Research
The Library collection at UBC's Okanagan campus has over the past few years begun a significant collection of primary materials that relate to Latin America. In partnership with the libraries system at UBC Vancouver, students and researchers on this campus have excellent access to one of the best collections of materials on Latin America in Canada.
Link to the local library collections can be found here: http://guides.library.ubc.ca/latin_american_studies
In addition, UBC Okanagan has set aside tremendous support for research, with internal grants and long-standing partnerships with external granting agencies, such as the Tri-Council SSHRC program. Information for research and travel support can be found here: Irving K. Barber Research Site
Faculty in LAIS also have on-going research projects that include undergraduate and graduate students, staff, and faculty from other institutions. Here are a sampling of such research projects:
Tirso Gonzales: This project combines Indigenous Studies with global activism in international world forums, another that examines Indigenous Andean agri-cultures, climate change and the conservation of native Andean seed.
Jessica Stites-Mor: I have an internal grant to study transnational solidarity movements in Cold War Latin America, with a focus on Argentina.
Ricardo Trumper: 1. I am exploring the connections between neoliberalism, (auto)mobility, and everyday life in Chile (with Patricia Tomic). 2.I am looking into Mexican temporary workers and the Okanagan Valley (with Patricia Tomic and Luis Aguiar). 3. I am exploring transnational athletes and migration (with Lloyd Wong).
Pati Tomic: I have an internal grant to study the culture around organic wine in Chile: "Modern, Organic and Sustainable: The Reinvention of the Chilean Wine Industry." I am also working on a research project we had with Ricardo and Luis on the Mexican migrant farm workers in the Okanagan. The funding is over, but we are still working on publications.
Rick Garvin: I am currently the Co-Director of the Proyecto Arqueologico Chihuahua. The PAC is a multi-year, SSHRC funded research project using ground penetrating radar and excavations to examine the origins of agriculture and social complexity around the extreme periphery of the World Heritage Site of Paquime, Chihuahua.
Francisco Peña (P.I) and Mercedes Durán-Cogan:
The contribution of Americo Castro (1885-1972) to the study of Spanish and Latin American culture and identity (History, Medieval & Renaissance Literature, Literary Criticism, and Linguistics) is as important as it is controversial. Throughout his work Castro vindicated the legacy of the Semitic culture, both Islamic and Jewish, in Spain, challenging the prevailing notions regarding the Spanish identity a monological construct established in the XVI century, consolidated by the Inquisition, and still operational today. Thus, while Castro is considered one of the world's most distinguished Hispanists, his work continues to be largely ignored or suppressed in Spain. Castro left Spain in 1937, during the Civil War; he taught at the Universities of Wisconsin and Texas, and accepted an appointment at Princeton in 1940. During his academic career in the United States, he established one of the most important schools of thought in the field of Hispanism. The goal of this research project is to interview and videotape first and second generation disciples, collaborators, and colleagues of Americo Castro, today world-renowned scholars in the fields of Spanish and/or Latin American history, literature, and linguistics within the North American Academy.
Last reviewed 
4/9/2013 4:38:55 PM