The PILAS Committee is pleased to invite postgraduates in Latin American Studies to submit abstracts for our upcoming in-person PILAS Conference, “Contesting Precarity, Envisioning New Relationalities”, to be held on the 8th and 9th of April 2025 at the University of Bristol.
We would like to analyse, reflect, and imagine together how social actors in Latin America are living and actively building new relations, forms of socialisation, and networks, and in doing so contest the interconnected social, political, economic, and ecological crises facing the region.
Postgraduates working in social and cultural studies, humanities and the arts are encouraged to present their research and explore the ways in which hope can be found in view of these multiple crises, but also identify the challenges that historical and current experiences bring.
Broadly, we propose to address various forms of social, political, economic, and environmental injustice, and identify pathways to social change. We invite perspectives addressing Latin America beyond the category of margins, but as central to the production of pathways towards new ways of living.
The conference aims to encourage a broad range of discussions, including reflections on the possibilities for fostering agency, strategies and narratives of resistance to contemporary conditions of precarity, and critiques of and alternatives to the dominance of capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy in everyday life. We are particularly interested in presentations that include reflections on the effects of knowledge extractivism within the research process, and how to move towards more equal relations between researchers and participants.
We invite submissions that include, but are not limited to, the following themes:
Locating different forms of injustices, precarities and oppressions
Participation, social movements and collective action
Alternative and diverse economies
Political ecology and socio-environmental practices
Alternative, popular and emancipatory forms of education
Struggles for truth, justice and memory against violences
Reimagining power, politics, democracy, and the state
Socially engaged arts and activism
Reflections on the above are welcome from a myriad of perspectives, including literature, film studies, digital humanities and other forms of creative practice.
Abstracts must be no more than 300 words and should include the title of the presentation, name of the presenter(s), institutional affiliation (optional), bio (optional), and email address. You can submit your abstract using this form.
The abstract submission deadline is 16th December 2024. We plan to notify accepted participants by 13th of January 2025.
We accept presentations in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
Proposals for roundtables are also welcome. You should indicate that on the text of the abstract and on this form.
