The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center at Stony Brook University invites presentation proposals for its eighth annual graduate student conference to be held on Friday, April 24, 2009 at Stony Brook Manhattan. Using the theme, “Latin America: a people without boundaries?,” the conference seeks to examine how Latin Americans have confronted, negotiated, or overcome geographical, economic, political, class, racial, and cultural boundaries. This question takes on additional importance in light of the 40th anniversary of the publication of Enzo Faletto’s and Fernando H. Cardoso’s landmark study on dependency theory that examined the boundaries that defined the development of modern Latin America. Important questions that this conference seeks to address include (but are not limited to): to which degree is Latin America a vanguard case study for examining global flows and important exchanges in culture? How much success have Latin Americans enjoyed in transcending and redefining the boundaries of race, class, and gender? What are the legacies, myths, and artistic interpretations that explain and examine the durability of stark racial and class stratification, national biases, and the perception of Latin America as a global periphery? We hope that lively academic debate and interaction will help draw out answers to these important questions toward the goal of examining and addressing contemporary problems and trends in Latin America.

By stimulating cross-disciplinary discussions, the conference invites graduate students to examine and transcend the boundaries of their own academic fields. The multi-disciplinary nature of this conference also provides an opportunity for graduate students to interact with other scholars outside their traditional fields of study and geopolitical specialties.

Presentation proposals should be 200 to 300 words in length, in either English or Spanish, and should include a cover page with name, academic affiliation and contact information. Panel proposals and alternative, non-paper presentations will also be given consideration.

Please submit proposals electronically to sbulaccgrad@yahoo.com