Mexican Studies Conference 2013: ‘Reflection on Contemporary Mexican History and Anthropology’
| Datum | donderdag 25 april 2013 |
|---|---|
| Tijd | 14:00 – 17:00 uur |
| Faculteit | Geesteswetenschappen |
| Locatie | Leiden University Academy building, Klein Auditorium) Rapenburg 73 |
Keynote speech by Prof.dr. Claudio Lomnitz (Columbia University)
Mexican academia, particularly in the social sciences, has been of great influence in the American continent. Since the early 20th century, Mexico has played a key role for the advancement of scientific knowledge in the region, a tradition that has not only studied but also shaped the political debates and representation of the Latin American identities. These scientific paradigms problematise, and in some cases even reflect, the relations of inequality and ethnic dilemmas distinctive of post-colonial societies in the ‘New World’.
With the foundation of universities, research institutes, schools and societies, as much as libraries, archives and museums in Mexico since the 1920s, a scientific platform was launched where academics, the state, political refugees, the private sector and society at large participate. Based on historical and ethnographical knowledge, Mexican academia has provided theoretical and methodological tools to unpack notions such as mestizaje, indigenismo, hybridity, lo rural and lo urbano. In the development of these approaches, national scholars and international academics in Mexico have made an outstanding contribution to history and anthropology. These debates are not only essential to understand contemporary Mexico, but to think the Latin America as a region of study. The Mexican Studies Conference 2013 at Leiden University revises and celebrates these academic traditions in the study of society and culture of Mexico.
Leiden University
Faculty of Humanities
Institute for History/Department of Latin American Studies