Section Annual Reports
LASA ECONOMICS AND POLITICS (E+P) SECTION ANNUAL REPORT (2020)
Authors: Fabrício H. Chagas-Bastos, Chair Joseph Marques, Secretary and Treasurer Report
date: 28 July 2020
1. Leadership
The new leadership team took over in June 2020 for the 2020-2022 term and consists of the following members:
Chair:
Fabrício H. Chagas-Bastos
Secretary and Treasurer:
Joseph Marques
Executive Committee:
Ivani Vassoler
Barbara Fritz
Renato Lima-de-Oliveira
Anthony Spanakos (past Chair)
2. Membership and Treasury
The section currently has 90 members (as of June 2020). Total membership decreased from 116 members (2018) and 128 members (2017). These are difficult times and many of our colleagues are facing several challenges. We trust, nonetheless, that our efforts at reaching new members will limit any additional drop in membership.
The treasurer reports that the section has USD 5,478.40 as of June 2020. In 2020 our expenses were:
• Best Article Award: USD 300
3. Panels sponsored
Based on our membership size in December 2019, the section was entitled to sponsor 2 panels at the 2020 LASA Annual Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico (refer to Conference Program for further details):
• The political economy of Latin American cities: Unleashing the potential of local governments to promote economic growth and social inclusion.\
• Orchestrating Shared Governance in the Global South: Can South America Provide Regional Public Goods?
Due to the COVID19 pandemic however, LASA has decided NOT to penalise sections for any decrease in membership regarding the 2021 Annual Conference in Vancouver (CAN) so we will be able to sponsor 2 panels in 2021.
4. Prizes and Grants
The 2020 section awards considered scholarship published in 2019. We received six submissions for the Best Article Award and one for the Early Career Scholars Award.
The 2020 Best Article Award Committee awarded its prize to Sara Niedzwiecki and Santiago Anria for their “Participatory Social Policies: Diverging Patterns in Brazil and Bolivia” published in Latin American Politics and Society.
The Committee also awarded an Honourable Mention to Pedro Mendes Loureiro for his “Social Structure and Distributive Policies Under the PT Governments: A Poverty-Reducing Variety of Neoliberalism” published in Latin American Perspective.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic no travel grants were awarded this year.
We thank the members for their service on the prize committees.
5. Summary of the 2020 E+P Section business meeting
May 14, 2020, 7pm (EST) via ZOOM
The section’s prize for Best Article was officially announced (refer to item 4).
Details regarding the upcoming section election were shared as well as several proposed changes to the bylaws:
• Change section prizes from the current offer of two Best Article prizes to one Best Book and one Best Article (open rank). This was proposed due to the near absence of submissions for the Early-Career Article Award.
• Going forward, to reserve one at-Large position for the outgoing Chair. This was proposed to guarantee a degree of continuity and institutional memory for the section. All amendments were approved by the membership.
The issue of outreach was discussed with a general agreement that the section must reach out to department heads, Centres for Latin American Studies, and connect with specialists outside academia.
An effort should also be made to attract new members throughout Latin America through personal contacts of the entire membership. We also discussed the possibility of hosting/facilitating a session/panel with invited speakers who are not currently members of the section.
6. Plans for the 2020-2021 term
Going forward, we propose a very active effort to make the section a much more relevant platform for our membership.
We plan to make greater use of all channels of communication (Google list-serv, social media channels and our own LASA wesite).
We encourage individual members to share more information regarding their personal research and events at their institutions as well as opportunities for joint projects.
The section will secure its own YouTube channel and plans to record a number of talks and interviews/webinars with membership and international (including non-academic) specialists as part of our outreach effort.
LASA ECONOMICS AND POLITICS (E+P) SECTION ANNUAL REPORT (2019)
Authors: Fabrício H. Chagas-Bastos, Chair Joseph Marques, Secretary and Treasurer
date: 28 June 2019
1. Leadership
The new leadership took over in January 2018 for the 2018-2020 term and consists of the following members:
Chair: Fabrício H. Chagas-Bastos
Secretary and Treasurer: Joseph Marques
Executive Committee:
- Leslie Armijo
- Mahrukh Doctor
- Anthony Spanakos
- Sean Burges
2. Membership and Treasury
The section has 111 members as of today’s date (28 June 2019). The membership is stable in comparison to 2018 (116 members), but still below 2017 levels (128 members).
The treasurer reports that the section has USD 5,070.40 as of 28 June 2019. In 2019 our expenses were:
• Two travel grants of USD 400 each (USD 800)
• Best Article Award of USD 150
3. Panels sponsored
Based on membership size by December 2018, the section can sponsor 2 panels for the 2020 LASA Annual Conference in Guadalajara (MEX).
The section sponsored two panels for the 2019 LASA Annual Conference in Boston (please, refer to Conference Program for further details):
• Lights and Shadows of Latin American Populism. Fri, May 24, 4:00 to 5:30 pm.
• International Policy Cooperation in South America: Recent History and Expectations. Sun, May 26, 9:00 to 10:30 am.
4. Prizes and Grants
After a lapse in our 2017-2018 edition, the 2019 awards considered scholarship published in both 2017 and 2018. We received five submissions to the Best Article Award and only one to the Early Career Scholars Award —by doing so, the ExCom decided to judge them altogether.
The 2019 Best Article Award Committee awarded its prize to Tasha Fairfield (LSE) and Candelaria Garay (Harvard) for their Redistribution Under the Right in Latin America: Electoral Competition and Organized Actors in Policymaking.
The Committee also awarded an Honourable Mention to Claudia Kedar for her The International Monetary Fund and the Chilean Chicago Boys, 1973-7: Cold Ties between Warm Ideological Partners.
All papers are available through the link: http://tiny.cc/smqb9y
The 2019 Travel Grant Committee awarded grants to Maria Luisa Rendon Puertas and José Manuel Puente
We thank the members of the committees for their service.
5. Summary of the 2019 E+P Section business meeting
Quorum: 5 members
Agenda:
a. Review of the activities
- See items 2 to 4 of this report
b. Section 2019 prizes
c. Plans for the coming term (2020)
- Based on membership size by December 2018, the section can sponsor 2 panels for the 2020 LASA Annual Conference in Guadalajara (MEX).
- Elections for section leadership will be called on March 2020