Maya Society of Minnesota

12/06/2024

December, 2024: the last letter from the Maya Society president before we disband as an organization. Information about our last public presentation ever next Friday, 12/13 inside!!

11/07/2024

Letter from the President, November 2024.

11/07/2024

Tomorrow, 11/8 at 7 PM Central! Join the MSM for a virtual talk with William Odum (Columbia University): "Community Policed, Citizen Secured: Crime, Policing, and Community in Guatemala City. Link below!

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo defined the security posture of his presidency during a speech that marked his 100th day in office, “we have dispatched the entire police force against crime, especially extortion” (La Hora, April 23, 2024). Often assumed to be the primary source of income for street gangs, extortion seems to cause problems for residents in poor urban areas as well as privileged business owners and politicians (Letona and Bedoya 2021). Arevalo is not the first president to take on extortion. In contrast to the heavy handed (“Mano Dura”) and zero-tolerance strategies that resembles those currently being celebrated in Honduras and El Salvador, Guatemala has emphasized its dedication to develop effective policing strategies of prevention. While police reform programs of prevention have gained salience over past two dozen years, “community policing” has become a central factor in shaping discourses and experiences surrounding crime and policing.

Based on ethnographic research on prevention strategies and community policing, this presentation My research focuses on how community policing interventions have shaped and continue to influence various notions of crime, community, and policing that are shared by different groups. This presentation aims to demonstrate the political implications of particular constructions of “the community” at different scales, that is, from residents of Guatemala City to the powerful rhetoric of political campaigns. This talk explores how different meanings of “the community” are forged through community policing interactions around various conceptualizations of crime, policing, and social order.

https://winthrop-edu.zoom.us/j/91439804388

09/25/2024

Join us this Friday, September 27th at 7 PM Central time for a lecture by Dr. Dennis Ogburn (University of North Carolina, Charlotte) entitled "Long Distance Movement of Monumental Building Stones in the Inca Empire." In person at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina (Dina's Place) or over zoom: https://winthrop-edu.zoom.us/j/91439804388

09/05/2024

Latest letter from the editor with big news about programming and the future of the Maya Society!

07/25/2024

05/22/2024

Events of interest Related to Social Justice and Indigenous Women's Issues

All those interested in social justice in Central America are invited to come to a lecture by Dr. Heider Tun Tun (Regis University, Denver) on "Central American Women’s Voices through the Testimonios of Co-Madres" (Friday May 24, 7 PM, Hamline University, Giddens Learning Center 100E). He will discuss the importance of first-person accounts by midwives that document some of the major human rights violations that women have experienced in modern Central America. The following morning (Saturday, May 25, 9 AM-noon), he will return to Hamline (Giddens 6S) to speak about the long history of testimonies in Central America, from Mayan glyphs to contemporary texts, with a hands-on workshop entitled "¿Por que escribimos? (Why do we write?)." These events are sponsored by the Maya Society of Minnesota ($10 donation suggested, students free). For more information, visit www.mayasocietyofmn.org).

09/17/2023

Letter from the president discussing the first half of the 2023/24 lecture series.

09/12/2023

Check out the fall schedule at mayasocietyofmn.org! First event is a lecture by Dr. Heather Hurst on the amazing ancient Maya murals at San Bartolo, Guatemala, Sept. 22, 7 pm, 100E Giddens Learning Center, Hamline University.

04/04/2023

April 21 and 22 in person at Hamline!

02/07/2023

This Friday and Saturday (2/10 and 11), Dr. Tom Garrison (University of Texas at Austin) will be speaking on Zoom for the Maya Society. His Friday talk (7 PM Central) is entitled "Staging the Entrada: The Drama of International Warfare in Ancient Mesoamerica," and his Saturday workshop (9 AM-noon) will detail the advances in Maya archaeology through the application of LiDAR. Tickets and more information are available at our website (http://mayasocietyofmn.org).

12/05/2022

letter from the president, december 2022