Event Description
UC Berkeley faculty Angela Marino (Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies) and Ramón Grosfoguel (Department of Ethnic Studies) present an emergency teach-in on the U.S. war threat to Venezuela.
Committing an act of aggression against a sovereign nation is illegal by international law. Yet the U.S. Department of War has turned to hard power imperialism with impunity, what Vijay Prashad calls hyper-imperialism of the 21st century. This emergency teach-in will cover the basics of what led to the current events unfolding in the Caribbean today, where more than 400 missiles are pointed at Venezuela, along with cutting analysis of how Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Erik Prince (who founded the paramilitary organization Blackwater) are driving the U.S. to the brink of war. Why is the U.S. taking such an aggressive stance in the Caribbean under the age-old pretense of a ‘war on drugs’? What are the stakes of these military attacks, both locally and internationally, and what consequences does U.S. policy of aggression hold? Come learn more in this emergency teach-in for students, faculty, and staff of the wider UC Berkeley community.
Speakers
Angela Marino is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Marino’s teaching and research focuses on performance and political cultures of the Southwest, Caribbean, and Latin America. She teaches classes on theater and performance studies theory, methods, and a praxis class called Teatro Lab. She also leads an interdisciplinary research initiative, Critical Perspectives on Democracy and Media (D+M Lab), which supports community-engaged partnerships with student research apprentices in policy analysis and art production.
In 2018, Marino published her first book Populism and Performance in the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela with Northwestern University Press, which brings attention to theater, film, and popular festivals during the first decade of 21st century socialism in Venezuela. Marino is also co-editor of the book Festive Devils of the Americas (Seagull Press/University of Chicago Press, 2015). She is currently working on a manuscript for a new book on festivals and governance.
Ramón Grosfoguel is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley Department of Chicano/Latino Studies. Grosfoguel teaches courses on the sociology of international development, international migration, political-economy of the world-system and on the political, economic and cultural processes of ‘global’ cities like New York, Paris and London. His research interests include urban sociology and the migration of colonial peoples from the Caribbean to the United States and Western Europe. In addition, Grosfoguel holds the position of research associate at the prestigious Maison des Science de l’Homme in Paris.