Participants:
● Alejandro Zamora, York University
● Joshua Price, Toronto Metropolitan University
● María Constanza Guzmán, York University
Participants:
● Kurt Davis, Consulate General of Jamaica
● Younna Bailey Magalhaes, Consulate General of Jamaica
● Melanie Sharon Griffin, Bahamas Consulate General
● Dwight Hart, Bahamas Consulate General
● Gerry Hopkin, Consulate General of Grenada
Chair: Tka Pinnock, York University
Discussant: Giselle Thompson, University of Alberta
Gender visibility: Is there a gender issue for women academics in STEM?
Heather Gray Lamm, University of Alberta
Searching, Learning, and Experimenting: Civil Society Organisations as Cultural Intermediaries
and Facilitators of Colombia-Jamaica Cultural Policy Cooperation
Roshane Miller, York University
Unpacking Grenada’s Support for Education, Empowerment and Development’ Programme
(SEED): The Experiences of Single Mothers
Shireen Phillip, York University
Participants:
● Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Schulich School of Business at York University
● Vanessa Gardère, Psychologist & Trauma Specialist, based in Haiti
● Bianca Beauchemin, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York
University
Chair: Maria de los Angeles Rodriguez Cadena, Southwestern University
Dissident Fabulations: Queering Indentureship's Lifeworlds
Amar Wahab, York University
Memoria múltiple en la ficción histórica de México: la obra reciente de Guita Schyfter
Maria de los Angeles Rodriguez Cadena, Southwestern University
An Unsettling Return in the artwork of Monica Martínez
Tamara Toledo, York University
Chair: Diana Barrero-Jaramillo, University of Toronto
Threading a Movement with a Needle: Colombian Women’s Needlework and Human Rights
Advocacy
Diana Barrero-Jaramillo, University of Toronto
Transnational Activism and Its Role in the Expansion of Matrimonio Igualitario in Latin America
Martin Bertolotti, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba / Université du Québec à Montréal
Espacios y lugares de resistencia a la violencia estética y gordofobia en Lima
Rosario del Pilar Rodriguez Romani, York University
Chair: Rudyard Alcocer, University of Tennessee
Literatura post-Covid: Expresiones uruguayas en la poesía y la novela
Maria Figueredo, York University
Boundaries, (Dis)Junctures, and Personal Space: Solitude Illustrated in Diario de un solo, by
Catalina Bu (Chile)
Rudyard Alcocer, University of Tennessee
Yania y la Venus Surrealista: Fronteras entre el Surrealismo y la Poesía de Aída Cartagena
Portalatín
Zaira Pacheco Lozada, Universidad de Puerto Rico
Editors: Kristin Ciupa and Jeffery R. Webber
Participants:
● Anna Zalik, York University
● Chris Little, York University
● Jeffery Webber, York University
● Kristin Ciupa, University of Regina
● Viviana Patroni, York University
Natural resource extraction and primary commodity export remain persistent features of the Latin American economy. This edited volume traces the power of labor in extractive sectors in Latin America starting in the 1980s and shows how labor shapes national export sectors, economies, politics, and societies more broadly.
Participants:
● Carmen Bezner-Kerr, Mexico Labour Solidarity Project
● Laura Macdonald, Carleton University
● Mark Rowlinson, Goldblatt Partners
● Paul Bocking, Steelworkers Humanities Fund
● Simon Archer, York University
Participants:
● Emilia Krause Icaza, Lycée Français International Jules Verne
● Emiro Martínez-Osorio, York University
● Joshua Price, Toronto Metropolitan University
● María Constanza Guzmán, York University
● Melina Belcázar, Colegio de México
● Mónica del Valle, Universidad de La Salle
● Thomas Rothe, Universidad de Playa Ancha
Chair: María Soledad Paz-Mackay, St. Francis Xavier University
Discussant: Giovanna Pollarolo, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
- Entre lazos afectivos y memorias familiares: Los prismas del yo en La guardería (2015) de
Virginia Croatto
María Soledad Paz-Mackay, St. Francis Xavier University
- La agencia obstruida en ¿Quién te crees que sos? (2013) de Ángela Urondo Raboy
Diana Pifano, Dalhousie University
- Mario Vargas Llosa: ¿de la “autoficción" al Yo autobiográfico?
Giovanna Pollarolo, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
- Tote/Abuelo: el giro autobiográfico en el documental indígena en México
Argelia González Hurtado, St. Mary's College of Maryland
Chair: Tka Pinnock, York University
Discussant: Bianca Beauchemin, York University
Looking Back, Moving Forward: Archie Alleyne and Black Placemaking in Toronto
Keisha Bell Kovacs, York University
Policy, Identity, and Resistance: Black Girls' Experiences of Hair Grooming Policies in Jamaica
Meshia Brown, University of Alberta
“Eh Gyal Dem”
Shanique Mothersill, York University
Artist: María José Rodríguez Ávila, SiKanda
This presentation seeks to introduce the ongoing work “Aquí no hay espacio para ti”, a
collection of essays that explores everyday attempts by women in the Americas to tell our
experiences on our own terms. These essays traverse different narrative realms:
autobiography, the family archive, and territory, in both rural and urban environments. The
essays share the common thread of articulating their own stories from the margins, from
experience and from the body in territory, upon hearing again and again: there is no space for
you here. However, in the face of this negation, the possibility of smaller, more intimate
spaces of enunciation opens up, spaces that are often made invisible by the dominant grand
narratives. These are attempts to create narrative spaces, however small, within the margins
of multiple oppressions and violences.
Chair/Moderator: Miguel Gonzalez, York University
Participants:
● Ana Isabel Marquez Perez, National University of Colombia
● Bernal Castillo, National University of Panama
● Gilbert González Maroto, Centro de Desarrollo Indigena
● Francisco Fonseca, York University
● Prilly Bicknell-Hersco, York University
● Ritsuko Funaki, Chuo University
Chair: Pascal Lupien, Brock University
"Agrarian Citizenship" and Transitions to Neoliberalism in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru
Patrick Clark, St. Mary's University / York University
Neoliberalism, democracy and covert action in Argentina: The long shadow of "Jaime" Stiuso
Stefan Suben, York University
Seeking Creole utopia in an era of Nicaraguan totalitarianism
Keith G. Sujo, York University
Global Trends, Local Adaptations: Discourse of the Far Right in Latin America
Pascal Lupien, Brock University
Public Banks towards the Socio-Ecological Transformation: implications of neoliberalism and
financialization for the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES)
Rafaela Sá, McMaster University
Chair: Lazar Konforti, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social
Policing an extractive frontier: Encounters between private security and indigenous communities
at a Guatemalan nickel mine
Lazar Konforti, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social
The Subterranean State: The Municipal Work of Artisanal Miners in the Northern Peruvian
Andes
Luis Meléndez Guerrero, University of Western Ontario
The Indigenous Campesino Resistance to Land Dispossession: A Historical Analysis of the
Dialectical Relationship Between the Law and the Indigenous Agrarian Movement in Guatemala
Mélisande Séguin, University of Victoria
Chair: Maria Fernanda Suarez Olvera, Concordia University
Aprendiendo a través de Ts’íib: Los Libros de Chilam Balam
Paula Karger, University of Toronto
Estéticas situadas: tejido y colaboración entre mujeres Nahuas y Mestizas
Maria Fernanda Suarez Olvera, Concordia University
Linguistic Diversity in Precolonial Caribbean
Ivan Roksandic, University of Winnipeg
Chair: Jean Daudelin, Carleton University
Governing prisons without inmates in Northeast Brazil
Hollis Moore, Carleton University
Here you live. There you die: Space and place as governance commodities in Pernambuco’s
prisons
Jean Daudelin, Carleton University
Golden Necklaces and Hidden Badges – The Roots of the Milícia Phenomenon in Rio de
Janeiro
Matheus L.S. Consone, Carleton University
Chair: María Constanza Guzmán, York University
Cristina Rivera Garza’s “dis-appropriating” ethics to rethink author-translator authorship
María Constanza Guzmán, York University
Interpreting 1970s Brazil for Anglophone readers in 2024: an encoded short story by Tania
Faillace
Margarida Gandara Rauen, UNICENTRO
Queer Tidalectics of Memory in David Chariandy’s Soucouyant
Jarrod Williams, York University
Bordering on the Personal: Austin Clarke's Archives and "The Possibility of Invention"
Darcy Ballantyne, Toronto Metropolitan University
The Writer’s Craft. Clarice Lispector’s Translations in the Jornal do Brasil
Delfina Cabrera, University of Cologne
Participants:
● Dolores Figueroa Romero, CIESAS
● Natalia de Marinis, CIESAS
● Cristina Arevalo, Colectivo Feminista "La Corriente"
● Tania Canas, University of Melbourne
● Veronica Rueda-Estrada, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Quintana Roo
Chair: Simone Bohn
Discussant: Patricia Krieger Grossi, PUC-RS
Nosotros in Canada: Exile and Memory in Latino-Canadian Writing.
Barbara Daibert, University of Toronto
Tackling race-ethnicity colonial hierarchies: The SPM’s de-colonial work in Brazil.
Simone Bohn, York University
The Practice of Decolonizing: the experience of “Sabores e Saberes de Cria” in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
Andrea Moraes, Toronto Metropolitan University
Gaio Jorge Paiva, CEFET / SENAI-RJ
Artist: Laura Montes de Oca Barrera, University of Calgary
One of the most significant losses for people who migrate is their social ties and family support. When you migrate, you leave behind family and friends. You must put your life in a suitcase and when you arrive in an environment where everything is new, you inevitably feel lonely and empty. In March 2023, a group of women from Latin America came together to tell their stories. As part of the project Voices and Images of Migration: Latinas in Canada, these women have nurtured a social support network while seeking to make visible their experiences as newcomers and immigrants. Together they produced the documentary series Latinas' Diary. A
Journey of Strength, Hope and Empowerment, with support from Storyhive-TELUS. One of the episodes will be shared, followed by a discussion and reflection with the group.
Chairs: Donald Kingsbury (University of Toronto) and Richard Saunders (York University)
Participants:
● Craig Johnson, University of Guelph
● John Hayes, University of Calgary
● Kesha Fevrier, Queen's University
● Sampson Adese, York University
● Sandra McKay, Queen's University
Chair: Carlos Marcelo Ascencio Gómez, McGill University
Shifting subjectivities in the midst of relationships: The experiences of a Mexican woman in the
diaspora
Liz Veronica Vicencio Diaz, Carleton University
Exclusiones sociales: migrantes trans en la frontera Ciudad Juárez y El Paso
Patricia Ravelo Blancas, CIESAS
Susana Báez, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Ciudad Juárez
La frontera como viscosidad en la obra de la isleña Cristina Bendek
Mónica del Valle, Universidad de La Salle
Latincouver: Defining 'Latin Identities in Vancouver Through the Music Festival Carnaval del Sol
Carlos Marcelo Ascencio Gómez, McGill University
Chair: Nuty Cárdenas Alaminos, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Discussant: Lucy Luccisano, Wilfrid Laurier University
“I didn’t wave a magic wand to get that border closed”: una reflexión sobre la colaboración entre
las autoridades fronterizas para la implementación de la Operación Espaldas Mojadas, 1954
Catherine Vézina, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Dreamers mexicanos en los Estados Unidos, paradojas del rechazo de una población
altamente calificada
Camelia Tigau, Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte, UNAM
El vecino obediente: las políticas fronterizas y de control migratorio de México a fines del siglo
XX y principios del XXI
Nuty Cárdenas Alaminos, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
The businesses of migration in transit: smuggling and corruption in 1920s Mexico
Abraham Trejo Terreros, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Unidad Xochimilco
Chair: Erica Toffoli, University of Toronto
A Camera on America’s Killing Ground: Authenticity, Precarity, and the Fates of Humanitarian
Documentary in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (1970s-2000s)
Erica Toffoli, University of Toronto
Ongoing State Building at the Peten, Guatemala-Campeche, Mexico Borderlands
Luis Alfredo Arriola Vega, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
Gorriti, fronteras, raza y oro
Daniella Cádiz Bedini, University of California, Berkeley
Selling the Country by the Pound: Finding Encanto in Colombia
Héctor Fernández L'Hoeste, Georgia State University
Chair: Jasmin Hristov, University of Guelph
Criminalization as a Form of Political Persecution: Experiences of Peasants and Environmental
Defenders from Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico
Jasmin Hristov, University of Guelph
Rebecca Tatham, University of Guelph
Las ollas comunes en barrios populares urbanos. Gobernanza y sistema de cuidados desde la
experiencia organizativa en pandemia y post pandemia en Lima, Perú
Jacqueline Minaya Rodriguez, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
Local Democracy and Social Movements: The Alternative Model of the Landless Workers’
Movement (MST) in Brazil
Kellen Cristina De Abreu, Universidade Federal de Lavras
Chair: Gabriel Juliano, Simon Fraser University
Discussant: Hamed Rashtian, Simon Fraser University
Beyond Representation: Fostering Deeper Understanding Through Opaque Imagery in a
Politicized Global Environment
Hamed Rashtian, Simon Fraser University
Digital Media and Matrilineal Knowledge Transmission in Racialized Communities: A Feminist
Collaborative Approach
Maira Cristina Castro, Ontario College of Art & Design University
Soundcestral Remembrance: African Diasporic Drumming Traditions as Cultural Memory and
Resistance in New Orleans and Uruguay
Tylar Campbell, Simon Fraser University
The ‘Villain’ Archetype: an Empowerment Sign in Brazilian Popular Culture
Gabriel Juliano, Simon Fraser University
Editors: Mónica Toussaint and Verónica Rueda-Estrada
Participants:
● Dolores Figueroa Romero, CIESAS
● Verónica Rueda-Estrada, Universidad Autónoma del
Estado de Quintana Roo
This book arises from the need to historicize the decades of war and the search for peace in the isthmus, within the framework of transformations in the international system during the second half of the 20th century. The objective is to present an analysis from various disciplines and traditions such as history, anthropology, sociology, and literature, based on the transversal axis of memory in its multiple expressions and forms, within the context of the conflicts that took place in Central America in the 1970s and 1980s and their consequences in the 1990s and even today.
Chair: Bettina Pérez Martínez, Concordia University
Lucha Libre Star Power: El Santo and the Redefinition of Mexican Cinema
David S. Dalton, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Si los medios mienten, las paredes son nuestras: Public Art Interventions in Puerto Rico and
Chile
Bettina Pérez Martínez, Concordia University
L'Industrie Culturelle Post-Pandémie: L'ére Moderne du Numérique
Marie Kimberly Stacy Laurent, Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana
Moderator: Luisa Isidro Herrera, York University
This workshop uses tango and improvisational dance to explore relational research methods through movement. Participants will experience embodied connections through solo exploration, partner work, and group dynamics, discovering how dance principles like listening, responding, and co-creation parallel collaborative research
processes. No prior dance experience necessary.
Chairs: Donald Kingsbury (University of Toronto) and Richard Saunders (York University)
Participants:
● Albert Berry, University of Toronto
● Alex Caramento, York University
● David Szablowski, York University
● Nadège Compaoré, University of Toronto
● Rafaela Sá, McMaster University
Chair: Joe Pateman, York University
66 years of Embargo: Has Cuban Socialism Survived?
Joe Pateman, York University
Canadian-Cuban Youth Solidarity Movements
Tess Stuber
Cubanidad, Cultural Conservation, and the Socialist Heritage
Alexandra Moss, York University
Chair: Violet Ferreira-Sutherland, York University
The Disjunctures of Power: Reimagining Justice in Haiti Post-Revolution
Evania Pietrangelo-Porco, York University
Fatima Qaraan, York University
The Problem with Consensus and What to Do About It: Lessons from a PIRG Action Group
Natasha Pravaz, Wilfrid Laurier University
Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrencies as Instruments of Decolonization: A Study of
Racialized Communities in the Caribbean and its Diaspora in Canada.
Violet Ferreira-Sutherland, York University
Chair: Talitha Motter, Université de Montréal
Danças que Enunciam Mundos
Iara Albuquerque, UESB / URFJ
Référencer l’art actuel local : les revues d’art numériques au Brésil
Talitha Motter, Université de Montréal
Desafio no ensino de física no momento da pandemia: Outra forma de ensinar e aprender
Edson Pierre, Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana
Chair: Upasana Thakkar, Yorkville University
Discussant: Liliana Castaneda, University of British Columbia
Aguas de estuario: abandona la tierra, renace en el mar
Camilo Castillo Rojas, Universidad de la Salle
El tren a Travancore: el pícaro y el mercado
Upasana Thakkar, Yorkville University
Identidades anfibias y el duelo en Siembra (2015): las fronteras fluidas entre vivos y muertos
Liliana Castaneda, University of British Columbia
La pertenencia desatada: privilegiar la diferencia sobre la identidad en las diásporas Caribeñas
Karen O'Regan, University of British Columbia
“Reshaping Sovereignty and Resilience: Caribbean and Latin American Development & Agency in a Shifting Global Economy”
Location: Founders Assembly Hall, Founders College
Speaker: Bhoendradatt Tewarie
Pro Vice Chancellor for Planning and Development at the
University of the West Indies
Founding Director of the Institute of Critical Thinking
St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Moderator: Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, Oxford University
Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie served as Principal of the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West
Indies, as Executive Director of the Institute of Business, and as Chairman of the National Institute for
Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST). As Chairman of NIHERST, he facilitated
the creation of the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAAT) and
developed the rationale for the establishment of the National Training Agency (NTA). He also served as
Chairman of the Committee, which formulated a National Policy for Tertiary Education for the Vision 2020
Committee. Dr. Tewarie has published three books, as well as many articles and book chapters on
economic, educational and developmental issues and has written three books.
The 2025 Michael Baptista Lecture presents an opportunity to interrogate the political, social, and cultural ramifications of rapidly transforming trade regimes in the Caribbean and Latin America. The lecture will move beyond conventional economic analyses to foreground how current trade and protectionist policies are reconfiguring regional relationships, national development priorities, and collective imaginaries. By tracing the symbolic and material effects of tariff regimes and other exclusionary trade mechanisms, the event explores how new and enduring boundaries, both geopolitical and socio-cultural, are being constructed, contested, and navigated. It seeks to illuminate the ways in which these dynamics have disrupted the circulation of people, goods, capital, and ideas, while simultaneously provoking diverse forms
of response, adaptation and innovation.
In alignment with the Michael Baptista Lecturer's longstanding commitment to critical inquiry and public engagement, this year’s event offers a vital platform for scholars, practitioners, and community members to reflect collectively on the evolving contours of hemispheric relations and the enduring struggles for justice, autonomy, and dignity across the Caribbean and Latin American region.
Authors: Alejandro Zamora and María José Rodríguez Ávila
Participants:
● Alejandro Zamora
● Irene Fenoglio
● Joshua Price
● María Constanza Guzmán
● María José Rodríguez Ávila
The book is a narrative inquiry into the emerging geographies and subjectivities of urban cycling in different cities of Mexico, from Tijuana to Mérida. Through participatory narrative research methods (life history, assisted autobiography) and collaborative writing methods, the book collects and studies life stories of individual cyclists and cycling collectives to reveal the cleaner, safer, and friendlier cities that emerge from their stories. It posits that these human-scale cities are not a naive utopia of cyclists but a real experience of their daily lives, despite the dangers and marginalization inherent in cycling in Mexican cities, and therefore a real possibility for urban transformation.
Chair: Rafael Schögler, Université de Sherbrooke
Territories of and in translation: The right to remain silent – the right to remain untranslated
Rafael Schögler, Université de Sherbrooke
Mapping as collective activation: Plotting gender-based violence in Mexico
Guy Emerson, Universidad de las Américas Puebla
Archiving, Witnessing and Repair in Caribbean Research Praxis
Giselle Thompson, University of Alberta
Tka Pinnock, York University
The Ideological Disjuncture Idea of Life History as a Methodology for Political Science
Roque Urbieta Hernández, Lab Mondes Américains / CERMA-EHESS
Chair: Kathleen Nolan, University of Regina
“There would be no child sponsorship programs if…”: Child sponsorship through the lens of
decolonization
Kathleen Nolan, University of Regina
In The Shadow Of The Eagle: Public Intellectuals
James Cullingham, Trent University
Racialized Voices in Cuban Fiction of the New Millennium: The Possibility for De-centered
Narratives on Language, Identity and Nationness.
Catia Dignard, University of Toronto
Reading Space, Received Geographies and a Critical Geography of the Caribbean
Tyjana Connolly, York University
Searching, Learning, and Experimenting: Civil Society Organisations as Cultural Intermediaries
and Facilitators of Colombia-Jamaica Cultural Policy Cooperation
Roshane Miller, York University
Chair: Argelia Gonzalez Hurtado, St. Mary's College of Maryland
Cinematic Landscape and Emerging Identities in Contemporary Latin American Film.
Lexington Books (2024)
Argelia Gonzalez Hurtado, St. Mary's College of Maryland
Maria Soledad Paz-Mackay, St. Francis Xavier University
Mexican Canto Nuevo: Music, Politics, and Resistance. Oxford University Press (2025)
Claudio Palomares-Salas, Queen's University
Poesia Preta: poetas negros da zona oeste. Ascensão (2022)
Ingrid Nascimento Amaral, Instituto Periférico Waldir Onofre
Rosa Egipcíaca, Afeto de Deus. Malê (2024)
Barbara Daibert, Federal University of Juiz de Fora
Participants:
● Liisa North, York University
● Fernando Javier Justicia, Latin American Initiative
● Eugenio Campoverde, Municipio de Quito
● Pascal Lupien, Brock University
Chair: Matthew Monrose, McMaster University
“Not a Natural Fit:” Austin Clarke and the Toronto Telegram (1964-1968)
Matthew Monrose, McMaster University
(Re)creating Consciousness and Culture: Liberation According to Anzaldúa and Moraga
Ella Klein, McGill University
Wild Blue Hadal: Exploring Natalie Wood's Worker's Adagio
Shanique Mothersill, York University
L’art de la rue (arte callejero) un nouvel imaginaire
Niloofar Moazzami, Université du Québec à Montréal
Chair: Flávia Carlet, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
El Río Jordán como frontera socioambiental. Imaginarios y redefiniciones en un territorio
urbano. Tunja-Colombia
Nohora Carvajal, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia
Yina Carrero, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia
From cultural landscapes to carbon sinks: The semiotics of green extractivism in Ecuador
Craig Johnson, University of Guelph
Matthew McBurney, Huron University College
Right to Territory, Colonialism, and Afro-descendant Resistance: An Analysis of the
Judicialization of a Socio-Environmental Conflict in Ecuador
Flávia Carlet, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Roberta Camineiro Baggio, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Territories sacred for life: socio environmental conflicts and territory defense in Antioquia
(Colombia)
Juan Camilo Arias Mejia, Institución Universitaria Digital de Antioquia
Chair: Karen Janet Spring, University of Ottawa
Making Law, Making Worlds: Jurisgenesis and Ontological Politics - The Case of the Mayan
Train in Mexico
Laura Primeau, Carleton University
Resisting “Little Canada”: Afro-Indigenous Garifuna communities protect their ancestral lands
from Canadian tourist investors in Honduras.
Karen Janet Spring, University of Ottawa
Speculative relationality in the diaspora
Gabrielle Mundaka Riquelme, University of Windsor
Chair: Andrea A. Davis, Wilfrid Laurier University
Discussant: Marcia Annisette, York University
“You should obey your employer’s instruction”: Advice to Caribbean Women Recruited into the
West Indian Domestic Scheme in Canada
Michele Johnson, York University
Improvising in the Face of Danger: Black Living and Loving in David Chariandy’s Novel, Brother
Andrea A. Davis, Wilfrid Laurier University
The children of immigrants are the ones “making it” in Canada: The case of Caribbean students
Carl E. James, York University
Agenda enclosed to all CALACS members
Participants:
● Joshua Price, Toronto Metropolitan University
● Silvia Roxana Castillo Sánchez, Universidad de Los Lagos
Chair: Sandra McKay, Queen's University
Comparative Analysis of the Process of Access and Control of Land Use by the Timber Industry:
Brazil (Três Lagoas, MS) and Canada (Vancouver, BC)
Amanda Emiliana Santos Baratelli, UNESP / Brandon University
Governable ores: Geological materiality as a driver for the formalization of artisanal and
small-scale miners in Peru
Luis Meléndez Guerrero, University of Western Ontarion
Sandra McKay, Queen's University
Mining Legacies and Uncertain Futures: A Comparative Analysis of Two Mexican Resource
Communities
Ulises Pavel Martínez Romero, Colegio de San Luis
John Hayes, University of Calgary
Chair: Sean Bellaviti, Toronto Metropolitan University
Busting through the tambourine's skin: the sound of the Brazilian seven-string acoustic guitar in
the 2020s
Fred Barros, University of Toronto
Cuban Musicians in Canada: Cultural Diplomats and Immigrant Workers
Karen Dubinsky, Queen’s University
El Gran Baile: A Social History of Popular Dance Events Among Toronto’s Early Latin American
Communities
Sean Bellaviti, Toronto Metropolitan University
Chair: Roberta Rice, University of Calgary
Doing Democracy Differently: Indigenous Rights and Representation in Canada and Latin
America. University of Calgary Press (2024)
Roberta Rice, University of Calgary
Driving Terror: Labor, Violence, and Justice in Cold War Argentina. University of New Mexico
Press (2025)
Karen Robert, St. Thomas University
The Great Curse: Land Concentration in History and in Economic Development. Oxford
University Press (2024)
Albert Berry, University of Toronto
Ecohábitat: estudios interculturales en territorios ancestrales. Universidad Piloto de Colombia
(2024)
Maria Patricia Farfan Sopo, Universidad Piloto de Colombia
Chair: Rafael Angulo Tirado, York University
La Rockefeller Foundation y el impacto del internacionalismo liberal-modernizador en México
durante la Guerra Fría
Maria E Mudrovcic, Michigan State University
Lost Spaces and the City in Transformation: Traveler Images of Quito, 19th and 20th Centuries
Andrés Leonardo Lalama Vargas, University of Toronto
The “Disappointment Files”: Using Archival Sources to map out the Process behind Brazilian
Traction selling its Telephone Utility
Zoe Hong, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
The British Press and the Venezuela-Guyana Border Dispute 1946-1970
Rafael Angulo Tirado, York University
Chair: Natasha Swiderski, McMaster University
Da irregularidade constitucional à diáspora haitiana: degeneração sistêmica e migração forçada
Marc Arthur Bien Aimé, Universidade Federal da Integração Latino Americana
Re-Soñar: Haitian Migrants Navigating Waiting, Loss, and Reimagining Belonging in Tijuana
Natasha Swiderski, McMaster University
Sensing Boundaries: Haitian Diasporic Communities and Multisensory Strategies of Resistance
in the United States
George MacLeod, St. Mary's College of Maryland
Chair: Greg Beckett, University of Western Ontario
Discussant: Masaya Llavaneras Blanco, Huron University College / University of Western
Ontario
Queer Migration/Mobility across the Haitian Transnational Social Space in the United States,
Canada, France, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
Carlo Charles, University of Windsor
The Impasse: On the politics of immobility in Port-au-Prince
Greg Beckett, University of Western Ontario
The intimacy of transnational enclosure of Haiti and everyday practices of resistance
Masaya Llavaneras Blanco, Huron University College, University of Western Ontario
Chair: Patricia Martin, Université de Montréal
Framing violence and insecurity in Latin America as a driver of migration: outlining multiscaled
relationships of geopolitical power
Patricia Martin, Université de Montréal
Gerardo Romero, Université de Montréal
Extracción de capital humano y creación de inmovilidad: el caso de los trabajadores del
programa de movilidad internacional en el sector de la hotelería y la restauración en Canadá.
Guillermo Candiz, Université de l'Ontario Français
Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Other Migrants in Central Mexico: The Possibilities and Limits
of Triple Nexus Efforts among State and Non-State Actors
Marianne Marchand, Carleton University
International Retirees in Mexico: Who Are They? Exploring the New North-South Mobilities.
Sandra Zepeda, Universidad de Guadalajara
Chair: Hannah Burgé Luviano, Queen's University
Frontier Performativity, Trade Fair, and Cultural Heritage of a Persistent Place in the
Bolivian-Chilean Border
Francisco Rivera, Universidad Católica del Norte
Green Hell in Amazonia: Exoticization of Rainforests in 20th Century Literature
Valeria Flores, McMaster University
Mambo and Transnationalism in Mexico City 1947-1953
Hannah Burgé Luviano, Queen's University
Recolonization Through Fashion: The Exploitation of Global Indigenous Communities
Christie Lazo, University of Toronto
Kiara Yllescas, Balsillie School of International Affairs
Chair: Sean Bellaviti, Toronto Metropolitan University
Exploring the Convergence of Ethnomusicology and Translation Studies: The Case of Salsa
Music
Julian Zapata, Toronto Metropolitan University
Sembrar es Resistir: Creating “Staying Power” Through Multisensorial Performance
Julia Monaco, University of Toronto
The Diaspora of Cuban Musicians and Their Testament of Boundaries, Conjunctures, and
Disruptions
Maylin Ortega Zulueta, Queen’s University
Artist: Maria Fernanda Suarez Olvera, Concordia University
As a Mestiza artist, this performance is a way of honoring my relationship with the Nahua
women of San José Cuacuila, a community located in the Northern Mountain range of Puebla,
Mexico. Through an autoethnographic creative writing approach, combining prose, poems,
and images, the piece describes the process of decolonizing my senses that has occurred
since 2021. By rewriting and reading my fieldwork notes, I reflect on touch as the primary
medium that allowed me to establish an intimate relationship with the weavers of the
community. And on sound and listening, I delve deeper into the loss of Nahuatl words and the
possibilities of listening and naming. Through this, the piece explores how senses are
mediums for sharing and passing down knowledge. The process of unlearning my colonized
education accordingly acknowledges the live forces that circulate in the folds of the
mountains.
Editors: Dolores Figueroa Romero, Martín Hernán Di
Marco, Claire Branigan, Leticia Sánchez García, Dabney P.
Evans
Participants:
● Natalia De Marinis
● Patricia Ravelo Blancas
● Rose Chabot
● Susana Baez
This book is the result of the collaboration and dialogue of academics and activists from across the Americas who were united by the desire to share reflections, critical positions, experiences of accompaniment, documentation methodologies, and research on feminicide/femicide. The case studies addressed take place in Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, the United States, and Canada. It aims to contribute to the formulation of recommendations to (re)think alternatives for action, prevention, denunciation, accompaniment, and the pursuit of justice.
Chair: Lucas Savino, Huron University College
“Wilderness” Revisited. Mapuche self-determination, National Parks, and the criminalization of Indigenous demands in Patagonia.
Lucas Savino, Huron University College
Embodied Resilience: The Body-Territory in Guarani Women’s Activism
Laisa Massarenti Hosoya, University of Windsor
Los discursos políticos indigenistas en la independencia del Perú
Lucia Alicia Jimenez Hermoza, Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal
The Legal Identity of Indigenous People and Borders: The Wayuu People in Colombia
Pilar Balbuena, Carleton University
“The Caribbean and Latin America face Trump 2.0: A Roundtable on Challenges and Possibilities”
Chairs: Donald Kingsbury (University of Toronto) and Lucy Luccisano (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Participants:
● Bhoendradatt Tewarie, Pro Vice Chancellor for Planning and Development at theUniversity of the West Indies and Founding Director of the Institute of Critical Thinking. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
● Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, Professor of the Political Economy of Development at Oxford University. Oxford, England.
● Catherine Vézina, Professor of History and Graduate Coordinator, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas. Mexico City, Mexico.
● Jason Donovan, Senior Program Specialist, Sustainable Inclusive Economies, International Development Research Centre of Canada. Montevideo, Uruguay.
We Walk the Earth speaks of Indigenous persistence in their homelands after more than 500
years of colonialism. It recounts struggles in Costa Rica for Indigenous rights to land, to
self-governance and autonomy. Through the words of Bribri, Cabécar, Brunka and Bröran men
and women, stories emerge of the pains suffered in the struggle to rightfully recover Indigenous
Territories. The restoration of life and wellbeing through Indigenous Peoples’ stewardship of
their land offers alternative ways to understand our relationship with the Earth.
We Walk the Earth was directed by Felipe Montoya, with Gilbert González Maroto as the
academic lead. This documentary was made by the Las Nubes Project in the Faculty of
Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) and the Faculty of Health (FoH) at York University in
collaboration with the Universidad Técnica Nacional de Costa Rica, San Carlos
Campus and York Libraries and the financial support of EUC, FoH, York International and York
Libraries.
Participants:
● Julia Hard, York University
● Mathieu Poirier, York University
PATROL is a character-driven documentary that follows communities on the frontlines of an intensifying environmental conflict in Nicaragua. On one side, the Rama Indigenous people, in alliance with the Afro-descendant Kriol community, are fighting to stop illegal cattle ranchers from destroying the virgin rainforests of the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve. ARMANDO JOHN, a quiet but brave young man, MARGARITO, a philosophical father of six, and RUPERT ALLEN CLAIR DUNCAN, a leader within the territory, form part of a Forest Ranger squad. They have teamed up with CHRISTOPHER JORDAN, an American conservationist. Christopher came to the Indio Maíz Reserve to study how local cultures interact with wildlife and quickly fell in love with the generosity of the Rama and Kriol people and the incredible beauty of the Reserve. Interwoven into the narrative is the story of CARMEN and CHACALIN —illegal cattle ranchers who have moved deep into the jungle. They have deforested a large parcel of land in order to bring in cattle and are helping other families invade the Reserve. While on an expedition to confront illegal ranchers, the Rangers discover a large cattle farm deep inside their territory.
Participants:
● Anexa Alfred
● Camilo de Castro Belli, Director
● Miguel Gonzalez, York University
Participants:
● David Fernández, University of Toronto
● Irene Fenoglio, Universidad Autónoma de Morelos
● Jarrod Williams, York University
● María Constanza Guzmán, York University
● Oriette Sandoval, Ofqui
● Osvaldo Gallardo, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo
● Victoria García, Fundación Círculo Abierto
Chair: Dwaine Plaza, Oregon State University
Caribana in Toronto: Women Making Mas and Dominating the Annual Street Parade
Dwaine Plaza, Oregon State University
Overcoming Borders, Boundaries and Barriers: The Building of New Bridges Within CARICOM
Kai-Ann Skeete, University of West Indies
Pedagogical ensembles of belonging: Latinxs in Canada finding their way
Laura Montes de Oca Barrera, University of Calgary
Moderator: Jesus Eduardo Gonzalez Lopez
This project aims to teach participants the large-format stencil technique to collaboratively create a mural representing a graphic mapping of Latin American Indigenous identity. Emphasizing cultural features such as language, faces, textiles, dances, and territories, this initiative seeks to foster a connection between diverse Indigenous cultures across Latin America. Through teamwork, participants will learn basic design
and image editing concepts, explore the possibilities of stencils, and collectively produce a mural that visually articulates the signs and symbols of these different cultures, ultimately strengthening ties and uniting Indigenous
America within the context of this congress's cultural manifestations.
Participants:
● Bhoendradatt Tewarie, University of the West Indies / Institute of Critical Thinking
● Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, Oxford University
● Jean-Jacques Rousseau, York University
● Patrick Clark, York University
● Tameka Samuels-Jones, York University
Chair: Vladimir Díaz-Cuéllar, Carleton University
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and proximate economic drivers in Bolivia
Vladimir Díaz-Cuéllar, Carleton University
Le problème des déchets en Haïti e l’impact environnemental
Pierre Richard Jean Louis, Universidade Federal da Integração Latino Americana
Critical minerals or criminal miners? The (in)formalization process of artisanal and small-scale
mining in Peru as a frontier moment
Sandra McKay, Queen's University
The Strategic Implications of Chinese Electric Vehicle Investments in Mexico for Canada’s
Security and North American Defence Cohesion
Yasamin Jameh Barrantes, Carleton University
Chair: Ingrid Nascimento Amaral, Instituto Periférico Waldir Onofre
Pedagogical Confluences in the Brazilian Anthropocene
Adrianne Bacelar de Castro, University of Western Ontario
Quilombola older adults and social health determinants: challenges to social policies
Patricia Krieger Grossi, PUC-RS
Racialized Remembering in Lawmaking: State Narratives and Violence Against Women in Brazil
Roberta S. Pamplona, University of Toronto
Saímos da universidade. E agora? O Racismo no ramo corporativo e a geração Z negra.
Ingrid Nascimento Amaral, Instituto Periférico Waldir Onofre
Chair: Rose Chabot, Université de Sherbrooke
Activismo feminista a nivel de base: Redes de atención y provisión de abortos en Argentina
Lorena Córdoba, Red de profesionales de la salud por el derecho a decidir
Rose Chabot, Université de Sherbrooke
Pacifista, interseccional y participativa: Feminist Foreign Policy Norms & Innovations Emerging
from Latin America
Laura Macdonald, Carleton University
Allison Petrozziello, Toronto Metropolitan University
Voices from the Margins: Decolonial Feminism, Race, and Gender in the vlogs of As Ribeirinhas
da Amazônia
Ligia Sales, McMaster University
Voices from the South: Exploring feminist approaches to menstrual education in Latin America
Estefania Reyes, University of Western Ontario
Participants:
● Caren Weisbart, Common Frontiers
● Navjeet Sidhu, International Department and Social Justice Fund at Unifor
● María de Jesus Ramos Casiano, UNAM
● Anna Zalik, York University
This workshop will be facilitated by members of Common Frontiers, a national multi-sectoral coalition whose work centres on the rise of the right in the Americas and the impact of trade on people and the environment, the Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas (IDEA) Network, which brings together organizations that share a commitment to protecting and improving public education. Using a combination of popular education tools, presentations and group discussions, we will explore the following questions: How do we break out of our often siloed and fragmented work to creatively resist, cross-pollinate among academic and social movement networks to develop alternatives to the right’s political and economic agenda? How do we protect our movements/public institutions against right wing attacks and co-optation? How do we do that work in ways that engage those most impacted by the rise of the right?
Participants:
● Alan Simmons, York University
● Liisa North, York University
● Laura Macdonald, Carleton University and CALACS President
● Lucy Luccisano, Wilfrid Laurier University and CALACS Vicepresident
● Dwaine Plaza, Oregon State University
● Luis Carrillo, Hispanic Development Council
Alan Simmons is a Sociologist/Demographer (PhD, Cornell University) with an impressive history of innovative research and
teaching on migration issues from a transnational and global perspective. He is currently appointed Senior Scholar at York
University.
Publications. Over his very productive career, Alan has published more than 80 works (five of them authored or co-authored books). His research record has been recognized in various ways. He was elected President of the Canadian Population Society (CPS). He was also elected (twice) for terms on the Council of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. His book, Immigration Canada, was awarded the Best Book of the Year Prize in 2010 by the CPS. Teaching, for Alan, is a rewarding vocation. He has supported the theses and dissertations of some five dozen MA and PhD students
(nearly two dozen as main supervisor). His teaching approach is described as “student-led”; one that puts students first. Alan feels fortunate to have worked with exceptional students who have gone on to make significant contributions,
many of them involving north-south collaboration.
Collaborative research, from Alan’s perspective, is superior to individual-only research. This is particularly true in international development research where global inequities are also evident in research support and capacity, where good research always requires strong local input, and where all social policy research is “political” (some vested interests will not like it). He came to this view in steps.
Alan credits growing up on Vancouver Island with the curiosity that eventually led him to his research and teaching career. The small communities where he went to school were stratified with big gaps between the privileged and the poor, and between First Nations people and settlers. Few asked why or cared. Racist ideas and practices were pervasive but the word “racism” was seldom heard. University studies opened the door to exploring why.
Undergraduate studies at UBC brought Alan into contact with professors/mentors who recognized his interests in inequalities and international development. They encouraged him to pursue PhD studies in the International Population Program (IPP) at Cornell University.
The IPP was an excellent choice for Alan. His professor, Joseph Stycos, was collaborating on a major project with the Colombian Association of Medical Faculties (ASCOFAME). The project involved testing new survey methods for research on population nutrition, education, infant mortality, and maternal-child health.