EnCana the focus of Cinema Politica

trevor.kenney — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:24:56 +0000

It's a big week on campus for the Lethbridge Public Interest Research Group as they screen an important film and host an activist meet and greet.

First on the agenda is Tuesday night's screening of the film Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow, 7 p.m. in Galileo's Gallery.

In the aggressive search for the 'black gold' that drives Western economies, multinational corporations are working to extract billions of dollars of oil reserves from beneath Ecuador's rainforest. Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow investigates the operations of the EnCana Corporation, a firm that, despite proud public declarations of its social responsibility, is shown to be answerable for widespread environmental contamination and human rights violations.

The film focuses on EnCana's development of a heavy crude oil pipeline from the Amazon across the earthquake-prone Andes to the Pacific coast for export. Since oil exploitation represents a solution for Ecuador's economic crisis, the government has gone out of its way to facilitate EnCana's plans, disregarding protests about property destruction and contamination. The government has even lauded EnCana for its supposed responsibility.

All are welcome, admission is free, and refreshments will be served. This screening is part of the Cinema Politica Film Series, presented every Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. in Galileo's Gallery.

On Wednesday, LPIRG will hold an activist meet and greet, also at 7 p.m. in Galileo's. New students and seasoned activists alike, individuals or organizations, are encouraged to attend. There will be icebreaker activities to get people started, and then time for conversation, networking, and collaboration.

A collaborative approach to studying the past

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:28:59 +0000

Despite international accolades, anthropological archeologist Dr. Andrea Cuéllar hesitates to take all of the credit for her success – after all, unearthing artifacts requires the patience and elbow grease of a committed crew.

"They are literally the ones that make a lot of this possible – as an archeologist, you cannot work on your own," says the assistant professor of anthropology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Her team is composed of undergraduates from Ecuador and Colombia, indigenous people selected by a local indigenous federation, an Ecuadorian archaeologist, and archaeologists from Colombia and the United States specialized in the analysis of botanical remains and lithic tools. Cuéllar and her team unearth homes and gardens of settlements dating back to 500 A.D. in a valley in the Eastern Andes of Ecuador.

Placed against a backdrop of dispersed homesteads, the emergence of these 'central-place communities' is key for understanding social and political change in pre-Columbian times.

Cuéllar is exploring community dynamics as they relate to social and economic differentiation.

With an eye on quotidian forms of social production, kitchens and domestic material culture are very important in this research. Food production and consumption as well as other aspects of daily life are central arenas for symbolic production and ideological elaboration, the kind that naturalizes social and economic hierarchies.

Cuéllar is developing an international reputation and collaborates with experts worldwide. This spring, Cuéllar earned a prestigious grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Last year, she earned a Heinz Grant for Latin American Archaeology.

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EnCana the focus of Cinema Politica

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A collaborative approach to studying the past

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