ARLENE TORRES

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:

Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 1995

A.M. Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 1987

A.B. Sociology and Anthropology, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 1982

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS:

Associate Professor. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) 2002- present (tenured)

Director, Latina and Latino Studies Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) 2004-present

Assistant Professor. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) 1995-2002

Visiting Assistant Professor. Latin American and Latino Studies Program, UIC Spring 2002

Rockefeller Foundation Senior Scholar-in-Residence, National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. July-December 1999

Senior Scholar. National Museum of American History Senior-Junior Program for Latina/o Research, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Summer 1996

Visiting Assistant Professor. Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. 1995-96 academic year

PUBLICATIONS:

BOOKS:

1998a Arlene Torres and Norman E. Whitten Jr. (eds.) Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean. Volume II. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

1998b Norman E. Whitten, Jr. & Arlene Torres (eds.) Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean. Volume I. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

In press Racialist Topographies: Blackness and Ethnicity in Puerto Rico Urbana: Illinois Press.

In progress Having Our Say (a como de lugar) (editor) Based on a Conference held in the fall of 1998 at UIUC)

ARTICLES:

2004 “Collecting Puerto Ricans” In Kevin Yelvington (ed.) Afro-Atlantic Dialogues: Anthropology in the Diaspora. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press.

2002 Puerto Ricans in the U.S. Mainland. In Carol E. Ember and Melvin Ember (eds.) Encyclopedia of World Cultures Supplement. Macmillian Reference and the Human Relations Area Files.

1998 “From Jíbara to Anthropologist: Puerto Rican Ethnography and the Politics of Representation” Identities Vol 5(1)107-122.

1998 "La gran familia puertorriqueña: 'ej prieta de beldá – the Great Puerto Rican family is really really black." In Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean Volume II. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

1997 “Puerto Ricans.” In Levinson, David and Melvin Ember (eds.) Encyclopedia of American Immigrant Cultures. (Macmillan Library Reference) New York: Macmillan Publishing.

1998 Arlene Torres and Norman E. Whitten, Jr. "To Forge the Future in the Fires of the Past: An Interpretive Essay on Racism, Domination, Resistance and Liberation." Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean (Lead Essay in Volume I & II) Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

1998 Arlene Torres and Norman E. Whitten, Jr. "Eastern South America and the Caribbean" In Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean Volume II. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

1998 Norman E. Whitten, Jr. and Arlene Torres "Central America, Northern and Western South America" In Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean Volume I. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

1992 Norman E. Whitten, Jr and Arlene Torres "The Black Americas 1492-1992." In The NACLA Report. 26(4).

REVIEWS:

2001 Review of Findlay, Eileen J. Súarez Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1999 in New West Indian Guide 75 (no.1&2).

1999 Review of Jean P. Peterman Telling Their Stories: Puerto Rican Women and Abortion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996 New West Indian Guide vol.73, no. 3&4 pp.141-143.

1993 Review of John Thornton. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680. American Anthropologist Vol. 95.

PROFESSIONAL HONORS AND INVITATIONS:

President, Association of Latina/Latino Anthropologists (ALLA) of the American Anthropological Association. December 2000-2002

Vice-President, Association of Latina/Latino Anthropologists (ALLA) of the American Anthropological Association. December 1998-2000

Participated in an Advanced Research Seminar at the School of American Research Worked with a team of leading African Americanists on the theme, “From Africa to the Americas: New Directions in Afro-American Anthropology.” Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Organizer: Kevin Yelvington, University of South Florida). April 1999.

CONSULTATIONS:

Consultant/Project Advisory Board Understanding Race and Human Variation: A Public Education Program American Anthropological Association with support from the Ford Foundation. 2002-2005.

Consultant/Project Advisory Board Underrepresented Minorities in the Academy: Understanding the Career Attainment Process. Summer Research Opportunities Program Research Project with support from the U.S. Department of Education. 2002-2005.

Consultant/Presenter “Building Our Own Legacies: Spaces of Community, Spaces of Scholarship” Social Science Research Council, Mellon Minority Fellowship Program. Dillard University, New Orleans, LA June 2002.

Consultant/Presenter Mellon Recent Ph.D. Conference “Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Research” Social Science Research Council, Mellon Minority Fellowship Program. Dillard University, New Orleans, LA June 2002.

Consultant/Reviewer "Rhythms of Identity: Fernando Ortiz and the Howard Family Collection of Percussion Instruments” Center for Latino Initiatives, Arts and Industries Exhibit, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. September - December 1999

Consultant/Reviewer "Puerto Rico: A Collector's Vision" National Museum of American History Exhibit, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. May 1998

Consultant. “Research Initiatives” American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation. Washington, D.C. June 1997

Consultant. "Senior Junior Program for Latina/o Research at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. June 1996

Consultant. “Ways of Seeing: Mapping Ethnic Imagery in the Landscape of Commerce”, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1995