Violence is a central theme for scholars who work on Latin America. Yet, violence is only beginning to be considered historically: not as a natural feature of Latin American cultures or a byproduct of structural inequalities, but as a complex phenomenon at the fulcrum of society and politics. This conference intends to gather a group of historians that will feature different methodological perspectives and reflect the dynamic study of the forms of violence that mark Latin America throughout its history.
Convenors
Federico Finchelstein (New School for Social Research)
Pablo Piccato (Columbia University)

Sponsors
Institute of Latin American Studies, Columbia University
Department of History, Columbia University
History Department, The New School

Conference Program

8:30 am: Introduction, Federico Finchelstein and Pablo Piccato

9:00 to 11:00 am: Panel 1

• Thomas Rath (University College London), “Militarization in Mexico: A Concept in Search of a History?”
• Virginia Garrard-Burnett (University of Texas, Austin), “Writing the Individual Back into Collective Memory? The Sepur Zarco Case and the Problems of Rape in History”
• Gema Santamaría (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México), “Proxy-States, Lynch Mobs and De-Civilizing Processes: Re-thinking the Directionality and the Politics of Violence in Mexico and Beyond”
• Comments: Paul Gillingham (Northwestern University)

11:30 am to 1:00 pm: Panel 2

• Angelo Ventrone (University of Macerata), “Cultural Justifications of Political Violence in the Italian Far Right and Far Left in the XX Century”
• Paul Katz (Columbia University), “Crime, Sin, and Counterrevolution: The Struggle Against Torture in Brazil and Argentina, 1959-1989”
• Comments: Jeremy Varon (New School for Social Research)

2:30 to 4:00 pm: Panel 3

• Robert A. Karl (Princeton University), “The Making of La Violencia in Colombia”
• Luis Herrán (New School for Social Research), “Anti-communism, Violence and the Transnational Revolution of the Right in Latin America’s Long Sixties”
• Comments: Emmanuelle Saada (Columbia University)

4:15 to 6:00 pm: Final Session

• Keynote: Enzo Traverso (Cornell University), “Interpreting the Age of Global Violence”
• Comments and Roundtable Discussion