Archived Events

October 13-14, 2017 
Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington, D.C.
A Program of the Early Americas Working Group of Washington, D.C.

Generations of scholars have studied the multi-faceted experiences of the Franciscans in Mexico and the ways in which the Franciscan order shaped New Spain and the early Mexican republic. This conference examines the range of Franciscan influence and analyzes new scholarship that focuses on the multiple discourses with which friars engaged native peoples, creole populations, the vice-regal authorities, and other actors throughout the Spanish empire. The conference brings together junior and senior scholars to study the long Franciscan experience in Mexico on the eve of the commemoration of the quincentenary of the Spanish— and thus the Franciscan—presence in Mexico. 

The conference further honors the work of the eminent historian Fr. Francisco Morales, OFM, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday in September 2017. Morales’s studies of theFranciscans in Mexico and his promotion of the field have encouraged the work of several generations of historians of colonial and nineteenth-century Mexico. With this in mind, our program includes scholars whose research applies the methodologies of linguistic, social, and cultural history to the study of Nahua-Franciscan relations. Morales was one of the pioneers of this interdisciplinary approach during his years as a scholar at the Academy of American Franciscan History and in subsequent years as director of the Biblioteca Franciscana in San Pedro Cholula, Mexico (the library is housed in the Convento de San Gabriel, one of the first Franciscan churches in Mexico).

March 1, 2016

Florence Reed, a nationally known environmental activist who advocates for sustainable farming and rainforest protection visited Hood College for a week of activities focused on educating students and the public about her work.

Reed is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow and CEO and founder of Sustainable Harvest International, a nonprofit that provides farming families in Central America with the training and tools to preserve the planet’s tropical forests while helping them overcome poverty.

She visited classrooms throughout the week and gave a community talk entitled “Organic Farming to Feed the World,” which provided an overview of how common farming practices are contributing to environmental and social decay, including poverty, hunger, malnutrition, illness, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and climate change. She also discussed the importance of a global shift to sustainable farming practices and success stories from amongst the 2,000 Central American farms that have participated in Sustainable Harvest’s extension program. She focused on long-term, integrative approaches that link ecosystem health, human health, societal health and a healthy planet.

March 30, 2015

Sonia Nazario, a prize-winning journalist and best-selling author discussed her book that recounts a young boy's quest to reunite with his mother and sheds light on the influx of unaccompanied Central American child migrants into the United States.

Oct. 3, 2015

Jeremy Rifkin, the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and best-selling author, presented on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society and the environment.

March 20, 2013

Steve Coll, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author presented his perspectives on worldwide security issues and the global war on terror.

Feb. 23, 2012

Isobel Coleman, D.Phil., a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where she directs the council's civil society, markets and democracy initiative and the women and foreign policy program, discussed the role of women in advancing the changes that are occurring in the Middle East.