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CLAS 60th Anniversary Conference

December 5, 2025 | 8:00am-5:30pm

LOCATION: Stanford Humanities Center, Levinthal Hall

An exclusive event for the Stanford community and invited guests

8:00-8:30am - Light breakfast and coffee 

8:30-9:15am - Opening remarks

  • Héctor Hoyos, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University
  • Jisha Menon, Director of Global Studies, Stanford University
  • Daniel García-Peña, Ambassador of Colombia to the United States

9:30-10:50am - Panel 1: “Current trends in historical research on Latin America”

  • José Alejandro Peres Cajias, University of Barcelona
  • Moramay Lopez-Alonso, Rice University
  • Luisa Schwartzman, University of Toronto

Chair: Herb Klein, Stanford University, former CLAS director (2004-2010)

11:05am-12:25pm - Panel 2: “Ecological, anthropological and population genetic approaches to the study of Latin American biocultural diversity”

  • John Rick, Stanford University
  • Andrés Moreno-Estrada, Cinvestav, Mexico
  • Alejandra Echeverri, University of California, Berkeley

Chair: Rodolfo Dirzo, Stanford University, former CLAS director (2010-2016)

Lunch: 12:30-1:15 pm

1:15- 2:35pm - Panel 3: “Comparative politics for public life: anatomy of a community-academic partnership to address the paradox of plenty”

  • Abby Reyes, UCI Community Resilience; author of Truth Demands: A Memoir of Murder, Oil Wars, and the Rise of Climate Justice (2025)

Chair: Terry Karl, Stanford University, former CLAS Director (1990-2001)

2:50-3:50pm - Keynote address: “Area Studies and Interdisciplinary Spaces: Around the Table at Bolívar House”

  • Mary Louise Pratt, New York University, Stanford University Professor Emerita

Chair: Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, Stanford University, former CLAS director (2016-2023)

3:50-4:00pm - Closing remarks: Héctor Hoyos

4:00-5:30pm - Reception: hors d'oeuvres and live music by Stanford Afro-Latin Jazz Quartet

Please contact CLAS with questions: clasevents [at] stanford.edu (clasevents[at]stanford[dot]edu).

Kindly RSVP by November 15, 2025