TRANSLATION, MEDIA AND COSMOPOLITICS

part 2 of a colloquium presented by the Amazon Lab

Oraliteragraphic and Mirror Visions in Contemporary Indigenous Literature and Media in Abya Ayala

Monday, April 3, 2023 – 12:00pm-2:00pm

at Smith Warehouse, Bay 5, Amazon Lab

free lunch provided

RSVP at https://cutt.ly/translation

Miguel Rocha Vivas. Associate Professor. Chair Literature Program, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá

Paul M. Worley. Professor, Spanish and World Literatures, Department Chair Department Languages, Literatures & Cultures. App. State.

Both scholars are highly involved with oralitura from Mexico to Peru. They will be releasing the book Sbelel ch’ul K’opetik Ritual de Palabras presenting contemporary indigenous artists/writers and produced via participatory edition with Snichimal Vayuchil collective and mingasdelaimagen.org in Chiapas (in seven indigenous languages). A short video will follow the presentation.

More on the speakers:

Miguel Rocha Vivas is an essayist, intercultural educator, and author of travel literature. He has devoted part of his scholar career to study and foster indigenous literatures and creative work throughout the continent. He received his PhD in Romance Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015. He has lectured in Europe, Canada, the U.S. Korea, China, and South America. Miguel is the author or coauthor of many books, including  Interacciones Multiculturales (essays, 2008), Antes el amanecer (anthology, 2010), El sol babea jugo de piña (anthology, 2010), Flores del diamante (poetry, 2010), Pütchi Biyá Uai, precursores (anthology, 2011) y Pütchi Biyá Uai, puntos aparte (anthology, 2011), Camino a Sí (aphorisms, 2012), Palabras mayores, palabras vivas (literary criticism, 2010/2012). In 2010 he received the National Research Award in Literature, Bogotá; in 2012 was awarded an honorable mention for his collaborative work with indigenous nations from the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas, the Peruvian Congress, the Universidad San Marcos de Lima and the Universidad Austral de Chile. Miguel Rocha Vivas, received in Cuba the prestigious international literature award Premio Literario Casa de las Américas 2016. In the category “Premio de Estudios sobre Culturas Originarias de América.”

Rocha Vivas is co-editor of the Biblioteca Básica de Lieraturas (Oralituras) Indígenas de Colombia, Ministry of Culture 2010. And co-editor (with Miguel Rojas Sotelo) of Mingas de la Imagen: Estudios Indígenas e Interculturales, PUJ Editions 2022.

 Paul M. Worley is an author, translator, and critic of indigenous literature written in the Maya language. Worley is Professor of Spanish at Appalachian State University, where he serves as Chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Co-written with Rita M. Palacios, his most recent book, Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts’íib as Recorded Knowledge (2019), was given an honorable mention for Best Book in the Humanities by LASA’s Mexico Section. He is also the author of Telling and Being Told: Storytelling and Cultural Control in Contemporary Yucatec Maya Literatures (2013; oral performances recorded as part of this book project are available at tsikbalichmaya.org), and a Fulbright Scholar. Together with Melissa D. Birkhofer, he is co-translator of Miguel Rocha Vivas’s Word Mingas (2021), whose Spanish edition won Cuba’s Casa de las Américas Prize in 2016. He has also translated selected works by Indigenous authors such as Hubert Matiúwàa (Mè’phàà), Celerina Sánchez, Manuel Tzoc (K’iche’), and Ruperta Bautista (Tsotsil).

Co-sponsored by Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies