Xóchitl Bada

Statement

I am deeply honored to be a candidate for the Executive Council at the Latin American Studies Association. I have actively participated in LASA since I was a graduate student and this is my favorite professional association. Over the past two decades, my research has been anchored in interdisciplinary inquiries, including legal studies, sociology, political science, international relations, public affairs, and history. I have been involved in collaborations with academic scholars in Spain, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. I am also involved in participatory action research projects including collaborations with numerous immigrant rights organizations in Mexico and the United States. I regularly receive doctoral students from Brazil and Mexico interested in conducting fieldwork on migrant-led civil society in the United States. I frequently participate in dissertation committees in Mexican universities and have served as a reviewer for academic journals and publishers in Mexico, Peru, Chile, the United States, and Europe.

LASA is very well positioned to encourage action research collaborations that include teams of practitioners, journalists, academic and nonacademic researchers, as well as and Non-governmental organization advocates. LASA should be the most important professional association in the region, one that constantly promotes candid conversations about the ways in which the association can contribute to decolonize knowledge. LASA has 13,000 members and over 60 percent reside outside of the United States. It has been a long journey for LASA to achieve this level of engagement and geographical diversity among its members. I am committed to find innovative ways of disseminating knowledge produced by all LASA members in multiple formats and platforms. I am interested in improving LASA presence on social media, the communication platforms for LASA sections, and the promotion of engaged collaborative research projects and knowledge dissemination efforts with civil society actors in the region.

 I am also interested in fostering interdisciplinary North-South dialogues while upholding LASA´s missions of nurturing intellectual discussion, research and teaching on Latin America, the Caribbean, its people and Diasporas throughout the Americas. I would like to enhance civic engagement through network building and public debate. I believe the diversity of the multiple LASA sections has great potential to increase the crosspollination of North-South dialogues. I am interested in supporting LASA´s Executive Council to offer a better infrastructure for interdisciplinary working groups that can produce research collaboration and multilingual publications across the Americas.  LASA should be a leader in advocating the increase of multilingual academic book production by encouraging publishers in the region to engage in translations.