CALACS 2026 complete program HERE
Welcome to Calgary! We look forward to meeting and connecting with all participants!
You can find the registration table on the 3rd floor of Hunter Student Commons
(HNSC).
The local organizing committee has prepared an exclusive City Guide to help you discover Calgary and the University of Calgary with ease. From navigating the CTrain and finding the best on-campus dining to exploring hotel options and learning about the region’s Indigenous heritage, the guide has everything you need for a smooth and memorable stay.
Access the City Guide here information/
https://www.yorku.ca/research/calacs/useful-
Join us in Calgary and experience a conference that connects scholarship with community!
The Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS), together with the Colombian and Mexican Consulates in Calgary, is delighted to invite you to a very special welcome reception. Enjoy music, light refreshments, and drinks. Please remember to register your attendance.
Where: The historic Nellie McClung House — home of the Colombian Consulate in Calgary
Address: 803 15th Avenue SW, Calgary (Beltline District)
This reception will be truly memorable: Indigenous Elder Vera Marie Crowchild will provide a blessing. Opening remarks and words of welcome will be delivered from
CALACS, the University of Calgary, and the Colombian and Mexican Consuls.
Chair: Amelia M. Kiddle, University of Calgary
Discussant: Kevin Chrisman, Hampden-Sydney College
Masculinity, Homoeroticism, and Race in the Visual Content of Mexican Gay Magazines (1985-1996)
Juan Carlos Mezo González, Mount Royal University
Masculinity and Sexuality in Mexico’s Consumer Landscape: Sanborns in Mass Media and Popular Culture, 1960-1980
Kevin Chrisman, Hampden-Sydney College
The Rise of Modas Mexicanas: Nationalist Beauty Ideals and Mexican Capitalism in the 1930s
Erica Neighbors, Duke University
Chair: Jorge Daniel Vásquez, University of Regina
Du Boisian Sociology from the Land of the Future: Irene Diggs and the Brazilian Color Line
Jorge Daniel Vásquez, University of Regina
Ethnic Political Identities, Multicultural Policies, and Land Rights in Northern Chile: The Case of Afro-Descendant Claims in the Valley of Azapa
Ximena Martínez, York University
O racismo no mercado de trabalho brasil no século XXI
Wilgens Exil, Federal University of Espirito Santo Stranger: The Poetics of Borders
Kybuky Bernard, York University
Sociology as chronicle" (Sociología crónica) has multiple, perhaps contradictory yet liberating connotations. It is a commitment to intersections, fluctuations, hinges and in-between spaces. It is a knowledge produced through observation, as well as being the result of one's choices and stance as a writer. It is a narrative approach as much as it is a response to a problem. It is content and form simultaneously. It is a way of understanding, while also being a way of recounting.
Sociology and chronicle maintain a mutual sympathy. They attract, flirt with and seduce each other, converge and blend within the framework of an 'elective affinity' — as Weber wrote in dialogue with Goethe — that brings them together on at least three points: the demand for observation, the need for explanation and the pleasure of narration. Over time, the dialogue between these two disciplines has generated a series of considerations.
Dr. Hugo José Suárez is Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIS-UNAM)
Suárez, Hugo José. (2025). Sociología crónica. Ediciones del Lirio. México.
Chair: Hendrik Kraay, University of Calgary
Entre crise politique et solidarités transnationales : le rôle de la diaspora haïtienne face à l'effondrement de l'État Starline
Ysuelt mombrun, Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana
Enduring Darkness: Constellations of Transnational Care and Sacred Solidarity in Cuba
Elise Hjalmarson, University of California
Para além da crise: resiliência, solidariedades transnacionais e a situação socioeconômica do Haiti
Jean Marie Wesson Steeve, UNILA
Le vécu des « Madan Papas » en Haïti : agentivité et résistance
Sindy Ducrépin, Université d'Ottawa
Saúde mental no Haiti: desafios estruturais, sofrimento social e práticas de cuidado comunitário
Alix Richemond, UNILA
Chair: Lucy Luccisano, Wilfrid Laurier University
Changes in Mexican political economy under Morena: Post-neoliberalism and the Fourth Transformation
Laura Macdonald, Carleton University
El modelo económico de la llamada cuarta transformación y sus límites
Jorge Alberto López Arévalo, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas
From Cash Transfers to a National Care System: Childcare Policy Transformation in Morena’s Mexico
Lucy Luccisano, Wilfrid Laurier University
Contrasting the discourse and the impacts of Morena agrifood politics on small scale
farmers. Exploring the field in southern Mexico City
Marie-Josée Massicotte, University of Ottawa
Kiado Cruz, independent consultant
Diego Flores Davalos, PhD student, University of Ottawa
Chair: Patricia Harms, Brandon University
Claiming the Right to a Life Free from Violence: Indigenous Women's Transnational
Legal Mobilization
Liliam Fiallo, University of Massachusetts
Buenos Aires: metrópoli americana del activismo pacifista femenino, 1900-1936
Paula Bruno, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
The Reverse Cultural Diplomacy of Luis Montes de Oca, 1937–1958
Gabriel Martínez Carmona, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Cuajimalpa
Weaving Narratives and Processes of Resistance: Indigenous Women of Canada and
Mexico Confronting Violence(s)
Dolores Figueroa Romero, SECIHTI-CIESAS
Chair: Laura de Montes Oca Barrera, University of Calgary
Spatial and Territorial Aspects of Street Art (Arte Callejero)
Niloofar Moazzami, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
"Something important does happen here": The Kinaesthetic Landscape of Kiddies
Carnival in Malvern
Nia Akilah Wilson, York University
The Donzela Now: The Medieval Spreading Through YouTube
Paula Karger, University of Toronto
Atmospheric Entanglements: Sonic Materialities and the Biopolitics of Breath in The Dog
Who Wouldn't Be Quiet
Nayibe Bermúdez-Barrios, University of Calgary
Diffracting the North is the first book to collect the
experiences of Latinx Canadian creators in film, media, and
visual arts. Bringing together scholars, filmmakers, curators,
and artists from diverse Latin American backgrounds, this
practitioner-driven volume reflects on producing work within
Canada’s predominantly anglophone and francophone
environments. Contributors explore Latinx Canadian
identity, networks, and solidarities, including
intergenerational mentorships, cross-cultural alliances, and
collaborations with Indigenous and other marginalized
communities. The book highlights strategies of allyship and demonstrates how Latinx
Canadian art challenges and enriches Canada’s cultural landscape by intervening in
dominant creative and curatorial practices. Through analytical essays, interviews, and
firsthand accounts, it recovers overlooked cultural histories, filling a critical gap in
scholarship on Latin American diasporas in Canada.
Dr. Gabriela Aceves Sepulveda is Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University; Dr.
Analays Ávarez Hernández is Associate Professor at Université de Montréal; Dr. Zaira
Zarza is Associate Professor at Université de Montréal.
Aceves Sepúlveda, G., Alvarez Hernandez, A., & Zarza, Z. (2025). Diffracting the north:
Contemporary Latinx Canadian experiences and practices in film, new media, and visual
arts. Concordia University Press.
Chair: Elizabeth Montes Garcés, University of Calgary
Discussant: Pablo Policzer, University of Calgary
“A que horas ela volta? (Anna Muylaert, 2015) y Democracia em Vertigem (2019): el
renacimiento de un ‘nuevo cine feminista’
Enrique Ávila López, Mt. Royal University
Maternidades naturales en el cine venezolano
Omar Rodríguez, University of Lethbridge
El sonido cinematográfico en México: Industria, creatividad y precariedad
Berenice Cancino González, University of Calgary
Violencia, performatividad y género en La dictadura perfecta
Elizabeth Montes Garcés, University of Calgary
Chair:
Chair: Laura Macdonald, Carleton University
Workers in Mexico: From NAFTA Losers to Beneficiaries of the Fourth Transformation
Gerardo Otero, Simon Fraser University
The New Labour Code in Mexico and its impacts on Unions: Transformation or Neocorporatism?
Cirila Quintero Ramírez, Colegio de la Frontera Norte
CUSMA and the Resurgence of the Mexican labour movement
Paul Bocking, United Steelworkers - Humanities Fund
Mexico’s Morena Governments and Opportunities and Challenges for Canadian-
Mexican Transnational Labour Solidarity
Alexander Ezquerra, Carleton University
El plan México y la política de industrialización
Cuauhtémoc Calderón Villareal, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte:
Chair: Tameka Samuels-Jones, York University
Caribbean democracies have long been praised for electoral credibility and stability. However, the 2025–2026 electoral cycle—featuring votes in Jamaica, Guyana,
Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Barbados—revealed new legitimacy challenges amid geopolitical and economic pressures. These elections occurred against a backdrop of a confrontational second Trump administration, Venezuela’s crisis, Guyana’s oil boom, China’s growing influence, and Caribbean climate leadership.
Though all polls were peaceful and deemed free and fair, observers from the OAS, CARICOM, the Commonwealth, and The Carter Center noted troubling trends: falling turnout (below 40% in Jamaica), unregulated campaign finance, social media disinformation, persistent gender gaps, and concerns over aging leadership. Procedural success, therefore, masked deeper governance stresses.
The core question is no longer just whether elections are free and fair, but whether they inspire public trust and participation. To safeguard democratic legitimacy, Caribbean states must move beyond procedural credibility toward deeper accountability, transparency, and inclusive governance—essential as global rivalries intensify and generational change reshapes the region.
Dr. Lisa Vasciannie is Head of the Department of Government in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Her work focuses primarily on sovereignty and democracy in the Caribbean and Americas, electoral fraud, and democracy & foreign policy relations in the Americas.
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