MALAS Co-Sponsors Talk by Suyapa Portillo Villeda, Professor of History in the Chicano/a Latino/a Transnational Studies Field Group at Pitzer College

Please join us today for a talk by Dr. Suyapa Portillo Villeda, professor of history in the Chicano/a Latino/a Transnational Studies field group at Pitzer College. She has been documenting abuses of LGBTTI people in her native country of Honduras since 2006.

The coup d'etat in Honduras in June 2009 brought about state teror and increased repression against everyone in resistance to the coup, and especially to the more vulnerable sectors such as the organized Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Transvestite, and Intersex community. Since the coup, there have been over 200 murders, of those 99 have been LGBTTI individuals. Dr. Portilla will be presenting today on LGBTTI resistance in Post-Coup Honduras. 
Date: TODAY (April 30)
Time: 2pm, reception to follow
Location: AL 101

This event is hosted by: The Center for Latin American Studies, MALAS, the Department of Women's Studies, and Chicana and Chicano Studies.

We hope to see you there!

MALAS Summer Class, Summer 2013 @ SDSU | Sex, Drugs, [Film, Lit, Art,] & Rock 'n' Roll | English 525

mas info here!

Neil Kendricks Lecture on Graphic Narrative, Comics, Dan Clowes, and More! MALAS @ SDSU, the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences, the MA in Curiosity

What: Workshop in American Religious History (WARh) When: Thursday, March 21, 11:30-1:30 Where: San Diego State University, Arts and Letters Building, room 524

Workshop in American Religious History (WARh) is pleased 

to welcome Guy Emerson Mount (University of Chicago) and 

Sarah Azaransky (University of San Diego) to discuss a chapter 

from Azaransky’s The Dream is Freedom: Pauli Murray and 

American Democratic Faith. Widely praised, one reviewer writes of 

The Dream of Freedom: “Azaransky's study is one of those books that 

makes me wish I could re-write my previous works - not just because 

Murray is such a fascinating subject, but also because Azaranksy 

does such a nice and succinct job of interrogating her life, writings, 

ideas, and perspectives.” 

What: Workshop in American Religious History (WARh) 

When: Thursday, March 21, 11:30-1:30 

Where: San Diego State University, Arts and Letters Building, room 524 

Contact: Edward J. Blum eblum@mail.sdsu.edu for chapter to be discussed 

Pizza will be provided – but only for those who contact 

eblum@mail.sdsu.edu to RSVP 

Co-sponsored by MALAS and the Department of History at SDSU.

MALAS! Co-sponsoring SHEREE ROSE event @ SDSU, March 13, 2013, 7pm

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MALAS Chavela Vargas Pre-Doc, Laura Herbert, Leading a Discussion on Orson Welles's TOUCH OF EVIL

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MALAS, The Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences at San Diego State University, Featured in SDSU Daily Aztec Feature Article

Click the image below to enlarge or read the story by Eric Dobko here: http://www.thedailyaztec.com/2013/03/malas-program-offers-unconventional-learning/

Spring 2013 Classes to Add to Your Roster of Intellectual Treats! Vampires! Freud!!!

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NEW MALAS Collaboration with Religious Studies @ SDSU: GOD AFTER THE HOLCAUST

update: January 11, 2013..... some bad news: the Department of Religious Studies and MALAS have been asked to close this class for Spring 2013 due to low enrollment; we will try again soon in the future....

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NEW MALAS Seminar, Spring 2013: MALAS 600A SEM:CULT STUDIES:VAMPIRES IN FICTION AND FILM

VAMPIRES IN FICTION AND FILM
Professor Veronica Shapovalov

This course will investigate many transformations of Central European folkloric vampire into a Romantic literary character, an ultimate monster of horror cinema, a next-door neighbor of popular culture, and much more. We will explore how and why the image of a vampire became a metaphor for political and social concepts such as imperialism and colonialism, gender and sexuality. The seminar features readings/discussions of fiction, historical accounts, and academic articles as well as screenings/discussions of film.

MALAS 600A
SEM:CULT STUDIES:VAMPIRES
3 units
Sched#21737
open seats: 30/30
Seminar 4:00pm-6:40pm
T
PS-140
V. SHAPOVALOV

REEL SOLDIERS | Felipe Quetzalcoatl Quintanilla Lecture | MALAS 25th Anniversary | November 15, 2012

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party/reception

PROUST, LOS ANGELES, SPACE | Fanny Daubigny Lecture | MALAS 25th Anniversary | November 14, 2012

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reception/party

MALAS studies Ghosts- A Human Phenomenon

The first in a series of blog postings highlighting the research interests of MALAS graduate students. First up? Allie Schulz.

As a student in the Masters of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences program, I was excited to start the year off by reading several excellent essays by Freud and Kafka. The readings inspired me to do some additional research on my own interests of both the unconscious and the paranormal!

Though most people think of ghosts as innocent caspers or scary ghouls, the representations of what are considered to be ghosts in our society vary widely. Ghosts can be signified by anything from a loud noise coming from the hall, to a reflection in the mirror that shouldn’t be there, to an object that has been knocked over without cause.

Haunting themes can be found all throughout our history not only in oral tradition, but in books, poetry, movies, and more. Within two great works of film and literature, Kubrick's adaptation of “The Shining” and Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart” ghosts do more than just entice the viewer into feeling fear. Ghostly sights and sounds can potentially act as representations of our greatest anxieties (such as the fear of death), a yearning for the substances we are addicted to, or as expressions of repressed feelings that are pushing us towards self-destruction.

Let’s start with The Shining- think of Danny and his fascination with the dead twins, he might have just been unconsciously confronting his own mortality or his fears of violence, something he was no stranger to. And for Jack, the only “ghosts” he sees tempt him with what he most desires- alcohol, sex... Jack’s ghosts may really just be his way of hoping to fulfill his desires despite his best attempts to repress them. Then we have the narrator in The Tell-Tale heart, who has committed a murder and his guilt begins to manifest through the escalating thumping of the beating heart he claims to hear beneath the floorboards.

Freud wrote often on the delusion of being watched, and makes the case that hallucinations (seeing a ghost! hearing the sound of the beating heart!) are often merely manifestations of deep-seeded emotional traumas. In Freud’s essay “The Uncanny” he explains, “In the pathological case of delusions of being watched, this mental agency becomes isolated, dissociated from the ego, and discernible to the physician’s eye”. So feeling like we see/hear a ghost might be a symptom of the psyche.
A popular urban legend is one about a woman who placed her deceased husband’s ashes in a closet, not having the energy to find the remains a more honorable area. A loud thumping emanated from the closet until she moved the urn into a respectable location. I believe one of two things was happening in this story- that either she unconsciously created the thumping in her mind, or the leftover information from the loved one (i.e. ghost) really did want his physical form to be located elsewhere. I’m more skeptical to endorse the latter, but I do think its worth considering.

As people go through life and claim to experience paranormal activity, whether or not that activity ‘exists' in the most traditional sense of the word, the activity has physiological effects on people and will thus change how they interact with world. Does that make the ghost any less real, well, I’m not going to pretend to be the authority on that conundrum. But what I am going to argue is that whether or not ghosts are real, most people have experienced a paranormal experience (or have experienced a story through a book, movie, etc.) and thus these paranormal activities are a real human phenomenon.

-Allie Schulz