This day-long event featured presentations by professors, youth organizers, politically active youth, and students. “Civically Engaged Youth in the Americas: A Three City Perspective - Chicago, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro” stems from a larger comparative study undertaken by Professors Norma Alicía Del Río Lugo (Mexico City), Irene Rizzini (Rio de Janeiro), and María de los Angéles Tórres (Chicago) researching the role of youth in public spaces in each of their cities. The three themes of the colloquium include Becoming, Engaging, and Envisioning - the day began with an overview to the project.

Norma Alicía Del Río Lugo is currently Full Time Researcher-Professor of Psychology, at the Department of Education and Communication of the Metropolitan Autonomous University- Xochimilco (UAM), in Mexico City. She is head of the Research Program on Infancy and Childhood and of the Center of Documentation on Infancy.

Irene Rizzini is a Professor and a researcher at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Director of The International Center for Research on Childhood (CIESPI). Professor Rizzini serves as President of Childwatch International Research Network. She is the author of several books, among which are: Niños, Adolescentes, Marginalidad y Violencia en América Latina y el Caribe: Relaciones Indisociables? (Children and Youth, Marginalization and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Indissociable Relations?).

María de los Angéles Tórres is a Professor and serves as the Director of the Latin American & Latino Studies Program (UIC). Her work has focused on Cuba and its exiles as well as on Latino politics in the U.S. She has authored two books, In the Land of Mirrors: Cubans Exile Politics in the US and The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the US and the Promise of a Better Future, she has edited a volume of essays, By Heart/De Memoria: Cuban Women’s Journeys in and Out of Exile, and has co-edited a book on Borderless Borders: Latinos: Latin Americans and the Paradoxes of Interdependence. She is currently working on two research projects: “Children and Youth’s Politics in the Age of Globalization” and “Comparative Civic Engagement in three Latino Communities.”

Recorded Thursday, September 20, 2007 at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.