Latin America in the Nineteenth Century: Culture, Politics and Society

Call for papers: "Latin America in the Nineteenth Century: Culture, Politics and Society”

Organisers: Prof. Dr. Maria Ligia Coelho Prado (USP) and Prof. Dr. Valdir Donizete dos Santos Junior (IFSP)

Deadline: january 31, 2022

Much of the political disputes, intellectual debates, cultural plots and social organization in Latin America had many of their assumptions formulated during the nineteenth century. Amidst continuities and ruptures, the 19th century is the one of state formation in the region, of the first clashes over national identities and of very thought-provoking reflections on the place occupied by the Americas in the world.

It is important to highlight the particularities that marked the construction of the various national states in the region, many of which, although they experienced similar situations and contexts, must be understood within their specificities and local singularities. In the field of politics, for example, the history of concepts and studies on republicanism have contributed in recent years to making the debates around liberalism and conservatism in various Latin American countries even more complex.

It is also worth recalling that the Brazilian emancipation process from Portugal and the formation and consolidation of its national institutions took place concomitantly either directly or indirectly related to those from other Latin American countries. Thus, comparisons, connections, conveying and analyses from a transnational perspective may present themselves as important paths for understanding the approximations and distancements between Brazil and its neighbours throughout the nineteenth century.

It must also be stressed that, unlike national historiography, which was constituted in the nineteenth century as the heir of criollo elites, there is no way of thinking about the history of this period without the effective participation of historically subalternized groups on the subcontinent such as women, black, indigenous and mestizos. The actions of these groups, often from the perspective of intersectionality, have been copiously highlighted by studies on ethnic-racial and gender relations in concern to political, cultural as well as in the social and work spheres.

In short, the dossier makes room for critical approaches to established themes of historiography - independence, the formation of national states, liberal reforms, slavery, modernity - and also for new themes discussion, concerning politics, culture and society in nineteenth-century Latin America.