Amy Lind
Statement
I am honored and delighted to be nominated for the position as Vice-President of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). LASA has been my primary intellectual home since the early 1990s, when I first became a member. I attended my first conference in Washington, D.C. in 1991 and have attended almost every conference since then. I have also served in several leadership roles over the years, including co-chairing the Gender and Feminist Studies section and co-chairing two of the section’s pre-conferences, serving as Treasurer and actively participating in the Sexualities section, and serving on the Academic Freedom and Human Rights committee and the Bryce Wood Book Award and LASA-Ford Special Projects review committees. These experiences, coupled with the rich dialogue, exchanges, and personal connections I have made through attending LASA conferences, provide a strong basis from which I am prepared and excited to work with LASA’s Executive Council if I am elected to this position.
Between my introduction to LASA in 1991 and 2023, it’s clear that LASA has significantly transformed over the years. LASA now has more than 40 sections, representing a wide range of areas of interest. LASA’s membership is truly global now, with over 60% of LASA members residing outside North America, a testament both to demand in Latin America for participation in LASA and to LASA’s hard work to make fee structures and participation more accessible to scholars across the hemisphere.
Of course, there have been obstacles along the way. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and related crises, and ongoing inequalities across the hemisphere and in the world at large, continue to challenge us to ask difficult questions and seek more equitable solutions. Within LASA, the Executive Council has worked hard to democratize membership and conference fees, although we know that the current fee structure may not be sustainable. We will need to continue revisiting that policy to strike a balance between maintaining and growing a sustainable association budget, on one hand, and working toward further diversifying LASA membership through inclusive, accessible policies. And, now that in-person and virtual conferences have become the norm, LASA will need to further consider this transition as well. Despite these challenges, I believe there is great potential for LASA’s future.
Accessibility is a key issue we need to continue addressing within LASA. One silver lining of the pandemic has been LASA’s transition to holding both in-person and virtual conferences, which significantly opened up opportunities for a broader public to attend conferences. In addition, LASA’s new fee structure, while not necessarily a long-term financial solution, is one important step toward establishing a permanent, sustainable fee structure for individuals and institutions based in Latin America and for under-resourced people in general. As we witness the rise of contingent faculty and the cutting back of university funds for conference travel, and economic conditions in Latin America that make it difficult if not impossible for people to travel to conferences, it is crucial that we continue focusing on accessibility.
In addition to economic accessibility, we need to work more toward further diversifying LASA programming and leadership. LASA could create research networks that further incentivize interdisciplinary collaborations; LASA’s vibrant sections could play an important role in this, and in governance more generally. It would be fantastic to offer virtual workshops and other mentorship opportunities for graduate students and early career faculty. LASA could collaborate more with smaller publishers not always well-represented at large academic conferences and with local organizations and communities in conference host cities. Fundraising and grant-writing are also key in building LASA’s endowment and securing support for these initiatives.
The pandemic, ongoing structural inequalities, and growing authoritarian practices in the region call on us to rethink the traditional ways we’ve conceptualized our work. I welcome the opportunity to enhance LASA’s commitment to accessibility, diversity, and inclusion; to explore ways to enhance the role of sections; and to envision new programs and initiatives, beyond the annual conference, that LASA offers to its members.