Re-imagining Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Re-imagining Democracy Project moved to a new phase in the summer of 2016 as we were completing the book on the Mediterranean.

The new phase involves turning our attention to the experience of Latin America and the Caribbean.Chilean Independence

We began with a series of reading groups, that started with the late colonial period and focused on the Bourbon reforms introduced in the administration of the colonies, and the two main rebellions that they seem to have provoked (in Peru and New Granada/Colombia), before moving to the region as a whole.

We had meetings on 14 June and 11 October 2016, and on 10 January (all held at the Latin American Centre) and 24 February 2017 (held at the Oxford Maison Française). These were followed by a full conference on 23-24 March 2017. For information about forthcoming meetings see below.

The initial four sessions focused on independence and the rise of nation states, looking at the following topics:
1. Bourbon reforms and late colonial rebellions in Spanish America (reading list on Late Colonial Rebellions) (minutes)
2. Transatlantic connections: Enlightenment, the US independence, the French Revolution (reading list)  (Minutes Oct 2016)
3. The Impact of the Napoleonic Empire in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1803-1815 (2017-ht-reading-list) (Minutes Jan 10 2017)
4. Independence wars and the emergence of new nation states, 1815-1830 (2017 Feb 24 Reading list) (Minutes 24th Feb 2017)
On 23-24 March we organised the conference ‘Re-imagining Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1770s-1880s’ sponsored by the Oxford History Faculty through the Fell and Sanderson Funds, held at the Latin American Centre.
Re-imagining democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1770s-1880s.    (Programme March 2017).

 

On 30th October 2017, 12.30-2.30 pm a meeting was held with Jeremy Adelman, Professor of History at Princeton University and Astor Visiting Lecturer at Oxford this term.  He discussed with the group the topic ‘Re-Imagining Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1770s-1870s: Perspectives from Global History’? 2017 Astor Visit Revised Minutes Democracy Meeting

Future Meetings

The next congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA, Barcelona, 26-28 May 2018) will include two double panels related to our project. Papers on aspects of the following topics will be discussed in these panels: ‘The Global History of Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 19th Century’, and ‘Ser congresista: prácticas de representación en América Latina en el siglo XIX’.

2018 Full Proposal Congress.

2018 Democracy Panels