The Latin Americanist Historians at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – both faculty members and graduate students – propose to convene another Midwest Workshop on Latin American History on our campus in April 2015. With this initiative we hope to revitalize an important venue for presenting fresh research and discussing pressing issues in our field that was successfully initiated with a series of annual workshops convened by the University of Chicago, Notre Dame University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for several years between 2002 and 2008. The University of Chicago again hosted the Workshop in 2013. Latin Americanist historians in the Midwest thus belatedly have been adopting a format for advancing discussions and regional collaboration in our field that colleagues in other fields – most notably the historians of Russia and Eastern Europe – have employed with great benefit for decades. The research universities in the Midwest comprise one of the most dense and impressive cohorts of Latin Americanist history scholars and advanced graduate students anywhere outside of Latin America. It thus promises great scholarly gain and cost-effectiveness to strengthen the network among these specialists through annual workshops. The informal and friendly atmosphere at the workshops is especially conducive for the free flow of ideas. It forms a wonderful training ground for advanced graduate students.
For more information please read the attached document.
