Latin American Studies Association

Reid Reading
Executive Director, LASA

Introduction

The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) was established to foster the concerns of all scholars interested in Latin American Studies; to encourage more effective training, teaching, and research in connection with such studies; and to provide a forum for dealing with matters of common interest to the scholarly professions and to individuals concerned with Latin American studies.

It is, of course, not difficult to see that an area studies association with these kinds of objectives is (or should be), by its very nature, international, since expertise in the area comes from abroad as well as within the borders of the United States. This is increasingly the case for Latin America, as a recent LASA president noted in a recent document produced for a LASA planning committee:

A large proportion of the knowledge about Latin America produced by scholars in the early 1960s was produced by U.S. citizens working in U.S. universities. This has changed. It is impossible to work productively in any area of Latin American studies without depending to a large and increasing degree on the scholarly output of Latin Americans and other non-U.S. citizens and institutions. . . .

[. . .] The fact that LASA can no longer hold a successful international congress without the substantial participation of specialists from Latin America is just one sign of the times. What just a few years ago might have been viewed by some as a form of intellectual foreign assistance (a trip to a LASA congress for a Latin American scholar) is now a quite different phenomenon — it is a reflection of Latin American scholarship.

But it is not easy to bring in line with these realities an organization founded in, and based in, the United States, or in any one single country, for that matter. To attempt to become truly international, or even partly so, produces many challenges, not the least of which is to create the necessary resources for doing so.

Current Programs and Strategies for Creating
and Maintaining the International Connection

LASA has traveled several different paths to become as internationalized as it is. While we are not yet totally satisfied with the present state of affairs, we have made progress. Space limitations do not allow for more than a brief mention of a few of the areas in which we have made progress and a few strategies we have used.

Internationalizing the Membership

At this writing, LASA had 3,382 members, with final membership for the Association expected to surpass 3,450 (a record year). Of these memhers, 795, or 23 percent, resided abroad. Of the residents abroad, 534 (16 percent of the total membership) resided in Latin America. While there are a few U.S. researchers in residence abroad, an estimated 95 percent of LASA members with foreign addresses are in permanent residence there. We do not have data on the number of foreign-born permanent or temporary U.S. residents who are 1994 members, but they are numerous.

The countries represented most strongly in LASA are: Mexico, 190: Japan, 127; Brazil, 72; (Puerto Rico, 66); Canada, 58; Argentina, 56; and Venezuela, 26.

In large part, it is U.S. scholars doing research abroad who introduce their foreign colleagues to LASA, and they in turn acquaint other colleagues in their countries with the Association. We intend to intensify our efforts to recruit international members and institutions in 1995.

Membership fees are subsidized for Latin Americans, which is especially helpful in countries with scarce or expensive dollars. Members abroad can purchase UNESCO coupons in their own currencies. LASA converts these coupons to dollars.

Involvement in International Congresses (held every 18 months)

LASA congresses are huge affairs, in proportion to the size of the membership. LASA registered 2,225 (paying) attendees in our March 1994 meeting, held in Atlanta, Georgia. There were 449 panels, workshops, plenaries, and meetings over a three-day period, with 27 simultaneous panel or workshop sessions in four two-hour periods during each of the three days. Official participants numbered 1,827, of which 44 percent were women.

Among other strategies for maximizing international participation in our international congresses is the inclusion of international scholars on the 16-member program committee. This helped produce the formal participation of 656 scholars from 44 countries in 1994. The international participation rate of 36 percent of the total number of panelists signifies that international representation in the meetings is 50 percent higher than in the Association membership itself.

LASA expends a great deal of energy in raising travel funds for foreign participants. In 1994, LASA was able to support the travel of more than 120 participants from Latin America, 31 of whom also stayed on to lecture or do research at U.S. institutions after the meeting. However, because LASA is able to support only a small number of Latin American applicants for travel funds, one of the central driving forces behind LASA’s newly initiated capital campaign is to provide funding for the many highly qualified scholars who are unable to contribute to and benefit from LASA’s international gatherings.

Involvement in Task Forces

LASA has 14 Task Forces and Working Groups. Some of them, including the Task Force on Women in Latin American Studies, the Task Force on Higher Education in Latin America, and the Task Force on Scholarly Relations with Cuba, have received major grants to carry on their work. The latter has heen particularly successful, with five, ten-member working groups meeting alternately in the United States and Cuba.

The Task Forces are truly international, with many scholars from abroad serving as chairs and co-chairs. Here again, the rate of participation of foreign academics in LASA Task Forces is twice the proportion of their membership in the Association as a whole.

Involvement as Board (Executive Council) Members

LASA has six voting Board members, each serving a three-year term, in addition to the president, past president, and vice-president. For several years, the Nominating Committee slate has included, in the six candidates, at least two from abroad. Members vote for three of the six. Presently, two of the six voting Board members are from (and in) foreign countries — one from Chile, the other from Mexico. A third member has just taken a position abroad.

Meetings Abroad

In 1953, LASA held its first international congress out of the United States — in Mexico City. While not the largest in terms of number of panels, it was one of the most highly attended.

An international congress scheduled for September 1989 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was visited by Hurricane Hugo three days before it was scheduled to begin. But that’s another (and a big) story. We turned the meeting around to Miami six weeks later, but our international intentions were good.

LASA held its June 1993 Board (Executive Council) meeting in Havana, Cuba, and the Executive Director has been instructed by the EC to develop a proposal for a major LASA congress at a Latin American site for the Spring of 1997.

Finally, we are currently considering, and an interested foundation is enthusiastic about supporting, smaller LASA “thematic” meetings every 18 months, between the larger congresses, in Latin America. The first one could focus on a theme such as the environment and sustainable development.

Recognition of Foreign Scholars

LASA’s Kalman Silvert Award recognizes senior members of the profession who have made a distinguished lifetime contribution to the study of Latin America. In 1991, the Silvert award was presented to a Mexican scholar, Victor Urquidi. Professor Urquidi is an economist, and a still active emeritus professor at the Colegio de México, in Mexico City. In 1994 this honor was bestowed on Osvaldo Sunkel, a renowned Chilean scholar who has authored several books and articles on development, planning, inflation, international relations, economic history, and the environment.

Also in 1991 the LASA Executive Council approved the creation of the “Premio Iberoamericano.” The award is presented at each of LASA’s international congresses to the outstanding book on Latin America in the social sciences or the humanities published in Portuguese or Spanish in any country. (LASA has a separate award — The Bryce Wood Book Award — for books published in English.)

LASA also confers a Media Award, given to “recognize long-term journalistic contributions to analysis and public debate about Latin America in the United States, as well as for breakthrough investigative reporting.” In 1994, for the first time, a Latin American category was created. In that category an entire publication, Caretas, of Lima, Peru, was the winner. The journal was recognized for its courageous choice of subject matter, its ability to clarify controversial subject matter, and the general excellence of Caretas journalists.

The Resources Problem

Internationalizing is expensive. In order to achieve the level of participation from scholars in our area of world interest, LASA heavily subsidizes Latin American and Caribbean scholars by keeping their membership fee as low as 25 percent of the highest paying regular (i.e., US-based and other foreign) members.

LASA also pays all travel expenses for the Board; the president, vice-president, and immediate past president; and three ex officio Board members, who meet every nine months. All expenses are paid for Silvert Award winners, and Premio winners, in addition to Bryce Wood Book Award and Media Award winners. The money “competes” with other monies needed for our international meetings, e.g., for travel for the large program committee and staff, and the secretariat staff. We look forward to a highly successful capital campaign that will endow the Association with the resources to award more travel and fellowship funding as well as several other dimensions of its international activities.

Conclusion

In its quarter decade, LASA has made considerable strides in its efforts to become a genuinely international association. Without this effort we could not make a claim to genuinely represent the discipline. Some of what we have attempted is sketched out in these pages.