Subnational Politics and Society

A Section of the Latin American Studies Association

Section Annual Reports

Subnational Politics and Society Report 2023:

Co-chairs: Alyson Benton and Silvia Otero

1. A summary of the business meeting, including the number of people that attended, topics discussed, and conclusions.

Approximately 3 people attended our business meeting. During the meeting, we discussed the membership evolution:

  • 2021: 52
  • 2022: 80
  • 2023: 59

We discussed these numbers in light of LASA´s membership in general, finding that it is a trend that covers the association and not only the section. Still, we need to find ways to demonstrate the value of being a member.

The expenses and balance of the section was presented. This year we spent on travel and membership awards a total of $587, and our balance is $1100. We brainstormed ideas for activities and future featured panels.

We discussed the activities we had led in the past year, including the call for two featured panels, and the call for best book and best article award. We also kept an active feed in twitter and facebook.

2. The results of the section’s elections, including the names, position, email, affiliation, and term. The officers who continue their terms must also be listed with their corresponding email and term.
  • No elections this term.
3. A review of the activities and plans for the coming term.

We plan to announce a call for featured panels in the month of August, and a call for Best Paper and Best Book in the month of January. We will do three webinars on issues relevant to the section, with guest speakers: subnational crime, subnational elections, and subnational challenges in migration.

4. Names of the travel grantees
  • Guillermo Sardi García
  • Isabel Laterzo
4. The names of the section’s awardees, the names of the selection committee members, and a description of the selection process. The following information should be included for the awardees:

We awarded one Best Book Prize. The call received three submissions. A Selection Committee was conformed by Carlos Gervasoni, Juan de la Cruz Olmeda, and Allyson Benson.

We awarded the prize to Flavia Freidenberg, Karolina Gilas, Sebastián Garrido de Sierra, and Camilo Saavedra for a book titled “Women in Mexican Subnational Legislatures: From Descriptive to Substantive Representation”, published by Springer

The best article contest was deserted since we only received one submission

We sought nominations by emailing the section listserv, and then by repeatedly soliciting nominations on Twitter and Facebook. We explained that people can nominate themselves and only needed to send the book. After receiving nominations, the committee read the books and shared their choice for the winner. 

Subnational Politics and Society Report 2021

Co-chairs: Lindsay Mayka and Tomás Dosek

1. A summary of the business meeting, including the number of people that attended, topics discussed, and conclusions.

Approximately 12 people attended our business meeting. During the meeting, we awarded the Best Paper Prize and Honorable Mention, explained that we decided to forego the prize money for the prize to have more money to use for travel grants next LASA. We noted that our increase in membership will allow us to go from 1 sponsored panel this year to 2 sponsored panels next year. We brainstormed a number of themes for our sponsored panels.

2. The results of the section’s elections, including the names, position, email, affiliation, and term. The officers who continue their terms must also be listed with their corresponding email and term.

We had no elections. Lindsay Mayka and Tomas Dosek will continue their roles as co-chairs next year.

3. A review of the activities and plans for the coming term.

We have no immediate plans for this coming term, other than making the call for papers for the sponsored panels and soliciting nominations for the best paper award in early 2022.

4. The names of the section’s awardees, the names of the selection committee members, and a description of the selection process. The following information should be included for the awardees:

We awarded one Best Paper Prize winner and one Honorable Mention for the Best Paper Prize. The Best Paper Prize went to Jessie Bullock of Harvard University for the paper “Organized Criminal Groups and Voter Mobilization”. Thomas Vargas of McMaster University received Honorable Mention for “The Political Origins of Education Decentralization”.

As co-chairs, Lindsay Mayka and Tomas Dosek served as the selection committee. We sought nominations by emailing the section listserv, and then by repeatedly soliciting nominations on Twitter and Facebook. We explained that people can nominate themselves and only needed to send in the paper. We opened up nominations to all people who were originally scheduled to present at the 2020 LASA, rather than those who ended up presenting, due to the high rates of cancellation due to Covid-19, and the disparate impacts of the pandemic.

Subnational Politics and Society Section – LASA

Co-chairs: Angélica Durán-Martínez (University of Massachusetts-Lowell) and Juan Cruz Olmeda (El Colegio de Mexico)

Report of Activities during LASA 2020:

At the business meeting held on Friday May 15th, 2020, the Co-Chairs met with 6 current members of the section. We updated our members about the section’s activities during the past year, including holding one sponsored panel at LASA 2020. We informed that once the in-person event in Guadalajara was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, some of the participants in the panel decided not to register for the virtual conference. Therefore, our panel was merged with the one sponsored by the section on “Economics and politics”. We also introduced the new co-chairs, who will be in charge of the section for the period 2020-2022: Linsday Mayka (Colby College) and Tomas Dosek (PUCP). Given the occasion, we discussed with the new co-chairs some of the challenges faced by our section, how to expand membership, and how to use the section as a venue to share research and connect people. In particular, we debated about the potential impact that the COVID crisis might have in our membership, and the ways to deal with that. Following our experience during the previous year, during the meeting we also considered how to increase the use of the section´s social networks (Facebook page and Twitter account) to share section news and also relevant publications and events. During the meeting we also announced the winner of our section´s best paper award. The prize was awarded to the paper “The Power of Human Rights Frames in Urban Security: Lessons from Bogotá” by Lindsay Maika, delivered at LASA 2019 in Boston. Finally, we also informed that we had planned to award a travel grant, but we suspended the process when the in-person conference was cancelled.

Report of Activities during LASA 2019:

BY: Co-chairs: Angélica Durán-Martínez (University of Massachusetts-Lowell) and Juan Cruz Olmeda (El Colegio de Mexico)

1. Business Meeting:

At the business meeting held on Sunday May 26th, 2019, the Co-Chairs met with 3 current and 2 prospective members of the section.

We updated our members about the section’s activities during the past year, including holding two sponsored panels at LASA 2019 (one officially sponsored, another put together by the section chairs but not officially sponsored).

We discussed exactly what the identity of our section is, how to expand membership, and how to use the section as a venue to share research and connect people. Our section, unlike other LASA sections, is connected by a methodological, rather than substantial interest, and therefore it is more challenging to invite people to join. Many of our potential members may belong to other sections due to their substantial interest. Thus, for the next year, our primary goal is to expand the section’s presence in social networks, and use it as a way to share section news and also relevant publications and events. During the meeting, we also honored the publication of a volume edited by two of our current members. We hope that taking this step we can also promote the section as a venue to highlight research and achievements of our section members.

2. Prizes:

Following the tradition of our predecessors, we did not choose paper prizes this year, but we will select paper prizes for LASA 2020. Instead this year we granted two travel awards. The travel awards were chosen by the section co-chairs giving priority to students and members from Latin America.

The winners were:

  • Laura Iesue, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Miami
  • Tomas Dosek, Ph.D Candidate, Universidad Católica de Chile