When: Monday, 17. May 2010 12.30
To: Monday, 17. May 2010
Where: London, EC1R 3GA, The Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road,
Host: English PEN
Contact: (cat@englishpen.org / 0207 324 2535)
More info: www.englishpen.org/events/penevents/freespeechcuba/

To mark the launch of our briefing, and to help us debate some of the complex issues it raises, English PEN is delighted to be hosting two of the UK’s most distinguished Cuba scholars at the Free Word Centre. 

Professor Elizabeth Dore is Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Southampton.  She is a modern Latin American historian known for her research on memory, class, gender, race and ethnicity in Central America, Cuba and Peru.   Professor Dore’s current research project focuses on Cubans’ memories of life in the revolution. The project, carried out by a team of Cuban and British scholars under her direction, has collected more than one hundred in-depth life history interviews, drawn from a cross-section of men and women throughout the island. (http://www.soton.ac.uk/cuban-oral-history/index.html)

Dr Par Kumaraswami is Lecturer in Latin American Cultural Studies at the University of Manchester.  For over a decade, she has been working on cultural policy and practice in revolutionary Cuba, especially pertaining to literature. She is currently completing a 5-year project on literary culture in the Cuban Revolution, in collaboration with Professor Antoni Kapcia (University of Nottingham) and a number of major cultural institutions in Cuba. The project has included over 100 in-depth interviews with Cuban writers, editors and promoters. She is also working on a project which explores the impact of the International Book Festival in Havana.

The event will be chaired by Carole Seymour-Jones, Deputy President of English PEN and Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

This is a free event with lunch provided.  As space is limited please RSVP to cat@englishpen.org or call 0207 324 2535 to reserve your seat. 

All guests will receive a copy of English PEN’s briefing paper ‘Freedom of expression in Cuba’.