Organized by the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Studies CIIR, the UC Institute of Archeology and the School of Anthropology of the Universidad Católica del Norte, LASI brought together 36 postgraduate students from the United States, England, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru , Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
Held between January 4 and 9, 2017 in San Pedro de Atacama, Antofagasta, LASI hosted 36 doctoral students and young researchers. In faculty mode, they received training and supervision from prominent Chilean and foreign social scientists, and had the opportunity to create collaboration networks and exchange experiences with young people from Latin America, North America and Europe.
Twenty-one of those students were selected through an application process. The remaining fifteen participated through scholarships provided by the doctoral programs that the school sponsored: Education, Sociology, Psychology and Geography of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile; Anthropology from the Universidad Católica del Norte and Latin American Studies from the University of Chile.
The inauguration ceremony held on Wednesday, January 4 at the Diego de Almagro hotel in San Pedro de Atacama, was attended by the UC Vice-rector for Research, Sol Serrano, her counterpart from the UCN, María Cecilia Hernández, and the director of the CIIR, Pedro Mege.
LASI was organized into six workshops; State Formation and Sovereignty, Environmental Conflicts and Indigenous Communities, Racism and Prejudice, Human Rights and Transitional Justice. In addition, the six invited international professors offered lectures to open each of the days of study and discussion.
Academics Jim Sidanius, Sharika Thiranagama, Thomas Blom Hansen, Karine Vanthuyne, Charles Hale, Salvador Millaleo, Tom Perreault and Rosamel Millaman participated as teachers. Co-chairing were CIIR researchers and UC academics Helene Risor – also academic coordinator of LASI -, Héctor Carvacho and Marjorie Murray, and also CIIR researcher and UCN academic Manuel Prieto.
The students who participated in LASI came from different disciplines such as Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Psychology, Geography and Musicology.
The summer school also included extracurricular activities, such as the visit to the ALMA radio astronomical observatory, the talk by the National History Prize Lautaro Núñez and the viewing of the award-winning documentary Nostalgia de la Luz, by Patricio Guzmán.
