A continental congress of the Latin American Studies Association
The Second Continental Congress of LASA will be held in Dakar, Senegal, and will be co-organized by the Department of Langue Espagnole et Civilisation Hispanique at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis (Senegal) and FASFEF (Faculté des Sciences et Technologies de l’Éducation et de la Formation, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal). This academic gathering follows the First Continental Congress, which took place at the University of Ghana in November 2023.
This second congress is a direct continuation of the conclusions reached in Ghana, from which the LASA-Africa Section, titled Africa and the Americas, was created. This section constitutes a permanent space for encounter, reflection, and debate between Africa and the Americas, with the aim of fostering intellectual, cultural, and political dialogue between the two continents.
The title of the congress, “Africa and Latin America: Shared Heritages, Solidarities (and) Entangled Futures,” reflects the intention to examine Africa–Latin America and Caribbean relations from a historical, critical, and forward-looking perspective. Within this framework, the main objective of the congress is to strengthen South–South relations in pursuit of sustainable, inclusive, and long-lasting development for both Africa and Latin America.
Africa and Latin America are deeply connected through history, particularly through the transatlantic slave trade and processes of colonization, which led to the forced displacement of millions of Africans to the Americas. However, despite these shared historical roots, contemporary relations between the two continents remain insufficiently fluid. This is due, on the one hand, to linguistic barriers and, on the other, to the persistent lack of mutual knowledge between African and Latin American societies.
Today, many Africans of the diaspora seek to reconnect with their African roots, underscoring the relevance of this congress as a platform to facilitate and deepen ties between Africa and Latin America. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the congress will promote exchange and cooperation in various fields of knowledge, such as language and literature, history, politics, law, diplomacy, culture, economics, the environment, medicine, and gender studies, among others.
In this way, this Second Continental Congress of LASA aspires to consolidate itself as a privileged space for academic dialogue and the construction of lasting solidarities between Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, oriented toward the creation of shared and interconnected futures.
We invite proposals related to these suggested topics and other possible ones that are in line with the spirit of the Congress.
This track includes academic works that examine cultural, political, social, and intellectual exchanges between Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, with particular emphasis on the reciprocal influences and mutual extensions through which ideas and intellectual movements developed in one region have shaped the thought and culture of the others. Special attention is given to the historical and enduring legacies of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade as central forces structuring these exchanges between Africa and the Americas.
This item encourages and fosters studies that seek to compare and contrast the social, economic, cultural, and political phenomena of these regions in order to better understand their historical processes and their current challenges.
This topic accepts academic papers on Latin America and the Caribbean from scholars from various regions of the world, especially from Africa, in any field of investigation. Studies on Africa by scholars based in the Americas are welcome. This promotes intellectual encounters between Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
This track invites academic contributions that examine emerging foreign policy agendas and diplomatic reconfigurations between Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. It highlights the renewed strategic importance of Africa for several LAC countries, reflected in the expansion of South–South cooperation, diversified diplomatic partnerships, and growing engagement with multilateral and interregional frameworks. Papers may explore how shared concerns—such as climate justice, peacebuilding, development, science and technology, and gender and racial justice—are reshaping foreign policy priorities, as well as the opportunities and challenges involved in translating new diplomatic initiatives into concrete projects, sustained economic relations, and inclusive agendas within the Global South.
This track is available for those papers that do not fit within the framework of the thematic areas described above and are relevant to the theme of the congress.
All proposals must be submitted to the LASA secretariat via the online proposal system.