Selected Presentations & Appearances
Dr. Miguel Rojas-Sotelo is an art historian, visual artist and a visiting scholar at Duke Kunshan University. He holds a doctorate degree in visual studies, contemporary art and cultural theory from the University of Pittsburgh. He worked as visual arts director for Colombia’s Ministry of Culture from 1995 to 2001 and then as an independent artist, curator, filmmaker and critic. He teaches at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Duke University and is director of the N.C. Latin American Film and New Media Festival. Dr. Miguel Rojas-Sotelo is an art historian, visual artist and a visiting scholar at Duke Kunshan University. He holds a doctorate degree in visual studies, contemporary art and cultural theory from the University of Pittsburgh. He worked as visual arts director for Colombia’s Ministry of Culture from 1995 to 2001 and then as an independent artist, curator, filmmaker and critic. He teaches at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Duke University and is director of the N.C. Latin American Film and New Media Festival. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
United States of America
The central goal of this project is to expand the bridges we have begun building between Duke and the Durham Latino communities and simultaneously make them into bi-directional ones. In other words, we will seek to offer means for the Latino community to have greater access to the university and to have Duke students engage the community both in the community and at Duke. Duke can be changed by these relationships, as will the community that surrounds us; thus the metaphor of the two-way bridge.
We have built a partnership between our collaborating faculty and staff – representing the Center for Documentary Studies, the Spanish Language Program, The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, The Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South, and DukeEngage on the Border/Encuentros de la Frontera – and local organizations representing the Latino community. We will continue to forge a partnership with key collaborators, Latino artists who already reside in Durham and beyond.
Service to the Profession
EILA is the largest network of South American scholars and creators (writers, poets, visual artists) working on indigenous literature and culture. It meets every two years. The network started in 2010 in Chile and has held meetings in Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Colombia.
Mingas de la imagen y la palabra is a series of professional development workshops design to support the training of indigenous youth in higher education in Bogotá, Colombia. As first generation students, coming from rural/reservations indigenous youth are vulnerable not only to the academic spaces in urban centers but also proceses of adaptation. Mingas, offer twice a year spaces for profesional development, but also a network of support to help overcoming dropping off from universities and programs.
WORKING GROUP: NARRATING THE ENVIRONMENT
Convened by Miguel Rojas-Sotelo (Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies) and Dalia Patino-Echeverri (Nicholas School of the Environment).
he Consortium Conference serves as a venue in which faculty and graduate students offer presentations related to research in progress and developing scholarship. The two-day conference seeks to foster intellectual discussion across diverse disciplinary thresholds and among different fields of knowledge.
Service to Duke
Addressing food security for indigenous families and those subject to forced migration in Colombia. Assisting with programs aimed at promoting food security, sustainable livelihoods, cultural self-reliance, and adaptation for immigrants from Venezuela and rural Colombia living in Bogota, and for indigenous people in Sierra Nevada.
Designed to stimulate an interdisciplinary, inter-generational community of scholars, the University Scholars Program was created in 1998 by the Office of the Vice-Provost of Interdisciplinary Studies with a gift from Duke University Trustee Emerita Melinda French Gates and her husband Bill Gates, through the William H. Gates Foundation.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional school University Scholars are selected for their ability to explore new academic horizons. They represent a range of personal and intellectual backgrounds and share an excitement for original research, collaborative thinking, and innovative scholarship.
Academic & Administrative Activities
Coordinate. Interdisciplinary Consortium Working Groups in Latin American Studies
Established in 1990, the Working Groups program provides an environment in which to foster graduate student mentorship, promote inter-disciplinary collaboration, and encourage the production and dissemination of new knowledge. The Working Group format is usually structured around monthly discussion/study sessions, public talks, and workshops, often with invited guest speakers. Membership in Working Groups consists of UNC-Duke faculty and graduate students representing the social sciences, humanities and the professional schools. Each academic year the Consortium supports a number of Working Groups with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon endowment.
https://jhfc.duke.edu/latinamericauncduke/working-groups/