Latin America currently stands at a crossroads. The demise of \;neoliberalism as the hegemonic ideological force across much of the \;continent has led many inhabitants and observers of Latin America to \;publicly reopen fundamental questions as to the future and direction \;of the region and its nations. Democracy\, citizen participation\, \;participatory budgeting\, human rights\, resource nationalization\, and \;pan-indigenous projects have all\, at varying moments and in different \;ways\, been invoked as fundamental principles for forging a new ideal \;future. At this critical juncture\, a re-examination of the role of \;idealist visions in Latin America's political programs and cultural \;production can reveal the multiple entanglements and implicit \;assumptions underlying these visions.
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This conference seeks to bring together recent scholarship on how \;utopian visions have shaped Latin America throughout its history. \;Uniting work from across and between disciplinary boundaries\, the \;conference looks to explore the history\, construction\, contexts\, and \;effects of imagined utopias\, as well as\, and crucially\, the \;interrelations between them. From its inception as an ideologically \;constituted unit born of the colonial encounter\, Latin America has \;been a subject and producer of idealized imaginaries of universal \;order and humanity's place within it. Its relegation to Europe's \;'savage slot' (Trouillot 2003) and the projections of European \;escapist fantasies onto its terrain was a fundamental determinant of \;colonial policy for several hundred years. In exploring a range of \;utopian visions\, from the lasting allure of communist revolution to \;the idealist programs that directed modernism's drive to develop\, \;this conference explores the multifarious ways in which Latin America \;has served as the landscape upon which utopian ideas have been \;imagined\, designed\, and attempted. Furthermore\, in bringing together \;a diverse set of scholarship\, the conference aims to excavate the \;complex entanglements and overlaps between seemingly contradictory but \;inherently intertwined elements of different utopias. Fundamentally\, \;the conference seeks to serve as a forum for productive discussion \;and debate of the nature and potential in contemporary utopian \;visions\, or in what Fernando Coronil has described as "the \;present-day future imaginary" (2010).
We are looking for papers by scholars from a range of disciplines\, \;including literature\, film studies\, anthropology\, history\, and \;sociology\, and especially welcome contributions that can speak to one \;or more of the following sub-themes: human rights\, modernity\, \;indigeneity\, cultural narratives\, or colonial legacies. By focusing \;on a particular theme &ndash\; utopia &ndash\; we seek to unite perspectives from \;across historical time periods and spanning multiple forms of \;cultural expression\, enabling a collective\, multivocal exploration of \;the past\, present\, and future of the imagined future in Latin America.
Please send abstracts of up to 500 words along with a brief \;biographical statement to sb529@cam.ac.uk> and \;kfaulk@andrew.cmu.edu> by November 30\, 2012. \;Decisions will be made by December 15\, 2012.
Contact: \;Dr Sandra Brunnegger (sb529@cam.ac.uk)