The Upstate region is becoming increasingly diverse and the University of South Carolina Upstate is committed to explore and celebrate the ways our local lives intersect with the wider world.

USC Upstate will present “The New Global South: A Summit on the Changing Face of the Upstate” from 2-4 p.m. Tuesday, March 20 in the ballroom of the Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center, located at 180 Gramling Drive, on the USC Upstate campus.

In its second year, the event will focus on “Movement, Migrations, Mujeres” featuring key note speakers Kasturi Rumu DasGupta, Ph.D., and B. Christine Arce, Ph.D. DasGupta will discuss “The Global South through Three Eras of Globalization,” while Arce will talk about “Against Invisibility: The Legacy of Mulatez and Mexico’s Female Revolutionaries.”

“Our mission is to expose students and the university community to New Global South issues and debates,” said Araceli Hernández-Laroche, Ph.D., assistant chair of Languagues, Literature and Composition and assistant professor of French. “We’ve invited speakers who represent minorities and women of color and who are experts on the Global South. We want to be inclusive of diverse scholarship and to highlight the work of scholars from a variety of disciplines, languages and global experiences to bring the world into our own backyard.”

A professor emeritus of sociology, DasGupta received her undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Delhi and her doctorate in sociology from Louisiana State University. She taught at Georgian Court University from 1989 to 2017 and is the author of “Introducing Social Stratification: The Causes and Consequences of Social Inequality.” She is an active member of the Board of Directors of Destiny’s Bridge, a transitional encampment for the homeless in Howell Township in Monmouth County, N.J.

DasGupta’s presentation will focus on corporate globalization, which has brought the world closer even as it is being torn apart.

“Out of that breach unprecedented waves of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers have poured out testing the limits of empathy and humanity in almost every region of the world,” DasGupta wrote of her presentation. “In order to understand the challenges and dilemmas the world, particularly the Global South faces, it is important to look into the past and see the antecedents that set the stage for the developments today.”

Arce is an associate professor at the University of Miami and received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. She works on issues of gender, migration and non-Western epistemologies in the cultural production of Mexico, Brazil and the Caribbean. Her book, “Mexico’s Nobodies,” explores the long obviated contributions of women and blacks to Mexican culture and history. Arce has published in journals such as Callaloo, Chasqui, and Aztlán.

“Her work really talks about the erasure of black Mexican women and Mexican women in contemporary Mexico in history,” Hernández-Laroche said. “No one talks about the important roles these women played in the Mexican Revolution, but she focuses on why they were marginalized.”

Meghan Blanton Smith will serve as a community respondent during the panel. Smith was the leader behind Ban the Box in Spartanburg. She recently traveled to Jordan to work with refugees and appears in an immigration documentary. She was invited by the Chambers of the Upstate to advocate for DACA. A director of SC Test Prep, Smith also serves on the Hispanic Alliance of Spartanburg Steering/Leadership Committee.

The summit will be chaired by Dr. Nicole Richardson, assistant professor of East Asian history, and the discussion will be moderated by Dr. Renu Pariyadeth, assistant professor in Communication.

This event is free and open to the public.

For more information about the summit, visit http://www.uscupstate.edu/globalsouth.

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