Thematic Approach

The aim of this Conference is to discuss one of the main topics of Latin American studies: the role of violence in political life.  Classic interpretations have seen Latin America as a “violent continent”. In this framework, 19th civil wars, military uprisings, militias, “citizens in arms”, Caudillos and Montoneras as well as 20th century Coup d’État, armed organizations and politicized Armies have been considered as part of the long, interconnected history of fails that hindered the adoption of modern forms of political organization. This shared approach gave way to anachronistic conclusions that resulted, for instance, when categories created to understand 20th or 21st century political processes have been applied to the study of 19th century political experiences.   

By combining historical and political perspectives, we will re-examine this classical diagnostic that hindered a complex analysis of the place of political violence in Latin America, from the revolutions of independence to contemporary democracies. To address the issue, we invite scholars from diverse fields of humanities and social sciences to discuss local, comparative and transnational works as well as long-term and specific temporal reflections from multi- interdisciplinary approaches. In this way, studies on the relevance of chronologies, categories and concepts as well as proposals focused on political practices, military institutions and military organizations are welcome. Our objective is to discuss analytical approaches that integrates and articulates specific temporal, spatial and political-institutional frameworks in a dynamic manner.In GIRES we hope and wish all languages to be represented and offer to scholars from all nations and language backgrounds to present in their native language ( despite we use English as our common language for obvious reasons of flexibility). Thus, we hope that in this conference we will have colleagues that may wish to present their work in Spanish language.

**En un esfuerzo por apoyar a los colegas del Sur Global, GIRES ha establecido un programa de apoyo para la minimización de tarifas. Contáctanos para más información.**
Hispanohablantes, les damos la bienvenida a nuestro instituto.

Proposed Topics

-Wars of independence, enlistment and militarization
-19^th century civil wars, military uprisings and riots
-The right to bear arms: militias, citizens in arms, revolutions, pronunciamientos militares
–Elections, public opinion, militias and political violence
–Montoneras and Caudillos
–The “crime of sedition” and the professional army politicization
-Militias, National Guard and Standing Army
-Disputes about the control of violence: monopolization vs. decentralization
–Political Parties and political violence
-The issue of defense: from revolution to contemporary democracies
-Coup d’État, dictatorship and State violence
-Armed organizations and non-State violence
-Political violence from literature and arts

Proposed Formats (Lingua franca: English)
-Individual papers (GIRES will included it in a panel)
-Panels (up to 4 presentations-chaired by one of the presenters or appointed by GIRES)
-Roundtable presentations (chaired by one of the presenters or appointed by GIRES)
-Poster presentations
-Student presentations (one paper presented by up to 3 young scholars)
-Keynote speech (depending on the time availability)
-Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Asynchronous Platform)
-Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Synchronous-live- Sessions: live participation of presenter (s) during the Q&A sessions)

Publication Opportunity 
The Organizing Committee and GIRES Press will publish the most powerful and dynamic presentations of the conference and include them
in a collective volume in the form of short articles and/or long essays. For more information please contact us

Live Sessions & Recording
All speakers are offered up to 30 minutes to present their work. All speakers have the option to have their presentations recorded (during live sessions) in HD quality.
The recordings will be uploaded to GIRES media for unlimited access and dissemination.

Asynchronous Options
All participants have the option to have their presentations (video/audio/text) uploaded to our Virtual Platform. All  registered participants will have access to the material for 5 days.

Our proposed topics & formats are not restrictive and we invite additional germane ideas
Due to the restrictions of Corona Crisis our event (for the time being) will take place VIRTUALLY