The Poughkeepsie Public Library District collaborated with wonderful scholars from our local area who are experts on Latin American history. See below for a biography on each of our scholars. Each episode of Latino Americans: 500 Years of History will be introduced by one of the scholars. After the film viewing, the scholar will lead a discussion concerning the issues and events raised during the episode. Please refer to the episode guide on the home tab for more information.
Mihai Grünfeld, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Vassar College, obtained his Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from University of California at Berkeley, his M.A. from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and his B.A. in Spanish and French from University of Toronto. He teaches courses in Latin American literature and culture and Spanish language in the Hispanic Studies Department, where he has also periodically served as chair. Mihai Grünfeld’s research focuses on modern Latin American poetry, especially the Avant-Garde, and the intersection between literature and the visual arts as expressed, for example, in the Mexican muralism.
Professor Baver received her Ph.D. from Columbia University (1979). She has served as the Director of the CCNY Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. She has written, Political Economy of Colonialism: The State and Industrialization in Puerto Rico, (Praeger, 1993) and co-edited, Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition (Notre Dame University Press, 1996). Her present research focuses on environmental justice/environmental democracy in Latin America. Professor Baver has received various CUNY awards and two Fulbrights to Latin America.
Dr. Regina Cortina earned both her Ph.D. and M.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research includes comparative and international education; gender and education; the education and employment of teachers; public policy in education; education in Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States.
Dr. Acosta teaches at Fordham University and specializes in the history of Latinos in the United States. He focuses on the social impact of the development of the Southwest and on the social and cultural experiences of Latinos since 1846.
Leslie S. Offutt holds a Ph.D. degree in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and since 1983 has taught Latin American History and Latino/a Studies at Vassar College. She is a member and former chair of Vassar’s History Department, serves on the steering committee of the International Studies program, and is a participating faculty member and former director of the Latin American and Latino/a Studies program. She is the author of numerous articles on Hispanic society in late colonial Northern Mexico and on Indian/Spanish relations in that region. Her book, Saltillo 1770-1810: Town and Region in the Mexican North (2001), explores the everyday life of a colonial North Mexican town on the eve of independence; her most recent project examines community formation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in San Esteban de la Nueva Tlaxcala, a native community on the northern Mexican frontier.
