Conferences

PANEL: COLOMBIA'S TIME FOR PEACE

Tuesday 19 May 2015, 18:30 - 20:00

Colombia's Time for Peace

With Jean-Pierre Gontard

Former mediator in Colombia
 

Venue: Auditorium A2, Maison de la paix, Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2 

ColombiaHoy.PNGAfter half a century of armed conflict, a successful negotiation of a lasting Colombian peace agreement seems more likely than ever. In spite of occasional setbacks, conflict has deescalated as the parties have come together since the current peace talks began in 2012. Observing the country’s past, present, and future, the panellists will discuss whether it is finally Colombia’s time for peace and the challenges that may lie ahead in a post-conflict scenario.

This conference is based on the recent publicationColombia Hoy by the Swiss Society of Americanists. This edited volume analyses Colombia’s societal and political changes over the past 25 years and how these affect the society today. The panel will take a multi-disciplinary approach to understand Colombia’s experience with the on-going peace talks as its central point of reference.

To register, please click here

Discussants:

  • http://graduateinstitute.ch/modules/iheid-templates/img/arrow_521760.png) 0px 3px no-repeat;">Jean-Pierre Gontard, Former Swiss peace mediator in Colombia
  • http://graduateinstitute.ch/modules/iheid-templates/img/arrow_521760.png) 0px 3px no-repeat;">Enzo Nussio, Post-doctoral researcher, Institute of Latin American Studies, Stockholm University
  • http://graduateinstitute.ch/modules/iheid-templates/img/arrow_521760.png) 0px 3px no-repeat;">Liliana Soler, Academic Coordinator for Latin America at the Graduate Institute’s DPP programme
  • http://graduateinstitute.ch/modules/iheid-templates/img/arrow_521760.png) 0px 3px no-repeat;">Stefania di Iulio, Musicologist, University of Geneva
  • http://graduateinstitute.ch/modules/iheid-templates/img/arrow_521760.png) 0px 3px no-repeat;">Juan Fernando Palacio, Researcher at EAFIT University in Colombia, PhD candidate at University of St. Gallen

Moderator:

  • http://graduateinstitute.ch/modules/iheid-templates/img/arrow_521760.png) 0px 3px no-repeat;">Claude Auroi, Honorary Professor in Development Studies, Graduate Institute, President of Swiss Society of Americanists

The discussion will take place in both French and English and will be followed by an apéro.

This event is jointly organised by the Graduate Institute’s Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, the Swiss Society of Americanists, and the Association of Colombian Researchers in Switzerland

New CCDP Logo.png   SSA_logo_A_RVB.jpg   ACIS logo frances.jpg (Print)

Call for papers: 20th European Maya Conference "The Maya in a Digital World"

20th European Maya Conference "The Maya in a Digital World"
8‐13 December 2015, Bonn, Germany

The 20th European Maya Conference is hosted by the Department for the Anthropology at the University of Bonn, Germany, from December 8th to 13th, 2015. The conference combines three and a half days of workshops (December 8th-11th) and a two-day symposium (December 12th-13th).

SYMPOSIUM
The topic of this year's conference is: The Maya in a Digital World. The symposium will focus on the role and use of digital research methods in the field of Maya Studies. The Department for the Anthropology of the Americas currently hosts several projects with an emphasis in the Digital Humanities of Maya writing and linguistics. We would like to invite our colleagues to join us in Bonn to present and discuss recent developments of digital data collection and data analysis in Maya research.
Topics
that will be covered include theoretical and practical aspects of
‐  methods in computational archaeology including GIS, survey techniques (e.g. LiDAR), 3D‐analysis etc.
‐  the development of applications that support corpus‐building and analysis of Maya writing and Mayan languages
‐  the digitization of archival materials and harvesting of historical data, and
‐  the use of digital tools and methods in ethnographic and anthropological research
The debate will also touch upon ethical issues, including the questions who owns what data and in which way digital research methods can become tools of decolonialisation that can bridge dialogues  ‐‐ between foreign and local researchers, between researchers and their "research subjects", and within Maya communities. In this context, we would also like to explore the impact of the digital age on contemporary Maya societies and discuss the role of digital media such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter in education, politics and identity building in the modern Maya world.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Wayeb Conference Board invites the submission of abstracts concerning the conference topic. Papers will be selected from all sub‐disciplines of Maya Studies to cover the conference topic in all dimensions and from various perspectives.  We will try to create a thematic balance and accordingly will prioritise papers that complement the topics covered by invited speakers.
Presentations will be accepted in English and Spanish. Abstracts may not exceed 250 words. Contributions of authors who submit more than one abstract (including co‐authored papers) will not be considered. Co‐authorship needs to be indicated upon submission. It will not be possible to add co‐authors on a presentation unless these have been explicitly included in the submitted abstract and approved as such.
Please submit in electronic format (attached Word or RTF document) in the following order:
1. Author’s name and affiliation
2. Address, phone number and email address
3. Title of the paper
4. Abstract
The abstracts will be forwarded without the author’s particulars to an anonymous Review Committee that will be selected by the Wayeb Conference Board.
Please submit your application to callforpapers @ wayeb.org

The call for papers will close on the 31 May 2015!

All abstracts have to be sent in and confirmation of receipt received prior to this date.
More information regarding the workshops will be posted before the registration of the conference opens.
There will be separate registration available for both events (workshops and the symposium).
For more information, please contact the local organisers at emc2015 @ wayeb.org

4th Conference on Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean

Date(s): October 15-17, 2015
Location: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

Description:
This conference is organizes by ERIP, the LASA section on Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University and theLatin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies journal (LACES). ERIP is committed to the promotion of research, teaching, and the exchange of ideas about the distinctive cultures, racial identities and relations, as well as concerns of subaltern ethnic groups in the region, particularly indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants. The conference provides an opportunity for convening an international and broad interdisciplinary forum for scholars to explore related social, economic, political, historical, and cultural issues.

"Communities, Circulations, Intersections" evokes the scope of the 2015 ERIP conference. Panel and paper proposals related to this motif, as well as to all topics related to the section’s mission and areas of interest in Latin American and Caribbean studies, are welcome and encouraged.

Proposal deadline:
June 15, 2015

Contact information:
G. Antonio Espinoza, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Latin American History
Department of History
Virginia Commonwealth University
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 804-828-9387

Edward Abse, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
School of World Studies
Virginia Commonwealth University
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 804-827-1143

Additional information:
Conference website: erip.vcu.edu

Media and Governance in Latin America

Date(s): June 25-26
Location: The University of Sheffield, Interdisciplinary Centre for the Social Sciences Description

Description:
This conference will explore the connections between the media and models of governance in the region, from both a comparative and an interdisciplinary perspective.

Proposal deadline:
April 6

Contact information:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/journalism/events/latin-america-2015
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Additional information:
The conference will be organised in alternating plenary sessions and panels, each of which will include the presentation of three or four papers, followed by an open discussion. The initial programme includes four double panels.

X Congreso Internacional de Ciencias Sociales Interdisciplinares

Date(s): 11-13 Junio 2015
Location: Universidad de Split, Split, Croácia

Description:
Este Congreso sobre Ciencias Sociales Interdisciplinares es una gran oportunidad para que cientos de académicos e investigadores vinculados a los diversos ámbitos de las ciencias sociales, junto a educadores, responsables políticos, administradores públicos y otros profesionales de la educación, nos reunamos para debatir y dialogar a través de diversos campos y perspectivas, con el foco situado en los fundamentos de las ciencias sociales.

La inscripción al Congreso permite a los ponentes, además de asistir al evento, realizar una presentación o participar en una mesa redonda, taller o coloquio, publicar un artículo en la Revista asociada (tras superar el proceso de revisión por pares) y obtener acceso a todos los números de la Revista en español/portugués y a su homóloga en inglés (presentes y pasados) por un período de un año. Si no puede asistir al congreso en persona, puede inscribirse de manera virtual, opción que le permite unirse al diálogo de esta comunidad a través de la Revista (tras revisión y evaluación por pares).

Para más información sobre envío de propuestas, plazos y precios de inscripción , por favor consulte el siguiente enlace: http://lascienciassociales.com/congreso

Proposal deadline:
11 Mayo 2015

Contact information:
Pongase en contacto con nosotros en: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Para más información sobre la comunidad de Ciencias Sociales Interdisciplinares, visite la página web: http://lascienciassociales.com

Additional information:
La propuestas podrán ser enviadas en español y portugués.

Birmingham-Southern College’s 23rd Annual Undergraduate Latin American Studies Symposium: “Extreme Events in Latin America."

Date(s): April 24th-25th, 2015
Location: Birmingham-Southern College, 900 Arkadelphia Road, Birmingham, Alabama 35254

Description:
Established at BSC in 1992 to foster undergraduate research, the symposium increases public awareness of Latin America and provides a forum for students and faculty to share their interests and to establish contacts with colleagues in other disciplines.

The theme for 2015 is “Extreme Events in Latin America.” The term “extreme event” tends to be associated with severe weather phenomena such as tornadoes, tropical storms, hurricanes, and floods. It is also increasingly being used to describe climate change impacts and the effects earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides can have on urban areas. However, there is no precise metric for determining the extremeness of an event, and while some large-scale human events might generate positive effects or outcomes—sporting events, celebrations, commemorations, and elections, for example—extreme events are usually associated with death, destruction, misery, and mayhem. Airline disasters and bus crashes and some mass public demonstrations, strikes, and uprisings; and sudden political events such as coups, assassinations, and mass killings are also types of extreme events.

Although the 2015 theme is “Extreme Events in Latin America,” undergraduate papers on any topic relevant to Latin American Studies may be accepted: politics and culture, the global economy, literature, the environment, public health, gender, and art, for example.

Proposal deadline:
March 13th, 2015

Contact information:
Dr. Vincent T. Gawronski
Latin American Studies Symposium, Director
Birmingham-Southern College
900 Arkadelphia Road, Birmingham, AL 35254
Phone: (205) 226-4836
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Conference Website: http://www.bsc.edu/academics/las/symposium.cfm

Additional information:
Papers may be presented in Spanish, English, or Portuguese. Please submit an abstract proposal of no more than 250 words to Dr. Gawronski.

4th Conference on Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean

Date(s): October 15-17, 2015
Location: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

Description:
This conference is organizes by ERIP, the LASA section on Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University and theLatin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies journal (LACES). ERIP is committed to the promotion of research, teaching, and the exchange of ideas about the distinctive cultures, racial identities and relations, as well as concerns of subaltern ethnic groups in the region, particularly indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants. The conference provides an opportunity for convening an international and broad interdisciplinary forum for scholars to explore related social, economic, political, historical, and cultural issues.

"Communities, Circulations, Intersections" evokes the scope of the 2015 ERIP conference. Panel and paper proposals related to this motif, as well as to all topics related to the section’s mission and areas of interest in Latin American and Caribbean studies, are welcome and encouraged.

Proposal deadline:
June 15, 2015

Contact information:
G. Antonio Espinoza, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Latin American History
Department of History
Virginia Commonwealth University
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 804-828-9387

Edward Abse, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
School of World Studies
Virginia Commonwealth University
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 804-827-1143

Additional information:
Conference website: erip.vcu.edu

Bound labor in the Americas before the abolition of slavery:legal codifications, transfers and the harmonization of the practices

One-day conference

Poitiers University, France, October 16th, 2015

From the 17th century onwards, the demographic and economic growth of the North American and Caribbean colonies was intricately linked to the introduction and subsequent exploitation of bound labor. The implementation of indentured servitude addressed the need to compensate for the scarcity of labor, after the relative failure of the enslavement of Native Americans, while also assuring the peopling of the colonies. By the same token, the deportation of vagrant children, of vagabonds and convicts also provided a means for the Old Continent to rid itself of its undesirable population. The rise in European immigration that resulted from the decrease of sea transportation costs made free labor more economically attractive and gradually transformed the indentured servitude system into the Redemptioner System. During the course of the 18th century, the increasing reliance on black bonded labor led to the disappearance of white indentured servitude. Economic incentives - be they in terms of productivity or in the cost of controlling the laborers - motivated the adoption of new forms of bound labor. However, the substitution of one form of unfree labor for another did not occur in a sudden and orderly fashion: the change was characterized by a period of transition during which several types of bound labor coexisted.

This one-day conference aims at historicizing the implementation and development of different forms of bound labor in North America and in the Caribbean before the abolition of slavery. By specifically focusing on the process of legal codification, it intends to underline the continuities, the transfers and the differences that existed between the legislations which applied to various forms of unfree labor, but also between practices. Bound labor took many forms (indentured servitude, apprenticeship, convict labor, slavery, etc.) and encompassed diverse personal and collective experiences, depending on the geographic location and the historical period. Besides examining the construction of a legal arsenal aimed at controlling and disciplining unfree laborers, this one-day conference will also endeavor to assess, through case studies, the disparities between rhetoric and reality, in order to highlight the indomitable propensity for individuals or social groups to emancipate themselves from normative injunctions.

We welcome presentations based on a variety of topics such as:

- a comparative approach between different legislations, different time periods and different geographic locations

- the extent to which social and geographical origins, or religious confession, influenced unfree laborers’ social integration and treatment

- the social and political difficulties posed by the coexistence of various forms of bound labor

- the specialization and assignment to professional tasks according to the type of bound labor force

- the gap between law and practice

- the historiographic progress which the development of new technologies allows, namely in the treatment of data and the reconstruction of personal or collective trajectories

The languages of the one-day conference will be French and English.

For consideration, please submit a paper proposal of 300 words and a 1 page CV by April 15, 2015 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A selection of papers presented at the conference will be published.

Conference organizers:

Lawrence Aje (Université Paul -Valéry, Montpellier 3 - EMMA)

Anne-Claire Fauquez (Université Panthéon - Assas - EA 1569: Transferts critiques et dynamiques des savoirs, Université Paris VIII)

Elodie Peyrol-Kleiber (Université de Poitiers - MIMMOC)

TSA 14th Annual Conference Call for Papers

On 6 - 8 July 2015 the Transatlantic Studies Association will host its 14th Annual Conference at the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, the Netherlands.

Established in 2002, the TSA is a broad network of scholars who use the ‘transatlantic’ as a frame of reference for their work in political, economic, cultural, historical, environmental, literary, and IR/security studies. All transatlantic-themed paper and panel proposals from these disciplines are welcome. The Middelburg conference also encourages proposals / panels that:

  1. investigate the relevance and significance of the ‘transatlantic’ for a certain discipline or field;
  2. that explore it through frames of reference such as ideology, empire, race, religion, migration, political mobilisation, or social movements;
  3. that incorporate perspectives that involve north-south and south-south transatlantic connections, as well as north-north;
  4. that link the ‘transatlantic’ to other key perspectives such as the transnational or the cosmopolitan.

Both panel proposals and individual papers are welcome. Panel proposals are encouraged to include a discussant. New members and junior scholars are especially welcome.

Please send individual paper proposals (a 300 word abstract + brief CV) and complete panel proposals (300 word overview + 300 word abstracts for the papers + brief CVs) to the conference email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Deadline for panel and paper proposals: 1 January 2015

Keynote Lectures:

Jessica Gienow-Hecht (Free University, Berlin)

Inderjeet Parmar (City University, London)

Plenary Roundtable:

The Transatlantic Paradigm Reconsidered 

Accommodation

Due to limited accommodation options in the town of Middelburg, it is highly recommended that participants organize their accommodation as early as possible. Every effort will therefore be made to accept proposals as soon as possible after the 1 January deadline.

The Roosevelt Study Center can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for information on accommodation options.

TSA Chair and local conference organiserGiles Scott-Smith: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Conference committeeVictor Gavin, Mark Meirowitz, Alexandre Moreli, Sirpa Salenius, Roberta ter Haar, Pia Wiegmink, David Woolner

For further information on the Association please visit www.transatlanticstudies.com

Call for papers: International graduate conference Freie Universität Berlin

The 8th Graduate School of North American Studies international conference will be held at the John F. Kennedy Institute at Freie Universität Berlin on May 7-9, 2015.

Currently we are looking for a broad and intriguing spectrum of papers on "Alliances: Un/Common Causes and the Politics of Participation" and invite graduate students to join us in Berlin in May 2015.

The conference will explore the histories, presences, and futures of alliance making. Transdisciplinary and transnational in scope, it foregrounds the complex interplay between the imaginary and the material. We invite speakers to think with, through, and beyond the following issues:

  1. hegemonic alliances vs. grassroots organizing
  2. mobs, crowds, and gatherings: performativity and agency in numbers
  3. fragmented, operation-based initiatives and intersectional justice movements
  4. cultural resonances and literary representations of alliances
  5. the aesthetics of co-option and cooperation
  6. delinking strategies and dissolving coalitions
  7. peer-to-peer finance (e.g. crowdfunding) and other collaborative investments
  8. networked materialities, virtual and posthuman alliances
  9. alliances and social participation in historical perspective

You can find the full CfP on the website of the GSNAS (http://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/graduateschool/events/conference/2015/index.html).

Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words and a short CV to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The proposal deadline is February 16, 2015.
Selected presenters will be notified by March 17, 2015.

Terra Foundation - Yale University Press American Art in translation Book Prize

The Terra Foundation for American Art, in partnership with Yale University Press, is offering a new prize for an unpublished manuscript or previously published manuscript in a language other than English written by a non-U.S. author. The manuscript should make a significant contribution to scholarship on the historical visual arts of what is now the geographic United States.

In helping to overcome the language barrier that often divides scholars and deters international research and collaboration, the prize aims to advance and internationalize scholarship on American art and seeks to recognize original and thorough research, sound methodology, and significance in the field. The award is especially intended to encourage authors who take the field of American art history into new historical and interpretive terrain, or who establish connections among the work of scholars within and outside the United States, providing a model of international exchange important to sustaining relevance and academic rigor for the future of the field.

The winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize; the Terra Foundation will fund production of the book, which will be published (in print and electronic form) in English by Yale University Press. In addition, Yale University Press will invite the winner to present a lecture on the book, upon publication, at Yale University. Scholars who have received PhDs within the past five years are strongly encouraged to apply.

Applicants must submit a letter of inquiry by August 3, 2015. The deadline for the receipt of completed applications is October 15, 2015.

For more information about application guidelines and the application process, schedule, and checklist, please visit the Yale University Press website:www.yalebooks.com/terratranslationprize.

The 10th Biennial Symbiosis 2015 Conference

Call for Papers:


The 10th Biennial Symbiosis 2015 Conference:
Transatlantic Literary & Cultural Relations
A Symbiosis and Essex University event

Venue: Essex University, Colchester, UK
Dates: Thursday 9th to Sunday 12th July, 2015
Keynote Speakers:
Richard Gray (Essex University); Peter Hulme (Essex); Jahan Ramazani (Virginia)
Guest speaker: t.b.a.


The headline conference theme is trauma, conflict, and reconciliations, although proposals on any topic relevant to any area of Transatlantic Studies are welcome. The event organizers invite submission of:

200 – 300 word abstracts for proposed 20-minute conference presentations
Panel presentations comprising 3 presenters (please submit three 200 word abstracts & brief overall rationale)
Please send by email to both: 
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Sunday 22nd March 2015
The editors of Symbiosis, the Conference Directors, and Essex University’s Department of English invite proposals for panels and individual papers of twenty minute length, which engage a wide variety of transatlantic and/or transnational topics in the literatures and cultural histories of the Atlantic world. The conference is certainly not limited to any local concerns, although papers that treat issues related to the headline theme of conflict, trauma, and reconciliations in its transatlantic dimensions or a matter of cultural exchange and interrelationships are especially welcome, as are those examining the first fifteen years of transatlantic literary and cultural responses to the twenty-first century. Additionally as ever submissions are actively encouraged from all scholars and students of literary and cultural history and representation from every period from the earliest settlement right through to the present.



Poet Donald Davie was the first Professor of English at the new University of Essex, moving to Stanford and Vanderbilt Universities; Robert Lowell taught there for two years in the 1970s. The campus is conveniently located on the outskirts of Colchester, a thriving town, once the roman capital of Britain, now forty miles from London, 46 minutes journey on the fast train to and from London Liverpool Street station. Colchester itself offers numerous attractive bars, restaurants and two large shopping centres; the campus is close to the riparian attractions of Wivenhoe, also full of pubs and eating places.


Accommodation can be booked on campus, in well-appointed rooms, minutes away from the conference centre and the Symbiosis event. The conference fee (tba) will include a two-year subscription to the Symbiosis journal, confeence lunches, teas and coffees; single accommodation (with continental breakfast) can be booked if specified, and double rooms at a higher fee. The conference dinner is additional, and delegates are responsible for their own evening and other supplementary meals. Activities will include a literary event at the VENUE TBA, which will incorporate a SOMETHING reading and a tour of a significant cultural site. A list of local hotels and guest houses, if preferred, can be provided.


Submit 200 – 300 word abstract with details of your academic affiliation and contact details in Microsoft Word attachments by Sunday 22nd March, 2015 to the Conference Directors, Prof. Philip Tew (Brunel) and Dr. Matthew Scott (Reading): 
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Add ‘Symbiosis 2015 Proposal’ to the subject line of your message, an essential detail since they will be sorted automatically using this search term.


Earlier inquiries are welcome; early acceptance may be possible if required for institutional or similar funding to facilitate attendance. Symbiosis cannot offer bursaries or fee waivers. Further details will be posted on the Essex University webpage, on the Symbiosis website and its Facebook page. See variously:


http://www.symbiosistransatlantic.com/

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Glasgow-United-Kingdom/Symbiosis-a-Journal-of-Anglo-American-Literary-Relations/313163095816).

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