Dr. Frederik appointed director of the Latin American Studies Center

Professor Laurie Frederik appointed to lead the Latin American Studies Center

Laurie Frederik, associate professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Anthropology, will serve as director of the Latin American Studies Center, effective July 14, 2014. Laurie will oversee the undergraduate certificate program and other activities that enhance Maryland students' opportunities to engage fully with the many resources about Latin America.

Laurie has written extensively about modern Cuba, including Trumpets in the Mountains: Theater and the Politics of National Culture in Cuba, published by Duke University Press in August 2012. The book is based on over a decade of ethnographic research, including two and a half years living in some of Cuba’s most remote mountainous areas called “zones of silence.” Her new research investigates contemporary forms of storytelling, focusing on legal testimony and the narrative reconstruction of truth in the United States and Puerto Rico. She teaches classes about the anthropology of art and performance, subversive cultural movements, national identity, censorship, creativity and ethnographic method.

Laurie earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. She earned two B.A. degrees, one in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and another in Anthropology from the University of Virginia.