Dear members
It is truly an honor to preside this year over the Latin American Studies Association, with which I have been actively involved for nearly twenty years. The association’s annual congress has been, for me, the most important stage for multidisciplinary and transnational discussion in the field, a fundamental platform for my academic and intellectual work. Therefore, I hope to contribute to its development and to strengthen it this year.
After the success of the LASA2024 congress, held in Bogotá with the valuable support of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and under the leadership of my colleague Jo-Marie Burt, our team is working on the next edition, which will be held in a hybrid format on May 23-26, 2025 in San Francisco, California, USA. Poner el cuerpo en Latinx América is the title of our next congress, which proposes that we recognize the body as our primary political device, capable of confronting censorship, repression and violence; and, at the same time, understanding its capacity to create new orders and knowledge that surpass its hard-fought survival. In Latinx America we have managed to put body and soul before whatever compromises our sovereignty and autonomy: whether state, government, nation or language, as well as the imperatives of gender, class or race, and their intersections. Therefore, LASA inquires about the communities of bodies that live, survive or produce new ways of knowing in the region. We seek to trace their circulation, from forced migration and exiles to the dances and joyful movements. We invite a trans-disciplinary discussion of the knowledge-actions of the body from the expanding field of Humanities and Social Sciences. Organized together with three brilliant colleagues –––Paola Cortés Rocca (Conicet/Universidad de las Artes, Argentina), Cecilia Fajardo-Hill (Arizona State University, United States) and Emily Maguire (Northwestern University, United States)––, our congress takes a hemispheric approach to remove the division between Latin America and the Latinx communities. In this sense, we invite you to put your body and soul into it.
Now, due to the global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the fact that LASA, to a large degree, depends economically on the contributions of its members, in recent years our association has had to face challenges and make difficult decisions to be able to continue offering all the academic and research benefits it has achieved for years. In 2022, with the goal of making LASA more accessible to its members, the Executive Council, the governing and decision-making body of our association, approved the All Access system, with the intention of offering a significant discount to our members when they pay for their congress registration and annual membership fee at the same time. After the pandemic, LASA incurred a significant deficit. Despite the successful attendance at our congress in Bogotá, our association’s modest income is still not enough to cover expenses. This unfortunate situation requires us to adjust the All Access rates.
We are fully aware of the difficulties being experienced in most of the countries of the region, the restrictions on research funds in and beyond Latin America and the many obstacles our membership encounters daily, which understandably make it more and more complicated to attend our important annual congress. This is why, despite the fact that LASA has had to increase the All Access rates, see rates at this link, we have implemented a scaled fee structure to protect the most vulnerable academic communities, those from our Latin America region, as well as retired or independent students and colleagues. The All Access system, however, continues to provide a significant discount on the membership fee, and the Executive Committee has also approved the income policy and the distinction between geographic zones as decisive markers in the registration and membership costs. It is also important to note that this adjustment is similar to or less than LASA’s costs prior to the pandemic.
As President of LASA, I am committed to diligently increasing the search for independent support that makes it possible to grant more travel grants in order to facilitate participation in the LASA2025 congress and greater assistance to our community. We also appreciate the support of those with higher salaries and budgets (personal and institutional), as they have allowed us to make the approved adjustments so we can continue our mission and maintain a plural, multidisciplinary association that tries account for the many challenges in our region, as well as our contribution and knowledge.
With my most sincere greetings,
Regards,
Javier Guerrero
Professor of Latin American Studies, Princeton University
About LASA
The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest professional association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America. With over 13,000 members, over 60% of whom reside outside the United States, LASA is the one association that brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines and diverse occupational endeavors, across the globe. LASA's mission is to foster intellectual discussion, research, and teaching on Latin America, the Caribbean, and its people throughout the Americas, promote the interests of its diverse membership, and encourage civic engagement through network building and public debate.
If you wish to interview a LASA Executive Council member, you can contact the LASA communications office at (412) 648-7929 or send an email to lasa@lasaweb.org.