UA’s Cuba Week Begins with Keynote Address by Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Ron Sparks

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama will kick off Cuba Week Sunday, Oct. 10 with a keynote address by State Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Ron Sparks on “The Importance of the Alabama-Cuba Relationship” at 5 p.m. in the Bryant Conference Center’s Sellers Auditorium.

Sparks’ address will be free and open to the public.

UA’s Cuba Week, Oct. 10-13, will feature more than two dozen panel presentations by UA faculty and their Cuban counterparts in higher education to highlight collaborative research conducted in conjunction with the Alabama-Cuba Initiative.

Topics for this year’s academic conference range from “Early History and Archaeology of Cuba” and “The State of Ceramic Arts in Cuba” to “The Biodiversity of Cuba: Insights into the Marine and Terrestrial Realms.” UA students will also discuss their study abroad experiences in Cuba.

As State Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, Sparks has led efforts to open up agricultural trade between Alabama and Cuba. Poultry, soybeans and wood products such as telephone poles are among the products Alabama sells to Cuba. In recent years, this trade with Cuba has created an economic impact for the state that has ranged from $300 to $400 million.

More than 20 Cuban scholars are scheduled to travel to Tuscaloosa for Cuba Week, including  Professor Otto Randín Gonzáles, executive secretary of the Commission on Monuments in the City of Havana who heads the effort to restore historic buildings in Old Havana;  Dr. Cristina Díaz López, vice provost of international relations at the University of Havana and a professor of analytical chemistry who specializes in environmental contamination; Dr. Rosa López-Oceguera of the Center for Hemispheric and U.S. Studies, University of Havana, and an expert in U.S.-Cuban relations; and Dr. Emilio Heredia Pi, a professor and musician at Cuba’s Institute of Superior Art.

Cuba Week, hosted by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, is open to the public and all presentations will be held at the Bryant Conference Center. The registration fee for the conference is $30 and is non-refundable.

The photography exhibit, “Side by Side/Lado a Lado,” will be open in conjunction with Cuba Week in Smith Hall on the UA campus. “Side by Side” pairs works by Chip Cooper, former UA director of photographer and UA artist in residence, with photography by Néstor Martí, photographer for the Office of the Historian, Havana, Cuba. The exhibit is the result of a year-long project to capture the spirit and culture of Cuba through the eyes of both photographers. It was exhibited in Havana’s Julio Larramendi Gallery last year. An opening reception will be held Oct. 11 from 6:30-8 p.m. in Smith Hall on the UA campus. The exhibit, co-sponsored by the Alabama Museum of Natural History, will run through Dec.31.

“We anticipate the upcoming Cuba Week to be our largest and best ever, with a significant number of our fellow Cuban educators traveling to Tuscaloosa to make scholarly presentations,” said Dr. Robert F. Olin, dean of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences. “We look forward to their arrival and to spending a productive week of rich and informative exchanges. Academic scholarship and the sharing of ideas among educators is more important than ever as the Cuban people undergo a period of intense change and new opportunities.”

UA’s Alabama-Cuba Initiative, now in its eighth year, has brought UA and Cuban educators together to establish opportunities for graduate student research, teaching and formal course work for undergraduate students at Cuban academic institutions. Since 2002, UA has received academic travel licenses from the U.S. Department of the Treasury that permit travel to Cuba for specific academic activities as part of the Cuba-Alabama Initiative. The license also provides opportunities for UA to invite Cuban scholars to the University for scholarly activities and for UA students to attend the University of Havana for a semester.

UA and the University of Havana have previously participated in two comprehensive educational activity planning sessions, in addition to a number of faculty-to-faculty interactions. In 2003, UA hosted the Alabama-Cuba Conference and invited 10 Cuban photographers, economists, writers, scientists, poets and other professionals to join with UA Latin American experts for three days of workshops and presentations. The participants exchanged ideas about differences and similarities between the two cultures regarding subjects as varied as baseball, the mambo, economic conditions and drinking-water standards.

The University of Havana hosted its planning session in April of 2006. UA and UH faculty participated in a three-day exchange regarding a range of diverse academic topics to identify areas of interest for teaching and course of study exchanges.

Other educational and cultural exchanges have included UA’s baseball team travelling to Cuba in 2008 to participate in a series of exhibition games with the Cuba Sports Institute. In 2009, a group of Cuban actors performed a Spanish-language production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” with UA theatre students in Tuscaloosa. Some 20 students from UA participated in UA semester abroad programs at the University of Havana in 2009 and 2010.

To register online for Cuba Week and for further details on all of the sessions, visit www.cubaweek.ua.edu.

UA’s College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.