[Lasa] María Paula Romo at the University of Pennsylvania

[Julie Gamble]

***Please excuse cross-listing or reposting***


November 19, 2021


Dear Ecuadorian LASA list members,



We hope this email finds you well during these times that continue to
present uncertain realities. We write to you today out of dismay about
recent events occurring at the University of Pennsylvania. We recently
learned that Penn’s Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies (CLALS)
has appointed Ms. María Paula Romo as a Visiting Scholar for this 2021 Fall
semester. As you can imagine, the news of this designation comes with shock
and disappointment.



We write to request your support by signing an op-ed that we have
co-authored and plan to send to Penn’s student newspaper, The Daily
Pennsylvanian. Please review this op-ed
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yyFSL9-kZBv1keAWKAX8hbRPpXakJNiA7yJr20gMOiM/edit?usp=sharing>we
wrote about Ms. Romo’s appointment and Penn’s role in legitimating Ms.
Romo’s perspective, since part of what Penn seems to be avoiding is
English-language information about the appointment.



As alumni of this institution, we have been in contact with CLALS Director
Professor Tulia Faletti to gain insight into the decision-making around the
appointment. We also corresponded with Prof. Faletti by presenting evidence
that discusses Ms. Romo’s responsibilities as Minister of Government when
she ordered the repression of those protesting President Lenín Moreno’s
austerity measures. Ultimately, Professor Falleti informed us that she
plans to uphold Ms. Romo’s appointment. Yet, despite corresponding with us,
Prof. Faletti is simultaneously masking Ms. Romo’s status through having
pulled down Ms. Romo’s Visiting Scholar page from CLALS’s website, refusing
to respond to a change.org
<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.change.org%2Fp%2Fpennlaw-rechazo-a-la-asignaci%25C3%25B3n-de-mar%25C3%25ADa-paula-romo-como-profesora-en-la-universidad-de-pensilvania&data=04%7C01%7Cjulie.gamble%40trincoll.edu%7C555a70d35f314c26e35508d99c86da58%7Ca6cda06a52d94672ae1ff6f9c9f14e37%7C0%7C0%7C637712925278055734%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=CXvTiMSsLZKAkXXEYtLSKcY2RljJbkC6hOfvr8Oyc%2Bw%3D&reserved=0>
 petition with more than 10,000 signers, and ignoring the active Twitter
campaign against this appointment that has largely happened from Ecuador.
The whole situation feels ambiguous and disingenuous.



We write the listserv to see if others would be interested in signing
before we send the petition to *The Daily Pennsylvanian*, the University of
Pennsylvania’s student newspaper. We hope you are able to sign on. Also,
please feel free to circulate this letter to other Ecuadorianist scholars
that would potentially sign-on.  If you need more information about our
previous correspondences with the University, we’re happy to provide it.
After reviewing the letter
<https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1yyFSL9-kZBv1keAWKAX8hbRPpXakJNiA7yJr20gMOiM/edit>,
if you wish to sign on and support the letter, please email us back at
Julie Gamble (julie.gamble at trincoll.edu) and Nicholas Limerick (
nl2539 at tc.columbia.edu)



Thanks very much,



Julie Gamble, Ph.D. & Nicholas Limerick, Ph.D.



Julie Gamble, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Urban Studies

Urban Studies Program

Trinity College

julie.gamble at trincoll.edu

Pronouns: she/her
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