Conference Program
Neoliberalism Compared: Transformations in Latin America and Eastern Europe
September 8-9, 2023
Dubois Center UNC Charlotte, Room 501
320 E 9th St. Charlotte, NC 28202 and on Zoom (Links TBA on September 7).
A conference sponsored by the UNC Charlotte Capitalism Studies Program with funding from the Dowd Foundation, Inc.
Neoliberalism Compared Transformations in Latin America and Eastern Europe
This conference brings together specialists from various disciplines to think comparatively about neoliberalism in Latin America and Eastern Europe. We aim to illuminate similarities and differences in the conception, implementation, and effect of neoliberalism in both regions, as well as consider cross fertilizations between them. Papers selected for inclusion provide a comparative perspective or a case study from one of the two regions that is of interest to a broader audience. Drafts have been pre-circulated among the registered attendees to maximize audience participation and feedback. Selected papers will be featured in a special issue of The Latin Americanist, a peer-reviewed journal and the oldest English- language journal of Latin American Studies, published by UNC Press. The conference will take place on September 8-9, 2023, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the advent of a neoliberal regime by means of the violent coup d’état in Chile.
To attend the conference either in person or on Zoom, please register for free here by September 1, 2023.
Organizing Committee:
Jürgen Buchenau, Dowd Term Chair of Capitalism Studies and Professor of History and Latin American Studies
Jill Massino, Associate Professor of History
Carmen Soliz, Associate Professor of History and Latin American Studies
Full Conference Schedule (All times EDST)
Friday, September 8
2:00 – 2:30pm | Welcome and Introductory Remarks Jürgen Buchenau, Jill Massino, Carmen Soliz | 50 1 |
2:30 – 3:45pm | Keynote 1 “On the Memory of the Neoliberal Turn in Eastern Europe” Joanna Warwzyniak, University of Warsaw | 501 |
| 3:45 – 4:00pm | Break | 501 |
4:00-6:00pm | Session 1: Neoliberalism and Transnational Challenges “Revolution in Economic Thinking:” USAID and Privatization in Latin America and Eastern Europe” Thomas Ruckebusch, University of Lille “Latin American Neoliberalism: A Transnational Class Project?” José Antonio Galindo, Colegio de México “Transnational Solidarity in the Twilight of Neoliberalism: US and Latin America” Chelsea Dyer, N.C. State University “Neoliberalism and Climate Change in Latin America” Carmen C. Monico, N.C. A&T University Ashley Gonzalez, UNC Greensboro Shalee Forney, UNC Greensboro Moderator: Ipshita Ghosh, UNC Charlotte | 501 |
Saturday, September 9
9:00-10:45am | Session 2: Neoliberalism After Communism “Moving from risk to risky: Hungary’s Second Economy and its transition to market after 1989” Annina Gagyiova, Czech Academy of Sciences “Elective abortion in post-socialist Romania: between conservatism and neoliberal economics” Corina Dobos, Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism “From Socialism to Neoliberalism: Continuities and Ruptures in Romania” Jill Massino, UNC Charlotte Moderator: Jill Massino | 501 |
| 10:45-11:15am | Coffee Break | |
11:15am- 1:15pm | Session 3: Neoliberalism and Political Systems “Narratives & Memory of Capitalist Exchanges during Post War Argentina & the Republics of the Soviet Union” Yovanna Pineda, University of Central Florida “Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Argentina (1950-1980): Álvaro Alsogaray, Strong Democracy, and Dictatorial Exception” Matilde Ciolli, University of Turin “Neoliberalism as a Trigger for Civilian- Militarism: Colombia and Venezuela in the New Millennium” Saul M. Rodriguez, University of Ottawa “Political ethnography of two working-class high schools in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Chile” Igor Stipić, Universität Regensburg Moderator: Carmen Soliz, UNC Charlotte | 501 |
| 1:15 – 3:00 pm | Lunch, followed by Keynote 2 by Amy C. Offner: | |
| 3:00-4:45 pm | Session 4: Neoliberalism and Cultural Expression “Cycles of Contempt: Exploring Argentine-IMF Relations Through Protest Music” Mary Watts, Furman University “Memory Makes us Brave:” Hauntological Echoes of the Past in the Music of Chile’s 2019 Social Upheaval” Eunice Rojas, Furman University “Animation in Neoliberal Mexico” David Dalton, UNC Charlotte Moderator: Jurgen Buchenau | 501 |
| 4:45PM – 5:00PM | Concluding Discussion | 501 |
Keynote Information
Joanna Wawrzyniak is an associate professor of sociology and the founding director of the Center for Research on Social Memory at the University of Warsaw. She has long-standing experience in oral history and museum research. Dr. Wawrzyniak’s current projects relate to the memories of socialism, neoliberal transformation, and de-industrialization in Poland as well as cultural heritage, decolonization, and memory processes in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the Caucasus, and South Asia. Recently she published Remembering the Neoliberal Turn: Economic Change and Collective Memory in Eastern Europe after 1989 (co-edited with Veronika Pehe, Routledge 2023), and Cuts: Oral History of Transformation (with Aleksandra Leyk, in Polish, Krytyka Polityczna 2020). Dr. Wawrzyniak is president-elect of the International Memory Studies Association and the vice-chair of the European COST Action Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change.
Amy C. Offner is an associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Offner is the author of Sorting Out the Mixed Economy: The Rise and Fall of Welfare and Developmental States, which received prizes in the fields of Latin American history, international history, economic history, and political economy. Her research has been supported by institutions including the ACLS, SSRC, NEH, and the Library of Congress. She is currently writing a history of the unraveling of the employment relationship after 1945.