The Johns Hopkins Program in Latin American Studies was founded in 1989. For nearly thirty years, it was the home for the academic study of Latin America on the Homewood campus.

In 2018, the deans of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences supported a multi-year initiative led by a new cohort of junior faculty, Latin America in a Globalizing World.

In 2022, the Program in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies was relaunched with a new cross-divisional faculty advisory board. 

Latin America in a Globalizing World

Latin America in a Globalizing World (LAGW) was a three-year project, funded by a Dean’s Interdisciplinary Project Grant, which brought together scholars of Latin America with area specialists working on other regions to examine Latin America’s role in global economic processes, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The program ended in Spring 2022. 

The achievements of this project were three-fold:

  1. to help (re)build a constituency for Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins, particularly among undergraduate and graduate students;
  2. to build links between junior scholars of Latin America and scholars working on related thematic topics from other geographic perspectives; and
  3. to foster connections across disciplines and schools within the university.

Faculty

Core Faculty

Affiliated Faculty

Seminar Series

2022

  • Feb 3: Casey Lurtz Assistant Professor, History, JHU
    “A Failed Statistics: A Portrait of Turn-of-the-Century Mexico in Uneven Numbers”
    Discussant: Christy Thornton, Assistant Professor, Sociology, JHU
  • Feb 10: Lucas Azambuja PhD Student, Sociology, JHU
    “Polanyi and the Politics of Industrial Capital in Neoliberal Brazil, 1996-2015”
    Discussant: Max Vejares, PhD Candidate, Political Science, JHU
  • Feb 24: Sebastián Link PhD Candidate, Sociology, JHU
    “A Reassessment of the Popular Power Strategy and the Chilean Movement of Revolutionary Left: Implications for the 21st Century”
    Discussant: Camila Pierobon, Postdoctoral Fellow, Anthropology, Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento
  • Mar 3: Kevan Antonio Aguilar Postdoctoral Fellow, History, University of Maryland
    “The ‘Indios’ of Spain and the Mexican Revolution: Negotiating Racial Solidarities in Times of Revolution, 1906-1939” 
    Discussant:  Sonia Robles, Assistant Professor, History, University of Delaware
  • Mar 10: Ñusta Carranza Ko Assistant Professor, International Affairs, University of Baltimore
    “Then, There Were the Children: Peru’s Coercive Sterilization Campaign”
    Discussant: Maria Haro Sly, PhD Student, Sociology, JHU
  • Mar 17: Camila Pierobon Postdoctoral Fellow, Anthropology, Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento
    “Caring for the other, caring for the water: gender and race producing the city”
    Discussant: Perry Maddox, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, JHU
  • Mar 31: Sebastián Cortesi PhD Student, Political Science, JHU 
    “A Global Laboratory for Electoral Reform: Reconsidering the Origins of Proportional Electoral Systems”
    Discussant: Julieta Casas, PhD Candidate, Political Science, JHU
  • Apr 7:  Joao Gabriel PhD Student, History, JHU
    “Prison in French Debates about the Abolition of Slavery during the July Monarchy (1840-1848)” 
    Discussant: Francisco Pérez Marsilla, PhD Candidate, Modern Languages and Literatures, JHU
  • Apr 14: Valeria Procupez Lecturer, Anthropology, JHU
    “Building Trust: Homeownership as Collective Endeavor in Buenos Aires”
    Discussant: Ana Wenzel, PhD Candidate, History, University of Maryland
  • Apr 21: Max Vejares PhD Candidate, Political Science, JHU
    “The Political Geography of State Capacity in Chile”
    Discussant: Alessandro Angelini, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, JHU
  • Apr 28: Julieta Casas PhD Candidate, Political Science, JHU
    “Varieties of Patronage: Partisan State-building in the Americas”
    Discussant: Ana Cecilia Gaitán, Investigadora Asistente, Centro de Estudios Desigualdades, Sujetos e Instituciones, Universidad Nacional de San Martín
  • May 5: Ana Cecilia Gaitán Investigadora Asistente, Centro de Estudios Desigualdades, Sujetos e Instituciones, Universidad Nacional de San Martín
    “Bonding and walking to the bus stop. Violence and care in the daily implementation of a social policy in Buenos Aires”

2021

  • Feb. 3-7, 2021 –  Conference: Critical Conversations on Reproductive Health/Care: Past, Present, and Future. 
  • Feb. 10, 2021, at 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Bolivia in the Age of Gas, Bret Gustafson, Washington University St. Louis, Latin America in a Fracturing World seminar.
  • Feb. 18, 2021, at 11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Republics of the New World: The Revolutionary Political Experiment in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, Hilda Sabato, CONICET, Latin America in a Globalizing World seminar.
  • Feb. 25, 2021, at 11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Republics of Knowledge: Nations of the Future in Latin America, Nicola Miller, University College London, Latin America in a Globalizing World seminar.
  • Mar. 3, 2021, at 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Threshold and Exit Wounds, Ieva Jusionyte, Brown University, Latin America in a Fracturing World seminar.
  • Mar. 10, 2021, at 12:30 – 2:00 pm – Book party for Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy, Christy Thornton, Johns Hopkins, with comments by Leslie Salzinger, UC Berkeley, and Jeremy Adelman, Princeton, moderated by Rina Agarwala, Johns Hopkins. Co-Sponsored with the Sociology Department.
  • Mar. 12, 2021, at 11:00 am – 12:30 pm –  Archives of State Violence and Research for Justice: A PhD Professional Development Career Workshop, Brie Gettleson, Haverford College, and Alex Galarza, University of Delaware. JHU Provost Professional Development Initiative, co-sponsored with RIC. 
  • Mar. 25, 2021, at 11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Sorting Out the Mixed Economy, Amy Offner, University of Pennsylvania, Latin America in a Globalizing World seminar. 
  • Mar. 31, 2021, at 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Housing, Displacement and the Victim Law in Colombia, Sebastián Ramírez, Princeton, Latin America in a Fracturing World seminar. 
  • Apr. 1, 2021, at 11:00 am – 12:00 pm – Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador, Thea Riofrancos, Providence College, Latin America in a Globalizing World seminar. 
  • Apr. 2, 2021, at 3:00 to 4:00 pm – Reclaiming the Discarded, Kathleen Millar, Simon Fraser, Latin America in a Fracturing World seminar.
  • 9/19 Lecture: Jeremy M. Campbell 
    Associate Professor of Anthropology, Roger Williams University
    Traditional Ownership and the Fight for Amazonia: Indigenous Resistance to the Bolsonaro Agenda in Brazil 
    Presented by the Portuguese Program 
    Gilman 219 (& Zoom), 12pm (email [email protected] for link) 
  • 9/22 Lecture: Eder Muniz, Graffiti Artist 
    Using Street Art to Inspire Impoverished Areas
    Presented by the Portuguese Program 
    Gilman 219 (& Zoom), 12pm (email [email protected] for link) 
  • 9/23–25 Conference: Mexico in the Age of Revolutions: Rethinking Independence from a Hemispheric Perspective
    Co-sponsored with the Mexican Cultural Institute and the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, UNAM 
    Online and in-person at the Mexican Cultural Institute
  • 10/4 Lecture: Luis Rodríguez Aquino 
    Stanton Nuclear Fellow, Stanford University
    Politics: Brazil in Times of Bolsonaro
    Presented by the Portuguese Program 
    On Zoom, 12pm (email [email protected] for link) 
  • 10/21 Seminar: Claudia Leal
    Associate Professor of History, Universidad de los Andes 
    Landscapes of Freedom: Building a Postemancipation Society in the Rainforests of Western Colombia
    LAGW Graduate Seminar
    Gilman 308 (& Zoom), 2:30pm (email [email protected] for link)
  • 11/1 Exhibit: Hostile Terrain 
    A participatory art project sponsored and organized by the Undocumented Migration Project and Dr. Jason De León
    Milton S. Eisenhower Library, ongoing 
  • 10/21 Seminar: Rocio Gomez 
    Assistant Professor of History, Virginia Commonwealth University
    Silver Veins and Dusty Lungs: Mining, Water, and Public Health in Zacatecas, 1835-1946 
    LAGW Graduate Seminar
    Gilman 308 (& Zoom), 2:30pm (email [email protected] for link)
  • 11/4 Seminar: Victoria Saramago
    Assistant Professor of Brazilian Literature, University of Chicago
    Fictional Environments: Mimesis, Deforestation, and Development in Latin America 
    LAGW Graduate Seminar 
    Gilman 308 (& Zoom), 2:30pm (email [email protected] for link)
  • 11/11 Seminar: Bret Gustafson 
    Associate Professor of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis 
    Bolivia in the Age of Gas
    LAGW Graduate Seminar 
    Gilman 308 (& Zoom), 2:30pm (email [email protected] for link)
  • 11/15 Lecture: Dr. Joilda Nery & Dr. Cléber Cremonese 
    Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal de Bahia 
    Unified Health System in Brazil: Characteristics and Challenges after 30 Years of Implementation 
    Presented by the Portuguese Program
    Gilman 219 (& Zoom), 12pm (email [email protected] for link) 
  • 11/11 Seminar: Héctor Hoyos 
    Associate Professor of Latin American Literature, Stanford University
    Things with a History: Transcultural Materialism and the Literatures of Extraction in Contemporary Latin America 
    LAGW Graduate Seminar 
    Gilman 308 (& Zoom), 2:30pm (email [email protected] for link)
  • 12/2 Book Release: Magda Von der Heydt-Coca 
    Assistant Research Scholar, Johns Hopkins 
    Latin American Development from Populism to Neopopulism: A Multidisciplinary Approach

2020

  • Oct. 8, 2020, at 12:00 pm – Elizabeth O’Brien, Professor in the History of Medicine Department, JHU. “‘The Only Rational Means of Salvation’: Obstetric Racism in Porfirian Mexico, 1876-1915.” 
  • Oct. 12, 2020, at 4:00 pm – Amy Offner, Assistant Professor in the History Department, University of Pennsylvania. “Knowledge Without a Nation, Concepts Without a Discipline: Albert O. Hirschman and the Ironies of Cold War Development Assistance.” Co-sponsored with the History Department.
  • Nov. 3, 2020, at 12:00 pm – Amarylis Estrella, ACLS Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Fellow in the History Department, JHU. Hosted by the Black World Seminar.
  • Nov. 12, 2020, at 12:00 pm – Oriol Regue Sendros, PhD Candidate in the History Department, JHU. “At the Fringes of Slavery: Forced Labor and Spanish Colonialism in 19th Century Cuba.” 
  • Dec. 10, 2020, at 12:00 pm – Maximiliano Vejares, PhD Student in the Political Science Department, JHU. “Political Order and Intra-Elite Conflict: Theory and Evidence from 19th Century Chile.”

2019

  • Feb. 6, 2019 – Teach-In: The Venezuela Crisis, with Alejandro Velasco (Department of History, New York University), Geoff Ramsey (Washington Office on Latin America), Maximiliano Vejares (Department of Political Science) and Alessandro Angelini (Department of Anthropology).
  • Feb. 21, 2019 – Lecture: Rosana Pinheiro Machado (Department of Anthropology, Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil), “From Hope to Hate: The Rise of Conservative Subjectivity in Brazil.”
  • Feb. 27, 2019 – Lecture: Daniel Aldana Cohen (Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania), “Follow the Carbon: Housing Movements and Carbon Emissions in the 21st Century City” (co-sponsored with Sociology).
  • March 7, 2019 – Seminar: Alejo Perez-Stable (MA student in History), “Beyond Revolution, Beyond Reform: José M. Aricó and the Search for a Democratic Marxism.”
  • March 12, 2019 – Lecture: Régine Michelle Jean Charles (African and African Diaspora Studies, Boston College), “Ti Fi at the Center: Narratives of Haitian Girlhood” (co-sponsored with the Sex and Slavery Lab).
  • April 3, 2019 – Lecture: Sandy Rodríguez (visual artist), “The Codex Rodríguez-Mondragón” (co-sponsored with the Department of History of Art).
  • April 5, 2019 – Lecture: Jorge Coronado (Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Northwestern University), “Selling lo andino Globally: Cultural Consumption and Local Production in the Work of Elena Izcue.”
  • April 15, 2019 – Lecture: Gonzalo Lamana (Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh), “What to Do in a World Upside Down?: Race-Thinking, Theology, and Coloniality According to Guaman Poma de Ayala” (co-sponsored with MLL).
  • April 25, 2019 – Seminar: Benjamin Siegel (Department of History, Boston University), “Markets of Pain: A Transnational History of the United States Opioid Crisis.”
  • May 2, 2019 – Book Launch: Casey Marina Lurtz (Department of History), From the Grounds Up: Building an Export Economy in Southern Mexico, published by Stanford University Press (co-sponsored with the Department of History).
  • Sep. 13, 2019 – Teach-in: American Concentration Camps. Featuring Seth Michelson Washington & Lee, Jonathan Katz Journalist, and Melisa Carolina Argañaraz Sanctuary Streets Baltimore. Sponsored by the Program in Racism, Immigration and Citizenship.
  • Sep. 19, 2019 – Seminar: Marc Alsina, PhD Candidate, History of Science and Technology, “¡Tal el héroe moderno!: Jorge Newbery, the Aero Club Argentino, and the Dawn of Flight in Belle Époque Argentina.”
  • Oct. 3, 2019 – Book Talk: Alan McPherson, Temple University, Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet’s Terror State to Justice. Co-sponsored by the Department of History.
  • Oct. 14, 2019 – Panel Discussion: Racism, Immigration, and Populism in the Americas. Featuring Thea Riofrancos, Providence College, and George Ciccariello-Maher, Decolonizing Humanities Project, William & Mary. Co-sponsored by the Program in Racism, Immigration and Citizenship.
  • Oct. 17, 2019 – Lecture: Land Grab University: The Right to Food and TIAA’s land speculation in Brazil and the US, with Altamiran Ribeiro, Pastoral Land Commission of the Catholic Church, Piauí, Brazil
  • Oct. 18, 2019 – Colloquium: Communities Engaging in Export Capitalism: South Asia and Southern Mexico in a World of Change, 1850-1950. Sponsored by the  Americas Initiative, Georgetown University.
  • Nov. 14 and 15, 2019 – Conference: Latin America in the Liberal International Order. Co-sponsored with the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University. Held at Johns Hopkins University. 
  • Nov. 18 and 19, 2019 – Symposium on Brazil: Amazonian Studies—Multidisciplinary Approaches. Sponsored by International Studies & the Program in Modern Languages and Literature.
  • Dec. 5, 2019 – Seminar: Álvaro Caso Bello, PhD Candidate, History, “Colonial Lobbying in an Age of Crisis: Agentes, Diputados, and the Future of the Spanish Empire in South America, 1808-1820.”

2018

  • Sept. 24, 2018 – Lecture: Álvaro Santana Acuña (Department of Sociology, Whitman College), “One Hundred Years of Solitude: The Making of a Global Literary Classic”
  • Oct. 10, 2018 – Panel Discussion: Christy Thornton (Department of Sociology) & Casey Lurtz (Department of History), “US-Mexico Border Policy” (co-sponsored with International Studies)
  • Oct. 11, 2018 – Film Screening & Panel Discussion “Not in My Neighborhood,” ft. director Kurt Orderson (co-Sponsored with the Arrighi Center for Global Studies).
  • Oct. 11, 2018 – Seminar: Angus Bergin (Department of History), “The Neoliberal Turn” (co-sponsored with the American Capitalism seminar).
  • Nov. 2, 2018 – Teach-in: The Brazilian Elections, with Alessandro Angelini (Department of Anthropology), Roberto Goulart Menezes (Visiting Scholar, Arrighi Center; Professor, University of Brasilia), Luis Rodriguez Aquino (Department of Political Science), Elayne Cardoso de Morais (Department of Sociology), and Tulio Zille (Department of Political Science).
  • Nov. 8, 2018 – Seminar: Alvaro Caso Bello (PhD Student in History), “A Global Government in Miniature: New Bureaucrats and the Governance of Empire in the Eighteenth-Century Spain.”
  • Nov. 13, 2018 – Lecture: Shane Dillingham (Department of History, Spring Hill College), “México 1968: A View from the South.”
  • Nov 29, 2018 – Seminar: Alessandro Angelini (Department of Anthropology), “A Favela that Yields Fruit: Community-Based Tour Guides as Brokers in the Political Economy of Cultural Difference.”