University of New Mexico Press has resurrected the popular 'Voices of the Southwest' lecture series, featuring authors speaking on evolution, immigration, medicine, archaeology and the writing process. The series begins Wednesday, Sept. 3 and continues into October, with lectures scheduled at 7 p.m. at the Bank of America Auditorium at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th St. S.W. The auditorium opens at 6 p.m. for a UNM Press exhibit and book sales.
The series format entails an hour-long talk, followed by a Q&A and a book signing. This year’s line-up includes:
* Sept. 3 -- Santa Fe anthropologist Anne Weaver discusses evolution. Her award-winning children’s book, The Voyage of the Beetle, explains evolution through the voice of a beetle accompanying Darwin on his voyages.
* Sept. 10 -- Los Angeles Times reporter Sam Quinones examines stories of Mexican migration that inspired his book Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream, the focus of “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and other national media.
* Sept. 17 -- UNM Health Sciences Center administrator and professor Dr. David Sklar talks about emergency medicine in rural Mexico-the subject of his memoir, La Clinica.
* Sept. 24 -- Harvard historian of religion and Mesoamericanist Davíd Carrasco addresses the significant rediscovery of an ancient Mexican codex that explains important aspects of post-conquest native society documented in the book Cave, City, and Eagle’s Nest.
* Oct. 1 -- David Stuart, UNM professor, associate provost emeritus and Voices creator, shares results of writing from personal experience, as he has done with his experiences as an anthropologist in Latin America in his books Flight of Souls, The Ecuador Effect, Zone of Tolerance and The Guaymas Chronicles.
’Voices of the Southwest’ was founded in 2003 by then-UNM Associate Provost Stuart, in conjunction with UNM Press, and has featured prominent writers Rudolfo Anaya, N. Scott Momaday, Tony Hillerman, Ursula LeGuin and Demetria Martínez.
”I conceived of the ‘Voices of the Southwest’ series to provide UNM’s summer session with a world class educational and cultural event that would interest a broad spectrum of both students and off-campus citizens,” Stuart said.
Employing UNM Press authors, the series has covered a broad range of topics-from New Mexico history and culture to world archaeology to literature and poetry -- and proven a forum for the public to mingle with recognized authors and learn about a specific subject.
”We teamed up with UNM Press to present the series because no other division of UNM had given such a wide voice to Southwest culture,” Stuart said.
Another campus resource, KUNM radio, broadcast the series and will do so again this year at 89.9FM and online at www.kunm.org.
"KUNM gives speakers a live voice, substantially adding to the series’ legend and appeal,” Stuart said
For more information about ‘The Voices of the Southwest’ lecture series, or to schedule interviews with the speakers, contact Amanda Sutton at (505) 272-7190 or e-mail: asutton@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzlaes, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu