Introducing and chairing the first keynote speech of the PILAS conference, delivered by Dr Carlos Grigsby of the University of Bristol, was one of my standout memories from the event. I, along with all other PILAS committee members, had spent the day running around, moving tables, setting up signs, welcoming participants and ensuring that the first day’s panels were running smoothly. We had all, however, been given a renewed burst of energy and enthusiasm by the excellent presentation, dances and workshop put on by our friends at Latinas in Bristol (even if it made me realise how poor my sewing skills were as I attempted to engage in fuxico, a traditional Brazilian textile art). Carlos then seized on this energy in the room to initiate a highly engaging discussion about what he described as ‘academic activism’, whereby academics might make use of their positionalities of privilege and networks to uncover and challenge entrenched beliefs and stereotypes concerning cultures too often seen as operating in the global margins. Carlos offered the example of Nicaraguan literature from Rubén Darío onwards and emphasized the potential social impact of decisions to translate those texts which question hegemonic understandings projected from the Global North. All very mindful of the increasing precarity of academic spaces around the world, our attendees asked several questions of Carlos in an attempt to a sketch out together how such academic activism might be implemented and then sustained. While many concerns were raised by participants relating to their own experiences, I came away from the experience feeling positive and motivated. We had, for that one moment at the very least, made use of the privilege of speaking, thinking and collaborating as scholars of Latin America in order to find ways of making a tangible difference.
Juan Luis Bradley (PILAS President 2024-25)
Juan (he/him) is a PhD researcher at the University of Bristol. His research explores depictions of the everyday materiality of money in Argentine literature and cinema, from the 1990s to the present, with a focus on the affective implications of Argentine money in crisis for those who negotiate it.
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