Founded in the 1990s, the Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies (LLACS) program at Northeastern returns to the Fall 2024 semester with the "Celebrating 30 Years of LLACS Scholarship: A Book Talk Series". This speaker series centers Northeastern LLACS faculty discussing their recent publications.

This event will feature author Dr. Alan West-Durán disucussing his most recent book is Afro-Cuban Religions and the Arts: A Dog Has Four Legs But Takes Only One Path.

Alan West-Durán (Cuba, 1953) is a poet, translator, critic, and essayist. He is the author of two books of poems, as well as a book of essays Tropics of History: Cuba Imagined (1997). West-Durán edited African Caribbeans: A Reference Guide (2003) and Latino and Latina Writers (2004), which includes over sixty full-length essays on Latino/a authors of the U.S. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the 2011 two-volume reference work titled Cuba. Cuba A Cultural History was published in 2017. His most recent book is Afro-Cuban Religions and the Arts: A Dog Has Four Legs But Takes Only One Path (2025). As a translator he has translated the work of Alejo Carpentier, Rosario Ferré, Luisa Capteillo, Nelly Richard, and Nancy Morejón. West-Durán was an editor of the webzine “Cuban Counterpoints” (2015-2018); and since 2019 he has been a regular contributor to “Rialta”, an online cultural journal, writing on literature, music, painting, and art. He is a Professor in the Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies (CSGS) at Northeastern University in Boston.