CFP: Legal Subjectivity, Community Justice and Human Rights Legal Subjectivity, Popular/Community Justice and Human Rights in Latin America

Hosted by CRASSH (Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities), University of Cambridge

Keynote/Invited speakers:

Julio Faundez, University of Warwick, U.K.
Daniel Goldstein, Rutgers University, U.S.A.
Mark Goodale, George Mason University, U.S.A.
Cesar Rodríguez-Garavito, University of the Andes, Colombia Rachel Sieder, Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), Mexico (tbc)

This conference aims to promote interdisciplinary debate among scholars of Law, Anthropology, Political Science and related fields in order to probe new constellations of popular/community justice, human rights and local forms of legal subjectivity in Latin America.

The conference seeks to generate critical analysis by investigating discourses on rights and justice as these are variously understood, adopted, resisted and (re)constructed through processes of communal justice (e.g. community tribunals, vigilantism) and by various agencies and legal subjects in the context of complex local social, political, and cultural settings (e.g. community leaders, NGOs, institutions).

The following themes form the principal junctions around which the conference will be organized. Participants are encouraged to critically engage in the following thematic strands: violence, justice, (il)legalities, the state, subjects of local/ international rights, and identity.

Papers are sought which address these and related topics at a conceptual and methodological level while drawing on empirical research.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted to Sandra Brunnegger at [email protected] by October 1, 2009, including full contact details.

Please keep in mind that due to the format of this conference, only a small number of papers can be accepted.

Key dates:
Deadline for abstract submission: October 1, 2009
Circulation of paper abstracts and panels: January 7, 2010

Travel grants:
Very limited resources are available to participants from Latin America to defray the cost of travel (awards will be made according to need and on a competitive basis). Applicants should state in their application correspondence if they would like to be considered for a grant.

Conference fee:
The standard fee is £40 and the reduced student fee is £20.

Organizer:
Sandra Brunnegger, University of Cambridge
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/950