Between January 4 and 9, the third version of the Latin American Summer School on Social Issues, LASI, took place at the Universidad Católica del Norte in Antofagasta. This school is aimed at highly qualified doctoral students and young researchers who have at least a Master’s degree from Latin America, North America and Europe. Its objective is to give students the opportunity to meet for a week in a faculty format, receiving training and supervision from prominent Chilean and foreign social scientists.
LASI 2019 was organized by the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Studies (CIIR) and the Institute of Archeology and Anthropology of the Universidad Católica del Norte. The school had thirty students from prominent universities around the world, such as Stanford, Cambridge and Arizona, among others.
One of the expectations of the school, along with the training process, is to create an opportunity to generate contact networks with other researchers, from different universities and disciplines, which will allow them to exchange knowledge and experiences during their future research career.
LASI 2019 was titled “Limits, Borders and Circulation”. Through the workshops and debates held, topics of urgent discussion were addressed, such as migratory phenomena. These academic sessions were complemented, for example, with a visit to the “Constancia” camp located in the upper area of Antofagasta, where the school participants shared with the residents of the settlement, mostly migrants from countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia. .
Likewise, various round tables were held on topics such as the demands of the migrant population living in camps, the situation of the Native Peoples of the region in the face of the intense prevailing extractivist processes, and how cross-border relations between Chile operate both currently and historically. and Bolivia. According to the tenor of the session, each event included the participation of social actors from the region, representatives of the Likan Antay and Aymara peoples, and politicians and academics dedicated to the study of the economic and cultural relations that exist between Chile and Bolivia.
The next edition of the school will be held in Coquimbo in January 2020.
