Cultura y Comunidad 2024

Cultura y Comunidad 2023

We are excited, once again, to invite you to connect and participate with other K12 local educators, in person, on the campus of James Madison University. Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies hosts this yearly gathering to provide a space for educators from Harrisonburg and Rockingham County to learn, share, and discuss topics that represent our communities of teachers and students. The one day conference aims to:

• welcome local educators to our campus and invite them to explore our facilities and programs for future visits with their students
• provide opportunity for networking between K12 educators, invited speakers, and JMU faculty/students
• expose participants to presentations that complement
  their work as educators
• give educators an opportunity to network within their own community of teachers from Harrisonburg and Rockingham County

Keynote Speaker: Ms. Melody Gonzales, Executive Director of White House Hispanic Initiative

This event is made possible through the generous contributions from the College of Education. We thank them for their commitment to supporting educators and our community.

Cultura y Comunidad 2022

This year, in partnership with the JMU School of Art, Design, and Art History, we are excited to spotlight the vibrant and resilient island of Puerto Rico. Since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, the U.S. territory has continued to suffer from natural disasters, a financial debt crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic. CyC 2022 Conozca Puerto Rico provides us with an opportunity to better understand the island's complicated history, while celebrating the contributions of its rich culture. With 3.2 million people living on the island and 5.8 million stateside, dynamic Puerto Rican communities have long been an integral part of the American story. We invite you to join us as we learn together, share perspectives, and reflect on the beautiful and enduring contributions of the Boricua people!

Keynote Speaker: Marianne Ramírez Aponte, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico

This event is made possible through the generous contributions from the College of Education. We thank them for their commitment to supporting educators and our community.

Cultura y Comunidad 2021

Cultura y Comunidad is coming up next Friday evening, and we're excited to bring together area K-12 educators for this virtual event. In a normal year, we'd have a public keynote followed by a day-long series of events for the educators, but this year we're narrowing our focus to a virtual conversation between Federico Cuatlacuatl and Cristina Casado, who will share their experiences collaborating with Central American immigrants in the making of public murals. 

Keynote Speakers: Federico Cuatlacuatl, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Virginia.

Cristina Casado, Director of Community Engagement at the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge.

Cultura y Comunidad 2019

Finding ways to foster positive discourse continues to be a struggle for our society. As more of us turn to social media to express ourselves, instead of to each other, we find ourselves more isolated than ever from our communities. Furthermore, the political polarization of our society has greatly reduced our ability to find common ground on issues that affect us all. How can our future leaders begin to practice more effective communication and collaboration in order to address these important topics? How is literacy a crucial part of this process? For this answer, we must look to our schools. Educators of all levels understand that literacy is a combination of cultural and communication practices. As global economies, immigration, new technologies, and exponential growth in information are transforming our society, new literacies are already becoming part of the educational landscape in K12 classrooms. This workshop addressed this topic and discussed how it related to working with diverse student communities. 

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Lindy L. Johnson, Assistant Professor of English Education at the College of William and Mary

Cultura y Comunidad 2018

Welcome to Cultura y Comunidad 2018. Finding ways to foster positive discourse continues to be a struggle for our society. As more and more people turn to social media to express themselves, instead of to each other, we find ourselves more isolated than ever from our communities. Furthermore, the political polarization of our society has greatly reduced our ability to find common ground on issues that affect us all. How can our future leaders begin to practice more effective communication and collaboration in order to address these important topics? For this answer, we must look to our schools. Educators of all levels understand the benefit of students being exposed to classmates from different ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds in their classrooms. In fact, in higher education the mission statements of many universities highlight the benefits of embracing diversity; however, the process of becoming that engaged citizen must start earlier in a student’s education. Our K-12 teachers are tasked not only with educating our students, but also with finding ways to help them connect and learn together as they become members of an evolving multicultural society. Inclusive classrooms seek to accomplish these goals: providing a space in which instructors and students work together to create an environment in which everyone feels safe, supported, and encouraged to express his or her views. We invite you to come share, learn, and join the conversation on this important topic.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Amelia Tseng,Teaching Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University and Research Associate, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Cultura y Comunidad 2017

Please join us for the keynote lecture titled, “Dual Language Programs in K12 Classrooms: Embracing Bilingual Education,” presented by Dr. Katherine Barko-Alva, College of William and Mary, on Thursday, April 20, 2017, at 7:00pm in the Health and Behavioral Studies Building, Room G040. A reception will follow in the lobby outside the room featuring Hispanic food.

Dr. Barko-Alva, a former McKnight fellow, holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in the area of ESL/Bilingual Education from the University of Florida. The construct of academic language is at the core of her research interest. As a bilingual researcher and teacher educator, she focuses particularly on how teachers understand academic language within the context of ESL/dual language classrooms.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Katherine Barko-Alva, Clinical Assistant Professor of TESOL/ESL, Program Director, College of William and Mary

Cultura y Comunidad 2016

With Cuba’s independence from Spain in December of 1898, a tide of Colonial nostalgia emerged among many tourism-based and creative industries. Postcard images were often photographed by Cubans but mechanically printed in the United States and sold in Cuban tourist venues to both national and international audiences. These photomechanical postcards characterized the nation and its people by transforming architectural images as well as once semi-anthropological materials documenting gender, race, costume and social class as leisure-based paraphernalia. This adaptation of cultural studies involved rather extreme creative embellishment and enforced stereotypes that remain problematic today.

Keynote Speaker: 

Cultura y Comunidad 2015

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Elzbieta M. Gozdziak, Director of Research at The Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM), Georgetown University

Cultura y Comunidad 2013

This year’s topic is titled Mirando Hacia Mexico/Focus on Mexico. The workshop will be led by experts in Mexican history, culture, literature, and politics: Dr. Jürgen Buchenau, a professor of history at UNC Charlotte; Dr. Allison Fagan, professor of literature at JMU; and Dr. Andrew Chesnut, a professor of religious studies at VCU. Estela Knott and David Berzonsky of Luminaria Cville will discuss using music to develop and support language and communication skills, classroom management and cultural awareness. The workshop will provide presentations on teaching Mexican culture and literature, as well as a background of Mexican history directed towards K-12 classroom teachers. We will also provide teaching resources to accompany these topics. We hope to build upon existing collaborations between the JMU community and K-12 teachers, staff and administrators in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in order to better serve our shared student populations.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Andrew Chesnut, Professor of Religious Studies
Virginia Commonwealth University