Latin American Labor History Conference 2007
Labors of Love:
Domestic Work in Latin American Labor History
Duke University
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240
4-5 May 2007
This year's LALHC will center on the theme of reproductive labor, including both paid and unpaid household labor, the caring labors of childrearing and eldercare, and the community labors of maintaining community organizations and networks. As in the labor history of other geographic areas, the Latin Americanist labor history of household labor remains thin. Although some scholars have taken on research projects in this area, the minimal visibility of reproductive labor in official documentation makes conferences particularly important for collaborative efforts and exchange of sources and methods. Sponsors: Duke Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Development, the Arts & Sciences Committee on Faculty Research Women's Studies, and the Department of History. For more information contact Jocelyn Olcott, olcott@duke.edu
Printable Conference Program (pdf)
Conference Schedule/Papers
Papers are password protected. Please contact Katharine French-Fuller (kef12@duke.edu) or Susan Wilson (sawilson@duke.edu) for password.
Friday, 4 May
4:00-4:15 — Introductory Remarks, Jocelyn Olcott, Department of History, Duke University
4:15-5:30 — Keynote: Cindi Katz, Department of Geography, CUNY Graduate Center
5:30-7:30 —Session One:
Paper One: Lorien Olive, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University, “Home-Making as Spatial Practice: A Feminist Re-Scaling of the Globalization Debate”
Paper Two: Elizabeth Quay Hutchison, Department of History, University of New Mexico, “Shifting Solidarities: The Politics of Domestic Service Workers in Chile, 1960-1990”
Commentary: Joan Bak (Department of History, University of Richmond); Tom Klubock (Department of History, SUNY Stony Brook)
Saturday, 5 May
10:30-12:30 —Session Two:
Paper One: Lara Putnam, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh, “Parenthood at the End of Empire: Great Britain and its Caribbean Colonies, 1910-1940”
Paper Two: Rebekah E. Pite, Department of History, University of Michigan, “Argentina’s Leading Domestic Couple: Doña Petrona and Juanita Bordoy, 1952-1969”
Commentary: Peter Winn (Department of History, Tufts University); Matthew J. Smith (Department of Hisoty and Archaeology, University of the West Indies and Mellon Visiting Professor at Duke University)
1:30-3:30 — Session Three:
Paper One: Teresa Vergara Ormeño, Department of History, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, “A Caring Relationship: Indian Children Servants and their Spanish Masters, Lima XVII – XVIII Centuries”
Paper Two: Jane-Marie Collins, Department of History, University of Nottingham, “Intimacy and Inequality: Manumission and Miscegenation in the History of Brazilian Race Relations”
Commentary: David Sartorius (Department of History, Whittier College); Tom Rogers (Department of African and African-American Studies, UNC-Charlotte)
3:45-5:45 — Session Four:
Paper One: Ann S. Blum, Hispanic Studies Department and Program in Latin American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, “Domestic Economies: Family, Labor, and Reciprocal Obligation, Mexico City, 1925-1940”
Paper Two: Sandra Mendiola, Department of History, Rutgers University, “Taking Children to Work: Street Vendors in a Mexican City”
Commentary: Jocelyn Olcott (Department of History, Duke University); Greg Crider (Department of History, Wingate University)
5:45-7: Closing Remarks: Eileen Boris, Women’s Studies Program and Department of History, University of California at Santa Barbara
We gratefully acknowledge support from the Duke University Council on Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Arts and Sciences Committee on Faculty Research, the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Development, the Department of History, and the Program in Women’s Studies.
Thanks also for administrative support from Katharine French-Fuller, Susan Ashley Wilson, Natalie Hartman, Antonio Arce, and Elizabeth Shesko.
For more information, contact Jocelyn Olcott or Katharine French-Fuller.