Ciao!

Top of the list

I'm taking Sunday to relax & spend time on non-dissertation stuff. (Well, going over Chapter 1 this morning doesn't count.) So I took a little trip out to Barnes & Noble after a shift at Rocket Star Café. I bought a Pennsylvania road map. Then spent time browsing — but not buying (oh! how I love playing that game w/ Barnes & Noble) — their travel section.

Posted by Miguel at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Spring delayed

I'd love to be posting about Spring. Better yet, I'd love to just sit around enjoying Spring. But the last sprint to the finish line w/ my dissertation takes up a lot of time/effort. So no time to snap pictures of what was a quick, sudden, brilliant burst of Spring around Kalamazoo. I think apple blossoms have the same effect on me as cherry blossoms do on most other people.

Posted by Miguel at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Bits of good news

So the good news I promised to announce after the MPSA conference is confirmed. In order of when they happened: First, I accepted a faculty position at Dickinson College. Second, K8 & I are getting married. That's her last Fall in Michigan's Manistee National Forest.

Posted by Miguel at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

In Chicago

I'm currently in Chicago, for the annual Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) conference. This is also the first time I've purposefully travelled w/o Kaneda, my trusty sidekick. So email/blogging will be light for the duration. I'm going to hit the convention booksellers' exhibit harder than ever before. I need sample copies of muchos libros.

The weather's lovely, and tonight we're heading out for sushi & then a show at Schuba's to see Bound Stems & The Living Blue. Should be fun.

Posted by Miguel at 09:32 AM | Permalink

Quick note

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

Oh, and a brief bit from Bolivia: Some protesters recently kidnapped (sort of) three government ministers (they've been released) & today the Asamblea de la Cruceñidad gave Evo's government six days before they call for a department-strike.

Posted by Miguel at 09:29 AM | Permalink

What kind of course would you like to see?

I need to develop a special topics course on Latin American politics for next semester. I've several ideas of my own (about a dozen, actually). But I need to narrow it down to just one. So I'm going to recruit some outside comments. If you were taking a special topics course on Latin America, what would you like to take? If you have specific ideas for books, that'd be appreciated, too. And, yes, I realize that I'm outsourcing my work to others. Just consider this an exercise in open-source, democratic curriculum construction.

Posted by Miguel at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Personal update

It's been a hectic two weeks, w/ another hectic two weeks yet to come. But I wanted to note that I've also had two fantastic weekends. Centellas birthday weekend (w/in a three-day period my abuelita, my dad, myself, and my niece all have birthdays) in Chicago was a nice break. I taught my niece how to make paper airplanes & throw them out hotel windows. What are uncles for, eh? Then there was Easter weekend, w/ the always amazing Easter Vigil at St Tom's followed by a pleasant Easter Sunday w/ my parents back in Saginaw.

There's a few surprises coming up (I hope more than one) that I'm keeping under my hat for now. At least until after the annual MPSA conference in Chicago.

Posted by Miguel at 12:57 PM | Permalink

Bolivia update

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

There's a nice little story on Bolivian blogs (or bitacoras) at bolivia.com, including a short list of Bolivian bloggers — particularly writers & other "cultural elites" (to use some sociology jargon) who've gotten into the game. It's worth checking out.

Posted by Miguel at 12:55 PM | Permalink

Imagining Bolivia

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics

Rather belatedly, I know. But I just sent out my MPSA paper to everyone. It's on Bolivian nationalism(s). If you're interested, you can download it (.pdf) here. I'll warn you, the ending is rather weak.

Posted by Miguel at 05:10 PM | Permalink

On populism

Technorati tags: Latin America politics

There's been much discussion about "populism" recently. Here's an amazing essay on the subject from The Economist that appears in Vcrisis. In a short essay (probably 4-5 print pages), the author gives a succinct account of the history of populism, and how it's different from other movements (such as socialism or social democracy).

For the record: Evo Morales is a populist, not a socialist. IMHO.

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UPDATE: I've added several books on Latin American political parties & populism to my Amazon.com wishlist. These are books I want to remember to order for potential use in a special-topics course I'll teach next semester.

Posted by Miguel at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Brief review of constituent assembly electoral system

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics

This is in response to Matthew Shugart's comment/question from this previous post on Bolivia's constituent assembly election. I now have a free moment to give a slightly better (i.e. clearer) account of the upcoming election. First, some background.

Posted by Miguel at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Constituent assembly ballots

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics

Sample ballots for the constituent assembly election are up. Here's the La Paz sample ballot. The ballots will vary from department to department, since some candidate lists will enter only in some (but not all) departments. El Nuevo Día (the Santa Cruz edition of La Razón also published the La Paz sample ballot (but not the Santa Cruz sample ballot). None of the other papers have sample ballots.

In other Bolivian political news: Today is the 54th anniversary of the 9 April 1952 National Revolution, led by the MNR. Here's a retrospective in El Deber (published in Santa Cruz). I haven't seen a retrospective in the La Paz or Cochabamba papers.

Posted by Miguel at 12:53 PM | Permalink

Assembly candidate lists

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics

The candidate lists for the Bolivian constituent assembly are up as of early this morning. Sadly, my other time deadlines — dissertation, job interviews, conference paper (in order of importance) — prevent me from delving into this until later, perhaps much later.

Posted by Miguel at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)