Cosponsored by:
Museo del Canal
Asociación de Antropología e Historia de Panamá
El Centro Internacional de Estudios Políticos y Sociales
Centro de Investigaciones Históricas, Anthropológicas y Culturales AIP – Panamá
[Espanol abajo]
Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (SLACA) 2025 Conference
Theme: (Im)mobility and Memory in Latin America and the Caribbean
Dates: March 12-15, 2025
Location: Museo del Canal, Panama City, Panama
The Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (SLACA) is pleased to invite
submissions for our biennial conference, “(Im)mobility and Memory in Latin America and the
Caribbean.” This conference will explore the dynamic interrelations between memory and
mobility in the region, focusing on how both movement and stasis shape, and are shaped by,
cultural, social and historical processes. We seek to examine how memory—individual and
collective—becomes a contested terrain in relation to both mobility and immobility.
Conceptualizing Memory:
In this conference, we are imagining Memory as encompassing not only personal and collective
recollections but also broader questions of heritage, patrimony, and history. How are tangible
and intangible forms of patrimony – such as monuments, artifacts, oral traditions, and historical
narratives – remembered, preserved, or transformed in contexts of movement, migration, or
displacement? How do communities in Latin America and the Caribbean negotiate their cultural
and historical legacies in the face of (im)mobility? We invite participants to consider these and
other questions as they relate to the politics of memory, heritage, and identity.
We invite cultural and social anthropologists, ethnographers, archaeologists, linguistic
anthropologists, biological anthropologists, and related fields to contribute to this cross-subfield
conversation. Submissions may engage with the following questions and topics, although other
relevant themes are welcome:
● How do movements, migrations, and displacements shape personal and collective
memories in Latin America and the Caribbean?
● How is cultural patrimony—both tangible (e.g., monuments, artifacts) and intangible
(e.g., traditions, languages)—impacted by the forces of mobility or immobilities in the
region?
● What role does memory play in ongoing struggles for justice, rights, and recognition in
Latin America and the Caribbean?
● How do material remains (archaeological, cultural, biological) inform our understandings
of past and present mobilities and immobilities?
● What linguistic strategies are employed to navigate, negotiate, or resist mobility, and
how are they remembered and transmitted across generations?
● In what ways do (im)mobilities intersect with racial, gendered, and class-based identities
in the region, and how does this intersection affect collective memories and heritage?
● How do environmental changes, political economies, and global connections foster or
hinder movements within Latin America and the Caribbean, and what is the impact on
cultural heritage and memory?
SLACA is a multilingual professional association. Thus, although there will be no formal
translation services, oral presentations may be given in Spanish, Portuguese, French, or
English. We ask that slides be prepared in one of the other languages to facilitate dialogue.
Submission Guidelines:
We invite individual submissions for paper or poster presentations. Proposals should include:
- For individual papers: a title, a 250-word abstract, and the presenter’s name, affiliation,
and contact information. Abstracts are accepted in all languages listed above, but a
version in Spanish must also be provided. - For posters: a title, a 250-word abstract, and the presenter’s name, affiliation, and
contact information. Abstracts are accepted in all languages listed above, but a version
in Spanish must also be provided.
Submission Deadline:December 6, 2024December 14, 2024
Notification of Acceptance: Mid-December, 2024
Please submit your proposals through our conference management system. For
questions regarding submissions,