People
Staff
Dara Ellen Goldman, Director CLACS
- Room: 201A, ISB
- Phone: (217) 333-3182
- E-mail:degoldma@illinois.edu
Dara E. Goldman is an Associate Professor of Spanish, specializing in contemporary Caribbean and Latin American literatures and cultures, gender studies and cultural studies. She is the author of Out of Bounds: Islands and the Demarcation of Identity in the Hispanic Caribbean (Bucknell Univ. Press, 2008) and is currently completing a manuscript on Latina lesbian narratives. She has also published numerous articles on how Caribbean identities are represented in contemporary literature and film. Professor Goldman has served as director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and also holds appointments as Affiliate Faculty in several camps units, including the Center for Global Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, the Program in Jewish Culture and Society, Latina/Latino Studies and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretative Theory.
Angelina Cotler, Associate Director CLACS
- Room: 206, ISB
- Phone: (217) 333-8419
- E-mail: cotler@illinois.edu
Angelina Cotler, Associate Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies has a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Illinois. Her research interests cover women’s movements, microfinance programs, and the role of NGOs. Currently serves in the executive committee of the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) and the executive committee of the Peru Section in the Latin American Studies Association (LASA).
Mary Paula Arends-Kuenning, Director Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies
- Room: 300, ISB
- Phone: (217) 333-2724
- E-mail:marends@illinois.edu
Mary Arends-Kuenning is Interim Director of the Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois. She is an economic demographer who focuses on household decisions. Her research areas include children's schooling and child labor, household consumption, and international migration. She began doing research on Brazil in 1992 as part of her dissertation at the University of Michigan. Her work on Brazil has been published in World Development, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, and as book chapters. This work is often cited in World Bank and United Nations publications and by researchers.
Brigitte Cairus, Program Coordinator Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies
- Room: 207, ISB
- Phone: (217) 300-2518
- E-mail: bcairus@illinois.edu
Brigitte Grossmann Cairus is a Brazilian-Canadian PhD candidate at York University focusing on Modern Latin American Cultural History. Her dissertation focuses on modern Brazilian Gypsy/Romanie culture, identity, material culture, migration, politics and religiosity between 1936 and 2007. She earned her M.A. in History at York University (Toronto, Canada) and her B.A. in Fine Arts at the State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. In Brazil Brigitte was the co-owner, designer and production manager of Ariadne Tapetes Artesanais, a carpet factory in Minas Gerais, Brazil (1996-2002). In Canada Brigitte was the coordinator of CERLAC’s Brazilian Studies Seminar at York University (2008-09), the Vice President of the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce - BCCC in Toronto (2009-10), Associate Course Director to the 2011 Summer Course on Refugee Issues at the Centre for Refugees Studies and a executive member at the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean - CERLAC - York University.
Sixto Clodoaldo Soto, Quechua Instructor
- Room: 205, ISB
- Phone: (217) 244-4709
- E-mail: s-soto3@illinois.edu
Sixto Clodoaldo Soto, from Huanta-Ayacucho, Perú is the Quechua instructor since 1990 at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He is a native speaker of Quechua an Spanish and has published a dictionaries and a grammar book on Ayacucho Quechua; his pedagogical grammar Quechua Manual de Enseñanza is widely know and translated to German as Rimaykullayki. He has recently written also a Functional Quechua Dictionary and is available at the CLACS website. Professor Soto teaches normal classroom Quechua classes at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and also offers an online Quechua course. He is the editor of Correo de Lingüística Andina.
Alejandra S-Seufferheld, Outreach and FLAS Coordinator
- Room: 202, ISB
- Phone: (217) 244-2790
- E-mail: amsseu@illinois.edu
Alejandra S-Seufferheld, Outreach Coordinator of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, coordinates CLACS outreach programs and events for the educational community (K-12 schools, colleges, libraries), civic organizations and the general public. She also coordinates the CLACS's Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships program. Alejandra is native from Argentina where she received a professional degree in Architecture. In addition, she obtained a Master in Architecture from the University of Illinois, her Master's research and design thesis was focused on Migrant Farmworker Housing.
Gloria Ribble, Office Manager
- Room: 201, ISB
- Phone: (217) 333-3182
- E-mail: ribble@illinois.edu
Luis Eduardo Herrera, LAST 170 Instructor
- E-mail: leherrer@illinois.edu
Eduardo Herrera is currently a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently working on a dissertation entitled Composing Peripheries: Music Making, Philanthropy, and Foreign Policy in Argentina (1962-1971). Eduardo earned his B.A. in music history at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, and a M.M. in music theory at the University of Illinois. His researched has focused in Argentina and Uruguay. He is interested in interactions between music and politics, Latin American music in the late 20th century, popular music in Brazil and the way philanthropy and development funds affect artistic and intellectual creation. You can see Eduardo during the weekends playing with the local Cuban music band Sandunga, and the Brazilian band Bate Calado.