Dear Members:
It is hard to believe that we have not updated you for several months. Unfortunately, the uncertainties of the last year with its global health challenges (including concentrated teaching) caught up with us. However, we know that you have been receiving information by other methods, in particular our newsletter. In the future, we will be updating the blog more regularly as we did in the past.
1. The most important event for us this year was, of course, our participation in the annual ISA meeting (Las Vegas, online). The caucus sponsored/co-sponsored a variety of panels, including:
A record of three thematic panels entitled Sub-State Actors or State-Like Entities : Interrogating Governance in
Global South Contexts
Evolutionary Advances in Latin American Regionalism: From Local to Global
and South-South Security Cooperation and the (Re-)Making of World Politics
Two panels in cooperation with other sections:
Theorizing from the South: Global South Contributions to World Order Conceptions (with Theory Section)
International Relations Beyond Borders and Approaches: From state-centric to glocal IR (with Theory and Historical International Relations sections)
Insights from/for the Global South (with IPE and Global Development)
Three roundtables:
Doing 'Diversity' Work? A Roundtable with the ISA Committee on Representation and Diversity, the Women's Caucus, and the LGBTQA Caucus
Teaching IR with a Global South Perspective, with International Education and Active Learning in International Affairs sections)
and Global South IR: Assessing North-South and South-South Encounters, sponsored by the Committee on Status of Engagement with the Global South, and ISA.
In addition, the Caucus held its Distinguished Scholar Panel, honoring Prof. Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Among participants were Dêlidji Eric Degila (ENA-Benin), Jacqueline Braveboy-Wagner (CUNY), Consuelo Davila (National Autonomous University of Mexico), Robert Vitalis (University of Pennsylvania), Bahgat Korany (AUC, Egypt), Nadia Marzouki (EUI), Bertrand Badie (Graduate Institute, Geneva), Funmi Olonisakin (King's College, UK) and Karim Bitar (IRIS, Paris)
Unfortunately, we were unable to hold the usual breakfast or evening activities that we look forward to. In addition, the Business Meeting was postponed until after the convention. We look forward to holding ISA in person in 2022, even as we are aware that many of our members, coming from the Global South, may still not be able to attend. Vaccine inequality has been a topic that many of us have been stressing in our academic and public presentations and we are happy to see that the developed nations are finally preparing to release/donate more vaccines to the less fortunate countries.
2. In addition to ISA, the caucus was represented by a few of its members at the annual Caribbean Studies Association meeting, scheduled for Guyana (but online), held May 31 to June 5. Caucus member Kristina Hinds served as program chair for the conference whose theme was "Identity, Politics, Industry, Ecology, and the Intelligent Economy in Caribbean Societies." A welcome ceremony and performance featured a mixed genre mixed media presentation highlighting the evolution of Guyanese identity and cultural agency through poetry, music, and dance. Via more than 100 panels, participants offered interdisciplinary presentations on the environment, health, politics, political economy, international relations, race, ethnicity and gender, and a cross-section of art, culture and literature issues. Several panels focused on environment, including climate resilience as well as the link between Guyana's recent oil exploitation and obligations under the Paris Accord. Female Caribbean leadership was featured at a plenary including the newly appointed first female head of the Caribbean Community integration organization (Dr. Carla Barnett) as well as the US ambassador to Guyana, and the first female appointee as Vice Chancellor of an English-speaking Caribbean university (Prof. Paloma Mohamed, University of Guyana).
Of particular interest to the caucus, a first-evening plenary included five former presidents including former Caucus Chair Jacqueline Braveboy-Wagner, who spoke to the theme "Reflecting on the Future of the CSA Through the Lenses of the Past." Also of interest to the caucus was a panel composed of caucus members from the Caribbean, Diana Cassells (Jamaica/US), Betty Sedoc-Dahlberg (Suriname) and J. Braveboy-Wagner (US/Trinidad and Tobago) who discussed Cuban, US and China relations with the region under the theme "New Thinking, New Issues in Caribbean International Relations." Anyone interested in learning more about the conference can link to the CSA website or the related blog, https://www.globalonefrontier.org/blog/a-view-of-the-caribbean-studies-association-45-charting-new-paths-part-1
3. The deadline for submitting proposals for ISA-Nashville was June 1 and judging from the last few days of activity, the caucus should be receiving many proposals. Jason Strakes continues to serve as the caucus's program chair this year. As usual, we will update the membership with conference details in due course.
Please continue to send information on conferences and other pertinent matters here: blog
