Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

Acknowledgments
This book has been a group effort. It grew out of Interdisciplinary Studies
75: Issues in Latin America, the capstone seminar in Latin American
Studies at Furman University. The course is taught every spring and offered
mostly to graduating seniors as the fi nal project in their Latin American
Studies concentration—Furman’s version of a minor. The book before you
is a variation of the reader we have used in the seminar over the past fi ve
years, beginning in spring 2001 when Erik Ching, one of the coauthors, became
chair of Latin American Studies, which carries with it the responsibility
of teaching IDS75.
The seminar, as well as the Latin American Studies concentration, had
been in existence since the late 1990s because of the efforts of a variety of
visionary faculty who wanted to broaden the curriculum. Our initial acknowledgment,
therefore, is extended to Bill Teska, formerly of Furman’s
Biology Department, David Bost of Modern Languages and Literatures,
Cleve Fraser of Political Science, and the many other faculty who have been
involved in building and maintaining the Latin American Studies concentration
over the years.
Thanks to a grant that Furman University received from the National
Endowment for the Humanities to promote interdisciplinary teaching and
curricular development in the humanities, Ching was able to apply for
and receive the necessary additional funding to invite a colleague from the
Modern Languages and Literatures Department to co-teach the course and
promote its interdisciplinary character. The colleague was Charles Boyer,
whose expertise lay in twentieth-century Mexican narrative. Charles has
since left Furman University to fulfi ll his teaching mission in greener