TAMIU Hosts Sixth Biennial Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies

Earlier this month, Texas A&M International University’s (TAMIU) College of Arts and Sciences, department of Psychology and Communication hosted the three-day virtual Sixth Biennial Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies (IAS)/Asociación Internacional de Estudios Intermericanos (EIA).

The Conference, titled “Walls, Bridges, and Borders,” attracted over 70 scholar participants from throughout Europe and Central, North, and South America.  Some 11 TAMIU faculty members participated in the Conference as panelists or chairs.

Dr. José Carlos Lozano, chair of the TAMIU department of Psychology and Communication, said the Conference serves to affirm the IAS/EIA’s overarching missions.

“The IAS/EIA is dedicated to fostering research on Inter-American topics and area studies and seeks to provide a platform for coordinating individual and group projects.  We aim to serve as a worldwide network for scholars and students and related initiatives focused on the interdisciplinary study of Latin America, the Caribbean, the USA, and Canada,” Dr. Lozano explained.

TAMIU organizers assisting the IAS/EIA in presenting the virtual Conference included Lozano, Dr. Arthur Soto-Vasquez, assistant professor of Communication, and Melissa A. Santillana, adjunct faculty.  The Conference had been scheduled on TAMIU’s campus but moved to virtual with the global COVID-19 Pandemic.

Conference highlights included a presidential address from IAS/EIA president Dr. Isabel Caldeira of the University of Coimbra, Portugal and two keynote panels looking at the past, present and future of Inter-American Studies with participants from Bielefeld University, UNAM México, the Universidad de Chile, and the University of Mainz, Germany, among others.

Over the three-day course of the Conference, participants chose topics from parallel panels and papers on Geography, History, Human Rights, Media, Migration, Politics, Religion, and Violence in the Americas.

The IAS/EIA holds an international conference every other year. The next IAS/EIA International Conference is scheduled in Chile in 2023. IAS/EIA also publishes an electronic journal, The Forum for Inter-American Research (fiar).

For more on TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences, department of Psychology and Communication offerings, including undergraduate and graduate degree programs, click here, call 956.326.2465 or email psychology-communication@tamiu.edu.

To learn more about the IAS/EIA, visit their website.