This week in the Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden, the redbuds are in full bloom. The tree is in the pea family with edible flowers that high in vitamin C. Redbuds have a rich ethnobotanical history.  According to the United States Department of Agriculture (n.d.), the eastern redbud was utilized by various Native American tribes for medicinal and practical purposes. They made tea from the bark to treat whooping cough and used cold infusions of the roots and inner bark to address fevers and congestion. Additionally, the blossoming branches were brought into homes in the spring to "drive winter out" (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d.).

We are fortunate to also have a rare white-blooming variety in the garden, one of the few specimens in Athens.

- Nunally Benzing (LAEG Curator)

Éric Morales-Franceschini, Associate Professor of English and Latin American and Caribbean Studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, will discuss and read selections from his new poetry collection Syndrome, published in January 2024 by Anhinga Press after being selected by Juan Felipe Herrera for the 2022 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry.

Morales-Franceschini's scholarly research specializes in postcolonial theory and criticism, decolonial aesthetics, Marxist critical theory, Caribbean and Latinx literary and cultural studies, and radical thought in the Américas.

Ciné will host a free screening of La Tara (2022), a docufiction, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker and director Amparo Aguilar, this Friday, March 22, at 5:30 p.m.

Please announce, bring colleagues, friends, family, and everyone else!

With the generous support from: Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts, Department of Romance Languages, Department of Theater and Film, and LACSI.

Contact: bkaplan@uga.edu

Dr. Pablo Lapegna (Sociology and LACSI) will participate in this interdisciplinary symposium that will explore the concept of the Anthropocene through the historical development and environmental impacts of varied extractive zones in Latin America.

The event will take place at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. It is organized by the Latin American Environmental Humanities Lab and is co-sponsored by the Ivan Allen College and the School of Modern Languages from the same university.

The Chronicle of Higher Education featured LACSI Core Faculty, Dr. Tim Samples (Associate Professor, Legal Studies Program at Terry College of Business), in a recent story on UGA's Center for Teaching and Learning's approach to active learning.

We are thrilled to announce Dr. Gregory M. Thaler's (Associate Professor, Department of International Affairs) book, Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World. Conservation and Displacement in the Global Tropics, published this month by Yale University Press.
 
Dr. Thaler's research received support from LACSI, where he is also a Core Faculty member.

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We would love to promote your achievements and future activities in our next newsletter!

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