Fourth Spring Conference
Post-National Transformations: Culture and Politics in the
Greater Latin America and the Caribbean
Mérida, Mexico
March 20 – 22, 2013
Call for Papers
The Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology is moving, for the first time, to a new Spring Conference format. These meetings will be held every two years, beginning in Mérida, Mexico in 2013, following the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2015. We are calling for abstracts that respond to the theme selected for the conference.
Conference theme:
Post-National Transformations: Culture and Politics in the Greater Latin America and the Caribbean. In the second half of the twentieth century, politics, economics and culture lead societies into what theoreticians have called the post-national condition. On the one hand, nation-states had been forced to let go, or at least to understate, the unifying vision of a single ‘national’ culture, and to admit inter- and multi- cultural diversity; on the other hand, economic and political entities transcending the nation-state, such as the UN, NATO, NAFTA, the EU, the WB, the IMF, the OECD, and transnational corporations, impose internal rules and conditions to the everyday workings of people in nation-states. The development of communication and media technologies that make it possible to have instant communication, and to move financial capital across great distances, has supported both the expression of difference and the enforcement of general trans- and supra- national policies. Within this general context we have seen a resurgence of regional, national and minority identities (ethnic, cultural, religious, gendered, age-based and body-centered), and witnessed how in the end of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries governments struggle to re-draw state boundaries and gain control over the flows of goods, capitals and people. This conference brings together anthropologists working in Latin America, the Caribbean, or with groups of Latin American and Caribbean origin anywhere, to look at the politics surrounding culture at this stage of our common post-national and postcolonial condition, and at the forms, strategies, tactics, and practices of negotiation, resistance, opposition and transformation that emerge under this global condition.
We invite SLACA members in all sub-disciplines of anthropology to propose sessions within this broad theme, reflecting the different sub-disciplinary understandings of related issues.
Selection procedure:
The Conference Committee will pre-select 30 papers to be presented at the conference’s thematic session, and others to be presented at concurrent sessions on the last day of the event. The main session will be split into six sub-sessions, in two days, where 20 minutes will be allocated to each presentation and 10 minutes will be destined to comments and questions. The papers addressing related topics will be presented in concurrent sessions on the third day of the conference, following the same format. Poster presentations can also be proposed.
Abstracts 500 words long should be sent at most on September 31 to the conference organizers. On Oct. 21, the Conference Academic Committee will announce the papers selected for the conference and those accepted will be able to register on the AAA site. Membership to the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology is required. Those wishing to register can log into www.aaanet.org, follow instructions and join SLACA.
The editor of the Journal for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology will invite authors to submit revised papers for a special issue of the journal. Also, we have invited the editors of leading Mexican national and regional anthropology journals to attend and to consider inviting the submission of papers. We are hoping that the conference will result in several special issues, in various journals. The final program will include the names of the editors and the journals they represent.
Important deadlines:
September 30, 2012:
Submission of abstracts
November 1, 2012:
Announcement of pre-selected abstracts
December 15, 2012:
Registration begins through the AAA Site
January 31, 2013:
Deadline to register for the conference
March 7, 2013:
Publication of the Preliminary Program
March 20-23, 2013:
Conference in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico
Registration Fees
Professional members from rate A countries: US$ 100.00
Members from Latin America, the Caribbean and all rate B countries: US$ 70.00
Members underemployed or unemployed, and Students from rate A countries (such as Australia, USA, Canada, the EU and Japan): US$ 40.00
Members underemployed or unemployed, and Students from Latin America and the Caribbean, and from all rate B countries: US $ 30.00
Conference Organizers:
Gabriela Vargas-Cetina (Autonomous University of Yucatán) gabriela.vargas@uady.mx
Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz (Autonomous University of Yucatán) siayora@uady.mx
Conference Committee:
Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz (Universidad Autonoma De Yucatan)
Gabriela Vargas Cetina (Universidad Autonoma De Yucatan)
Francisco Fernandez Repetto (Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan)
Martha Rees (Agnes Scott College)
Ramona Perez (San Diego State University)
Jennifer Matthews (U. of California, Santa Barbara)
Host Institution
Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
http://www.antropologia.uady.mx/
UADY is one of the main Mexican Universities of Excellence
Conference location
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
Centro Cultural Universitario
Calle 60 x 57, Downtown Mérida
http://www.uady.mx/universidad/edificio.html
Merida, Yucatán, Mexico
Merida is a beautiful, safe, and culturally vibrant city in eastern Mexico. There are direct flights via Houston, Mexico City, and Cancun, and it can also be reached by bus from Cancun’s International Airport.
See the original conference website here