LACS “Un-Charting Territories” Research Symposium, SAT, 18 Feb, 9am
Saturday, February 18th, 2023 — 9:00am-4:30pm (breakfast available at 8:30am) FULL SCHEDULE HERE
Physical Sciences Building (PSB) 401
A territory, understood as a site to be defended, is anchored by parameters of exclusivity and control. Territory is often associated with physical land mass, attributing sovereignty to nations. It can describe sites of knowledge. We can also speak of disciplinary and discursive territories governed by methodologies and subjects of study. Yet, even as colonial powers attempted to delineate Latin America and the Caribbean territories, these sites continue to resist. The Andes and the Amazon, for example, defy human efforts to draw straight lines through natural environments. Indigenous communities that do not recognize colonial separation of their ancestral lands, migrate transnationally, challenging national imaginaries. In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) program, we invite the Cornell community to rethink the disciplinary, environmental, political, and discursive boundaries of Latin America and the Caribbean in our 2023 Research Symposium “Un-Charting Territories”.
To underscore the success of 60 years of programming and the expansion of the program to include the Caribbean, we strongly encourage proposals that explore the Caribbean, the hispanophone islands and the coastal regions of South and Central America. Additionally, we are including a special panel that highlights undergraduate students interested in developing research proposals focused on this year’s theme of “Un-Charting Territories” through interdisciplinary work.