Afro-Latin American Perspectives and Issues

Originally formed in 2005, the Afro-Latin Working Group has provided the community at UNC-CH and Duke with a forum to meet and collaborate on Afro-Latin/Afro-Caribbean issues. The Afro-Latin Working Group's mission is to offer a space to investigate, explore, and discuss the increasing scholarship on Afro-descended populations by fostering research and conversations into the unique histories and cultural variations that shape Afro-Latin communities throughout the Americas. In the past, the Afro-Latin Working Group has been successful in identifying and bringing together students, faculty, artists, and activists who have an interest in Afro-Latin and Afro-Caribbean Studies.

For more information about this working group and its activities, contact Professor Michaeline Crichlow, African and African American Studies at Duke (crichlow@duke.edu) or Professor Tanya Shields, Women Studies at UNC (tshields@unc.edu)

Caribbean Studies in a Globalized Era

The purpose of this working group is to advance Duke/UNC Caribbeanist research by faculty and graduate students across a broad regional and disciplinary spectrum, from Haiti to Surinam and from the Humanities to the Social Sciences to Global Health. As such, it will create new ways of integrating and exchanging knowledge and practice in Caribbean Studies at Duke University, at UNC-CH and at other UNC campuses.

For more information about this working group and its activities, contact Professor Deborah Jenson, Romance Studies/French at Duke (deborah.jenson@duke.edu).

The Environment and Latin America

The Working Group on the Environment and Latin America is a collaborative effort between UNC and Duke University faculty and graduate students to promote a rich comprehension of environmental issues in Latin America through interdisciplinary collaboration.

For more information about this working group and its activities, contact Professor Jennifer Swenson, Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke (jennifer.swenson@duke.edu); Professor Dalia Patino, Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke (dalia.patino@duke.edu); or the student coordinators:  Michelle Loquine (michelle.loquine@duke.edu); Lisanne Petracca, (lisanne.petracca@duke.edu); Amelia Kissick (amelia.kissick@duke.edu); or Akiko Haruna (akiko.haruna@duke.edu).

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Latin American Political and Economic Regimes

The central goals of this working group are to improve our understanding of the relationship between the international economic system, national economies, and political institutions. In doing so, we focus our attention on how these factors constrain and influence the choices of decision makers bearing on social, environmental, civil, and economic policy in Latin America. In examining these policy areas, we also focus on the influence of organizations in civil society, political parties, and state structures in shaping policy outcomes.

For more information about this working group and its activities, contact Professor Jonathan Hartlyn (hartlyn@unc.edu) or Professor Evelyne Huber (ehuber@unc.edu), both in the Department of Political Science at UNC-CH; Professor Gary Gereffi (ggere@soc.duke.edu) in the Department of Sociology at Duke; Professor Karen Remmer (remmer@duke.edu) and Professor Erik Wibbels (ew41@duke.edu) both in the Department of Political Science at Duke; or the student coordinators: Sandy Chapman Osterkatz (schapmn@email.unc.edu) in the Department of Political Science at UNC-CH and Greg Schober (gregory.schober@duke.edu) in the Department of Political Science at Duke.

Modernity/Coloniality and the Geopolitics of Knowledge

Since 2000, this working group has aimed to investigate contemporary social, cultural, political, and economic transformations in Latin America and the Caribbean from critical cultural, epistemological, and epistemic perspectives, highlighting how they are discussed and theorized in Latin America itself. The group thus privileges the tradition of pensamiento crítico latinoamericano, particularly the emergent perspective of decolonial thinking. This orientation dictates the kinds of activities that we forsee for our group. It is also our intent to follow these debates as they are taking place in a variety of disciplines and social and intellectual locations (from universities and research institutes to social movements, artists, and non-governmental organizations). It is the group's contention that the emergent framework of decoloniality offers novel and productive vantage points from which to pursue research and intellectual work on Latin America and the Caribbean, including for PhD research.

For more information about this working group and its activities, contact Professor