If Pyramids Could Talk: Moche Monumental Art in Ancient Peru
Dr. Margaret Jackson, Associate Professor, UNM
December 2, 2018
If pyramids could talk what might they tell us? Over a span of 800 years or more, the Moche people of Peru’s north coast created dazzling works in precious metals, textiles and ceramics, leaving behind an extensive corpus of vivid pictorial imagery. Focusing on major mural cycles at the Huaca de La Luna/Pyramid of the Moon, and related materials from the Royal Tombs of Sipan and other sites, this talk will address these questions and highlight the speaker’s personal investigations of Moche art.
The Cultural Diversity of Spain
Andrew Connors, Director of the Albuquerque Museum
November 11, 2018
In slides and music Andrew Connors will explore the cultural diversity inherent throughout the history of Spain, the threshold between Europe and North Africa. For millennia Spain has benefited from the arrival of new communities bringing foods, languages, literature, poetry, science, mathematics, music, art traditions, and ideas. This polyglot culture, like that of the United States, is thus hard to identify, but easy to celebrate. From prehistory, through the Celts and Romans, and Jews, and Muslims, into the Christian period, Spanish arts allow us to celebrate cultural openness. Using primarily works of art from the Hispanic Society of America collection on view at the Albuquerque Museum beginning November 10, 2018, Connors will discuss the wealth of knowledge we can gain from new communities willing to contribute their best to a new land.
The Humanitarian Crisis in Africa and Its Global Implications
Dr. Robert Hitchcock
November 2, 2018
The combination of drought, conflict, and governance issues in Africa in the past decade has led to a massive humanitarian crisis in which millions of people have had to leave their homes. A substantial portion of the world’s refugee and internally displaced peoples are in Sub-Saharan Africa. This talk will focus on the causes and consequences of the humanitarian crisis in Africa and will explore some of the innovative strategies that have been employed to cope with the crisis, from promoting local-level conflict resolution mechanisms to promoting programs that expand entrepreneurial, employment, and income generation activities.
Islamic Influence on Spanish Colonial Art
Robin Gavin, Chief Curator, Spanish Colonial Arts Society (retired)
October 14, 2018
Robin Gavin will highlight the enduring influence of Islamic arts and culture on the arts and culture of New Spain and the American Southwest through architecture, ceramics, silverwork, textiles, language and agriculture.
The World Following the Demise of US – Russia Arms Control
Ambassador Linton Brooks
October 2, 2018
For fifty years the nuclear balance between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia has been regulated by a series of bi-lateral treaties and agreements culminating in the current New START Treaty. This era is about to end. How will the end of arms control affect U.S. national security and strategic stability between Russia and the United States? What will we lose and what can be done to mitigate that loss?
Immigrants in the U.S: New Trends and Issues
D’Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center
September 21, 2018
News headlines are filled with stories about young unauthorized, immigrant Dreamers, war-zone refugees, and temporary digital workers from India – but how do they fit into the bigger picture of immigration to the U.S.? D’Vera Cohn will describe immigration’s role in reshaping the U.S. population, paint a portrait of the nation’s immigrants today, and look ahead to their possible future.
Great Museums of the World: The Louvre
Dr. Susanne Anderson-Riedel, Associate Professor, UNM
September 9, 2018
The Louvre – one of the most widely visited museums in the world -holds a dazzling collection of art from the past, while it is a continuously changing and vibrant civic institution. Dr. Susanne Anderson-Riedel will present the cultural and political history of the Louvre Museum by focusing on selected masterpieces from the collections.
New Mexico’s Booming Trade with Mexico: A View from the Border
Jerry Pacheco, International Business Accelerator
August 24, 2018
In this lecture, Mr. Pacheco will review New Mexico’s trade with Mexico and how Mexican trade is supplanting Intel’s role in the state’s exports and how Santa Teresa is poised to become the largest exporting base in New Mexico, surpassing exports from the Albuquerque metro area. Mr. Pacheco will also examine the developments in the Santa Teresa project and how the Trump administration is affecting New Mexico’s trade with Mexico.
Landscape Architecture: Our 21st Century Superhero
Katya Crawford, Associate Professor, UNM
August 12, 2018
In a world facing rapid urbanization, environmental destruction and social unrest, how can design, large and small, create healthy, beautiful, generative spaces for all? This talk reveals the power of landscape architecture to delight and heal, inspire and transform. Examples of local and international projects will transport the attendees into the magical realm of landscape architecture, giving clarity and depth to a largely underrepresented and misunderstood profession.
The Role of the Media in our Interconnected World
Kent Walz, Albuquerque Journal
July 27, 2018 (Fri)
We are subject to more news, and fake news, from more sources than ever before. It’s in the newspaper, on TV, on our computers and on our phones. Traditional news media are more challenged than ever by a flock of well financed information and commentary purveyors on the left and right. And that doesn’t even contemplate the increasingly important role of powerful companies like Apple, Google and Facebook in deciding what you can read or view. All this against the backdrop of open warfare between the president of the United States and much of the news media. We will try to sort out the playing field and make some sense of it.
The Role of Images in Mexican Politics from the Colonial Period to the Present
Ray Hernández-Durán, UNM
July 8, 2018
Images have played and continue to play a central role in not only capturing specific events but in conveying political ideas and facilitating debates in a manner that is accessible to a larger public. In this lecture, we will look at three case studies from Mexico: late colonial (18th century), post- independence (19th century), and revolutionary (early 20th century) to illustrate how images have shaped some of Mexico’s most important historical events up until the present.
Curanderismo: The Revival of Traditional Medicine Using Herbs and Rituals
Cheo Torres, UNM
June 10, 2018
“Curanderismo” is an ancient healing tradition that dates back to the arrival of the Spaniards to the New World in 1519. Curanderos, or faith healers, blended Old World and Native American medicinal plants and belief systems to secure their place in the new world including what is now Texas and the Southwest. In this talk, he will trace the history of curanderismo, from Mayan to Aztec to modern-day healers and discuss the revival of traditional medicine in the Southwest and Mexico.
US: Dealing with International Organized Crime. Italy, Asia, Colombia and Mexico
Mike Gallagher, Investigative Reporter at Albuquerque Journal
June 3, 2018
From the olive groves of Sicily to the jungles of Columbia to the teeming streets of Bangkok, United States diplomats and law enforcement have worked successfully with their counterparts in foreign countries to fight organized crime groups trafficking in large quantities of illegal drugs. Now the United States, including New Mexico, is faced with the largest opioid epidemic in the nation’s history. As it confronts multiple organized crime groups supplying heroin and other illegal drugs from Mexico, will the United States be able to use lessons from the past to fight the increasing threat of Mexican drug cartels?
Russian Leaders: From Gorbachev to Putin
Dr. Marina Oborotova, CFIS-AIA
May 22, 2018
Russia is in the news again and will stay there for as long as we can see. We need to look at the country again trying to understand its political trajectory from 1985 to 2018. Dr. Oborotova will tell the story of Russia’s evolution focusing on three recent Russian leaders – Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin.
The Great Mother Goddess Around the World
Maya Magee Sutton, Ph.D
May 13, 2018
For at least 5,000 years, most cultures around the world worshipped a female deity as the creative power behind all animal and plant fertility. She was known as the Great Mother. Since women, like the land, were seen as the primary source of life, an Earth Mother Goddess was seen as the natural giver of life and fertility. In this presentation, Dr. Sutton will show images and discuss the many representations of the Great Mother Goddess from Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and Europe as well as the Americas.
