| dc.description | In June of this year, I had the privilege of being able to facilitate a speaking tour for two senior Cuban scholars. Dr. Concepción Nieves Ayús is Dean Institute of Philosophy of Havana, and Dr. Hugo Pons is Vice President Cuban Society of Economists. Working with me on this project, was Dr. Nchamah Miller who I knew as a scholar at York University in Toronto, and is now Visiting Research Professor, Institute of Philosophy, Havana, Cuba. The four of us presented papers on the theme, “Contours of anti-neoliberalism in Latin America and the Caribbean: Case studies from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and ALBA”.
The principal venue for the presentation of this research, was at Congress 2012, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS), which this year took place in Waterloo, Ontario, using both the campuses of Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Waterloo. The response to the panel was quite positive. It was co-sponsored by two scholarly associations – Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID/ACÉDI), and Society for Socialist Studies (SSS-SÉS), had a very good turnout, and sparked a lively discussion.
To take advantage of the visit to Canada by the scholars from Cuba, two other events were organized. An informal, Spanish language event in Toronto, where members of the Hispanic community in the city were able to meet with and discuss with our guests issues relevant to both Cuba and Canada, as well as an additional presentation of the Congress panel at the University of Toronto, organized by Ideas Left Out. Both of these events were also well attended and well received.
One of the challenges with these kinds of cross-border exchanges is, of course, that of language. In both Waterloo and Toronto, we were able to get the assistance of extremely professional translators, who provided English translations for the oral presentation of Dr. Nieves Ayús, and provided a wonderful written translation of her text (Dr. Pons both wrote and delivered his paper in English).
The panel’s focus was on the challenges facing small Caribbean countries in the context of neoliberalism. There were three different aspects to the discussion. Dr. Pons and Dr. Nieves Ayús provided fascinating, in-depth insights into the complex evolution of economics and politics in contemporary Cuba. Dr. Miller provided an outline and analysis of relations between Colombia and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. My paper focused on the impact in the region of the emergence of two new regional organizations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
In the discussions which occurred during these presentations, there was considerable interest in developing some of these papers into articles for publication, contact from a publisher interested in a book project, and discussions about how some of this material could be the basis for the development of online courses. All told, it was an extremely fruitful experience. | en |
