This workshop will bring together scholars, activists, and policymakers to reflect collectively on the authoritarian challenges to democracy in the 21st century. Amidst the rise of a new radical right throughout the Americas, this workshop provides a space to discuss the need to build democratic coalitions capable of protecting democratic rule and civic rights currently under threat. To do so, participants will examine the historical experience of popular fronts in the 1930s and 1940s and assess the viability of such forms of coalitional democratic politics in the present. The need to preserve democracy in the region while advancing social and economic reforms that improve people’s everyday lives constitutes the driving force behind our proposal.

PROGRAM TIMELINE
(download PDF version here)

Opening Remarks (9:30-9:45)
Jeffrey Gould

Panel 1 - Indigenous and Ethnic Rights (9:45-11:15)
Fabiana Nahuelquir, Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj & Adolfo Millabur

Break (11:15-11:30)

Panel 2 - Historical Reflections on Popular Fronts (11:30-1:00)
Barbara Weinstein, Kirsten Weld & Luis Herrán

Lunch (1:00-2:00)

Panel 3 - The Politics of Popular Fronts Today (2:00-3:30)
Itai Hagman, Juan Grabois & Manuela D’Ávila

Break (3:30-4:00)

Panel 4 - The Social Dynamics of Popular Fronts (4:00-5:30)
Sebastian Rojas-Cabal, Charles Hale & Miguel Centeno

Closing Remarks (5:30-6:00)
Ann Farnswoth-Alvear

GUEST SPEAKERS

• Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj | Journalist, social anthropologist, and international spokeswoman for Indigenous cultures
• Juan Grabois | Argentine lawyer, professor, writer and social leader
• Manuela D’Ávila | Brazilian journalist, writer and politician
• Itai Hagman | Argentine economist and politician who has been a National Deputy elected in the City of Buenos Aires since 2019, as member of the Frente de Todos coalition
• Fabiana Nahuelquir | Member of the Mapuche Tehuelche community "Vuelta del Río" (from Chumasen, in the province of Chubut, Argentina)
• Barbara Weinstein | Professor of History, New York University
• Charles Hale | Dean of Social Sciences, Professor of Anthropology and Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Kirsten Weld | Professor of History, Harvard University
• Luis Herran | Assistant Professor of History, The University of New Mexico
• Adolfo Millabur | Mapuche Politician, Chile
• Sebastián Rojas-Cabal | Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, Princeton University

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS AND PARTICIPANTS

• Miguel Centeno | Professor of Sociology, Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton University
• Jeffrey Gould | Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Department of History, Indiana University
• Amy Offner | Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
• Ann Farnswoth-Alvear | Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
• Pablo Pryluka | Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global History, Harvard University

PARTICIPANT BIOS

Read the full speaker and participant bios here.

CO-ORGANIZERS

PLAS would like to acknowledge the generous support received from the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn's Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies.

This workshop is open to the public.

Sponsorship of an event does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.