Please join us for the conference of La Frontera/The Border: An Interdisciplinary Examination Thursday November 14 through Saturday November 16.

This free and public Chapman University conference is the culmination of the series of events, art exhibits, and courses focused on La Frontera. During Fall 2019, Chapman University embarked on a campus-wide interrogation of border issues, particularly those surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border. Throughout the semester students and community joined a book club, toured the four art installations, and attended lectures with leading experts. Drawing from the humanities, social sciences, journalism, law, and visual and performing arts, courses have been examining borders through interdisciplinary perspectives. Seventeen public events have encouraged the campus and wider community to examine the controversial issues around borders.

From November 14-16, Chapman University welcomes leading scholars, artists, and journalists with expertise in border issues to campus for public and free panels, lectures, and engagement with memory and art.

The conference will open the evening of November 14 with a short remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall (6:15 p.m. at Freedom Plaza) and then a 7 p.m. Keynote Talk by Francisco Cantú, former border patrol agent whose memoir, A Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border, won the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Award (in Memorial Hall Auditorium).

Friday, November 15 offers a full day of panels and lectures from national and international experts and creatives, and tours of the art exhibitions. Saturday, November 16 focuses on student presentations of their research and creative activity on this topic.

Please see the full conference schedule and consider attending and encouraging your classes to attend well.

Although it is not necessary to RSVP for any session, we encourage this in order to make sure we have enough food and chairs.

By engaging in multi-disciplinary examination of this topic, we hope our community will come away better informed and prepared to be engaged global citizens.

Questions? Please email Dr. Lisa Leitz, Delp-Wilkinson Professor of Peace Studies, leitz@chapman.edu.

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