USD President's Report 2000

latin america

Peru is home away from home for Alana Cordy-Collins. For 16 of rhe past I7 sum- mers, rhe USD anthropology professor has joined a group of colleagues in rhe shadow of a ruined pyramid in a desert along rhe Peruvian coast, carefully sifring through the dire for clues abom an extinct civilization as rich and powerful as any in the ancient world . Cordy-Collins and her colleagues focus their work at Dos Cabezas, a ruined pyra- mid made of more than a hundred million mud bricks. In addition co the silt, which over the centuries has buried sections of the site as much as 30 feet below rhe surface, their work is complicated by the harsh con- ditions of one of the world's driest deserts and by looters who have ransacked the site in search of its treasures. "Ir's very meticulous, tedious work," she says, "and the conditions can be brutal. Bur the rewards make it all worthwhile." T he rewards are uncovering items left behind by rhe Moche, a sophisticated, highly stratified society char existed hundreds of years before the lncan empire, in rhe same region . T hough they had no wrirren lan- guage, the Moche left a wealth of informa- tion about their culmre in their elaborate artwork. Cordy-Collins says how it was cre- ated may say as much about rhe Moche as the artwork itself. "The Moche people lived in chat area between about AD 200 and 800," she says. "We have fo und examples of metallurgy and ceramic work that are absolutely astounding for chat time. We have theories about how they mined the metals they used and the cools and techniques they used, but we've never found any of the workshops.

Finding chose will give us a much clearer picture of how the Moche were able to create such exquisite art, and cell us more about their society." Even after nearly 20 years of digging, finding ceramic borrles or meral jewelry srill gives Cordy-Collins a thrill, bur she says some of the greatest joys derived from rhe digs occur back ar USD , when she shows rhe photos and artifacts to her students. "There are always a few students who in the beginning don't really even understand what archaeology is, then walk away fasci- nated," she says. "Some students have done their own research projects using the mate- rials I bring back. Even after they are done with my class, some ask me to e-mail them about rhe things we find. Ir's a wonderful part of rhe experience." Seventeen undergraduate business stll- dents got a different South American expe- rience during a six-week trip this summer co Argentina wirl1 professors Gary Schnei- der and John Roncherro. While the stll- denrs learned much about South American commerce over the course of visits co a steel plant, a government-sponsored hospital and the local office of the World Bank, it was coping daily with the demands of a radical- ly different culture rhac was mosr demand- 111g. "They got about a year's worth of matu- rity in six weeks, " Schneider says. ''Argenti- na is not like Mexico, or any ocher place these srudenrs had ever been. Ir's really more European rhan Mexican. I cold them rhey would never sleep as well as they would in Argentina, because you're exhaust- ed by the end of the day. Even rhe mosr simple activi ties, like going out to eat, are

La Paz, Bolivia

Quito, Ecuador

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dos Cabezas, Peru

Catherine Conaghan, the Knapp Chair in the Department ofPolitical Science, is a specialist in the politics ofBolivia, Ecuador and Peru. A vis- iting professor to USD from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Conaghan has been closely following the upheaval surrounding Peru's Presi- dent Fujimori via e-mail with her colleagues in Peru, and as creator and editor ofthe Internet site Peruelection2000. com. Economics professor Joan Anderson is in the second ofa three-year study ofthe economic development ofLatin America, funded by the Ford Foundation and the Tinker Foundation. Anderson is a specialist in the area, having twice studied as a Fullbright scholar in Ecuadoi'. Her work there included constructing a policy model for that country based on her study ofits infla- tion, unemployment and exchange rates. Denise Dimon, professor ofeconomics, serves as editor ofthe Latin American Business Review, the journal ofthe Business Association ofLatin American Studies. As director of USD's Ahlers Center for International Business, D imon coor- dinates the university's semester exchange and study abroad pro"grams, international internships and practicums, and the executive education program that brings international business leaders from throughout the world to learn US. business practices.

Jose Luis Noriega '92 of Lima, Peru, accomplished what few college athletes even dream about when he became a four-time NCAA All-American. Noriega won two West Coast Conference singles titles, played for Peru in the Davis Cup and in his senior year was ranked No. 2 singles player in the nation. Economics professor Joan Anderson has twice received prestigious Fullbright Grants to pursue her research in Latin America. a real challenge, because you're always observing and interpreting what you see. There are no automatic processes." Schneider says the business education the students received also forced chem co rethink what they thought they knew. "In the United Stares you hear a lot about e-commerce and the new economy, but it has a far different meaning in South America," he says. "There are 45 million people in Argentina, and on ly a million or so of them are online, so the opportuni ty structure for e-business has a completely different look co it than in ocher places. I chi nk they gor rhe message of how impor- canr it is co evaluate individual markets and not assume rhar one size firs all." W hile international study opportunities are traditionally reserved fo r graduate stll- dents, involving undergraduates nor only benefits the students themselves, but also their classmates, Schneider says. "Having a professor say, 'When I was in Buenos Aires it was chis way,' is a great thing, but students relati ng their own inter- national experience ro rheir peers is a won- derful teaching cool," he says. "le adds a life co the subject and makes it more real."

During her excavations in Peru, anthropology Professor Alana Cordy- Collins discovered three royal tombs that, unlike the 200 or so previously found, contained giants - skeletons some 8 to 10 percent larger than their contemporaries. The skeletons repre- sent the oldest documented cases of gigantism in the New World .

While it makes chem berrer students, Schneider believes being immersed in a different culmre for six weeks also makes the undergraduates berrer people. "A lot of preconceived notions are dis- pelled when the smdents see first-hand chat there are so many people who view the world very differently than they do ," he says. "I chink it encourages a higher level of tolerance of the differences in people, maybe even an appreciation of chem." •

University of San Diego

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President's Report 2000 IJ