A CONTINENT IN CONFLICT. PRESENT AND FUTURE OF MILITARY STUDIES OF WAR AND VIOLENCE IN LATIN AMERICA.
The aim of this symposium is to contribute to a broad understanding of past and present armed conflicts in Latin America, from the framework of military studies of war and violence. Starting from the premise that war has always shaped our societies, Latin America, as a “continent in a permanent state of conflict,” allows us to approach this issue from a relatively recent, perceptible and self-aware perspective, deepening and reflecting on its historiographical approaches through diverse objects and lines of analysis, with theoretical and methodological approaches based on innovation and critical thinking, in order to broaden the field of present-day history in a world crossed by war and violence.
We therefore aim to address the role of war in historical phenomena such as the formation of nation-states, the handling of social problems through the figure of the “internal enemy,” or internationalization through military and economic blocs. We also include more current phenomena, such as the successes and failures of “peace-building,” the political degradation of insurgency, or the acquisition of “insurgent” traits by organized crime. Likewise, the role of art history, the psychology of history, press studies, the testimonies of civilians and combatants, or the various intellectual and cultural manifestations found in social imaginaries, representations or mentalities, to name a few, appealing to the multidimensionality of conflicts across all layers of Latin American societies, beyond the strictly military or state sphere.
In this sense, conflict will not be treated as an anomaly, but as the perceptible threshold of much deeper socioeconomic and cultural contradictions, urging us to move somewhat away from official, “bronze-cast” history in order to focus on how multidimensional it can truly be. Conflict will also be understood as an important force for social dynamization, from an eclectic approach that explores the languages, mentalities, institutions and war cultures that accompany it, seeking alternative sources such as political cartoons, testimonies, film, photography, art, social media, polemology and vexillology, among others, that generate relevant contributions to broaden or challenge traditional historiography.
Therefore, in a world that unfortunately remains crossed by violence, with war in Europe and the Middle East at the center of international attention, we aim to understand the human and historical logics of conflict as a first step toward its possible resolution. From the Cultural History, Memory and Heritage Group (Kultur) at the University of Antioquia, and specifically from the line of Military, War and Violence Studies, we consider it pertinent to speak, debate, reflect and present our research, but even more importantly, to begin serving as a beacon of historical reflection for understanding this turbulent present. We invite the submission of papers that, from different perspectives and objects of study, bring us collectively closer to this goal.
