Profesoors

Anthropology

Paul Friedrich

(PhD, Yale 1957) Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, of Linguistics, and in the Committee on Social Thought, and Associate in Slavics, has done fieldwork in southwestern Mexico, South India, and among Russians. Other research includes the Aphrodite myth in Ancient Greece, and Proto-Indo-European, and American poetry. His current work is divided between anthropology and literary studies (e.g., Homeric Greek, Towstoy, Thoreau) and theoretical problems in ethnography, poetics, semiotics, and politics. ( Retired 6/96 ; still teaching )

History

Dain Borges

Dain Borges works on nineteenth and twentieth-century Latin American culture and ideas. His current research project, Races, Crowds, and Souls in Brazilian Social Thought, 1880-1920, centers on the ways in which Brazilian intellectuals used race sociology and social psychology to understand popular religion and politics. He teaches seminars and courses on Latin American history; comparative nineteenth-century transformations; ideologies of national identity; and culture in the African diaspora.

Tamar Herzog

Trained first as a lawyer and then as a colonial Latin Americanist, Tamar presently also work on early modern Spanish history. Most particularly, she is interested in the relationship between Spain and Spanish American territories, and the ways by which Spanish society changed as a result of its involvement in a colonial project. The changes she is thinking about occurred both in Spain and in Spanish America, and they involved questions of identity and communal formation, regionalism and nationalism, the configuration of territorial entities, communication methods and networks,immigration and problems of race, ethnicity and political representation.

Friedrich Katz

Founder, Mexican Studies Center
Friedrich Katz's research and teaching focus on 19th and 20th century history of Mexico and Latin America, diplomatic relations between Latin America, Europe and United States, revolutions in Latin America especially the Mexican Revolution.

Emilio Kourí

Director, Mexican Studies Center

Emilio Kourí's main scholarly interest is in the social and economic history of rural Mexico since Independence. He is the author of A Pueblo Divided: Business, Property, and Community in Papantla, Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2004). It tells the story of the strife-ridden transformation of rural social relations in the Totonac region of Papantla during the course of the nineteenth century, paying particular attention to how the progressive development of a campesino-based international vanilla economy changed and ultimately undermined local forms of communal landholding. He teaches seminars on land reforms, rural social movements, and the history of agrarian thought, as well as courses on Latin American and Latino history, and is Director of the Katz Center for Mexican Studies.

Mae Ngai

Mae Ngai's research and teaching focus on twentieth century U.S. history, with emphasis on immigration and ethnicity (Asian American and comparative), politics and law, and labor. She is especially interested in problems of nationalism, citizenship, and race as they are produced historically in law and society, in processes of transnational migration, and in the formation of ethno-racial communities and subject identities. Her first book, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton University Press), is a study of the origins of illegal immigration to the U.S. She is also affiliated with the university's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture and Human Rights Program, both interdisciplinary venues for socially engaged scholarship and teaching.

Human Development

John A. Lucy

John Lucy's research interests include using cross-cultural and developmental perspectives to explore the interface among the symbolic structures we call language, culture, and self; the impact of grammatical diversity on thought and the particular importance of metalinguistic capabilities in human social interaction; the role of language in the development of conceptual thought and self during middle childhood; languages and cultures of the Mayan peoples.

Language and Literature

Frederick de Armas

Frederick de Armas focuses on the literature of the Spanish Golden Age (Cervantes, Calderón, Claramonte, Lope de Vega), often from a comparative perspective. His interests include the politics of astrology; magic and the Hermetic tradition; ekphrasis; the relations between the verbal and the visual particularly between Spanish literature and Italian Art; and the interconnections between myth and empire during the rule of the Habsburgs. His latest collection, Writing for the Eyes in the Spanish Golden Age is in press.

Rene de Costa

Rene de Costa teaches courses such as: Theater of Spain and Spanish America; Poetry and Poetics from Middle Ages to Present; Painting and Poetry of the Avant-Garde (France, Spain, Italy and Latin America); Latin American Thought (Essay); Literature of the Fantastic (European and Latin American); Humor Theory; Borges; Huidobro; Neruda; Parra; Women Writers of Span and Spanish America.

Maria Cecilia Lozada

Maria Cecilia Lozada, Spanish language coordinator, holds a PhD in Anthropology. She teaches beginners, intermediate and advanced language classes. In addition, Dr. Lozada is the recipient of many grants used for the development of class materials. In conjunction with graduate students Katie Ullyot and Deborah Skolnik, Lozada has developed the language video "Cara al Mundo". In this project, socio-linguistic patterns among Spanish speakers from 12 countries are examined in order to explore the linguistic and cultural variability present in the Spanish speaking world. Other collaborative efforts include the local video project "Chicago Habla" designed and directed by Tanit Fernandez de la Reguera.

Lisa Voigt

Professor Voigt joined the faculty of Romance Languages and Literatures in 2000, after earning her Ph.D. from Brown University. In 2002-2003 she received an NEH Fellowship at the Newberry Library to work on her book manuscript, Writing Captivity in the Iberian Empires: Transatlantic Transformations . Her teaching and research on colonial Latin American literature and culture address transatlantic and comparative issues, and include such topics as captivity and shipwreck narratives in early modern Spain and Portugal, mestizo historiography in New Spain, and Baroque festivals and creole identity in the Andes and Brazil.

Law

Susan Gzesh

Ms. Gzesh is Director of the Human Rights Program of the University of Chicago, an interdisciplinary project in the Center for International Studies. The Human Rights Program supports curriculum, research, events, and internships for students and faculty from all departments and schools of the University.

Sociology

Leslie Salzinger

Leslie Salzinger is an ethnographer, specializing in the study of gender, feminist theory, economic sociology and globalization. Within those fields, her primary research interests lie in the cultural constitution of economic processes, and in the creation of subjectivities within political economies. Her forthcoming book focuses on the formation and consequences of gendered subjectivities in transnational production on Mexico's northern border. Her current research investigates the social constitution of markets and value among peso/dollar traders in banks located in the U.S. and Mexico.

Saskia Sassen

Saskia Sassen is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. She is currently completing her forthcoming book Denationalization : Economy and Polity in a Global Digital Age (Princeton University Press 2003) based on her five year project on governance and accountability in a global economy. Her books have been translated into twelve languages. She is co-director of the Economy Section of the Global Chicago Project, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Urban Data Sets, a Member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and Chair of the newly formed Information Technology, International Cooperation and Global Security Committee of the SSRC.



	Anthropology Paul Friedrich (PhD, Yale 1957) Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, of Linguistics, and in the Committee on Social Thought, and Associate in Slavics, has done fieldwork in southwestern Mexico, South India, and among Russians. Other research includes the Aphrodite myth in Ancient Greece, and Proto-Indo-European, and American poetry. His current work is divided between anthropology and literary studies (e.g., Homeric Greek, Towstoy, Thoreau) and theoretical problems in ethnography, poetics, semiotics, and politics. ( Retired 6/96 ; still teaching ) History Dain Borges Dain Borges works on nineteenth and twentieth-century Latin American culture and ideas. His current research project, Races, Crowds, and Souls in Brazilian Social Thought, 1880-1920, centers on the ways in which Brazilian intellectuals used race sociology and social psychology to understand popular religion and politics. He teaches seminars and courses on Latin American history; comparative nineteenth-century transformations; ideologies of national identity; and culture in the African diaspora. Tamar Herzog Trained first as a lawyer and then as a colonial Latin Americanist, Tamar presently also work on early modern Spanish history. Most particularly, she is interested in the relationship between Spain and Spanish American territories, and the ways by which Spanish society changed as a result of its involvement in a colonial project. The changes she is thinking about occurred both in Spain and in Spanish America, and they involved questions of identity and communal formation, regionalism and nationalism, the configuration of territorial entities, communication methods and networks,immigration and problems of race, ethnicity and political representation. Friedrich Katz Founder, Mexican Studies Center Friedrich Katz's research and teaching focus on 19th and 20th century history of Mexico and Latin America, diplomatic relations between Latin America, Europe and United States, revolutions in Latin America especially the Mexican Revolution. Emilio Kourí Director, Mexican Studies Center Emilio Kourí's main scholarly interest is in the social and economic history of rural Mexico since Independence. He is the author of A Pueblo Divided: Business, Property, and Community in Papantla, Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2004). It tells the story of the strife-ridden transformation of rural social relations in the Totonac region of Papantla during the course of the nineteenth century, paying particular attention to how the progressive development of a campesino-based international vanilla economy changed and ultimately undermined local forms of communal landholding. He teaches seminars on land reforms, rural social movements, and the history of agrarian thought, as well as courses on Latin American and Latino history, and is Director of the Katz Center for Mexican Studies. Mae Ngai Mae Ngai's research and teaching focus on twentieth century U.S. history, with emphasis on immigration and ethnicity (Asian American and comparative), politics and law, and labor. She is especially interested in problems of nationalism, citizenship, and race as they are produced historically in law and society, in processes of transnational migration, and in the formation of ethno-racial communities and subject identities. Her first book, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton University Press), is a study of the origins of illegal immigration to the U.S. She is also affiliated with the university's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture and Human Rights Program, both interdisciplinary venues for socially engaged scholarship and teaching. Human Development John A. Lucy John Lucy's research interests include using cross-cultural and developmental perspectives to explore the interface among the symbolic structures we call language, culture, and self; the impact of grammatical diversity on thought and the particular importance of metalinguistic capabilities in human social interaction; the role of language in the development of conceptual thought and self during middle childhood; languages and cultures of the Mayan peoples. Language and Literature Frederick de Armas Frederick de Armas focuses on the literature of the Spanish Golden Age (Cervantes, Calderón, Claramonte, Lope de Vega), often from a comparative perspective. His interests include the politics of astrology; magic and the Hermetic tradition; ekphrasis; the relations between the verbal and the visual particularly between Spanish literature and Italian Art; and the interconnections between myth and empire during the rule of the Habsburgs. His latest collection, Writing for the Eyes in the Spanish Golden Age is in press. Rene de Costa Rene de Costa teaches courses such as: Theater of Spain and Spanish America; Poetry and Poetics from Middle Ages to Present; Painting and Poetry of the Avant-Garde (France, Spain, Italy and Latin America); Latin American Thought (Essay); Literature of the Fantastic (European and Latin American); Humor Theory; Borges; Huidobro; Neruda; Parra; Women Writers of Span and Spanish America. Maria Cecilia Lozada Maria Cecilia Lozada, Spanish language coordinator, holds a PhD in Anthropology. She teaches beginners, intermediate and advanced language classes. In addition, Dr. Lozada is the recipient of many grants used for the development of class materials. In conjunction with graduate students Katie Ullyot and Deborah Skolnik, Lozada has developed the language video "Cara al Mundo". In this project, socio-linguistic patterns among Spanish speakers from 12 countries are examined in order to explore the linguistic and cultural variability present in the Spanish speaking world. Other collaborative efforts include the local video project "Chicago Habla" designed and directed by Tanit Fernandez de la Reguera. Lisa Voigt Professor Voigt joined the faculty of Romance Languages and Literatures in 2000, after earning her Ph.D. from Brown University. In 2002-2003 she received an NEH Fellowship at the Newberry Library to work on her book manuscript, Writing Captivity in the Iberian Empires: Transatlantic Transformations . Her teaching and research on colonial Latin American literature and culture address transatlantic and comparative issues, and include such topics as captivity and shipwreck narratives in early modern Spain and Portugal, mestizo historiography in New Spain, and Baroque festivals and creole identity in the Andes and Brazil. Law Susan Gzesh Ms. Gzesh is Director of the Human Rights Program of the University of Chicago, an interdisciplinary project in the Center for International Studies. The Human Rights Program supports curriculum, research, events, and internships for students and faculty from all departments and schools of the University. Sociology Leslie Salzinger Leslie Salzinger is an ethnographer, specializing in the study of gender, feminist theory, economic sociology and globalization. Within those fields, her primary research interests lie in the cultural constitution of economic processes, and in the creation of subjectivities within political economies. Her forthcoming book focuses on the formation and consequences of gendered subjectivities in transnational production on Mexico's northern border. Her current research investigates the social constitution of markets and value among peso/dollar traders in banks located in the U.S. and Mexico. Saskia Sassen Saskia Sassen is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. She is currently completing her forthcoming book Denationalization : Economy and Polity in a Global Digital Age (Princeton University Press 2003) based on her five year project on governance and accountability in a global economy. Her books have been translated into twelve languages. She is co-director of the Economy Section of the Global Chicago Project, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Urban Data Sets, a Member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and Chair of the newly formed Information Technology, International Cooperation and Global Security Committee of the SSRC.