Speaking at Princeton’s 250th anniversary convocation in October 1996, novelist and professor Toni Morrison began with a reference to William Wordsworth’s meditation on “the spirit of the place,” in The Prelude. Morrison thought there were two ways of thinking about Princeton: as a place of collective memory that is part of the nation’s history, and one of private memory.  Read more

Spring on Fire: A Guatemalan Story, a new play by senior Edwin Rosales, in a workshop presentation at Lewis Center for the Arts

Spring on Fire: A Guatemalan Story, a new play by senior Edwin Rosales, in a workshop presentation at Lewis Center for the Arts
New play inspired by a violent moment during the Guatemalan Civil War

What:  A workshop presentation of a new play that follows a Maya family living in the highlands of Guatemala, the soldiers who occupy their village, and the spirits that guide and haunt them all during the most violent moment from the Guatemalan civil war.
Who:  Written by Princeton senior Edwin Rosales and directed by faculty member Suzanne Agins with a cast of Princeton undergraduates, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater
When:  April 28, 29, May 3, 4, and 5 at 8 p.m.  Audience talkbacks follows April 29 and May 3  performances.
Where:  Marie and Edward Matthews ’53 Acting Studio at 185 Nassau St., Princeton
Tickets:  Free and open to the public; tickets can be reserved in advance through University Ticketing by visiting or calling the Frist Campus Center Box Office at 609-258-9220 or online at tickets.princeton.edu
Event Link:  http://arts.princeton.edu/events/spring-fire-guatemalan-story/2017-04-28/

Early on March 28, 2017, the UTM and entire University of Toronto community lost our dear colleague and friend, Professor Ana Maria Bejarano, to cancer. A deeply devoted teacher in the Department of Political Science, Ana Maria touched thousands of students through her courses on comparative politics and Latin America and even broader audiences through her research scholarship on democratization and constitutionalism in the Andes region. Hailing originally from Bogotá, Colombia, she remained deeply committed to collaborating with her research colleagues in the Andean region.

After obtaining her BA in Political Science at the University of Los Andes, Ana Maria completed her MA, MPhil and PhD, at Columbia University. She then returned to her alma mater, teaching in Bogotá for a decade before taking visiting fellowships at the University of Notre Dame (2000-1) and Princeton University (2001-3). She joined the Political Science faculty at UTM in 2003, authoring publications such as Precarious Democracies: Understanding Regime Stability and Change in Colombia and Venezuela (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011). She also co-edited (with S. Mainwaring and E. Pizarro), The Crisis of Democratic Representation in the Andes (Stanford University Press, 2006). She was an active participant in projects designed to analyze and monitor the quality of democracy in the Andes.  Read More

What remains for Rio after the Olympics?

When cities host huge global events, they become the site of big dreams — and big disagreements. Last year’s summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro drew much criticism for large-scale development that displaced residents and exacerbated socioeconomic divides. It also spurred intense debate about what kind of city Rio should be. Those themes are explored in Occupy All Streets: Olympic Urbanism and Contested Futures (Terreform), co-edited by Rio native Bruno Carvalho, a professor in the Spanish and Portuguese department and co-director of the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities. Carvalho spoke to PAW about last year’s Olympics and Rio’s past, present, and future.

In the book, you describe moments in history when different conceptions of Rio took hold. What were they?

We can think in terms of epithets: In the 1930s a Carnival song popularized Rio as the “Marvelous City,” and it became the city anthem in the 1960s. But the epithet had come about in the context of early 20th-century urban reforms that tried to reinvent Brazil in a more modern, elitist, Paris-inspired mold, and it excluded the majority of the city that didn’t conform to this image.

Another epithet, which became very dominant in the 1990s, is this idea of the “Divided City,” characterized by urban violence, political crisis, and a persistent socioeconomic abyss — symbolized by the favelas versus the upscale waterfront residential buildings. A more recent epithet, which City Hall tried to push in the last few years, is Rio as “Olympic City.” Read more

The recipients of Princeton’s top alumni awards underscored solutions for the political and technological challenges of today and the future at the University’s annual Alumni Day on Saturday, Feb. 25. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, president of Peru, spoke of a new age in Latin America, while Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet Inc., was positive about the power of technology to solve societal problems.

Their speeches in Richardson Auditorium kicked off campus activities for about 1,000 alumni and guests on a sunny, spring-like day. Alumni Day 2017 included lectures, workshops, family activities and the presentation of alumni and student awards.

Kuczynski, who earned a Master in Public Affairs in 1961 from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, received the James Madison Medal, the University’s top honor for Graduate School alumni. Schmidt, a member of the Class of 1976, received the Woodrow Wilson Award, the University’s highest honor for undergraduate alumni. Read More

This fall semester, Princeton students in the course “Contemporary Art: The World Picture” examined how large-scale art exhibitions challenge and transform the way we look at the world. A key component of the class was a fall break trip to Brazil to visit the 32nd São Paulo Bienal.

The course was led by Irene Small, assistant professor of art and archaeology, who said a goal was to study “the international mega-exhibition as a model for thinking about globalization — how art seeks to question, bridge and transform cultural divisions.”

The students met fellow scholars at the Universidade de São Paulo, which has a strategic partnership with Princeton. Francesco Perrotta-Bosch, a graduate student at the university’s school of architecture and urbanism, led the class on a tour of modernist buildings, museums and cultural centers. Students from the architecture school led a walking tour they created called an “urban safari” throughout the city. Cristina Freire, professor and curator of the university’s Museum of Contemporary Art, showed the group an exhibition she has been working on for several years, which focuses on Latin American art in the university’s collection.

The course was supported by the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project in the Humanities Council, the Department of Art and Archaeology, the Program in Latin American Studies, and the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities. Programmatic and logistical support was also provided by the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Operations.

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