This thematic symposium seeks to bring together research devoted to indigenous history in the Americas, with an emphasis on border regions, understood as dynamic spaces of interaction, conflict, negotiation, and the production of specific forms of power throughout the colonial and postcolonial (contemporary) periods. Far from being peripheral or marginal zones, these regions are conceived here as central to understanding the historical dynamics that marked the formation and transformation of American societies. The symposium explores how different border contexts — from the north of New Spain to the regions of the Río de la Plata, Amazonia and the Andes, among others — were traversed by processes of mobility, displacement, war, alliances and cultural mediations, in which indigenous peoples played active and decisive roles. An approach that recognizes indigenous agency, their strategies of adaptation and resistance, and their participation in the construction and reconfiguration of colonial and postcolonial orders is favored. Likewise, the symposium welcomes contributions adopting comparative, interconnected or transnational perspectives, allowing for the analysis of border regions beyond strictly national or imperial frameworks. Papers highlighting the circulation of people, practices, knowledge and mechanisms of governance among different colonial and postcolonial spaces will be especially valued, thereby contributing to a relational and integrated understanding of the Americas. It is also of interest to analyze how these historical experiences relate to processes of memory production, territorialization, and the struggle for recognition in the present, in dialogue with the congress’s thematic focus, which emphasizes the relations between past and present in the Americas, nation-states, and cross-border autonomous movements. In this way, the symposium seeks to constitute a space for interdisciplinary dialogue that advances studies of indigenous history and border regions, highlighting their relevance for understanding long-term historical transformations on the continent.
