Social Science Research Council

October 5-6, 2001
Centro Cultural Casa Lamm
Mexico City

The social transformations of the late 20th century have had a profound impact on the ways in which analysts and critics are approaching the study of social processes and cultural practices. Scholars are actively redefining intellectual agendas and reshaping the institutional settings in which they are articulated and disseminated at the same time that higher education is undergoing profound restructurings throughout the hemisphere. In the United States, the consolidation of ethnic and cultural studies programs, the rethinking of area studies paradigms, the emergence of postcolonial and subaltern studies, and the general reorientation of post-Cold War higher education towards economic competitiveness have transformed the institutional means through which contemporary intellectual projects are being articulated. In this context, new interdisciplinary programs and institutes are changing the university landscape, while journals, Internet publications and highly specialized virtual communities, are playing an increasingly important role in articulating and globalizing emerging intellectual communities in these fields.

In many parts of Latin America, related processes are underway. The simultaneity of political democratization and economic liberalization has opened possibilities for articulating critical intellectual agendas on the one hand and undermined their sustainability within universities on the other. The implementation of structural adjustment policies in higher education has shown a tendency to strengthen the role of private enterprise and international foundations in the formulation of intellectual agendas and institutional priorities as well as the hegemony of the U.S. academy in the region. These new and/or intensified circuits of academic globalization are not only redefining the roles and practices of intellectuals within national and regional contexts, but also forging a new international division of cultural and intellectual labor that is transforming the very relationship between North and South.

This meeting, which was convened by the Regional Advisory Panel for Latin America in conjunction with the Cultural Agency in the Americas Project, brought together a group of senior cultural analysts from throughout the Americas to discuss current intellectual agendas and exchange perspectives on the changing political and institutional localities in which they operate. We extended invitations to editors of publications, scholars involved in disciplinary and area studies associations such as LASA and ASA, foundation officers, directors of interdisciplinary institutes and scholars who are exploring such concerns in their work. The objective of the meeting was to provide a space for open-ended dialogue between scholars located in vastly different settings about the impact of recent social, political and economic transformations on their work and on the various institutions in which it takes place. Through these conversations, we seek to generate a deeper understanding of the specific challenges facing scholars in various parts of the hemisphere in order to strengthen collaboration efforts, research planning and networking-building initiatives around the study of culture in the Americas.

Participants:

e-mail link: godoy@ssrc.org