1998 Conference

PRESS RELEASE

3rd Biennial Conference

Puerto Rican Studies Association
October 15 –17, 1998
Brooklyn College, New York

Affirming Identity, Citizenship and Nationhood:  Los Ultimos Cien Años

For three days in mid-October, the focus will be on Brooklyn as academics and community practitioners convene at Brooklyn College to mark the centennial anniversary of the United States–Puerto Rican relationship initiated in 1898, as a result of the Spanish-American War. Brooklyn College and the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies are the proud hosts of the third international conference of the Puerto Rican Studies Association.

The theme of the conference, “Affirming Identity, Citizenship and Nationhood: Los Ultimos Cien Años,” draws scholars and researchers from more than 20 states and Puerto Rico to delve into the significance of this milestone event from diverse disciplinary perspectives and experiences.  The conference incorporates some thirty-five sessions: panels and roundtables in history, literature, education, politics, gender studies, sociology, law and ecology.  In addition, the conference provides a book exhibition, recent publication displays, readings by noted and emerging writers, slide presentations, an exhibition of photographs documenting the migration experience, musical and theatrical presentations.

Moreover, the conference coincides with the third day of deliberations on “One Hundred Years of Transformation: The Caribbean and the United States, 1898-1998,” jointly sponsored by Lehman, Hunter and Brooklyn Colleges of the City University of New York. Both of these conferences explore the legacy of 1898-1998 by bringing foremost scholars in Caribbean, Puerto Rican, Dominican and Chicano Studies to the Brooklyn campus.

Among the first of academic institutions in the nation to establish a Department of Puerto Rican Studies, (now the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies), Brooklyn College is a fitting site for these gatherings.  The College is known for academic excellence and its acclaimed core curriculum.  A model of urban, public education, Brooklyn College represents the diversity of the Borough for which it is named.  The College spreads across a twenty-six acre, tree-lined campus and its seven – story student union building, (SUBO), where the sessions will take place, offers a panoramic view of New York City. Brooklyn College is easily accessible by public transportation, as well as Kennedy International and La Guardia Airports.  Around the JFK International Airport area, hotels include The Kennedy Hilton, Four Points Sheraton, Holiday Inn and the Ramada Inn. The College is accessible by direct transit service from the new Marriott Renaissance Hotel in the heart of downtown Brooklyn. A newly refurbished Comfort Inn is found in the scenic Bay Ridge area, some twenty-five minutes from the College by car.  In addition, moderate priced hotels, including the Empire, near Lincoln Center on West 63rd Street, the Excelsior, West 81st Street and the West Park Hotel, West 58th Street in the Columbus Circle area, are available in Manhattan.  The College will provide parking for conference participants who reserve in advance.  Taxis and car service are available.

October 15 –17, 1998!  Mark your calendars and come to Brooklyn College for the third international conference of the Puerto Rican Studies Association! Students are especially encouraged to attend.

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, this is the only document that we have been able to find related to PRSA’s 1998 Biennial Conference.

If you have copies of the original Call-for-Papers, the Conference Program, a Post-Conference Report, or any other documents or photos pertaining to this or any other PRSA conference, please send us a message using the  form found in the “Contact Us” page in this website in order to begin conversations on how we could get copies of them. We could make arrangements to have them digitized, if necessary. This is part of an effort to use PRSA’s new website as an electronic repository of historical documents on PRSA and the field of Puerto Rican Studies.

Please let us know. Accessing the “Contact Us” page is done through the dynamic menu found near the top of this page.