IALUMNII


I NEWS


NOTES



 Stephen Fafulas (BA Spanish & LAS
 Certificate 2005) is currently enrolled in
 the graduate program in Hispanic
 Linguistics at Indiana University,
 Bloomington, and employed as a Spanish
 instructor. He spent 2006 in Buenos Aires,
 Argentina, as a Rotary Ambassadorial
 Scholar.

 Caleb P.S. Finegan (PhD History 1999) is
 Associate Professor of History at Indiana
 University of Pennsylvania. He recently
 won a Distinguished Faculty Award for
 "providing students at IUP with valuable
 opportunities for service." Dr. Finegan
 established the Latin American Studies
 minor at IUP in 2002.

 Bolivar Fraga (MALAS 1997) after serving
 as a US Air Force intelligence officer,
 completed a Masters in Social Work and a
 MA in Pastoral Studies (2006) in a dual
 degree program offered by St. Louis
 University and the Aquinas Institute of
 Theology. He is now a faith-based
 community organizer with Metropolitan
 Congregations United (MCU) in St. Louis,
 MO. MCU works for systemic change in
 education, health care, economic
 development, and immigration reform.

 Jose "Tito" Gobbi (MALAS 1994, PhD
 Interdisciplinary Ecology 2006) works at
 the Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia
 Agropecuaria (INTA) in Argentina on
 quantification and valorization of
 ecosystem services in the Chaco Region.

 Darrin G. Gulla (BA Economics & LAS
 Certificate 1994) received his PhD in
 Economics in 2005 from the University of
 Georgia. He is currently a Lecturer in the
 Department of Economics at the
 University of Kentucky.

 Eugenio Hernandez (BA Spanish & LAS
 Certificate 1978; JD 1983), earned a MA in
 Latin American Studies from Georgetown
 University and after completing a JD
 degree at UF, became a founding partner


of Avila, Rodriguez, Hernindez, Mena &
Ferri in Miami. He specializes in the field
of immigration, nationality and consular
law.

Aleyda V. Kasten (BA Spanish & LAS
Certificate 1979) is a Senior Advisor with
the U.S. Agency for International
Development in Washington, D.C.

Marixa Lasso (PhD History 2002) is
Assistant Professor of Latin American
History at Case Western Reserve
University. Her book, Myths of Harmony:
Race & Republicanism during the Age of
Revolution. Panama 1795-1831, was
recently published by University of
Pittsburgh Press.

Elva Gonzalez Manzanero (BS Marketing
& LAS Certificate 2002) earned an MA in
Latin American Studies at FIU, writing a
thesis on the role of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chivez as a factor in the changing
demographics of South Florida. She works
for a marketing and production company,
ICO UGO Productions, which develops
marketing campaigns aimed at South
Florida's Hispanic community. She
recently married and is expecting her first
child.

Juan Carlos Marino (BA Political Science &
LAS Certificate 1972) is Vice President of
Investments at Merrill Lynch in Coral Gables,
FL, covering Latin America.

Nita Mathis (BA Education & LAS Certificate
1977) is an ESOL Support Teacher for the
Suwanee County Schools in Live Oak,
Florida.

Maggie McCleland (MALAS 2007) is
working as the Volunteer Coordinator at the
New Tampa YMCA.

Geraldine Slean (MALAS 2005) started a
new job as the program coordinator for
Stanford's Center for Latin American
Studies.

Francisco Kennedy A. de Souza (MALAS
2006) is pursuing a PhD at Indiana
University. He is working with the
Anthropological Center for Training and
Research on Global Environmental
Change.


Angela Stuesse (i ,. 11,...i..... & LAS
Certificate 1998) is a Weatherhead Fellow
this year at the School for Advanced
Research in Santa Fe, NM. A doctoral
candidate in the Department of
S,., 11n.....1.._ -. University of Texas at
Austin, she is completing her dissertation
on the role of undocumented workers in
the chicken processing industry in the U.S.
South.





 Orlando Fals Borda (PhD Sociology
 1955) was the recipient of the 2007
 LASA-Oxfam America Martin Diskin
 Memorial Lectureship. This
 distinguished award is presented at
 each LASA International Congress to
 an individual who combines a
 commitment to both activism and
 scholarship. Dr. Fals Borda was
 recognized as being one of the
 founders of Participatory Action
 Research (PAR), an interdisciplinary
 and "collaborative effort between
 community activists and researchers
 to'listen to people's knowledge' and
 engage in a dialectic of action and
 reflection towards transformation." He
 also founded the Sociology Faculty at
 the National University of Colombia.
 Among his best known works are The
 C l(hlll-n' of Social C'i.w,,.' (1985),
 Conocimiento y Poder Popular:
 Lecciones con Campesinos de
 Nicaragua, Colombia y Mexico (1986),
 and Action with Knowledge: Breaking
 the Monopoly with Participatory Action
 Research (1991). He is Professor
 Emeritus of the Instituto de Estudios
 Politicos y Relaciones Internacionales
 of the Universidad Nacional de
 Colombia, and has been honored
 previously by an honorary degree
 from the Universidad Central de
 Venezuela, the Bruno Kresky Human
 Rights award, the Paul Hoffman
 United Nations award, and the
 Malinowski Award of the Society for
 Applied,., il, .. ...1..-


18 THE LATINAMERICANIST