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Presentation to explore Mayan Culture
Daemen to Offer Presentation on Mayan Culture
February 25, 2010
Event
Information: Daemen Conference &
Events Office
(716) 839-8253
Sharon Benz
Daemen College Center
for Sustainable Communities &
Civic Engagement
sbenz@daemen.edu
Daemen College will offer a presentation on Mayan culture 7:45 p.m. on March 23, 2010, in Wick Center on the Daemen campus, 4380 Main Street, in Amherst. The presentation, by Dr. Christine Eber, Associate Professor of Anthropology at New Mexico State University, is open to the public. Tickets are $15.00; students reduced with ID.
The Daemen departments of History and Govt.; Foreign Languages; and Campus Ministry are co-sponsoring this presentation in conjunction with the Western New York Peace Center Fr. Joseph Bissonette Latin America Event.
Dr. Christine Eber is an Associate Professor of Anthropology. She has been conducting research on indigenous women's experiences with social change in highland Chiapas, Mexico since 1984. In particular she has focused on women's experiences in the Zapatista movement, the weaving cooperative movement, and the Liberation Theology movement of the Catholic Church in Chiapas. She is author of Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow (1995) and co-editor with Christine Kovic of Women of Chiapas: Making History in Times of Struggle and Hope (2003). She is currently researching the experiences of women in weaving cooperatives as they forge connections across national boundaries to sell their work through fair trade and to defend their human rights. As part of this work she is assisting Flor de Margarita Perez Perez, a weaver and community organizer, to write her life story. Dr. Eber is also working on a book of short stories based on her research in Chiapas.
In addition to research and writing, Dr. Eber is involved in applied work with women's weaving cooperatives in Chiapas. She coordinates The Las Cruces-Chiapas Connection, an organization that assists women's cooperatives to sell their weavings and that educates consumers about the effects of globalization on indigenous artisans. In collaboration with the Las Cruces Chiapas Connection and NMSU's Center for Latin American and Border Studies, Dr. Eber has helped organize many visits over the years of weavers and human rights defenders from Chiapas to NMSU and to communities throughout New Mexico.
Dr. Eber teaches courses on the graduate and undergraduate level focusing on gender, religion, art, and Mesoamerican peoples. She also teaches in the Women's Studies program. She is advisor of the Anthropology Club and co-advisor with Neil Harvey (Government Dept.) of SALAS, the Student Association of Latin American Studies.
In August 2005 Dr. Eber received NMSU's Dennis Darnall Faculty Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to research, service, and teaching. In May 2002 she was recipient of the Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women.
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