Conference

Education Across the Americas

Every year, ALAS organizes a conference that brings professors, scholars, students, and activitists together to address educational issues pertaining to the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. Our annual conference aims to create academic, cultural, and social networks reuniting the Latin American community at Teachers College as well as individuals and scholars interested in Latin American issues.

2009 Conference

The Association of Latin American Scholars (ALAS) is pleased to host its 7th Annual Education Across the Americas Conference at Teachers College, Columbia University. We are currently soliciting proposal abstracts for presentations at the conference, scheduled for April 3rd-April 4th, 2009.

For over 7 years, ALAS' annual conference has sought to create a space for analysis, dialogue, and exchange in relation to the complex realities of education in the Americas. Throughout our history, the conference's objective has been to provide a unique opportunity for scholars who work on issues of education in Latin America to share and discuss their policy, academic, and research concerns. Latin America, however, is far from a homogenous and monolithic landscape of social, political, economic, and cultural practices. The diversity of contexts that characterizes Latin America requires educators, researchers, and policymakers alike to consider the multiplicity of experiences and perspectives when examining education as social phenomena.

This year's theme--Interpreting Realities, Negotiating Perspectives, and Exploring Complexities--challenges us to rethink and reframe our approach to the study of education in the Americas. More specifically, it seeks to address the current challenges and developments in Latin America that have significant implications for the education of children, adolescents, and adults--ranging from very specific and situated classroom environments all the way to national and transnational policy-making and policy-borrowing.

Featuring Keynotes by:

  • -Walter Mignolo
  • -Sylvia Schmelkes
  • -Bradley Levinson

    • Highlights this year include:

  • -Student and Faculty Panels
  • -Latin American Chamber Music Concert
  • -Movie Screenings
  • -Latin American Art Exhibit
  • -Latin American Closing Party and much more!

    • 2009 Panel Sessions:

  • Panel 1: Capacitando A Los Maestros: The Education and Training of Latin American Teachers
  • Panel 2: Engaging Alternative Educational Paradigms: Toward Critical and Creative Pedagogies
  • Panel 3: Ideologies and Contested Spaces: Access to Higher Education in South America
  • Panel 4: Designing Experiences to Facilitate Imagination and Transformation within a Network of Educators
  • Panel 5: Interrogating Educational Policies and Practices for Marginalized Populations
  • Panel 6: Voices of Immigrant Youth: Using New Media and Technologies as tools for Self-Expression and Identity-Making
  • Panel 7: International and Multi-Sector Initiatives for Educational Development

    • 2009 Conference Program

    Download the conference programprogram.

    Registration is FREE

    Register today by using our online registration form

    Supporters

    ALAS' annual conference is made possible by generous support from: The President's and Provost's Student Event Fund at Columbia University; the Office of Student Activities at Teachers College, and the Institute of Latin American Studies and Latin American Student Association at SIPA.

    Past Conferences