INVESTIGADORES
SZURMUK Monica
libros
Título:
Dictionary of Latin American Cultural Studies
Autor/es:
ROBERT MCKEE IRWIN; MÓNICA SZURMUK
Editorial:
University Press of Florida
Referencias:
Lugar: Gainesville, Florida; Año: 2012 p. 379
ISSN:
9780813037585
Resumen:
The Dictionary of Latin American Cultural Studies is proposed as a fundamental text of reference and consultation for students, researchers and educators in the social sciences and the humanities within the field of Latin American Studies. The project originated in Mexico, with its editors, Mónica Szurmuk of the Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora in Mexico City and Robert McKee Irwin of the University of California in Davis noted a lack in reference material in the field of Latin American Cultural Studies, an interdisciplinary area of research that has become prominent throughout the English speaking academy (and throughout Latin America). The book´s first edition is currently in press in Mexico where it will be published in 2008 by Siglo XXI and el Instituto Mora. Cultural Studies is a field of academic research that has only recently begun to assume an institutional character in Latin America and Latin American studies. Examples of its institutionalization include dedicated graduate programs (both in the Anglophone academy: University of Manchester; and in Latin America: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Universidad Simón Bolívar in Quito), specializations within doctoral programs (University of Pittsburgh, Duke University), dedicated journals (Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture) and book series (University of Minnesota?s ?Cultural Studies of the Americas?; Palgrave Macmillan?s ?New Directions in Latino American Cultures). There are also many more generic programs in Cultural Studies that are not specifically oriented toward Latin American studies, but whose students may often be specialists in Latin America (University of California, Davis; George Mason University), as well as more practically oriented programs geared toward training students in cultural management (indeed in Mexico the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes has trained over 14,000 students in such programs). The field, seen in the most general terms, treats the study of ?culture,? broadly defined, from a flexibly interdisciplinary perspective. Unlike the approaches to the study of culture from the traditional disciplines (cultural anthropology, cultural history, cultural criticism, the sociology of culture, etc.), the rubric of Cultural Studies permits an interrogation both of "high" culture and of popular and mass culture, with an eye toward processes of communication, power relations, transnational contexts, technologies of subjectivity, among many other themes whose exploration lends itself to interdisciplinary dialogue, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. Cultural Studies are also known for their tendency to assume a political posture broadly defined within the legacy of the Latin American left. The contemporary field has historical antecedents in the Marxist cultural criticism of the ?Frankfurt School,? French poststructuralism, the social movements inspired by identity politics of the United States (and elsewhere), and the Latin American tradition of the essay, but its foundation moment was the establishment of the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham in 1964. The concept of Cultural Studies came to the fore in other parts of the World (particularly the United States) by the late 1980s and early 1990s. In recent years, Latin Americanists of diverse disciplines have used the interdisciplinary methodologies of Cultural Studies with ever greater frequency. The central importance that Cultural Studies has assumed among Latin Americanists can be seen quite clearly by looking at the program of the most recent congress of the Latin American Studies Association, where five major tracks of panels explicitly signaled their inspiration in Cultural Studies paradigms by using the word culture in their titles (e.g. Culture, Power and Political Subjectivities; Afro-Latin American and Indigenous Peoples: Resources, Politics and Culture; Mass Media and Popular Culture), while several other tracks also evoked Cultural Studies methodologies (e.g., Feminist Studies, Empire and Dissent). It is imperative that reference texts are made available to students and researchers who are entering into dialogue with the field, particularly if they are doing so (as most are) from traditional disciplines. For professors more experienced in Cultural Studies, a dictionary of fundamental terms for the field will also be most useful, particularly given that this field, whose scope is so broad Among the authors of the definitions included are some of the most illustrious figures of the field, including several veritable pioneers, for example, Jesús Martín Barbero, George Yúdice, Debra Castillo, Román de la Campa, Ileana Rodríguez and Graciela Montaldo, to name just a few. These authors come from some of the most prestigious universities in Latin America, the United States, Canada and Spain, and have backgrounds in a wide variety of more traditional disciplines, including anthropology, education, literary criticism, history, communication, philosophy, etc.