Unsettling Latin America: On Connections, Futures, and Possibilities

Friday, April 24 – Saturday, April 25, 2026

The 2026 Foro Latinoamericano, “Unsettling Latin America: On Connections, Futures, and Possibilities,” marks the 50th anniversary of the Latin American Studies program. This year, we aim to center Latin American thought and ontologies as a path into the future and as a way to showcase for our college community that we are important contributors to the Liberal Arts mission and society in general.

Schedule of Events

Friday, April 24, Gould Library Athenaeum

  • 5:30 pm — Welcome by Michelle Mattson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
  • 5:45 pm — Keynote Presentation, “Organized Autonomy: Resisting Settler Impositions in the Américas,” by Professor Bianet Castellanos, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of American Studies and the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota.

Saturday, April 25, Multicultural Center 019

  • 9:00 am — Breakfast
  • 9:30 am — Roundtable Discussion, moderated by Professors Constanza Ocampo-Raeder, Director of Latin American Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Sarah Kennedy, Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Latin American Studies.

All events are open to the public. RSVP if you plan to attend.

Speakers

Professor Bianet Castellanos

Bianet Castellanos

Bianet Castellanos is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor of American Studies and the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota. Her research examines settler colonialism in Mexico and the cultural politics of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican migrations and displacements. She teaches courses on Indigenous urbanisms; immigration; tourism; women, rage, and politics; American politics and popular culture; and the US-Mexico border. 

In her most recent book, Indigenous Dispossesion: Housing and Maya Indebtedness in Mexico, Castellanos analyzes how Maya families make sense of the cultural, political, and legal ramifications of neoliberal housing policies that privilege mortgage finance over land redistribution. It was awarded the 2022 Gregory Bateson Book Prize, 2022 Arthur J. Rubel Book Prize, and 2021 Edward M. Bruner Book Prize, and was a finalist for the 2023 Society for Economic Anthropology Book Prize.

Sponsors

  • The Latin American Studies Program
  • The Office of the Provost
  • The Sociology & Anthropology Department

What is the Foro Latinoamericano?

Each year, students, faculty, and alumni of the Latin American Studies program convene to share in an academic experience that brings to the fore and to campus a major topic, event, and country of Latin America. Originally designed as a capstone experience for the students of the program, we have expanded the Foro to include our alumni and the program’s entire faculty in order to give it a truly communal sense. The Foro will also provide the Carleton community at large with the opportunity to participate in a major event involving Latin America.