LAWN News
December 2022
New publication: Worlds of Gray and Green: Mineral Extraction as Ecological Practice
Patricio Flores Silva (Sociology Warwick) and Sebastián Ureta (Universidad Diego Portales, Chile) just published a new volume "Worlds of Gray and Green. Mineral Extraction as Ecological Practice"Link opens in a new window in University of California Press.
Publisher's abstract: The Anthropocene has arrived riding a wave of pollution. From "forever chemicals" to oceanic garbage patches, human-made chemical compounds are seemingly everywhere. Concerned about how these compounds disrupt multiple lives and ecologies, environmental scholars, activists, and affected communities have sought to curb the causes of pollution, focusing especially on the extractive industries. In Worlds of Gray and Green, authors Sebastián Ureta and Patricio Flores challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. Adopting an environmental humanities analytic lens, Ureta and Flores offer a rich ethnographic exploration of the waste produced by Chile's El Teniente, the world's largest underground mine. Deposited in a massive dam, the waste—known as tailings—engages with human and non-human entities in multiple ways through a process the authors call geosymbiosis. Some of these geosymbioses result in toxicity and damage, while others become the basis of lively novel ecologies. A particular kind of power emerges in the process, one that is radically indifferent to human beings but that affects them in many ways. Learning to live with geosymbioses offers a tentative path forward amid ongoing environmental devastation.
New edited volume by Ricardo Aguliar-González: Opening and Treading Pathways
Ricardo Aguilar-González (PGR History) edited a new volume, Opening and Treading Pathways: Essays on Memory and Regional History in honour of Gerardo Sánchez Díaz (Morelia, UMSNH, 2022, in Spanish). The essays of this book emerged from the study of indigenous, military, religious and education communities in quest to collect, archive and organise the memories that provided a common basis in what is currently known as western Mexico from pre-Hispanic to modern times. The unifying premise of this book is that the region, and not the nation, is the most immediate and vivid space for the creation of social memory. Region is fraught with social meanings because it is a space that it is experienced by its inhabitants. Four essays, including the introduction, deal directly with the relation between social memory and the shaping of regions. Ten essays, ranging from land tenure disputes, the use of Morelia cityscape as warzone in nineteenth century, regional social tensions caused by nationally centralised agro-industrial development in post-revolutionary Mexico, are based on case studies on western Mexico from pre-Hispanic to modern times.
New article from Ben Smith in Journal of Illicit Economies and Development
LAWN member and professor of history Benjamin Smith published a new article, with Juan Fernández Velázquez, in the Journal of Illicit Economies and DevelopmentLink opens in a new window that explores the history of opium commodity chains in Mexico. Opium production emerged in Mexico in the 1920s, with long-run impacts of the development of drug production and trafficking between Mexico and the United States. The article is part of a special issue, Why the Drug War Endures, that was released this month.
November 2022
LAWN teams up with student society
In Term 1, we kicked off a collaboration with the Latin American Students Society at Warwick. The society is interested in opportunities to meet LAWN members—academic staff and PGRs—to learn about our research and discuss events in Latin America. PAIS PhD student Thaís Doria spoke with the society about the recent Brazilian election and its impact on the region, and LAWN coordinated a visit with Colombia Truth Commission member Liliana Salamanca.
Work on Colombia foreign policy by PAIS duo
Mauricio Palma-Gutiérrez (PGR PAIS) and Tom Long (PAIS) have co-authored a new article. The piece has been published by Revista Desafíos as part of a forthcoming special issue on new trends in the study of Colombian foreign policy. The Spanish-language article, "Política exterior colombiana y performatividad: ¿Un 'buen miembro' del Orden Internacional Liberal?"Link opens in a new window examines how Colombia's performances striving to be seen as a "good member" of liberal international order help co-constitute and legitimate that order. Palma-Gutiérrez and Long illustrate these performances in two cases: the treatment of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia and the participation of Colombia in the prohibitionist "war on drugs."
New volume on regional cooperation in North America
Tom Long's policy-focused volume on regional cooperation in North America was released in October by the Canada and Mexico Institutes at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. The launch event (video available hereLink opens in a new window) included comments from the Mexican ambassador to the USA and the Canadian chief of mission. In the book, North America 2.0: Forging a Continental FutureLink opens in a new window (co-edited with Alan Bersin), contributors from government, think tanks, civil society, business, and academia offer proposals for advancing cooperation among Canada, Mexico and the United States. The volume seeks to inform the agenda for the upcoming North American Leaders Summit between Canada's Justin Trudeau, Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the United States' Joe Biden.
October 2022
REWIND in Latin America
Alison Ribeiro de Menezes (SMLC), director Ramon Ayres, and the team of Ephemeral Ensemble took their performance REWIND to Colombia and Chile in October 2022. In Colombia they presented it in the cities of Bogotá and Cali, and in the village of Trujillo in the Cauca Valley. They then performed in La Serena and Santiago in Chile. The reception was extremely positive, and in research terms the team gleaned insights into the nature of public engagement in different contexts, allowing them to demonstrate how the topic of forced disappearance resonates as a universal tragedy, but has local particularities which can be incorporated into REWIND in each location
New article by Tom Long in International Organization
Tom Long's article, co-authored with Carsten-Andreas Schulz of Cambridge University, has been published by International Organization. "Compensatory Layering and the Birth of the Multipurpose Multilateral IGO in the Americas"Link opens in a new window emerges from Long and Schulz's AHRC-funded research on Latin America and the formation of international order. In the piece, Long and Schulz illustrate the innovations that led to the creation of the world's first multipurpose, multilateral international organization--a form associated with the League of Nations and the United Nations. The first such body was the Pan American Union, which developed between 1890 and 1910 through a series of bargains between the United States and Latin American states. The article builds a bridge between Global International Relations and the study of institutional design, while also advancing institutionalist understandings of the design and development of IOs.
June 2022
New edited volume by Cecilia Lanata-Briones: Socio-Political Histories of Latin-American Statistics (Palgrave Macmillan, 224p).
Cecilia Lanata-Briones (Economics) published with Andrés Estefane and Claudia Jorgelina Daniel this volume. This book brings together recent research on the sociopolitical history of Latin American statistics from the nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century. Reflecting the influence of social constructivism in the social sciences, it sheds new light on the historical emergence and development of both statistical reasoning and practices within a region traditionally seen as a passive consumer of foreign-produced theories and methods. By analysing the early enthusiasm for enumerating reality and the processes of institutionalisation of statistics in different national spaces, from Mexico to the Southern Cone, these studies show the ways in which Latin America adapted and used this modern tool of government and social classification to build political regimes and scientific arenas. The volume offers valuable insights into the divergent regional trajectories of this discipline, advancing towards an understanding of statistics and its past from a truly global perspective.
New book chapter by Rosie Doyle: "Liberation Theology, Social Rights and Indigenous Rights in Mexico (c.1965-2000)"
Rosie Doyle (History) published this chapter in the volume edited by in Steven L.B. Jensen and Charles Walton: Social Rights and the Politics of Obligation in History. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2022, 184-202. Available here
New book chapter by Tom Long (with Thaís Dória): "Your regionalism and mine: The United States and South American Cooperation in the Global Pandemic"
Tom Long (PAIS) published this chapter in the volume edited by in Latin American IR scholars Melisa Deciancio and Cintia Quiliconi: Regional and International Cooperation in South America after COVID: Challenges, Opportunities and the next Pandemic. The book will be released next month.
Cristóbal Bywaters becomes Executive Director of IR Think Tank
Cristóbal Bywaters (PGR PAIS) became recently the Executive Director of Nueva Política Exterior–an influential progressive and non-partisan network oriented to generating knowledge, promoting political dialogue, and contributing to Chilean foreign policy and international relations.
For more information, visit www.nuevapoliticaexterior.cl
Michela Coletta discusses in Berlin the work of Chilean artist Claudia Müller
Michela Coletta (SMLC) took part of the panel organised by KSTN Gallery in Berlin to discuss the work of Chilean artist Claudia Müller on June 1st.
Tom Long announces a new edited volume - North America: Decline, Stagnation, or Renewal
Tom Long (PAIS) and co-editor Eric Hershberg (American University) are pleased to announce their forthcoming editing volume North America: Decline, Stagnation or Renewal. It is now under contract with University of New Mexico Press, forthcoming mid-2023. The provisional table of contents is available here, with more information to come!
LAWN member reviews Walt Disney's Encanto in Journal of Refugee Studies
Mauricio Palma-Gutiérrez (PGR PAIS) reviewed Walt Disney's Encanto, an animated movie set up in Colombia. The film is intersected by internal displacement, a topic brought up in the review. The text is available here.
May 2022
LAWN holds event on memory, testimonies and theatre
On 20 May 2022, LAWN sponsored a discussion with theatre director Ramon Ayres of the Ephemeral Ensemble and LAWN member and Professor of Modern Language Alison Ribeiro de Menezes. They discussed their collaboration in the REWIND project, which uses performance to explore memory, forensic anthropology, and struggles for justice. They showed some clips from the performance and discussed the process and the benefits of this artistic-academic collaboration.
New edited volume by Benjamin Smith: Histories of Drug Trafficking in 20th Century Mexico (University of New Mexico Press, 368p).
Benjamin Smith (History) published with Wil G. Pansters this volume in May 2022. The book brings together a new generation of drug historians and new historical sources to uncover the history of drug trade an its regulations. More information available here
New blog publication: British management of labour in the sheep farming industry in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego
Nicolás Gómez Baeza (PGR HISTORY) published a new entry in SLAS BLOG. The text reflects on the experiences during a recent research trip to Chile as part of his research called “Gringos Duros: British managements of labour disciplines in sheep farming industry (Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 1837–1961)”.
LAWN member obtains SLAS research support funding
Cristóbal Bywaters (PGR PAIS) was recently awarded the Society for Latin American Studies' Postgraduate and Post-Doctoral Research Support Grant. The grant will cover the travel and accommodation expenses for conducting archival research at the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York, United States. The project is part of Cristóbal's doctoral research on the domestic politics of small-state international status-seeking. Cristóbal will investigate the influence of the Ford Foundation on intertwined processes of the emergence of a policy-oriented IR discipline in Latin America, the configuration of a new Chilean foreign policy elite, and the transformation of US-Chile relations in the 1980s and 1990s.
April 2022
LAWN holds event on Latin American International Political Economy
We were plesed to host a discussion of "Misrecognised, misfit and misperceived: Why not a Latin American School of IPE?", a forthcoming paper in the Review of International Political Economy. One of the authors, Dr Fabricio Chagas-Bastos, visited from the University of Copenhagen, while Professor Diana Tussie of FLACSO joined virtually from Argentina. Warwick's Ben Clift and Lena Rethel joined the panel as discussant and chair. The panel discussed why Latin American scholars have often had an uneasy relationship with Anglo-American IPE, for reasons of divergent disciplinary backgrounds, theoretical approaches, and substantive focus. The authors suggested that fostering a Latin American IPE could create a base for more effective engagement from the region with the "core" conversations and journals that tend to dominante IPE discussions. The article is now available in RIPELink opens in a new window.
March 2022
New Blog Publication: Global History and Latin America - A Historiography under Development
Camilo Uribe Botta (PGR PAIS) published a new entry in the Global History and Culture Centre BlogLink opens in a new window. Latin America is a region that has been at the core of global processes since the European invasion of the continent in the 16th century. From the early stages of the conquest by the Spanish and Portuguese, to the Columbian exchange that followed, the trans-Atlantic slave trade involving also the British, Dutch and French empires, the age of revolutions in the 19th century and the Cold War tensions in the 20th century, Latin America is a complex territory with a rich global history. As recent scholarship has argued, taking Latin American history seriously as a core component of global history carries ample potential to reorient our perspectives.
New book published: A Small State's Guide to Influence in World Politics
Tom Long (PAIS) published his second book, A Small State's Guide to Influence in World Politics, with Oxford University Press. Building on Tom's work on the dynamics of asymmetry in US-Latin American relations, this book considers how materially weaker actors pursue their goals in international relations.Tom also published a new article, “Issue-Areas, Sovereignty Costs, and North Americans’ Attitudes Towards Regional Cooperation,” in Global Studies QuarterlyLink opens in a new window. Co-authored with Malcolm Fairbrother and Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz, the article argues for a more multifaceted study of public attitudes toward regional cooperation. Using untapped surveys of Canadians, Mexico, and US-Americans, the article shows that citizens preferences on regional cooperation are shaped by asymmetries and issue-areas. Finally, drawing on his AHRC-funded research, with Carsten-Andreas Schulz, Tom published the policy essay, "Latin America, Ukraine, and the Legacies of “Republican Internationalism” in Global AmericansLink opens in a new window. It explores the diplomatic roots of Latin America and the Caribbean's widespread rejection of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, drawing on their recent research article in CRIALink opens in a new window.
New fellowship: "Past Futures: Long-Time Thinking in South American 'Living Well' Epistemologies"
Michela Coletta (SMLC) joined in January 2022 the Institute of Global History at Freie Universität Berlin on a 2-year Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship to work on her project 'Past Futures: Long-Time Thinking in South American 'Living Well' Epistemologies'. At the end of April 2022, Michela will take part in a Warwick University-funded networking project which will create conversations and exchanges between a Martinique performance artist and a Colombian poet on the topic of 'Memory and Sustainability'. The events are organised by the SMLC and will take place on campus
LAWN member addresses Mexico's Congress: "Academic Freedom and University Autonomy at Risk"
Rafael Alejandro Vaquera Salazar (PGR WBS) addressed members of the Committee for Science, Technology, and Innovation of the lower house of Mexico’s Congress of the Union on March 2nd, 2022. His intervention was part of the Forum “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy at Risk”, where leading researchers, professors, student community and policy makers addressed the political challenges that Science and Technology face in Mexico.Rafael’s intervention presented the critical situation that 52 Mexican students in the United Kingdom, formerly sponsored by the CONACYT-SENER trust, face due to the elimination by presidential decree of this trust. Presenting a comprehensive analysis of the contracts, terms and conditions, and funding, he called for an immediate intervention of the House regarding this crisis. Rafael is also the President of the Society of Mexican Students in the United Kingdom
February 2022
Postdoctoral research position: 'Voices of Humanitarianism: British Responses to Refugees from Chile'
School of Modern Languages and Cultures - Department of Hispanic Studies (University of Warwick)
Closing Date: 9 Februray 2022
Job purpose: To assist the Project Investigator, Professor Alison Ribeiro de Menezes, in the successful execution of the AHRC-funded project ‘Voices of Humanitarianism: British Responses to Refugees from Chile’. You will undertake original research under the aegis of this project which will also support the work of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and develop and enhance its reputation, both internal and external to the University.
Native or near-native competence in written and spoken Spanish and in written and spoken English are essential skills for this position. There is some flexibility in the areas of academic specialism sought from the successful candidate. The School would however be particularly interested in a candidate with a strong background in Latin American Studies or a strong understanding of issues relating to exile and/or migration.
Full job description at: https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/search_engine/jobs.cgi?owner=5062452&ownertype=fair&jcode=1882003&vt_template=1457&adminview=1
Conference: Following Living Things and Still Lifes in a Global World
Organised by Camilo Uribe Botta (PGR History and LAWN member)
12 February 2022. University of Warwick (Online)
Register here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/flt/
What was the relationship between the trade in living tropical orchids and their botanical illustrations in Victorian England? How did people understand the relationship between the lacquer that flowed as sap from trees, and lacquer as the surface of art objects in early modern period? The aim of this conference is to follow both natural and artificial objects across global boundaries and between the disciplines of history, history of art and history of science. This will reveal the very different paths and meanings natural objects acquire once they leave their natural habitats and transition from living materials to objects of trade, science and art.
When we approach history of trade and exchange, especially when it comes to natural products, there could be a boundary between living or ‘dead’ material, between a living thing and a ‘still life’. One opposition refers to the mobility of materials, the other touches upon living and dead matter. Tackling the definition of ‘living things’ and ‘still life’ from history of art, our purpose is to challenge the frontiers between natural and artificial objects, including plants and animals, to problematize the particularities of their exchange in a global world. Moreover, is it possible to follow this object through the artistic and scientific representations of it? We ask ourselves if the real object and its representation can be exchangeable and, in that case, how a ‘still life’ can lead us to follow natural and artificial objects in a global world. In a broad sense, this is also a good opportunity to consider the methodological boundaries between history and history of art.
This conference will discuss the theme with both theoretical and methodological approaches. We want to focus on the objects and its paths and representations around the world. Researchers that touch upon different geographical and temporal spaces are welcomed. Suggested fields include but are not limited to: global history, history of consumption, history of art, history of science, literary studies, cultural studies, anthropology and geography.
Call for Papers: Climate, Capital and Tourism in the Americas
Closing date: 13 February 2022
Organised by Dr. Elizabeth Chant (Assistant Professor in Hispanic Studies and LAWN member)
Keynote speakers: Professor Claire Lindsay (UCL) and Professor James R. Akerman (Newberry Library)
Since the late nineteenth century, travel in pursuit of pleasure has grown to become one of the world’s largest industries. International tourist arrivals are currently predicted to reach 1.8 billion in 2030, despite the ongoing disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic (UN World Tourism Organization). As rail networks, steamer services, and private motorcars became commonplace into the twentieth century, tourists were able to access a variety of unfamiliar locations, including beaches, foreign cities, and mountain resorts. In the Americas in particular, numerous early tourist offerings foregrounded the ‘cathedral of nature’ in lieu of a classical archaeological past. With many of these grand landscapes located in Indigenous territories, far from metropolitan centres and their wealthy inhabitants, tourism often provided states with a means for annexing border regions or cementing their presence in frontier spaces. It also offered an opportunity for cultivating notions of national identity via what Marguerite S. Shaffer has termed ‘virtuous consumption’ (2001), whereby domestic tourism is portrayed in the cultural sphere as a civic duty. Alongside the success of national parks and mountain retreats, locations including slaughterhouses, oil derricks and gold mines became important destinations where visitors could witness technological and industrial prowess, features that were commonly highlighted in marketing materials to divert the tourist gaze away from the damage and pollution that they cause.
Today, many of the world’s most popular tourist destinations are located in the Americas, from Machu Picchu, to Cancún, to Niagara Falls. ‘Climate, Capital and Tourism in the Americas’ seeks to examine how landscapes or specific sites in the Americas have been commodified in both domestic and foreign contexts, illuminating the manipulation and/or exaggeration of climate, flora, and fauna data in marketing campaigns, literature, and visual media, and connecting these discourses with the climate crisis and Indigenous dispossession. This interdisciplinary conference will provide a forum for academics studying any region of the Americas with a focus on tourism, while also inviting contributions from the heritage sector. Our particular aim is to bridge the gaps between humanities and social sciences scholarship in this field. This event will also facilitate essential dialogue at a time when many institutions are seeking to reassess heritage tourism in light of growing calls for environmental justice and land reparations.
We invite proposals for ten-minute papers in English or Spanish on any of the following issues in the Americas:
-Tourism and pollution
-Indigenous tourism
-Historical tourism
-Tourism marketing and publicity
-The legal dimensions of/ challenges to tourism
-Tourism and Indigenous dispossession
-Travel and tourism in the climate emergency
-Tourism and climate futures
-Tourism and capitalism
-Tourism and energy humanities/ extractivism
-Any other issue that brings together climate, capital and tourism
Please send a 150-word proposal, title, and a short bio to Dr Elizabeth Chant, elizabeth.chant@sas.ac.uk, by 13 February 2022. The conference language will be English; simultaneous translation will be available for anyone wishing to present in Spanish. Applicants will be informed if their proposal has been accepted by mid-March 2022. All sessions will be held in the afternoon to facilitate participation from the Americas.
Full conference description here
Book released: Nuevas voces de política exterior: Chile y el mundo en la era post-consensual
Edited by Cristóbal Bywaters (PGR PAIS and LAWN member), Daniela Sepúlveda (PolISciUMN) and Andrés Villar (PhD, POLIS Cambridge)
Book website: Further information at https://www.nuevapoliticaexterior.cl/
25 young IR scholars and practitioners reflect on the present and future of Chile’s foreign relations and propose a new progressive foreign policy agenda for the South American country. The 384-page book was published by the prestigious Latin American publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica and was sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Chile and the University of Chile’s Institute of International Studies.
The book was launched Tuesday 20 April 2021. Commentators were the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile, Mrs. Michelle Bachelet; former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Mr. Juan Gabriel Valdés; and public intellectual and LSE doctoral researcher, Mr. Noam Titelman.
Other Warwick community members who contributed to the book are Tom Long (PAIS), Federico Merke (PAIS alumnus), and María del Carmen Domínguez (School of Law alumna).
The editors are also running a podcast (in Spanish) available on YouTubeLink opens in a new window and SpotifyLink opens in a new window.
New Project and Article: Latin America and the peripheral origins of nineteenth century international order
Tom Long (PAIS and LAWN co-director) has started a four-year, AHRC-funded project on "Latin America and the peripheral origins of nineteenth-century international order," with Carsten-Andreas Schulz of Cambridge University. The project seeks to better understand the role of Latin America in the emergence and consolidation of international order during the period. Tom and Carsten published an article in 2021 that sets out some of the agenda for the project, "Republican internationalism: the nineteenth-century roots of Latin American contributions to international order," in Cambridge Review of International Affairs.
MexSocUK: Member of LAWN/PSLAC elected President
Rafael Alejandro Vaquera Salazar (PGR WBS and LAWN member) was elected President of the Society of Mexican Students in the United Kingdom (MexSocUK) on September 29th, for the period of 2021-2022. MexSocUK is an organisation that incorporates 18 Mexican and Latin American societies in the same number of UK universities.
Rafael is a PhD student at Warwick Business School, conducting research on how the global energy transitions influences corporate strategy in National Oil Companies (NOCs), and the nature of the relationship between the NOC and the State. He focuses on the case of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and Mexico. He recently participated in the Doctoral Seminar on International Economy organised by Prof. Alejandro Rogelio Álvarez Béjar, from the School of Economics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), discussing the paper “OPEP 60: de la historia a nuevos potenciales y posibilidades en un mundo complejo y cambiante. Una revisión”, written by Prof. Ángel de la Vega Navarro.