PILAS – Postgraduates in Latin American Studies

PG Research Support Grant | SLAS

Deadline approaching!

SLAS Postgraduate Research Support Grants: Up to 15 grants of £1,000 each for research costs (fieldwork, archives, translation & more).

📅 Deadline: 12 March 2026

SLAS members at UK institutions are eligible.

Apply: www.slasuk.org/pbpdresearch...

🎬 Short Film Screening at #PILASConference
Join us for two films exploring music, migration, and identity:
🎥 When Cumbia is On (Paz Gonzales, 2024)
🎥 The Musical Valley (Jérémie Voirol, 2023)
📍 Leeds | #LatinAmericanStudies
🔗https://www.slasuk.org/pilas-conference-2026

PILAS Conference 2026 Keynotes

Prof Thea Pitman (University of Leeds)
Dr Pedro Mendes Loureiro (University of Cambridge)
Two leading scholars working on digital culture, AI, inequality, and political economy in Latin America.

🔗 Read more about them: www.slasuk.org/pilas-confer...

Consider this your holiday miracle 🎄✨
Our CFP is officially extended to 23 December 2025.
Keep those brilliant abstracts coming!
#LatinAmericanStudies #PILAS2026 slasuk.org/pilas-confer...

📢 Have an event, job opportunity, call for papers, or publication relevant to Latin American Studies scholars?

Send us the details at slascomms@gmail.com and we'll help promote it across our social media channels!

Let's amplify important opportunities for our community 🌎

#SLAS

PG & PD SLAS Conference Grant | SLAS

www.slasuk.org/pgpdslasconf...

🎓 UK-based postgrads & postdocs in #LatinAmericanStudies: Apply for £500 SLAS bursaries to attend #SLAS2026!
💬 Priority for those without institutional funding or in precarious work. 💡 Don’t miss #PILAS2026, just before SLAS! Deadline: November 28
🔗https://www.slasuk.org/pgpdslasconferencegrant

🎓 Latin American researchers: apply for up to £1,750 to attend #SLAS2026!
Deadline: November 28
Open to PhD students, independent scholars & academics 🌎
💡 #PILASConference happens the day before — join both!
www.slasuk.org/latinamerica...

📢 CfP! PILAS Conference 2026 — Future Archives: Forging the Next Generation of Latin American Studies
🗓️ 8 April | 📍 Leeds

Open to postgraduates & ECRs researching Latin America 🌎
Deadline for abstracts: 8 Dec 25

🔗 Details & submissions: www.slasuk.org/pilas-confer...

@slaslatam.bsky.social

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Postgraduates in Latin American Studies (@pilas-latam.bsky.social) Network invites proposals for its 2026 Annual Conference, “Future Archives: Forging the Next Generation of Latin American Studies.”

Deadline for abstracts: 8 Dec 25
Notification of acceptance: 16 Jan 26

Event Grants | SLAS

Event Grant - Supports SLAS members to organise conferences, workshops & events.

DEADLINE 24 October 2025

MORE INFO: www.slasuk.org/eventgrants

Whether you’re just starting your MA or deep in your PhD, PILAS is your space to connect, share ideas, and grow together.

💌 We’re open to collaborations and suggestions — message us here or email pilascontact@gmail.com

We aim to:
🎓 Support postgraduate researchers
🌿 Build a collaborative community
🗓️ Organise events, workshops & an annual conference
✨ Amplify postgraduate voices within SLAS

🌿 What is PILAS?

PILAS (Postgraduates in Latin American Studies) is the postgraduate network of @slaslatam.bsky.social — run by and for postgraduates based in the UK whose work focuses on Latin America 🌎

Committee Member Cristine Estefany Blas Blas 🇵🇪 🇺🇸 - PhD student in Spanish at the University of Cambridge.

Conference Secretary (shared role) Kandya Obezo 🇨🇴 PhD candidate in Social Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE). Kandya’s research explores Afro-descendant activism and cultural heritage policies in Colombia, with a focus on community agency and local knowledge.

Conference Secretary (shared role) Sara Lucia Guerrero 🇵🇪, anthropologist and PhD student in Film Studies in University of St Andrews. Sara Lucia studies contemporary Peruvian filmmaking in the southern Andes from an intersectional approach.

Secretary Ana Karen Reyes 🇲🇽, PhD student in Education at the University of Leeds. Her research explores how childhood and culture are constructed in Mexico, drawing on posthumanist perspectives.

Treasurer Manuel del Callejo 🇲🇽, PhD student in Spanish at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on fantastic and horror fiction in contemporary Latin American literature.

President Yasmin Getirana 🇧🇷, PhD student in International History at LSE. Yasmin studies domestic workers in Catholic movements in Latin America during the Cold War.

✨ Meet the PILAS 2025–26 Committee! ✨

We’re a group of postgraduate researchers based across the UK, working to connect and support students whose work engages with Latin America 🌎

👇 Get to know us:

Call for Expressions of Interest | PILAS

Also, if seeing all these events have struck up an interest in joining this upcoming year's committee, we're still open for applications: slasuk.org/expressions-... 9/9

Thanks so much to all the participants, speakers and performers who we've been lucky enough to work with this year, and to @slaslatam.bsky.social for their support.

And a massive thanks to all the PILAS committee members who made all of these activities work as well as they did! 9/

Finally, we tied up the year with an amazing evening exploring sonic histories of Latin American folk with Color Sudaka, Colectiva Sonera de los Valles Centrales de Oaxaca and Andrea Martínez. Great music and great dancers! 8/

This summer we also followed up with our Online Symposium with seven more fascinating presentations. 7/

... Plus a wonderful performance and workshop by Latinas in Bristol.

It was a busy couple of days! 6/

At the conference we also:

👉 Screened the 1959 film Araya with insights from Andrés Prypchan on his restoration work

👉 Saw some exclusive photographs by Ronald Pizzoferrato

👉 Hosted a great research methods workshop with Laurence Byrne of the Eccle's Institute... /5

Our largest event was the PILAS Conference 2025 at the University of Bristol, featuring over forty delegates over twelve panels plus two fascinating keynote speeches from Carlos Grigsby and Alejandro De Coss Corzo. 4/

We collaborated with the Department of Romance Studies at Cornell University to host Esperanza Mayobre. 3/

First off, we were delighted to organise three Reading Group events featuring a huge range of fantastic authors. 2/