Annual Conference

73rd Annual Conference

UF Center for Latin American Studies
February 5-7, 2025

The Struggle from Below: Democracy and Civil Society in the Age of Backsliding

Wednesday, February 5

Keynote 

• Mark Beissinger (Princeton University): ‘Civil Society Resistance to Democratic Backsliding'

Thursday, February 6

Panel 1. Democratic backsliding 

• Sishuwa Sishuwa (University of Stellenbosch): ‘You cannot eat democracy’: Civil society and democratic backsliding in southern Africa’
• Marcin Slazynski (Polish Academy of Sciences): ‘What Happens after PiS? The Radical Right Government’s Enduring Influence on the Political Regime and Civil Society in Poland’
• Petra Guasti (Charles University): ‘Polarization and Democracy in Central Europe’
  • Discussant: Lise Rakner (Bergen University)

Panel 2. Civic activism 

• Franklin Oduro (Center for Democratic Development Ghana): ‘Restoring Election Integrity for Africa’s Democratic Renewal: Reflections on Civil Society in West Africa’
• Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves (Jagiellonian University): Civic Power: The Polish experience with democratic erosion and the transformative potential of civil society’
• Marton Gero (Eötvös Loránd University): ‘ “Cooperation Was Never This Good" – How De-Democratization Influences Inter-Organizational Ties’
  • Discussant: Enrique Peruzzotti (University Torcuato Di Tella)

Panel 3. Women and Gender

• Meg Weeks (University of Florida): ‘Our Bodies Belong to Us: Feminism, Abortion Politics, and Public Health in Brazil’s Democratic Transition’
• Alba Rubial (National Scientific and Technological Research Council – CONICET - Argentina): ‘Federalism, conservative legal mobilization and backlash in subnational Argentina’
• Szabina Kerenyi (TK University Center for Human Rights): ‘ ‘One step ahead, two steps back’: grassroots struggles of the birth movement in Hungary’
  • Discussant: Flavia Biroli (University of Brasília)

Panel 4. Gender/LGBTQ+ 

• Juan Marco Vaggione (National University of Córdoba, Argentina): ‘The Gender Struggles: The advent of far-right politics in Argentina’
• Gisela Zaremburg (Latin America Faculty of Social Sciences - FLACSO - México): ‘People versus Gender?: Conservative Anti-Gender and Feminist Actors and Narratives in Relation to Popular Sectors in Latin America’
• Kwame Otu (Georgetown University): ‘Queering the Struggle from Below: A queer ethnographer’s disenchantment with democracy and civil society in neoliberal Ghana’
  • Discussant: Conor O’Dwyer (University of Florida)

Friday, February 7

Panel 5. Contentious Politics 9:00-10:45

• Samson Itodo (Yiaga Africa): Contention, Contingency and Collaboration: A Comparative Case Study of Protest Democracy in Nigeria, Kenya and Senegal
• Emma Mateo (New York University): ‘ ‘Not sheep, not cattle, not little people – we are workers!’: Industrial and white-collar employment and subnational protest variation in Ukraine and Belarus’
• Juliana Restrepo Sanin (University of Florida): ‘Knowledge as Resistance: Feminist Responses to Democratic Backsliding in Latin America’
  • Discussant: Valerie Bunce (Cornell University) 

Panel 6. Resources and the Environment 

• James Musonda (Institute of Economic Justice, South Africa): ‘Resource nationalism, Just Transition and civil Society Action in Zambia and South Africa’
• Rose Bashwira (Catholic University of Bukavu): ‘Actors or Victims: Girls’ experience in the cobalt artisanal mining in Southern DRC’
• Adam Fagan (Kings College London): ‘Environmental Activism in the era of Democratic Backsliding: Evidence from Poland’
  • Discussant: Ebenezer Obadare (Council on Foreign Relations)

Panel 7. Memory

• Nicolás Pedemont (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile): ‘Violence and Counter-Violence in Neoliberal Chile: The Mapuche Movement Against Pinochet's Legacy’
• Jasna Dragovic-Soso (London School of Economics): ‘Memory Activism and the Victimhood Paradox in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Commemorating the ‘Wartime Child’ in the Resistance against Ethnic Nationalism’
• Jessie Hronesova (University College London): ‘The Role and Effects of Civil Society Organizations in Shaping and Countering Victimhood Narratives in the Czech Republic’
  • Discussant: Paula Pickering (William & Mary)

Roundtable: Lessons Learned

• Marc Beissinger, Flavia Biroli , Val Bunce, Ebenezer Obadare, Enrique Perruzotti, Paula Pickering, Lise Rakner