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CALACS 2016

Date & Time:
June 1, 2016 - 8:00 am to June 3, 2016 - 5:15 pm
Location:
University of Calgary

Full conference proceedings now available. 

The Latin American Research Centre welcomed over 140 participants from close to 10 different countries as part of the 2016 Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies conference. The theme Hybrid Communities, Societies, Spaces, and Subjectivities attracted faculty and students alike to present multi- and inter-disciplinary research spanning the Americas. Keynote speakers brought experience, insight and humor to the event. Dr. Sara Castro Klarén (Johns Hopkins University) addressed the current state of Latin American Studies in the age of globalization; while Ing. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (Fundación para la Democracia) spoke about the challenges to democracy and social justice in Mexico.    

Left: Ing. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (Fundación para la Democracia) presents his keynote address "Mexico's Struggle for Sovereignty, Democracy, and Equality". Right: Dr. Judith Adler Hellman (York University) received the Distinguished Fellow Award 2016. 

Ing. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Fundación para la Democracia, Keynote Speaker CALACS 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

Ing. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas speaks with the Latin American Research Centre about democracy in Mexico as well as the value and future of Latin American Studies. Ing. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas has played significant roles in municipal, state, and federal politics and is one of the most distinguished people in Mexican politics.  Like his father former president Lázaro Cárdenas he served as Governor of the State of Michoacán.  He ran for the presidency for the first time in the 1988 election, and again in 1994 and 2000. He became the first democratically elected mayor of Mexico City in 1997, a position which he held for well over a decade. He founded the Foundation for Democracy in 1995 and continues to serve as its president.

Judith Hellman, York University, CALACS 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

Judith Hellman speaks with Roberta Rice, University of Calgary, about her career as well as her thoughts on the current and future state of Latin American Studies. Dr. Hellman received the Distinguished Fellow Award this year for her extensive contributions to the field of Latin American Studies. A full transcript of the interview is available in publications

To highlight the work and expertise present at the conference, the Latin American Research Centre spoke with leading experts from across the Americas to see what they think about the current state and future direction of Latin American Studies. We also asked them to share some insight into their current research. 

The Future of Latin American Studies, Latin American Research Centre, University of Calgary 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

Sara Castro Klarén, Johns Hopkins University, CAH 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

Dr. Sara Castro Klarén shares her insights into the place of Latin American Studies in a globalized world and describes her current research. As an acclaimed academic in the field of Latin American culture and literature, Dr. Sara Castro Klarén was a keynote speaker at the 2016 CALACS conference. She has published extensively on the Latin American novel, postcolonial theory, and topics in Andean colonial and temporary historiography with special reference to subaltern students and imperial discourse. 

Miriam Villanueva, Texas University, CALACS 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

Miriam Villanueva is a doctoral student in the Department of History and Geography at Texas Christian University. She received the CALACS Graduate Student Essay prize for her insightful cultural reinterpretation of the 1970s Panama Canal crisis and negotiations surrounding it. 

Maria Elsy Cardona, Saint Louis University, CAH 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

Dr. Maria Elsy Cardona speaks to LARC about her current research on comic and the graphic novel as cultural and literary manifestations as well as her thoughts on Latin American Studies. She is an Associate Professor at St. Louis University in the Department of Modern & Classical Languages and presented as part of the Canadian Association of Hispanists, also held at the University of Calgary. 

Agustin Goenaga Orrego, Lund University, CALACS 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

Agustín Alonso Goenaga Orrego was the recipient of the 2016 CALACS Outstanding Dissertation Award for his thesis titled "The Social Origins of State Capacity: Civil Society, Political Order and Public Goods in France (1789-1970) and Mexico (1810-1970). Agustín Goenaga completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2015, which was funded by Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science, in Lund University, Sweden. 

Gabrielle Pannetier Leboeuf, Université de Montréal, CAH 2016 from Latin American Research Centre on Vimeo.

As part of the Canadian Association of Hispanists, Gabrielle Pannetier Leboeuf, Université de Montréal, presented "Walter Salles y el 'Che' Guevara: El síntoma cinematográfico de un ícono despolitizado."