UCL Institute of Advanced Studies

Chile held a plebiscite on October 25 2020 on whether to redraft its constitution, how and by whom. The results returned overwhelming support for a new constitution, to be written by a Constituent Assembly whose members will be elected separately from the existing Congress and in which there will be gender parity.

Despite severe economic difficulties (having been suffering from tightening US sanctions even before the pandemic wiped out tourist earnings), Cuba’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be more effective than any other in the region: the country’s death rate from the virus is the lowest in the Americas, apart from some small islands with populations of less than 200,000. This seminar w...

The first comprehensive account of the politics of exceptions and emergencies in the history of the United States, States of Exception in American History weaves together historical studies of moments and spaces of exception with conceptual analyses of emergency, the state of exception, sovereignty, and dictatorship. Combining theory and history, this book spotlights the remarkable number of insta...

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) won a landslide electoral victory in Mexico’s 2018 presidential election on the promise that he would lead a ‘Fourth Transformation’ (4-T) of the country, which would end endemic corruption, rampant criminal violence and public insecurity, and deep-rooted socioeconomic inequality. Webinar participants will offer an interim assessment of his record after almost tw...

This book gives voice to the diverse diasporic Latin American communities living in the UK by exploring first and onward migration of Latin Americans to Europe, with a specific reference to London. At this virtual book launch the authors, Dr Patria Román-Velázquez and Dr Jessica Retis, discussed how networks of solidarity and local struggles are played out, enacted, negotiated and experienced in d...

The recent rise of center-right and neoliberal governments has seen cuts in social spending, while also serving as a fertile ground for the dissemination of a vibrant, increasingly coordinated and effective, anti-gender activism. By promoting moral campaigns such as “don’t mess with my kids (con mis hijos no te metas),” their preferred policy focus has been on overturning comprehensive sexuality e...

Gareth Davies will soon be joining UCL Institute of the Americas as Professor of American History. During this informal talk, Gareth will present briefly on the federal government's response to the current health crisis in the context of his work on US responses to natural disasters.

Rural revolutionaries took up arms against the Díaz dictatorship in support of agrarian reform, in defense of their political autonomy, or inspired by a nationalist desire to forge a new Mexico. However, in the Gran Nayar, a rugged and heavily Indigenous expanse of mountains and canyons in the far west of Mexico, the story was more complex. The region’s four Indian peoples – the Wixáritari (Huicho...

As a football player, Diego Maradona was revered from Buenos Aires to Naples. Born in a slum, his story of success and loyalty to his family made him the subject of popular devotion. A contradictory character, he became a paradox of Latin American popular culture. An icon of the Left, and a symbol of anti-colonialism, he lived a life of capitalist excess while becoming a hero to the poor. To asses...

What are Latin American countries doing to address women’s rights and needs during the pandemic? Introducing the new UN Women-UNDP COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker' is co-organised by UN Women, UCL Institute of the Americas and UCL Institute of Advanced Studies.

This event brought together a panel of experts to discuss the recent parliamentary coup in Peru which led to the removal of President Martín Vizcarra. Speakers considered the legal and constitutional context of the parliamentary coup, the political economy and social context in which it has taken place, the different responses to the coup by civil society in Lima and beyond, and the implications o...

As we approach the 40th anniversary of the Black People’s Day of Action march that took place on 2nd March 1981, Paul Gilroy welcomes Linton Kwesi Johnson, poet and activist, to reflect on the events of that day and year, and discuss how we see these patterns repeated in Black life in this country today in the forms of inequality and conflict and demands for truth, right and justice. Transcript: w...

Last month, when Joe Biden assumed power, he confronted an extraordinarily challenging environment: the nation was more politically polarised than in living memory; confidence in its political institutions stood at historically low levels; and his capacity to govern was further limited by conservative strength in Congress, the Supreme Court, and in state governments around the United States. One m...

Luke de Noronha is joined by Les Back, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, to talk about the concept of the ‘metropolitan paradox’, reflecting on how the events of 1981 – the New Cross house fire and the resulting Black People’s Day of Action march – formed his thinking and future academic work. Discussing how the tragedy of Grenfell Tower paralleled that of 1981, Les explores how the demonstrat...

Dennis Bovell, UK reggae pioneer and writer of the hit song Silly Games, joins Paul Gilroy for a conversation about his career as a producer, multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer and more. Dennis discusses not having any musical boundaries, working across reggae to country to afrobeats, and recounts stories of working with Linton Kwesi Johnson, Leroy Smart, Fela Kuti and John Kpiaye. Transcript:...

Maki Kimura (UCL Political Science & UCL Arts and Sciences) is joined by Pragna Patel, director and founding member of Southall Black Sisters. Pragna speaks to us about the feminist and anti-racist roots of Southall Black Sisters, discussing intersectionality and structures of inequality, domestic abuse and violence against women and girls, and how the pandemic has further impacted vulnerable grou...

Tamar Garb is joined by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, South African National Research Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma, for a conversation about her work and recent interventions into a very difficult political and social landscape in South Africa. Pumla uses social psychology and psychoanalysis to discuss the ongoing threat and challenge of racism, the intergenerational inherita...

The UK Health minister and businesses say that the media speculates, and this affects their speculations. Countries speculate against each other’s speculations. Timescales, vaccines, movements, land, ecological and human alliances, salaries, taxes... everything seems more prone to speculation than ever in the uncertainty of what we tend to refer to as the ‘new’ normal. We can render speculation in...

Social anthropologist, Sindre Bangstad, discusses how local memories have been mobilised in the context of the Norwegian anti-racist movement, addressing the deep racialised grammar of the national imaginary of what Norway is. Exploring examples of right-wing extremism, Sindre reflects on the 2001 murder of Benjamin Hermansen as we approach the 20-year anniversary of his death. Transcript: www.ucl...

Our latest Short Take is provided by Camilla Schofield, Senior Lecturer in Modern History at UEA. This year, in conjunction with her fellow editors Daniel Geary and Jennifer Sutton, Camilla has produced Global White Nationalism: From Apartheid to Trump, an important anthology of writing covering different historical examples and geographical regions. Camilla talks to us about this substantive cont...

Paul Gilroy is joined by Antonella Bundu, Italian activist and council member for a left coalition, for a conversation about the politics of Florence, Italy, and her position within the polity. Antonella discusses Black presence and belonging in the Italian context, fighting for social and civil rights, and the work that still needs to be done for an anti-racist and anti-fascist society. Transcrip...

Award-winning filmmaker, Steve McQueen, joins Paul Gilroy for a conversation on the motivation for his 'Small Axe' film series. McQueen addresses making something that is Black and beautiful in depicting justice and freedom, and how art can give recognition to Black British lives by shoring up “who we are, where we came from and what we contributed to this country”. Transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/racis...

Olivia U. Rutazibwa, Senior Lecturer in International Development and European Studies, explores rethinking international relations with a critical and anti-colonial perspective. Addressing the tearing down of statues of Leopold II in Belgium, reparations and recognition, and moving away from the language of ‘aid’, Olivia discusses decolonial thought and concepts of dignity, retreat and repair. Tr...

Social and cultural anthropologist Francio Guadeloupe joins us for a conversation on understanding the black condition and the racialisation of Muslims within the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean. Addressing the conviviality and creolization of the Kingdom, Francio explains the harmony and struggle that is present and looks at the changing politics of race. Transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/racism-raci...

Gloria Wekker, author of 'White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race', discusses white innocence and colour-blindness in the Netherlands; reflecting on the country’s relationship with colonialism, its lack of discourse about race, and the importance of intergenerational knowledge exchange. Gloria also looks back on her experiences in the US: the moment she learned she was ‘black’, how the...