Is there room for humanism in contemporary culture? How should we rethink the study and evaluation of Latin American thought, which has largely defined itself as critical humanism, in the current context of questioning the human and humanism? Are humanism and posthumanism irremediably incompatible perspectives, or could we identify points of communication between them? Would there be room for a renewed critical humanism? How should we think about identity and nation, classic themes of our humanism, within this new scenario?
The aim is to open a dialogue between apparently incommensurable positions in order to explore what happens to the category of humanism and to the perspective it carries and enables. This is a complex question, admitting different approaches. One is to bring classic authorial figures into the conversation and revisit them through the lens provided by this problem. Another is to examine the elaborations of very contemporary authorial figures who put forward proposals and open debates along these lines. Yet another is to give space to the activation of a renewed essayistic writing, capable of contributing to strengthening a research agenda sensitive to the dilemmas involved.
From the siege of the notion of development to the ontological turn in an Amerindian key, passing through the vigor of decolonial critique in its various versions, the omnipresence of a category such as Buen Vivir, the growing visibility of Afro-Latin Americans, and the intensity of feminisms, Latin American thought of the last quarter century has been witnessing strong shifts and renewals in terms of categories and approaches. To what extent, and in what senses, does this bubbling effervescence put tension on the notion of humanity? What dialectic of submersion/emergence does the shifting and renewal of categories, empirical referents and actors point to? What would be the ethical, political and utopian translations of these elaborations?
The coordinators have a history of shared activities, including publications. Notable among these is the coordination of the collective volume Ethnic and Social Issues from Latin American Thought (Ariadna, Chile, 2023), and the chapter “Thought on Ethnic and Social Issues” in Latin American Thought in the Twenty-First Century (Eduardo Devés and Silvia Álvarez, eds., Ariadna/CLACSO, 2026). Also, presentations at academic gatherings. Notable among these is a symposium of similar name and orientation at the IV International Congress on Human Sciences organized by UNSAM (2026).
