SLAS Annual General Meeting

SLAS Annual General Meeting

Bristol

Friday 9 April 2010

1) APOLOGIES

There were no apologies.

2) MINUTES: 26 MARCH 2009

Minutes of the last AGM (26 March 2009, Leeds) were accepted as an accurate record.

3) MATTERS ARISING

There were no Matters Arising.

4) PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The President, Professor Nicola Miller, presented the following report:

Membership

SLAS membership fell slightly this year, to 382 UK-based members at the end of 2009 compared with 404 in 2008. The total membership (including NALACS and LASA associates) is currently 486. Most of the losses were in the unwaged category, which is unsurprising in the current economic climate. The good news is that student membership held up and indeed increased slightly. The cost of membership of SLAS, last raised 2 years ago to £25 to include the new BLAR annual book series, was increased from 2010 to £26 (£13 for students; joint membership from £31 to £32). Wiley-Blackwell plan to launch two promotion campaigns in 2010, one among LASA members (who will henceforth be invited to take out direct membership of SLAS rather than just subscribing to the journal separately, as has been the case to date), the other among the UK academic community, especially students.

SLAS Committee

In addition to the AGM, the past year has seen four Committee meetings, held in June 2009 (Birkbeck, London), November 2009 (Swansea), January 2010 (UCL, London), and lastly, today, 9 April 2010 (Bristol).

The following were elected to the SLAS Committee for 2009-10, all uncontested:

President:Professor Nicola Miller

Vice-President:Dr Lucy Taylor

Treasurer:Professor John Fisher

Secretary:Dr Adrian Pearce

Ordinary Members:Dr Caroline Williams, Dr Polly Wilding, Dr Jasmine Gideon, and Dr Jens Hentschke.

Ex-officio members of the SLAS Committee are: Dr Peter Lambert (past President), Prof. Tony Kapcia (JISLAC representative), Prof. Maxine Molyneux (Director of ISA), and the PILAS president (Natalie Araújo). Dr Silvia Posocco was co-opted onto the Committee after the November 2009 meeting, in light of her role as editor of the SLAS newsletter.

We were thus short of two Ordinary Members in 2009-10, but it is good to report that contested elections were held in 2010, with 7 candidates standing for those two slots plus one other (see Secretary’s Report for results), so the Committee will have a full membership for 2010-11.

Dr Paul Henderson (Wolverhampton) confirmed his willingness to continue as auditor, for which we are grateful, and his re-appointment was formally approved by the AGM on 9 April 2010.

SLAS Annual Conference

2009 Conference (Leeds)

The Leeds conference was a great success, with about 180 people attending and 35 panels organised. Thanks for all this go to the local Organising Committee, Polly Wilding, Marie Osborne and Manuel Barcia Paz, who not only did a great job at the time, but also produced a very helpful report and set of briefing notes for subsequent conferences.

2010 Conference (Bristol)

It is a great pleasure to be here in Bristol. There are 182 registrations, with 31 panels organised. The plenary lecture will be delivered by Prof. Steve Stern, University of Wisconsin-Madison, on ‘The Paradoxes of Truth: Reckoning with Pinochet and the Memory Question in Chile’. The Committee is very grateful to the Bristol organising team, Caroline Williams, Matthew Brown and Joanna Crow, for all the care that has been taken over this year’s arrangements. An important innovation is the round-table discussion for local (Bath and Bristol) undergraduate and MA students, on European perceptions and misperceptions of Latin America. There was also a debate, modelled on the format of BBC’s Question Time, on Friday evening, which was well-attended and lively.

2011 Conference

To be held at the University of St Andrews, 8-10 April. Thanks to Will Fowler for agreeing to act as the organiser, with Eleni Kefalu.

Bids are invited to host the 2012 and 2013 SLAS conferences. In 2014, it will be the 50th annual SLAS conference, so the Committee is drawing up special plans for a celebratory event.

Annual Lecture Series

The sixth SLAS Annual Lecture was given by Colin McEwan, Head of the Americas Section at the British Museum, at Swansea Universisty on 6 November 2009. His beautifully illustrated talk on ‘Moctezuma: Fame, Fortune and Misfortune’ tied in with a major exhibition at the BM, and attracted a good-szed, mixed audience of staff, students and members of the public. Thanks to the organisers, Sarah Bowskill and Mary Green, for their hard work in organising a very successful event.

The 2010 lecture will be given by Enrique Dussel. It will be held at the University of Newcastle on Friday 29 October. The organiser, Jens Hentschke, is to be congratulated for attracting such a distinguished speaker.

Offers are invited to host the event in 2011.

Harold Blakemore Essay Prize

The 2009 Harold Blakemore prize was awarded to Conor Farrington, for his essay ‘New Public Space and Public Sphere Deliberativeness in Ecuador, 1822-2009’.

SLAS Newsletter

Many thanks to Silvia Posocco for taking on the role of editor and carrying it out with such efficiency.

SLAS Website

The Committee reviewed the redesigned website at its meeting in November 2009 and decided to remove some sections (e.g. ‘BLAR article details’, ‘Members’ bookshelf’ and ‘Research’) in the interests of clarity and practicality. It is hoped that members can now find the information they need quickly and easily. In the absence of any volunteers to take over the running of the website from Lucy Taylor, the Committee decided to allocate some funds to pay someone to do this. We are very glad to report that Christy Palmer, who redesigned the site for us as part of JISLAC funding, has agreed to undertake this work.

Bulletin of Latin American Research

The five BLAR Editors this year were: David Howard (Edinburgh) as Coordinating Editor; Tony Kapcia (Nottingham) and Geoffrey Kantaris (Cambridge), who were all continuing, plus Lucy Taylor (Aberystwyth) (who replaced Jean Grugel) and Jasmine Gideon (Birkbeck), who is undertaking the new special remit of book reviews.

The journal took two further steps towards the online management that is now becoming standard practice for all academic journals:

1) The Early View system of publishing articles online before they go into print is now working well, with 19 articles published in this way during 2009.

2) Scholar One will enable the online submission and review of articles. A pilot is currently being carried out and the system should be up and running this summer.

According to the latest report from our publishers Wiley-Blackwell, BLAR continues to do very well: 1) The total institutional subscriptions to the journal have remained relatively stable at 227, with a 98% renewal rate, which the publishers stress is very good, higher than their target. Electronic access under the license scheme means that BLAR is available at a further 2,557 institutions, 63 of which are in Latin America; 2) Article downloads increased to 73,605 in2009,compared with 72,340 in2008.This is especially important in days of library monitoring of demand and usage for decisions on renewal. For interest, the most frequently downloaded article was Andrew Canessa’s ‘Todos somos indígenas: Towards a new language of national political identity’, BLAR 25:2 (Apr. 2006), pp.241-63.

Article submission rates continue to be good and the editors were pleased to note a greater range of disciplines and subject areas covered. Around 60% of submissions are rejected on first submission (up from 50% last year). The stipulated length of articles was reduced from 7,000-9,000 words to 6,000-8,000, and of all book reviews to 800 words, in order to ensure continued range of coverage while keeping within the journal’s page budget. One special issue per year remains the editorial policy. In 2009 a special issue on Cuba was prepared for the 50th anniversary of the Revolution.

The BLAR Book Series goes from strength to strength, with the publication in 2009 of The Politics of Violence: Gender, Conflict and Community in El Salvador, by Mo Hume. This year’s book is Reflections on Mexico ‘68 (ed. Keith Brewster), and the 2011 volume will be edited by Eleni Kefalu. A new publicity leaflet promotes the identity of the series as multi/inter-disciplinary;there is also a new page about the series on the BLAR website.

Thanks go to the team at Wiley-Blackwell led by Gemma Johnson (née Nason) for their continued service and support; also to the Editorial Assistant Ken Lestrange for his continued sterling efficiency and hard work.

Relations with other Organisations

SLAS continues to be well represented on the Standing Conference for Centres of Latin American Studies, which is a forum for debate and discussion for the major university centres of Latin American studies in the UK, and on the UK Council of Area Studies Associations (UKCASA), which has grown into a respected and recognized body, representing over 20 societies and lobbying for greater recognition and understanding of teaching and research in area studies, and on the British Academy Panel on Latin America and the Caribbean.

TheReport on Latin American and Caribbean Studies in the UK, commissioned by theBritish Academy Panel on Latin America and the Caribbean , is now completed and due to be published in May 2010. The report highlights the strengths of Latin American studies, noting that the subject is far more widely taught and researched across a range of UK universities than was envisaged when the Parry Report of 1965 established five centres for Latin American Studies.

The Committee decided to rejoin CEISAL (Consejo Europeo de Investigaciones Sociales de América Latina), a ‘society for societies’ with interests in Latin American Studies, which is now under new leadership. Adrian Pearce attended a meeting of European Latin American Studies institutes hosted at the Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos (EILAT) in Alcalá de Henares in February 2010 on behalf of the Committee, at which it was clear that CEISAL are keen for SLAS to become involved.

JISLAC (Joint Initiative for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean)

JISLAC was set up in 2007 as the result of a successful joint research bid between SLAS, the Society for Caribbean Studies, and the Standing Conference, to cover running costs, a national programme of regional seminars, and various grants, bursaries, and prizes.

The regional seminar programme has been very successful; JISLAC also paid for the websites of SLAS and SCS to be updated, and for the updating and development of the Handbook of Latin American Research Resources and People. The Handbook is up and running via the ISA and JISLAC websites with the details of over 350 academics.

It is therefore a matter of great regret that JISLAC has been the victim of a cuts programme enforced upon the British Academy. The whole of the Learned Societies programme has been cut, and there will be no JISLAC from 2012. The seminar programme will continue for the time being, but the grants and prizes will be stopped. The end-of-scheme conference is being brought forward, and remaining funds will be used to create a Handbook for Library Resources.

Reviewing these developments, the SLAS Committee decided to introduce a new funding scheme for post-doctoral researchers to replace the JISLAC scheme, on even more generous terms. From 2011, there will be two grants to fund research on or in Latin America, of up to £1000 each, which will be open to people who have received their doctorates within the last five years. The deadline for the first round will be 28 February 2011.

Seminar funding scheme

Seminar series around the country are vulnerable to cuts. In order to help ensure the continuation of seminars on Latin America, from 2010-11 SLAS will fund a one-term series each year at ISA in London, because it is the national coordinating body for Latin American Studies, and one other series at another UK university, to be decided by open competition. The scheme will be advertised on the website and in the newsletter, and proposals will be invited for the first deadline of 28 September 2010.

PILAS (Postgraduates in Latin American Studies)

This year’s conference will be held in Manchester, 15-17 June 2010. Many thanks to the organisers, Ainhoa Montoya and Suzanne Hofmann for their work in arranging this event; we are also very grateful to John Gledhill for his support and to Chandra Morrison (past President) and Cara Levey for their work in ensuring the continuation of PILAS and the organisation of this year’s conference. PILAS is aiming to establish a network of regional representatives.

In memoriam

At last year’s conference, Maxine Molyneux, who was delivering our plenary lecture, was faced with the difficult task of announcing the unexpected death of Donna Lee van Cott, whose pioneering work in the politics of indigenous peoples in the era of democratisation was admired by Latin Americanists in all fields. What we did not then know was that one of our own members, Olivia Harris, Professor of Social Anthropology at the LSE, also died, of cancer, around the same time, on April 9 2009. Her intellectual energy, collegial spirit and warm presence is greatly missed, at this conference as at so many other occasions.

Acknowledgements

My personal thanks to the other officers, John Fisher, Adrian Pearce and Lucy Taylor, for their invaluable advice and help, and to the rest of the committee for their enthusiasm, collegiality and good cheer, all of which make it a pleasure to be involved in SLAS.

5) TREASURER’S REPORT

The Treasurer, Professor John Fisher, presented the following report. This report, as is customary, covers the calendar year 2009.

A. Income

1. Net income totalled £50,793, of which £40,839 (80%) came from Wiley-Blackwell: of this £35,823 represented the royalty payment due for sales of BLAR in 2008, and £5,016 a contribution towards the cost of employing the Journal's Editorial Assistant.

2. The Annual Conference, held in Leeds, generated a net profit for the Society of £6,758, some £2,800 more than that that resulting from the 2008 Conference. Given that the Society provided bursaries worth £6,270 to postgraduate students and Latin American scholars, the net surplus available for general expenditure was £489.

3. As predicted in my report presented to the 2009 AGM, bank interest fell substantially, from £2,382 in 2008 to £1,245 in 2009. It is likely to fall even further in 2010, given the very low rates currently available for charity accounts.

4. The other items of income were (a) a final grant of £1,000 from the JISLAC initiative,funded by the British Academy and (b) “members’ donations”, in the form of un-cancelled standing orders, totalling £950 (a reduction of £28 compared with 2008).

B. Expenditure

5. Expenditure on BLAR totalled £16,336, including the Editorial Assistant's remuneration for the period 1/8/08-31/7/09: technically he is employed by the University of Liverpool, whose financial year runs from 1/8 to 31/7; in due course SLAS will be invoiced for his salary costs for 09/10, estimated at c. £7,000, for the last five months of 2009. Expenses paid to the editors for travel/subsistence costs incurred in attending editorial meetings totalled £2,153. The funds generated by Wiley-Blackwell in 2009 left a surplus, therefore, of £24,473 for the Society's general activities.

6. Some 25% of this residue, £6,270 in total, was spent on the Annual Conference, in the formof 12 postgraduate student bursaries (@£160),and £4,350 to facilitate the participation of 6 Latin American scholars. The Committee had budgeted to spend a total of £6,900 on these items, but one Mexican scholar who had been offered a bursary did not manifest himself.

7. Outwith the Conference, 6 postgraduate members of the Society received awards of £500each (£3,000 in total) to assist with the costs of presenting papers at overseas conferences, and 14 received awards of £600 each (£8,400) towards the costs of fieldwork in Latin America. Together these awards to postgraduates accounted for 47% of the Society's residual income for 2009. It is clear, I think, that by these means the Society continues to invest heavily and generously in the future ofresearch in Latin American Studiesin the UK. Moreover, the Committee has increased substantially the sums available for postgraduate activities in 2010: to £12,000 for fieldwork in Latin America (an increase of 33%), £4,000 for attendance at overseas conferences (+33%), and £3,300 for bursaries for the annual conference (+ 37.5%). Additionally, its 2010 budget, totalling £56,500, includes £2,000 from SLAS funds for post-doctoral travel awards, given that no more funding will be coming from JISLAC for this activity.

8. Expenditure on the Annual Lecture, delivered at the University of Swansea in November 2009 by Colin McEwan totalled £810, although total in-year expenditure on this item rose to £1,045 with the payment of a late invoice submitted by Canning House for costs associated with the 2008 lecture.

9. Two grants– of £1,000 and £925– were made to the Universities of East Anglia and Warwick for the organisation of conferences, although in the event the first of these was refunded because of the deferral of the conference to 2010. The Society also received a refund of £322 from the University of Newcastle, as the unspent residue of an award of £1,000 made in 2008, thereby reducing net expenditure on support for conferences to £603. In principle, the Committee would have spent more on suchactivities, but did not receive further eligible applications.

10. Committee expenses – primarilytravel and modest subsistence costs incurred by members attending meetings in Leeds (January), London (June) and Swansea (November) – totalled £2,670; two further meetings were held in Leeds during the annual conference at no additional cost for the Society.

11. PILAS (Postgraduates in Latin American Studies) held a very successful Conference in Cambridge, supported by a grant of £1,768 from the Society.

12. Expenditure on the website remained very low, at £118. Thanks are due to Lucy Taylor for her excellent management of this facility.

13. The final items of expenditure were a subscription of £75 for associate membership of the Universities Council on Modern Languages (which the Committee has decided not to renew for 2010) and a grant of £500 to the organisers of the ‘Discovering Latin American Film Festival’, as a contribution towards the cost of bringing the director of the film ‘Invasion’ to London for a panel discussion.