New TAMIU Lecture Series on Liberation Offered

A new lecture series designed to engage the South Texas community in meaningful discussions about the idea of liberation begins Thursday, Oct. 1.

The “Liberation in the Americas” Series, co-hosted virtually by Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) and the Laredo Public Library, and made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, is free and open to the public.

Organizers Dr. Alfonso Vergaray, TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences, department of Social Sciences assistant professor, and William Nolen, TAMIU department of Humanities instructor, said everyone is welcome to participate in the lectures and discussions.

“We are proud to present this Series, which seeks to engage participants in lively discussions about contemporary struggles for liberation in the Americas,” Dr. Vergaray said, “Top thinkers from around the nation will present their research on liberation, weaving together the collective tradition of liberatory movements in the Americas, with more current struggles for liberation faced by individuals and communities.”

The first Series installment is Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.  and will feature Dr. Grant Silva, associate professor of Philosophy at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.  His lecture is titled, “Liberation as the Goal of Philosophy? What Happened to Wisdom?”

Participants can register for the lecture at go.tamiu.edu/humanities-events.

Dr. Silva’s online lecture will draw from his long-term project on the idea of liberation as a concept analogous to “Enlightenment” in the contexts of Western thought. It shows how struggles for liberation in the Americas have inspired theoretical reflections on liberation. His forthcoming book on the topic is tentatively titled, “Liberation is to the Americas what Enlightenment is to Europe.”

Silva specializes in Latin American philosophy, political philosophy, and the philosophy of race and ethnicity. Born and raised throughout Eastside Los Angeles, he grew up in an environment where citizenship status, ethnicity, nationality, race and racism were explicitly in contention with the law.

Additional lectures in the Series are scheduled in 2021. 

For detailed information on upcoming Series lectures, visit: https://www.tamiu.edu/coas/dss/liberation.shtml

For more information, please contact Vergaray at 956.326.2604 or email alfonso.vergaray@tamiu.edu or Nolen at 956.326.2660 or email William.nolen@tamiu.edu

TAMIU is one of the 11 university members of The Texas A&M University System.  A primarily Hispanic-serving, State-assisted university founded in 1970,  its 300-acre campus is located in northeast Laredo, Texas on former ranchland. 

Home to 8,500 students from around the world, TAMIU offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees in the arts and sciences, business, education and nursing. As its name affirms, TAMIU maintains a special focus on developing an international academic agenda for the State of Texas.

U.S. News and World Report’s 2020 Edition of its popular Best Colleges guide ranks TAMIU as the second highest-ranked Texas public university in its Best Regional Universities West category and the highest-ranked regional campus of The Texas A&M University System.

TAMIU is also ranked second in the nation and first in Texas for having the lowest student debt, on average $3,477 in loans. TAMIU also ranks 5th in the nation among the 100 Most Affordable Public Schools with the Highest Return on Investment according to ranking authority Great Value Colleges. 

Additional information is available at http://www.tamiu.edu