Latin American and Caribbean delegation visits Faculty of Archaeology
The 4th Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) meeting was held at the Faculty of Archaeology on 20 November. Ambassadors and representatives from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region met with the Leiden LAC region group to strengthen academic cooperation and discuss the internationalisation strategy of Leiden University.
Tour of the faculty
Among the guests were ambassadors and cultural attachés, and representatives of the embassies of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Curaçao, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. The delegation also visited a stand exhibition of research activities in the LAC region and participated in a tour of the archaeological science laboratories at the faculty.
A warm welcome
Prof.dr. Corinne Hofman, Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology and chairperson of the LAC regional group, spoke words of welcome to the delegation and introduced the research conducted at the Faculty of Archaeology in the Latin America and the Caribbean regions.
The Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University investigates a wide variety of topics in Latin America and the Caribbean related to archaeology and heritage of indigenous peoples. This research is made possible thanks to large-scale grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). At the meeting, Prof. dr. Hofman introduced the multi-disciplinary ERC-Synergy project “Nexus1492: New world encounters in a globalising world”, which contributes to the rewriting of the colonisation of the Americas from an indigenous perspective. Prof. dr. Maarten Jansen presented his ERC-Advanced project “Time in Intercultural Context: the indigenous calendars of Mexico and Guatemala”.
PhD researchers from Haiti and Brazil
The countries from the LAC region are also represented at the faculty in the form of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. PhD students Joseph Sony Jean (Haiti) and Catarina Guzzo Falci (Brazil) discussed the preliminary results of their investigations into the landscape biography in northern Haiti, and the manufacture, movement and exchange of body ornaments in the insular Caribbean, respectively. To conclude the event, Dr. Genner Llanes Ortiz (Mexico) spoke about his research on inclusive heritage in indigenous America.
Leiden Latin American and Caribbean Centre
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the three priority areas of Leiden University, which was established by its Executive Board in 2014. The objective is to set up a comprehensive strategy over a five -year period. Leiden University works together with over 37 Latin American and Caribbean Universities and Research Centres and also has a number of specific agreements.
These agreements were the results of a variety of activities developed, over the past decades, between Leiden and institutes of higher education from LAC, including student and staff mobility, joint research projects and recurrent Leiden University - LAC meetings in the faculties of the university. The next meeting has been scheduled for April/May 2018 at the Faculty of Law, in an effort to continue to develop the dialogue and collaboration between Leiden University and the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.
