| Event, Featured Event

Thursday, March 21st, 6:30 PM 

118 Elliot
118 Elliot St, Brattleboro VT

The Windham World Affair’s America 250 Speaker Series presents:
 
Dr. Sarah Osten, Associate Professor of Latin American History, University of Vermont

Migration from the Northern Triangle:

“They Are Here Because We Were There” 

This talk will consider the multiplicity of factors that have driven a migrant exodus from Central America over the past ten years. To understand why so many people in the Northern Triangle region of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have chosen to flee to the US, this talk examines long term political and social histories of the region, which have included US interventionism, and the long-term social, political and economic legacies of violent Cold War conflicts that Central Americans are still living with today. Among others, these include the effectively unchecked spread of organized crime and street gangs in the region, themselves the products of an earlier migrant exodus to the US, and then a mass deportation.

Dr. Osten is a historian of Latin America and an associate professor at the University of Vermont, specializing in twentieth century Mexico. She is the director of graduate studies in the UVM history department, as well as the director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program. She  holds a PhD in history (2010) and a MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (2004), both from the University of Chicago. Her BA is from Brown University.

As the sole historian of Latin America at UVM, she teaches on a wide variety of Latin American topics and countries, from the ancient world to the present. In addition to introductory courses on Latin American history, I teach courses on topics including revolutions, authoritarianism, indigenous history, history and memory, drugs and drug trafficking, and modern Mexican history. Most of her  teaching is interdisciplinary, and all her courses are designed to help students to use the past to better understand the present.

Her newest teaching project is a new, interdisciplinary immigration justice program and course sequence.

This is a free public event.  (Although there is a $10 suggested donation, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.)

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