Environment

Report to the Latin American Studies Association by the Environment Section

Elena Alvarez, June 28, 2026

The section met on Thursday, May 28, at 7:00 PM Paris time. Seventeen members attended, and the following topics were discussed: membership (175 members), pre-congress activities, travel grant expenditures ($1,800 for 10 recipients at $180 each), and awards presented for members' books and articles. Co-chair Cesar Gamboa announced that he would not continue in that leadership role, and Alvarez agreed to stay on for another year to foster the section's continued growth and train new leaders.

The section is entitled to organize three (3) events at the congress. However, the coordinators organized four panels, a roundtable, and a pre-conference event. Additionally, an intersectional panel was organized with the FARS (Food, Agriculture and Rural Studies) section, as well as a joint visit—also with FARS—to a cheese history museum in Paris. In total, seven events took place during the congress.

Between October and May, five (5) webinars were held; one was organized by the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Latin American Institute with the support of section member Susanna Hecht. Unfortunately, attendance at these virtual meetings is very limited; it is necessary to analyze the best scheduling and topics to attract a wider audience.

After a lengthy discussion, the candidacies of Ana Araujo (Clark University) and Consuelo Guaraya (University of Iowa) were accepted. Cesar Gamboa sent voting links to the membership, and Ana Araujo was elected.

Support for the virtual meetings—including the use of Zoom and the recording of presentations—was provided by DAR (Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), a Peruvian NGO with which Cesar Gamboa is affiliated. This year, we would like to coordinate this effort with the UCLA Latin American Institute. The section's new board would be composed of the following individuals:

Coordinators-Chairs: Elena Alvarez, (Ciencia Andina, Peru) and Ana Araujo (Clark University),

 

Board Members

1. Maria Alessandra Woolson, University of Vermont – USA
2. Elizabeth Pettinaroli, Rhodes College – USA
3. Consuelo Guayara Sánchez, University of Iowa – USA
4. Linda E. Etchart, Kingston University – UK
5. Mark Ungar, City University of New York – USA
6. Sheila Gruner, Algoma University – Canada
7. Hilda Alburqueque, Universidad Nacional de Piura – Peru
8. Kate Ostrom, University of Michigan – USA

 

Best Book and Article Awards Winners 2026

Chaired by Linda Etchart

Book Award - First Prize

Rick A. López, Rooted in Place: Botany, Indigeneity, and Art in the Construction of Mexican Nature, 1570-1914 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press,  2025)

Honorable mention

Fernando Pérez Montesinos, Landscaping Indigenous Mexico: The Liberal State and Capitalism in the Purépecha Highlands (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2025). 

Articles

Joint first prize

McKay, Micah (2025). “Logics of Waste in Liliana Colanzi’s You Glow in the Dark.”  THEORY NOW: Journal of Literature, Critique, and Thought. Vol 8: 1 January – June.

Tijerina Martínez, Francisco Gerardo (2025). “Technopoetics of the Anthropocene: Rendering Our Present through Echoes in Mexican Bots and Machines.” Bulletin of Latin American Studies. Vol 44: 3, July.

Honorable mention

Calcagni, Mariana (2025) “From peasant women to social change: The politicization of identities and materialities toward socio-ecological transformations.”   Grassroots – Journal of Political Ecology. Grassroots – Journal of Political Ecology. Vol. 32.   

Travel Grants were coordinated by Cesar Gamboa and Elena Alvarez