A Water-Centered Perspective on Latin America and the Caribbean

Thursday, February 23 – Friday, February 24

WATER IS ESSENTIAL for biological life as we know it, but it is also essential for livelihoods ranging from the individual to the community, on regional, national, and transnational scales. It is no coincidence that the phrase El agua es la vida / Água é vida is the central slogan of many environmentally centered struggles throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, from ethnically mixed urban and rural sectors to Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. It conveys a fundamental message about the perceived vitality of water.

This spring 2023 conference will explore the central role that water has played historically, and continues to play, in the evolution of the human / nature-other-than-humans nexus in Latin America and the Caribbean. We will explore the topic of water from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, including archaeology, architecture, earth sciences, ecology, geography, history, public policy, sociology, and Indigenous, race, religious, women’s, and gender studies.

View conference schedule

Photo: Ⓒ Cindia Arango López, June 10, 2022

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Conference Organizer

Carlos Ramos-Scharrón, Associate Professor, Geography & the Environment, Latin American Studies

Faculty Co-organizers

Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Timothy Beach, William E. Doolittle (Emeritus), Rebecca
Torres, and Kenneth Young — Geography and the Environment
Megan Raby — History
C.J. Álvarez — Mexican American and Latina/o Studies
David Eaton — LBJ School of Public Affairs
Miriam Solís — School of Architecture
Simon Brandl — Marine Science Institute
Khytie Brown — Religious Studies

Early-Career Organizers

Cindia Arango, Pablo Millalén, and Luciana Barreto-Lemos — LLILAS PhD Program
Pedro Valdez Castro — LLILAS MA Program
Nadia Mosquera Muriel, PhD — Postdoctoral fellow, Geography & the Environment, Women’s & Gender Studies
León Staines Díaz — Community and Regional Planning PhD Program
Blaise Murphy, William Pratt, Byron Smith, and Elybeth Alcantar — Geography PhD Program
Lara Sánchez — Anthropology PhD Program
Wilfredo Burgos-Matos, Yenibel Ruíz Mirabal, and Diego de Jesús Santos — Spanish and Portuguese PhD Program
Nadia Issa — Religious Studies PhD Program

Conference Coordinator

Paloma Diaz-Lobos, Asst. Director of Scholarly Programs & Faculty Liaison, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections