We invite contribution for a special collection of essays on intellectuals in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Latin American intellectuals living and/or working in North America, during the three last decades of the 20th Century. Our intention is to describe and analyze their significance and impact in the different societies and countries across the continent, either at times of change or crisis.

There have been plenty of definitions for "an intellectual" elaborated by sociologists, historians, philosophers, journalists, etc. For the purpose of this anthology, we would like to focus on intellectuals -men and women, individuals , or intellectual circles-whom we perceive as "public intellectuals". We suggest that such intellectuals are people whose main preoccupation are ideas, their articulation, and broad circulation. They systematically voice their ideas in the public sphere regarding major issues of politics, culture, and society, as well as morality, ethics, and values. They may be people who dedicate their work exclusively, or mainly, to be diffused as opinions among the elites and the general educated public in order to gain influence and promote change. But intellectuals may also be persons who are specialists in various areas and disciplines as scholars, scientists, writers, or artists participating in, and contributing to public debates in questions that are beyond a specific field. The themes they prefer to address are on the interest and importance to society at large and are expressed in various forms activism and non-disciplinary language, thus reaching broader publics. In our view, therefore, all intellectuals produce ideology, ethos, and culture. They elaborate and transmit critique to legitimize and reproduce beliefs and norms of their societies or the world, just as they wish to change and revolutionize them.

We would expect from the contributions to present the person/group/ they choose in terms of their basic and relevant biographical information. The essay should focus on his/her/their work and activities according the approach we describe above. We ask the authors to analyze the work or actions, for which the intellectuals/s they study has/have been significant or worth attention. The essay would ideally place those intellectuals in a historical context of the period and conditions of the countries where they are active, or if pertinent, also regionally and globally. The book will be cross, or multidisciplinary, since we expect to include articles from specialists in the various areas of the humanities (history, literature, philosophy, film, the arts), social sciences (sociology, political science, anthropology, international relations) and area studies (Latin American Studies, U.S. and Canadian Studies). We encourage authors who apply any contemporary, theoretical approach (trans-national, post-colonial, diasporic, literary, gender, etc.), while also welcome the more traditional methodologies used in the various disciplines.

Deadline for proposal: September 30, 2002

Provide the following:

1. Brief description of paper
2. Name, address, phone number and e-mail

Final submission should be of 20-25 pages.

Send proposal to Dr. Avital Bloch: avital_b@yahoo.com and/or Dr. Rogelio de la Mora: delamora@ucol.mx