For Immediate Release
October 22, 2007
Contact:
Christi Fish
cfish@wilkinguge.com
(909) 390-1239 ext. 105
Professor Diane Klein Speaks at LatCrit Conference
Conference proceedings will be published by the Florida International University Law Review and the St. Thomas Law Review
Ontario, Calif., October 22, 2007 – Following her research about the representation of Latinos in contemporary television, University of La Verne law professor Diane Klein presented “Latino Masculinities Under The Microscope: Stereotyping and Counterstereotyping on CSI: Miami” at the 12th annual LatCrit Conference (LatCrit XII) held Friday, October 5 to Saturday, October 6 in Miami.
Professor Klein’s presentation discussed whether two twentieth-century cinematic Latino stereotypes, “el bandido” and “the Latin Lover,” are also seen on television, particularly on CSI: Miami. CSI: Miami was chosen for analysis because (1) it is the most-watched television show in the world, (2) it is set in Miami, where LatCrit XII was taking place, and (3) Miami is a demographically-unique city, in terms of Spanish-speakers.
Upon analysis of CSI: Miami, Professor Klein found “el bandido” and “the Latin Lover” to be very much alive on television today. The multi-season villains on CSI: Miami conformed closely to the modern “el bandido” stereotype (which Professor Klein referred to as “Los Nuevos Bandidos”), with the additional element that they were not Americans and represented a foreign “threat” to America’s institutions and way of life. The “Latin Lover” stereotype also appeared repeatedly and was found to be highly descriptive of one main Latino character on the show, a member of the CSI team who was highly sexualized and both an object of desire and a forbidden romantic partner to Angla/White women.
“Although CSI: Miami might seem quite progressive through the inclusion of a lot of Latino content and numerous Latino characters and actors, it, in fact, reinforces many existing stereotypes about Latino men, including familiar characterizations as exotic and dangerous,” said Professor Klein. “This is especially significant because the show is so widely seen.”
Professor Klein’s conference presentation was one of several in the emerging area of race and gender studies relating to masculinity. The conference was sponsored by Latino Critical Legal Theory Inc., which advocates on law and policy toward Latinas/os and provides accessibility of that knowledge. Conference attendees included scholars from all over the Western Hemisphere who work in areas of race and critical theory.
Professor Diane Klein’s work has been published in numerous law journals and casebooks, including the National Black Law Journal (Columbia Law School), the Pittsburgh Law Review, and the Baylor Law Review. Her primary research concerns the intersection of race and gender with other doctrinal issues of law. She is a graduate of Harvard College and the UCLA School of Law and has formerly taught at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston and Albany Law School in New York.
For more information about Professor Klein’s analysis of Latina/Latino stereotypes in television or for more information about faculty scholarship at the University of La Verne College of Law, please e-mail Professor Klein at DianeJKlein@aol.com. For general information about the College of Law, visit http://law.ulv.edu.
About the University of La Verne College of Law
Located in Ontario, Calif., University of La Verne College of Law serves over 3.8 million people as the only ABA-accredited law school in Inland Southern California and an additional 2.2 million people in San Gabriel Valley and Eastern Los Angeles County. For more information about the College of Law, please call (909) 460-2001 or visit the Web at http://law.ulv.edu.
The University of La Verne College of Law was provisionally approved by the American Bar Association on February 13, 2006.
