The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program presents its annual lecture on Monday, April 3rd in 122 Carr Hall at 12:15 pm. Pizza and soft drinks will be served.
Prof. Juan Duchesne-Winter from the University of Pittsburgh will speak on “Ayahuasca: Amazonian Cultural Matrix of Global Impact.” Ayahuasca is a brew prepared with the vine of that name and with the stem of another plant called chacruna which has psychoactive properties that induce hallucinatory states. The use of ayahuasca has become a global experience extending to South American, North American, and European latitudes.
Prof. Duchesne-Winter has recently conducted research on the Amerindian literary movement in the Guajira peninsula, ancestral territory of the Wayuu people which spans northern coastal areas of Colombia and Venezuela, and on the Watunna, the mythological cycle of the Yekuana people in the upper Orinoco river.
Professor Duchesne-Winter has led an active role as a public intellectual in Puerto Rico, where he chaired the Department of Spanish at the University of Puerto Rico’s main campus in Rio Piedas. He is the author of nine books, including Caribe Caribana: cosmografías literarias (2015), La guerrilla narrada: acción, acontecimiento, sujeto (2010), and Comunismo literario: inscripciones latinoamericanas (2009).
In addition to being Professor of Spanish at the University of Pittsburgh, Professor Duchesne-Winter is Director of Publications of the Instituto Internacional de Literaturas Iberoamericanas (IILI) and the Institute’s journal, Revista Iberoamericana, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh.
Here are links to Professor DuchesneWinter’s faculty page at the University of Pittsburgh and to an abstract of his talk.