Transnational Counterrevolutions Conference

Transnational Counterrevolutions: Ideas and Practices of the Right in Latin America’s Cold War

Friday, November 9 and Saturday, November 10, 2018
Jerome Greene Hall 101 and 104, Columbia Law School

Registration (free and required) at tinyurl.com/counterrevolutionconference

Sponsored by the Columbia History Department, the Columbia Institute of Latin American Studies, the Columbia Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, the Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, and the Janey Program at the New School for Social Research.

During the Cold War era, an array of new economic, cultural, religious, and military ideas circulated among Latin America’s ruling elites and conservative middle classes. Against a backdrop of vertiginous social change, these concepts drove new forms of repression within and across the countries of the region, and they continue to shape its societies today. Historians have begun to scrutinize these developments, investigating the transference of far-right ideologies between Latin America and Europe and exploring the transnational Condor network linking intelligence operatives across South America. Unlike the region’s revolutionary movements, however, Latin America’s fundamentally transnational counterrevolution is only starting to be treated as a distinct and multivalent object of study, rather than simply as a response to innovations on the Left.

This two-day conference aims to promote a deeper understanding of the role that transnational right-wing networks played in molding authoritarian ideologies and practices in Latin America during the Cold War period. Bridging histories of ideas and repressive forms, the conference explores the international inspirations and material exchanges of the Latin American Right. It seeks to foster a discussion that transcends the boundaries between intellectual, cultural, political, and military history. Highlights include:

Friday Keynote: João Roberto Martins Filho (Federal University of São Carlos)

Saturday Keynote: Margaret Power (Illinois Institute of Technology)

Invited Presentations by:

Mila Burns (Lehman College)
Michelle Chase (Pace University)
Ben Cowan (University of California San Diego)
Luis Herran (University of New Mexico)
Jennifer Lambe (Brown University)
Patrice McSherry (Long Island University)
Aaron Coy Moutlon (Stephen F. Austin State University)
Mary Roldán (Hunter College/CUNY Graduate Center)
Cos Tollerson (New York University)
Kirsten Weld (Harvard University)

Plus a Saturday afternoon roundtable discussion on Latin America and the Global Counterrevolution moderated by Bernard Harcourt (Columbia University).

The full program has been posted in JPEG form to the “Discussion” portion of the event page.

[Event photo above is of the 1964 Marcha da Família com Deus pela Liberdade, copyright Arquivo O Globo]