The Latin Americanist

Call for Papers

Call for Papers

59th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS)
61st Annual Conference of the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida

University of Florida, Gainesville FL
March 29-31, 2012

Proposal Submission Deadline: December 1, 2011

Conference Theme: "The Struggle for Democracy in Latin America"

The University of Florida's Center for Latin American Studies will host a joint meeting of SECOLAS and the Center's Annual Conference on the UF campus in Gainesville, Florida, Thursday, March 29 to Saturday, March 31, 2012. Featured speakers will address the conference theme. Papers and panels that address the theme (broadly conceived) are also encouraged but not required. Panel proposals are preferred but individual paper proposals will also be accepted. Papers are invited from professional scholars, faculty members and graduate students.

2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the Cádiz Constitution that made Spain and its embattled empire a constitutional monarchy and the 100th anniversary of the Sáenz Pena electoral law that brought universal adult male suffrage to Argentina, two key steps along Latin America's torturous road toward constitutional democracy. Although Latin America experienced what Paul Drake has called a "tsunami of democracies" from the 1970s to the 2000s, much remains to be done to strengthen and secure governments "of, by and for the people" throughout the region. Even more is required if one considers social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects of democracy along with the political and institutional. The transnational struggle for democracy on the part of Latin Americans and Latinos in the United States is also another area of concern worthy of serious consideration.

Send proposals, including a 200-word abstract and a brief CV (no more than 2 pages) for all panelists, to the most appropriate program chair:

History and Social Sciences
Tiffany Sippial
Department of History
Auburn University
tat0004@auburn.edu

Literature and Humanities
Tace Hedrick
English and Women's Studies
Unviersity of Florida
tace@ufl.edu

Local Arrangements: Richmond Brown, Latin American Studies, University of Florida, rfbrown@latam.ufl.edu