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Antofagasta 4th – 9th of January 2019
LASI – Summer School 2019 sets focus on the production of borders and frontiers and the forms of circulation that occur across conceptual and socio-political limits. We ask faculty and students to consider where and how socio-political, conceptual and theoretical borders appear in the contemporary world and where the frontiers’ of society’s gaze, interests, and comprehension are situated and challenged. Who and what are on the move and where are the frontiers of expansion and knowledge situated in globalized societies in Latin America and beyond?
Borders studies have become a traditional topic in social theory where the focus is set on issues such as nation-state formation, nationality and citizenship, cultural groups, and their transformation through circulation and transgression. Equally, internal boundaries such as ethnicity, race, gender, class, religion, caste, etc. are objects of continuous scrutiny because of their ordering effects, that generate palpable opportunities and limitations in people’s possibilities of gaining social mobility and well-being. These issues seem pressingly relevant in a global context where nationalism and protectionism are rising in tandem with the refugee crisis, transnational migration, global flows of capital and commodities, practices and the transformation of world hegemony. In parallel identity politics that are expressed, for example, in indigenous or feminist movements currently move the frontiers of territorial, political and bodily rights and the definitions of what constitutes socially accepted conduct. And these social movements adopt and provoke unusual alliances across borders and inside local communities.
LASI-Summer School 2019 is an invitation to learn about and reflect upon borders, frontiers and circulation through keynotes, plenary activities and a series of specialized workshops that go in-depth with specific topics and theories.
The summer school has duration of 6 days in which thirty students and ten professors will participate in an experience of mutual learning, exchange, and knowledge generation. LASI is organized as a combination of plenary key-note lectures and smaller intensive workshops that focus on specific issues, with about 8 – 10 students in each group. The groups will be organized around specific research themes, and each group will be supervised by a tutor whose own research specialization falls within that theme. This tutor will be assisted by a second person from the host institutions. The Summer School organizers will work to achieve a balance of research themes, covering as much as possible the many disciplines within the social sciences.
It is expected that each student will participate in two workshops, and reading lists and texts will be distributed well in advance. All participants are expected to have engaged in a critical reading of the texts before arriving in Antofagasta and to elaborate a short review on how the texts and topics relate to their own research. The principal idea is that within each of the six groups of workshops, participants will receive specialist instruction in a particular research area, and that, through this process, members of the group will design empirical studies, advance in their writing, and/or address key empirical and theoretical questions in their research projects.
The official language of LASI is English and participants should be able to read texts and engage in presentations and discussions in this language. However, given the Spanish speaking context in which LASI is located, English speaking students should be prepared for a setting where Spanish is the mother tongue of a significant part of the participants and local interlocutors. Local instructors and some of the international instructors speak and/or understand both languages, and the instructors will make an effort to generate an inclusive environment for all students and facilitate a fruitful communication.
While the specialized workshops will be held in English some of the afternoon activities with local interlocutors will be in Spanish and basic knowledge of Spanish is therefore preferable.
Application Process:
LASI – summer school invite graduate students from social sciences and humanities to apply.
Fee: $45O USD. This fee includes all the described academic activities and the supplies needed; Transport (by air) from Santiago to Antofagasta; housing and most meals during the stay in Antofagasta. Students coming from outside Santiago or Chile must arrange for transport to Santiago de Chile themselves.
Applications must be submitted by October 15th 2018 at the latest through the online application system. The selected participants will be notified by October 31th 2018 onwards.
Email: ciir@uc.cl
