Culture, Power and Politics

2013-2014 Report

Our section had a very productive LASA in Chicago. In addition to the numerous panels under the track´s heading, we organized a series of three very well attended workshops under the title: 25 Years of Latin American Studies in Culture, Power and Politics I, II, and III. The idea of the workshops (all consecutive and in the same room. Great setting.) was a critical examination of the various "turns" that have impacted the field over the past quarter century. We further plan to publish revised and expanded versions of the papers in a volume tentatively entitled "Turn and Turn Again: Twenty-Five Years of Latin American Studies in Culture, Power and Politics." We also opened up the call to the section's members to identify and propose additional 'turns' to be included in the projected volume. The business meeting resulted in the election of a new section's secretary-treasurer, Ana Wortman (Universidad de Buenos Aires) , and the renewal of Council member Silvia Kurlat Ares (Independent Scholar) as well as the election of Sarah Town (Princeton University) to the section's Board. The newly elected co-chair is Justin Read (University at Buffalo (SUNY) who has been working with Juan Poblete over the past year as a Board Member. Jon Beasley Murray has graciously agreed to stay on the Board for another year . It was resolved that for the coming year, the section's priorities would be 1) organize an equally successful presence in Puerto Rico and 2) using the section's accrued capital to invite one or more major figures to LASA 2015, perhaps as part of a pre-congress workshop or conference. The turns we explored in the workshops included the Post/hegemony Turn, the Popular Culture Turn, the Gender and Sexuality Turn, the Transnational Turn, the Memory Turn, the Affect Turn, the Ethical Turn, Erin Graff, the Subalternist Turn, the New Latin American Left Turn, and the Deconstruction and Politics Turn: Alberto Moreiras, Texas A&M University.

Juan Poblete, Co- Chair

Justin Read, Co- Chair

2012-2013 Report

In line with decisions taken at the San Francisco Congress (for which see last year's report), the agenda for the "Culture, Power and Politics" section in 2012-2013 was to organize the section sessions for LASA 2013 in Washington DC, to update the section's website and to update the listserv. These last two items were completed early in the year, as the section built up its presence on the website provided by LASA and transferred to new email list software. As before, we used the list to circulate information among members (for instance about events and research grants), encourage communication and the sharing of research, and enable productive synergies. At the Washington congress, we had three well-attended sessions organized by the section, on topics as diverse as food security, cultural politics, and inequality. The business meeting confirmed the continuing terms of the section's secretary-treasurer (Justin Read, jread2@buffalo.edu) and three Council members (Antonio Torres-Ruiz, atoruiz@yorku.ca, Ana Wortman, info@anawortman.com.ar, and Silvia Kurlat Ares, silviakares@hotmail.com) as well as electing new co-chairs (Jon Beasley-Murray, jon.beasley-murray@ubc.ca, and Juan Poblete, jpoblete@ucsc.edu) and new Council member Maya Aguiluz-Ibargüen, maya.aguiluz@gmail.com. It was resolved that for the coming year, our priorities would be 1) rewriting the section's definition and charter, especially in the light of the existence of other, newer, LASA sections whose remit now overlaps with that of "Culture, Power, and Politics," and 2) using the section's accrued capital to invite one or more major figures to LASA 2014, perhaps as part of a pre-congress workshop or conference.

Jon Beasley Murray, Co- Chair

Silvia G. Kurlat Ares, Outgoing Co- Chair

2010-2012 Report

The main activity of CP&P was to organize the Section's sessions in LASA 2012 and to facilitate the circulation of information sent by members –events, research grants, and so on. We also collected signatures for a communiqué demanding an end to the killing of academics and journalists in Mexico. The Mexico Section and the LASA Executive Board supported our initiative and after the San Francisco conference the Secretariat sent an official mail with the signatures to government offices, politicians and media in Mexico.

CP&P had a good showing in San Francisco with 4 Section slots and 2 more channeled through the regular track system. We also held our customary competition for travel grants. We awarded 4 grants of 500 U$ each to help Section members attend LASA 2012. They went to three doctoral students and one junior member of staff. The recipients were Calum McNeil, María Brockman Rojas, Vivian Nedwick and Antonio Torres Ruiz.

In San Francisco we held our Business Meeting and elections. The lineup of our current Board Members is as follows: Jon Beasley-Murray (Co-Chair, jon.beasley-murray@ubc.ca), Silvia Kurlat Ares (Co-Chair, silviakares@hotmail.com), Ana Wortman (info@anawortman.com.ar), José Poblete (jpoblete@ucsc.edu), Justin Read (jread2@buffalo.edu), and Antonio Ruiz (atoruiz@yorku.ca).

The agenda for the Board's one-year term includes organizing the CP&P sessions for LASA 2013, updating the Section's website and weeding the Listserv of dormant accounts.

Benjamin Arditi, Outgoing Chair, CP&P