding affiliated faculty:
The Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice
The Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice, a trans-institutional partnership comprising Vanderbilt University, Fisk University, the Frist Art Museum, and Millions of Conversations, will launch its Spring Program on April 1st, 2021. The EADJ, founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair and Professor of Fine Arts and CLACX affiliated faculty María Magdalena Campos-Pons, is a forum for diverse and inclusive discussion about the role of art in forging a more just and democratic future.
Interregional Archaeology in the Age of Big Data
The study, “Interregional Archaeology in the Age of Big Data: Building Online Collaborative Platforms for Virtual Survey in the Andes,” led by Vanderbilt anthropology professor Steven Wernke, with Parker Van Valkenburgh of Brown University and Akiro Saito of the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan, has brought a fresh perspective to the forced resettlement of more than a million Indigenous Andeans by Spanish colonizers in the 1570s.
DNA Tracing for Formerly Enslaved Africans
In 2011, more than five centuries after those formerly enslaved Africans, known as Maroons, escaped to the interior, Associate Professor of Anthropology Jada Benn Torres used DNA testing to trace their lineage to adults living today in Accompong Town on the western side of the island.
Immigration Practice Clinic
Karla McKanders is helping Vanderbilt Law School students understand firsthand the real-world implications of immigration law and policy. In 2017, she launched the school’s first Immigration Practice Clinic, which accepts eight students in the fall semester and includes the option for a second “advanced” semester. The clinic provides students the opportunity to defend clients against deportation in the Memphis Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the federal courts of appeals.