LAP at LASA

LAP emerged from discussions among young, critical scholars at several Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congresses from 1968-1973 where the Union of Radical Latin Americanists formed and proposed a new, alternative journal open to progressive scholarship, including Marxism.  After soliciting a proposal from Ronald Chilcote, LASA chose not to fund the new journal and Latin American Perspectives was founded as an independent journal by a group of young academics in the Los Angeles-Riverside, CA area with Chilcote as Managing Editor.

LAP has had an ongoing, active presence at LASA Congresses ever since. LAP participates in the book exhibit, where we display issues from the last 5 years and engage with Congress attendees. In 2020, we created a virtual exhibit (click here) for the virtual Congress that was held on-line because of the pandemic.

At each LASA , we hold an Editors and Friends meeting to discuss important matters for the journal as well as meet with people informally at our booth. (See Rodolgo Stavenhagen at the LAP booth in New York in 2016 in the LASA image gallery.) LAP participates in the annual pre-conference of journal editors to interact with participants seeking advice on how to get their work published. LAP editors and authors are active participants as session organizers, panelists, chairs and discussants.  LAP editors have also been active in presenting resolutions on human rights and other current issues. To promote our book series, LAP sponsors Meet the Author sessions with authors of our recent books with Rowman & Littlefield.