Environment

Report of Minutes - LASA Environment Section Business Meeting 11.30am – 1pm pm, Monday August 15, 2022
Co-Chairs: Maria Alessandra Woolson and Linda Etchart
Facilitator: Maria Alessandra Woolson

Present: Maria Alessandra Woolson, Linda Etchart, Marcela López-Vallejo, Consuelo Guayara Sánchez, Waleska Sanabria-León, Susana Hecht, Elizabeth Pettinaroli, Catherine Tucker, Maria Ines Nieves, Maiah Jaworski

OLD BUSINESS

Board of Directors for the section (Mesa Directiva)
Board member Linda Etchart has replaced Lidia Blasquez Martinez in the role of co-chair. Maria Alessandra Woolson (based at a US institution) will remain as co-Chair for one more year.

Mesa Directiva:
returning boardmembers: Marcela López-Vallejo, Universidad de Guadalajara, México,
Elena Alvarez, Board member, Instituto del Peru-USMP
new board members elected May:
Waleska Sanabria-León, Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico,
Lidia Blásquez Martínez, UAM, México
new board members elected in August:
Elizabeth Pettinaroli, Rhodes College, Tennessee
Consuelo Guayara Sánchez, University of Iowa

BUSINESS UPDATE:

1. Voted at Congress meeting and again approved at business meeting 15 August 2022: the section will offer a one-time increase in scholarship funding for LASA Congress 2023, in-person in Vancouver, to $1,500.00, to be distributed equitably in support of Latin American scholars travelling internationally to the Congress, to cover congress registration and/or attendance costs. The Environment section's scholarship is not intended as the sole form of funding but rather as complementary to other forms of funding that a colleague may seek with either the general LASA scholarship fund or external entities. The 2022-23 scholarship committee was decided and confirmed as follows: Lidia Blasquez Martinez, UAM, México, Marcela López-Vallejo, Universidad de Guadalajara, México, Elena Alvarez, Instituto del Peru-USMP. Passed unanimously.

2. Voted at Congress meeting and again approved at business meeting 15 August 2022: Pre-LASA excursion and reception for LASA Vancouver 2023. has been designated funding in the amount of $500.00. Excursion and reception will be organized jointly with other sections. As conference rooms are generally large and cold, Maria suggested that a more informal reception venue outside the conference centre would be more inviting to members, as it had been done at past congresses. The 2022-23 reception and pre-conference excursion organizers were decided and confirmed as follows: Waleska Sanabria-León, P. Catholic University, Puerto Rico, Elena Alvarez, Instituto del Peru-USMP. Waleska will contact former professor who in Vancouver who may have connections with first nation representatives in Vancouver to establish contacts to arrange field trip based around ancestral knowledge and sustainable practices.

3. Voted at Congress meeting and again approved at business meeting 15 August 2022: Social Media communications committee: Environment Section website (within the LASA website) will be maintained by the cochairs. Waleska offered to contribute to LASA Environment Facebook and Twitter accounts.

4. Voted at Congress meeting and again approved at business meeting 15 August 2022: Webinar series committee (one webinar in late fall 2022 and one in early spring 2023). Proposals for invited scholars:
Elena Alvarez: Proposed seminar with UNESCO prize-winning archaeologist Ruth Shady Solís, of Ciencia Andina, to present on her work of the archaeological site of Caral, Peru. Elena will contact Ruth to arrange a date with her for end of October, 2022.
Maria Woolson: Maria will invite plants science scholar and Dean of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Villarica Campus Gonzalo Valdivieso to discuss their sustainability-cantered campus organization at the heart of Araucanía region in Chile for webinar in Spring 2023.

5. Voted at Congress meeting and again approved at business meeting 15 August 2022: Environmental section best article and best book biannual award on alternating years. The section will offer a biannual Publication PRIZE OF $150 FOR BEST ARTICLE, AND $300 FOR BEST BOOK ON ALTERNATING YEARS. THREE PROPOSALS WAS DETERMINED TO BE THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF PROPOSALS TO BE EVALUATED. The 2022-23 LASA Environmental Section publication award committee members include: CAROLYN FORNOFF, WHO WILL LEAD THE COMMITTE, SUSANA HECHT AND ELIZABETH Pettinaroli.

6. Panels and workshops for lasa 2023: there was a discussion about members' interest in topics/themes for the lasa 2023 section panel and roundtable. The following were topics of interest proposed by those present at the meeting. Other proposals received via email or voiced at the lasa 2022 business meeting were also considered:
• • water management incorporating ancient andean technologies (elena)
• • renewable energy (marcela)
• • extractive industries in mining and energy production
• • embodied territories/ women's networks and activism in mexico
• • migrations, geopolitics and socio-environmental vulnerability

Report by Maria Alessandra Woolson & Linda E. Etchart