Institute of Latin American Studies
The Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS), is Australia's first and Victoria's only academic centre dedicated to researching and understanding Latin America. It coordinates Latin American undergraduate/postgraduate teaching and research at La Trobe University. The Director of ILAS is Dr Ralph Newmark.
In addition to its core fortnightly seminars, ILAS organises conferences and sponsors visits by Latin Americanists from the Spanish, Portuguese and English speaking worlds. The Institute also runs short courses in association with the History Program through their Summer and Winter schools.
Members and their Research/Teaching Interests
Director:
- Dr Ralph Newmark (History) (past-President AILASA)
Interests: Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Latin American popular culture, U.S.-Latin American relations, development studies, Jamaica.
Deputy Director:
- Dr Heidi Zogbaum (History)
Interests: Mexico, NAFTA, colonial Latin America, EU-Latin American relations.
ILAS Senior Research Fellows:
- Professor Barry Carr, FASSA, (past-President AILASA)
Interests: History, Mexico, Cuba, labour history, tourism. - Dr Rowan Ireland
Interests: Sociology, Brazil, Religion in Latin America, development studies. - Dr Anthony Disney
Interests: History, colonial Brazil, Portuguese empire. - Dr Lilit Thwaites (past-President AILASA)
Interests: Contemporary Spanish literature, writers of the Post Civil War period; translation, literature and/through film; Hispano-Australian and Latina writers. - Professor John Sinclair (University of Melbourne)
Interests: History/Media Studies, Latin American media.
Archaeology:
- Professor Peter Mathews
Interests: Maya and Mesoamerican archaeology; Maya hieroglyphic writing; the archaeology of complex societies; writing systems.
History:
- Dr Claudia Haake
Interests: Native American history, Mexico, historical justice.
Spanish:
- Dr Isabel Moutinho
Interests: Contemporary Portuguese fiction. Cultural memory and identity. Postcolonial literatures. African fiction from the Portuguese-speaking countries. Latin American (especially Colombian) literature. - Dr Carlos Uxo
Interests: Representation of the black population in contemporary Cuban literature. Detective fiction by Leonardo Padura Fuentes. Narrative fiction by Martin Gaite.
ILAS Research Fellows:
- Mary Aitkin - Interests: History, Literature, Culture, Brazil.
- Guillermo Anad - Interests: Literature, Music, Argentina
- Zuleika Arashiro - Interests: Politics, International Relations, Brazil
- Faye Bendrups - Interests: Drama, Music, Argentina
- Peter Biro - Interests: Archaeology, Mayans, Mexico
- Diana Bourne - Interests: Anthropology, Womens' Health, Colombia
- Helga Geovannini - Interests: Archaeology, Mayans, Mexico
- Les Hazell - Interests: Indigenous voyaging, watercraft, prehistoric engineering Olmec culture archaeology
- Adrian Hearn - Interests: Anthropology, Culture, Music, Cuba
Beryl Langer - Interests: Sociology, Central America. - Anna Lanyon - Interests: Colonial History, Literature, Mexico
- Goetz Ottmann - Interests: Sociology, Brazil.
- Alexander Parmington - Interests: Archaeology, Mayans, Mexico
- Eduardo Pérez de Heredia - Interests: Archaeology, Mayans, Mexico
- Peter Woodruff - Interests: History, Development, Peru
Postgraduate Associates of ILAS
- Victor Albert [Sociology//Brazil]
- Ernesto Arredondo [Archaeology//Guatemala]
- Marci Bach [History//Chile]
- Carl Callaway [Archaeology//Mexico]
- Michelle Carmody [History//Argentina]
- Tristan Epstein, [History//Mexico]
- Annie Ferguson [Spanish//Mexico]
- Anne Jones [History//Chile] (ANU)
- Coral Montero Lopez [Archaeology//Mexico]
- Matthew Noonan [History//Brazil]
- Michaela O'Callaghan [History//Peru] (Swinburne UT)
- Skyla O'Shea [History// Nicaragua]
- Andrew Self[ History//Venezuela]
- Randall Shepard, [History//Mexico]
- Mario Trinidad [History//Guatemala]
- Tyson White [Archaeology//Mexico]
- Sylvia Whitmore [Archaeology//Mexico]
