Postgraduates in Latin American Studies (PILAS) conference

The annual Postgraduates in Latin American Studies (PILAS) conference was held at the University of York on the 4^th and 5^th June and was hosted by York’s Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre (IGDC). The conference brought together Latin American researchers under the title ‘Communities of Knowledge, Communities of Action’. Politics PhD candidate and IGDC Research Assistant Matt Barlow, was leading the organising committee for this multi-disciplinary conference which debated a range of Latin American research areas, all connected through the theme of activism and knowledge. Panels were wide-ranging and diverse and included: Race, Gender Ethnicity and the legacy of Colonialism, Feminism and Activism, Power Dynamics of Climate Change, Development Challenges in Unequal Terrains, Development and Marginalised Communities and Security, Militarism and Violence.

Keynotes were provided by the IGDC’s own Postdoctoral Researcher Dr María-Eugenia Giraudo, who presented her work on the Legacy of the Commodity Boom in Latin America and the Advance and Retreat of the Pink Tide. Prof Ben Bollig from the University of Oxford, Dr Katy Jenkins from Northumbria University and Prof Ben Smith from the University of Warwick, all provided insightful and engaging keynotes to the well-attended conference. Common themes discussed included: womens rights, indigenous rights, migration and diasporas, inequalities, mental health, knowledge production and resistance. To round off the first day of the conference, delegates were also presented with a film screening of the Cartonera publishing project. We wish the new organising committee the best of luck for continued insightful debate at the 2020 conference.