Issue # 01

Summer/Fall 2022

INTER/TRANSDICIPLINARITY

Why Transdiciplinarity?

Kata Beilin

The current socio-environmental crisis requires transdisciplinary research because the excessive disciplinary divisions may have contributed to it. The divisions between fields of knowledge—sciences focused on the natural realm, and humanities focused on politics and culture—prompted scientific progress, followed by economic expansion. But these divisions also led to a loss of holistic ways of thinking able to respond to the complexity of real issues

Metal sculpture of a man in a seated position coverd in flowring vines. Instead of a head, tree branches burst from his neck and shoulders. A bird sits on his knee and multiple birds are perched or fly between the branches. Titled "Amalgam" by Nick Cave.

Towards Transdiciplinarity

A graffiti-ed trash can on a sidewalk photographed at night with cars parked in the background and a bright streetlight glowing in the distance.

Micah McKay

Trash, Culture, and Transdiciplinarity

Hand holding a freshly harvested red radish above a garden bed with leafy vegetable plants.

ANIKA M. Rice

En Tiempos de Pandemia: Guatemalan Campesinos Revalue Bartering as a Traditional Practice

Vibrant painting with symbolic figures, branching plant-like shapes, stars, and abstract creatures arranged across a pink landscape beneath a dark blue sky.

Alberto M. Vargas

Latin American Studies Meet Psychedelic Studies?

Articles

Trash, Culture and Transdisciplinarity

Micah McKay

A graffiti-ed trash can on a sidewalk photographed at night with cars parked in the background and a bright streetlight glowing in the distance.

En Tiempos de Pandemia: Guatemalan Capesinos Revalue Bartering as a Traditional Practice

Anika M. Rice

Hand holding a freshly harvested red radish above a garden bed with leafy vegetable plants.

Latin American Studies Meet Psychedelic Studies

Alberto M. Vargas

Vibrant painting with symbolic figures, branching plant-like shapes, stars, and abstract creatures arranged across a pink landscape beneath a dark blue sky.

Regrasando a la Raíces: Lecciones Aprendidas de Intercambio de Capesino-a-Campesina en Guatemala

Claudia Irene Calderón, Margaret Baker, Otilio Marcelino Bravo Roblero, Gabby Nathaly Castillo Valle, Carlos Humberto Ramírez Santiago

A group of people stand and sit in a lush garden filled with trees, shrubs, and cultivated plants. One person in the center addresses the group while holding notes, and others listen nearby. Garden pathways, small structures, and dense greenery create the setting for an outdoor discussion or educational visit.

Screening Slaughter

Glen Close

A piglet held by a worker moments before being killed in a slaughterhouse in Castilla y León, Spain. December 2016.

Poverty of the Imagination

Patrick Iber

llustration of agricultural workers in a field with a tractor, accompanied by Spanish text emphasizing knowledge, cooperation, organization, and progress.

4W Women in Translation: Circles of Meaning

Sarle E. Mercado & Lori DiPrete Brown

Sarlie E. Mercado (left) and Lori DiPrete Brown (right) sit on a wooden outdoor staircase framed by green foliage and small yellow flowers. One Sarlie holds a sheet of paper while both are positioned near the center of the steps in bright sunlight

Microcosms: An Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas

Jill Pfugheber & Steven F. White

Fluorescent green leaves surrounding a glowing purple and orange flower against a dark background.

Rizoma: Latin American Laboratory of Art, Ecology, and Science

Azucena Castro & Gianfranco Selgas

Person presenting beside a projection screen in a library seminar room, with another participant standing nearby and bookshelves in the background.

Measuring Agroecological Performance of Dairy Cattle Systems in the Peruvian Amazon

Dante M. Pizarro, Carlos A. Gomez, & Michel A. Wattiaux

Person feeding mineral salt to cattle in a shaded corral while a herd gathers around the feeding trough.

Changing Dynamics of Race, Class, and Politics in Brazil and South Africa

Gay Seidman

Hundreds of closely spaced buildings cover a hillside in a Rio de Janeiro favela. A large granite mountain rises directly behind the neighborhood, with patches of trees separating the homes from the rock face under a cloudless blue sky.

Rebeldes y Valientes: Desigualdad de género en la práctica cinematográfica peruana (1913-2019)

Gabriela C. Yepes-Rossel

Screenshot of a woman in a red cardigan holding up a film clapperboard in front of a classroom scene of military students sitting at desks in four rows.

Food, Medicine, or Poison?: Understanding Relationships Between Apazote (Dysphana Ambrosioides) and Communities Across Guatemala

Tabitha Faber

Two hands holding different leafy green plants above a cultivated field with rows of crops in the background.

Psique, Eros y Poiesis: Entre Literatura y Psicoanálisis

Beatriz L. Botero

A weathered white building features a mural of a human figure extending horizontally from the wall as if floating in midair. Decorative iron balcony railings frame the scene, and dense green plants fill an open doorway where part of the building appears reclaimed by nature.

Magic Circle of Education: Twenty Years of Telling the Cartonera Story | Heard from My Student

Ksenija Bilbiji

Wooden bookshelf displaying a collection of colorful handmade artist books with painted and collaged covers.

Following the Man in the Maze

Will Baynard

Image of a mural depicting the "man is the maze. A human figure stands outside of a circular maze, done as a black line-drawing on white. On the left hand side of the maze are a pair of feathers with green and grey whispy lines dancing around them. Below the maze is a grey and green pastel-like rendering of jagged mountains. The mural is painted on a small cream colored building in the center of the fram surrounded by similar colored buildings in a desert landscape. A chair sits on the right-hand side of the building.

Notes from the Field: Everyday Performances of the Guatemala-Mexico Border in the Selva Lacandona

Alicia Barceinas Cruz

Crossing the Guatemala-Mexico border. Marqués de Comillas, Chiapas, Mexico. 2022. Image by Alicia Barceinas Cruz. Copyright Alicia Barceinas Cruz 2022.

Unlearning el M(U)Chismo Cubano: How Grotesque Imagery Reveals the Paradoxes of Post-Revolution Masculinities in Pedro Juan Gutíerrez’s El rey de la Habana and Tomás Alea’s Fresa y chocolate

Rebecca Barnes

City panorama viewed from above, showing a large concentration of older buildings with flat roofs and varied architectural styles. Trees line parts of the streets and courtyards. Several taller buildings are visible on the horizon beneath a lightly clouded sky with pastel colors.

The Sharing of Science through Psychedelics in Latin America

Eva Schiltz

Two men dressed in traditional costumes. The man on the left wears a mask of a creature that looks like a dog with its mouth open and wide eyes. The man on the right wears a white and brown striped woolen poncho and a fabric mask with a beard and red and green stripes. On top of his head he wears a beige houndstooth fedora. They pose in a chilly mountain landscape.

Judicial Politics in Brazil

Jean Vilbert

Video thumbnail for Jean Vilbert's video essay "Judicial Politics in Brazil" with a splattered water-color image of the Brazilian flag and a blue banner with the title and author's name.

Toxic Work in Post-2008 Spain

Rachelle Wilson

Illustrated image of a globe with two anthropomorphized bills (dollar on the left, euro on the right) drinking from straws theat stick out from the globe. Another pair of straws leak water out into a void.

The Ever-Open Veins of Latin Ameirca

Ruth E. Goldstein

The MAP region, waterways, and the Interoceanic Highway, Brazil–Peru. Map created by Scott Walker, courtesy of Harvard Map Collection.

Vestida de Pena: Embodies Experiences of Afro-Spiritual Knowledge in Mayra Santos-Febres and Rita Indiana

Renata Pontes

A group of people wear all white costumes during a performance for the Eyo Festival in Lagos, Nigeria.

Travel as Methodology

Nicki Day-Lucore

Photo of a directional distance sign located in Foz do Iguaçu, PR, Brasil showing arrows to various international locations. By Wilson Vitorino. November 17, 2018.

Sueños y Miedos Cristalizados

Jorge Santander

Various types of crystals placed in front of a book with blurry text on a wooden table.

Editorial Board

Professional indoor portrait of a person with wavy hair, photographed in natural light beside a window overlooking greenery.

Kata Beilin Guest Editor

Diego Alegría

Outdoor portrait of a person wearing a knit cap and plaid shirt, standing beside a lake at sunset.

Jamie de Moya-Cotter

Close-up portrait of a woman with a brown pixie-cut and dark brown eyes, seated indoors, facing the camera.

Andrea Guzman-Giura

Professional indoor portrait of a person seated in a lobby with large windows and decorative architectural elements in the background.

Addison Nace