New Book Talk & Celebration

--Fri Feb 19, 12-1 pm. Digital Activism, Community Media, and Sustainable Communication in Latin America. Eds. Cheryl Martens, Cristina Venegas, & Esta Franklin Salvio Sharupi Tapuy.

Featuring short informal presentations by several of the book's editors and contributors, including UCSB Professor Cristina Venegas.

This book brings together academic and activist work on community media, feminist, decolonial, and Indigenous perspectives to digital activism, including Free and Open Communication in Latin America. The essays in this collection speak to major changes over the past decade that are reshaping digital media uses and practices. The case studies presented here question many commonly held assumptions around global media ownership, sustainability, and access relevant to countries beyond Latin American contexts.

Cristina Venegas is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies where she teaches courses related to history, criticism and theory with an emphasis on Latin American film and media. She is the author of Digital Dilemmas: The State, the Individual and Digital Culture in Cuba (Rutgers, 2010), a Choice Book Award recipient and is co-editor of Digital Activism, Community Media, and Sustainable Communication in Latin America (Palgrave, 2020). Her current book project is titled Julio García Espinosa and the Imperfect Imagination which examines the global legacy of the eponymous Cuban filmmaker’s (1926-2016) theory, creative practice and cultural work. She is co-editor of the Media Matters book series for Rutgers University Press. She has curated numerous film programs and served as juror for several international film festivals and film script competitions. In 2004, she co-founded the highly successful Latino CineMedia Festival in Santa Barbara (until-2011) in partnership with community artists and University leaders. Venegas also co-created a highly regarded filmmaking program for Santa Barbara high school students.