Presenting Research on Land Tenure and Archaeology in Mexico
About the author: Sam Holley-Kline is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University and recipient of an FSI conference grant, which he used to travel to Boston to present his research at the Annual Congress of the Latin American Studies Association.
Between May 24th and 27th, some 5,000 Latin Americanists of all disciplinary stripes — historians, political scientists, and literary scholars alike — arrived to Boston for the Annual Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Thanks to an FSI GOES Conference Grant, I — a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology — was among them. For me, the biggest benefit of attending LASA is the degree of exposure to cross-disciplinary perspectives. The paper I presented focused on conflicts related to land tenure and archaeology in El Tajín, Mexico. While I’d presented this kind of research to fellow anthropologists and archaeologists, my LASA panel featured a historian and a sociologist — asking the kinds of questions that would never have occurred to me otherwise.
While being able to present my research is always a benefit, the rest of the Congress was an embarrassment of scholarly riches. Much like any given week at Stanford, there were too many events happening at the same time; picking and choosing was both painful and necessary. Probably the most impactful for me was a presidential session titled Indigenous Matters: A Critical Hemispheric Dialogue by Native Women. Featuring scholars and activists Angela Mooney D’Arcy of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians and the Acjachemen Nation, Lisa Brooks of the Abenaki Nation of Missiquoi, and Lorena Cañuqueo of the Mapuche, the roundtable invited speakers to discuss their homelands and the roles of women in contexts of neoliberalism, extractivism, and environmental degradation. Here, indigenous women from the Global North and South discussed the impacts of settler colonialism on their territories, and forcefully argued for the necessity of indigenous leadership in confronting historical silencing and state violence alike.
While the opportunity to hear and discuss cutting-edge research is always welcome, it’s perhaps less common to be able to meet up-and-coming students and scholars with related research interests. Well-established scholars have records of publication that, between academic journals and online sources, makes their research easily accessible. LASA, however, offered me the chance to meet and chat with colleagues who are just getting started. Having now met colleagues working on the impacts of the oil industry in north Veracruz and the legal history of Mexican archaeology, I’ll know who to contact when it comes to future panels, presentations, and collaborations. With sessions running from 9 AM to 7 PM over the course of three days, LASA is something of a marathon. But, thanks to FSI, it’s one I was able to complete successfully.
