The International Latin American Graduate Network is pleased to announce the call for abstracts for our upcoming graduate conference, Temporalities in Latin America: Experiences and Conceptualisations of Time across Past, Present, and Future, to be held at the Institute for Latin American Studies (LAI), Freie Universität Berlin, from 2-4 July 2025.

 Conference Theme

Temporalities encompass the ways in which time is experienced, perceived, and understood as a dynamic structure shaping existence. The plural form, temporalities, highlights the coexistence of multiple, often contradictory concepts of time, influenced by diverse values, political and religious beliefs, as well as economic and technological frameworks. Latin America serves as a striking example, where, among others, indigenous and (post)colonial time regimes, revolutionary futures and historical continuities, global rhythms and local temporalities have been in constant negotiation.

We invite contributions from various disciplines that explore temporalities in Latin America through projections into the future, memory practices, and everyday experiences, highlighting time as both a lived and socially constructed reality.

 Thematic Focal Points

Contributions may engage with, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Past and Present: How is history interpreted, preserved, and remembered in Latin America? What role does collective memory play in shaping identities?
• Political Temporalities: How do revolutionary movements, postcolonial transformations, and democratic transitions shape societal conceptions and experiences of time?
• Indigenous Temporalities: What alternative perspectives on time and history do indigenous knowledge systems offer? How do these concepts influence contemporary understandings of nation, identity, sustainability, and nature?
• Uncertainty and Future Imaginations: In the face of social, economic, and environmental crises, how is the future imagined and negotiated? What roles do ideas of progress and development play?
• Temporalities of Migration: How are temporalities reconfigured in migratory processes? This includes the perspectives of migrants (prolonged waiting times, transit periods, uncertain futures) and migration policies (asylum procedures, deportation timelines, and regularisation processes).
• Digital Temporalities: How is digitalisation reshaping perceptions of time in Latin America? How does unequal access to technologies and digital infrastructures affect these transformations?

 Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals from PhD candidates, master’s students, and early career researchers across all disciplines. Presentations should not exceed 15 minutes. The working languages of the conference will be English and Spanish.