Kenneth Roberts

Statement

I joined LASA as a graduate student at Stanford, and I have been active in the Association ever sense. I am deeply committed to LASA’s vision of a multidisciplinary meeting place for students and scholars who share a special interest in the Latin American and Caribbean region, and it is an honor for me to be nominated for membership on the Executive Council. I had an opportunity to attend several meetings of the Executive Council while serving as the Program Co-Chair for LASA’s 2013 Annual Conference, and I developed a healthy respect for the challenges and opportunities that arise in leading such a diverse, transnational professional association. Like most members of LASA, I have long sought to balance the demands and expectations of my academic discipline with the novel insights and learning opportunities afforded by a multidisciplinary area studies program, and I remain firmly convinced that disciplinary expertise can be greatly enriched by area-based knowledge of the history, culture, and languages of different countries and regions. For that reason, that I have always been heavily involved in the Latin American area studies programs at my home universities, and I currently serve as the director of Latin American Studies at Cornell. In that capacity, I have encouraged the development of new linkages between research and teaching activities across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences in Latin America, building bridges to campus and community initiatives that previously had little or no contact with the area studies program. I believe LASA draws its greatest strength from its intellectual diversity, and the Association should celebrate and nurture this diversity through its conferences, its publications, its student programs, and its outreach activities. LASA should encourage academic exchanges and new forms of dialogue between scholars across diverse humanities, science, and social science disciplines, and it must reach out to graduate students across different fields to renew its professional vitality. LASA should also consolidate and expand its reputation as an inclusive meeting ground for scholars anywhere in the world who study Latin America, whether they be located in Latin America, the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, or other world regions. LASA’s growth as a professional association must continue to be inclusive and firmly grounded in our traditions of respect for academic freedom and critical engagement with contemporary public and international affairs.