UIS Speaker Series explores "Culture, Identity, and Sports: Indigenous Mexican Migrants Shooting Hoops"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series continues its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month delving into how anthropology can offer a deeper understanding of sports and insight into current immigration debates. The featured speaker will be Bernardo Ramirez Rios, a visiting faculty member from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

WHEN: Thursday, September 25, 2014 at 7 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: Many migrant populations are marginalized and exploited because of their social and political status. Cultural anthropologist Ramirez Rios will explore how Oaxacan migrants from Southern Mexico use basketball to create community and promote identity in the U.S. and Mexico.

Using a discussion, photography and video format, Ramirez Rios will show how the popular sport helps migrant withstand their daily struggles.

Ramirez Rios is a third generation Mexican-American from Sacramento, California. Inspired into equality and social justice work by his parents, who were active in the Chicano movement, Ramirez Rios has conducted field work in Oaxaca, Mexico and Southern California. He has published Torneo Transnacional: Shooting Hoops in Oaxacalifornia and the photographic essay La Copa Benito Juarez: Oaxaqueno Basketball in the USA and Mexico.

This series is co-sponsored by the UIS Organization of Latin American Students, UIS Department of Sociology and Anthropology, UIS Department of Women and Gender Studies, UIS Athletics and the Baymont Inn.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. All events are free and open to the public.