David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard

Congratulations to former DRCLAS Visiting Scholar Patricia Ames, whose article—developed during her time at Harvard—received the 2025 José María Arguedas Award from LASA’s Peru Section for the best article published that year.

The award honors outstanding scholarship on Peru and recognizes work of exceptional originality, relevance, and academic rigor. Patricia’s winning article, co-authored with Camilla Morelli, Almendra Aguilar, and Roldan Tumi, examines educational trajectories among young Indigenous women in Amazonia.

We are delighted to see this work receive such meaningful recognition and proud that DRCLAS could support it during her residency.

🔗 Learn more: https://loom.ly/wyAygMw

The future of the Pantanal may depend less on choosing between production and conservation than on learning how to hold them together.

After two centuries of extensive livestock farming, about 85% of the Pantanal's native vegetation remains preserved. In this Nexo essay, a group of co-authors spanning research, ranching, and conservation shared that there is a growing understanding that traditional Pantanal livestock farming can be an ally of conservation — and that integrating production and conservation is not only desirable, but necessary. Its future will depend on the ability to strengthen this model, based on science, innovation, and dialogue among the different actors.

Part of a series emerging from the 2026 Lemann Dialogue.

Read more: https://loom.ly/eeLi4fI

Pantanal: um bioma produtivo e conservado Integrar produção e conservação não é apenas desejável, mas necessário

What did the 2026 Lemann Dialogue make clear about Brazil’s environmental future?

In this reflection, Talita André, a candidate at the Columbia Climate School, draws four central lessons from the convening: Brazil’s biomes cannot be treated in isolation; strong laws mean little without enforcement; environmental destruction has long been justified through false narratives of “empty” territory; and the central bottleneck is no longer diagnosis, but financing and political translation.

Read the full recap: https://loom.ly/6UZ66i0

Six Biomes, Multiple Realities, One Country: What Was Learned at the 2026 Lemann Dialogue | David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Six Biomes, Multiple Realities, One Country: What Was Learned at the 2026 Lemann Dialogue Talita André, Columbia Climate School candidate, shares her reflections on restoration, economic development, and the future of Brazilian biodiversity as discussed at the 2026 Lemann Dialogue: Six Biomes, Mult...

The Amazon is the largest biome in Brazil and the world, home to around 10% of the planet's biodiversity and 51% of Brazil's Indigenous population.

In this Nexo piece, Marcia C. Castro reflects on the debates from the Amazon panel she moderated at the 2026 Lemann Dialogue — from illegal deforestation, mining, and uncontrolled fire to the socio-bioeconomy that exists in the Amazon but lacks the investment to operate at scale.

Visibility, she argues, is not enough. Protecting the Amazon requires political commitment and the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in shaping the policies that protect the forest, a point made by Vanda Witoto, an Indigenous leader and nurse of the Witoto people.

Part of a series emerging from the 2026 Lemann Dialogue.
Read more: https://loom.ly/y3LncNg

Amazônia: gigante pela própria natureza e vital para o planeta O bioma é fundamental para o sistema climático global, com contribuições para os ciclos da água, energia e carbono

The State of Democracy in the World and Its Implications for the Global Economy | El Estado de la Democracia en el Mundo y las Implicaciones para la Economía Global

Join us for the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) keynote lecture featuring Steven Levitsky, Director of DRCLAS and Professor of Government at Harvard University.

The lecture will examine the resilience of contemporary democracies in the face of rising populism, institutional weakening, and growing public discontent, as well as the challenges of governance, institutional strength, and public trust in Latin America. Juan Ariel Jiménez of Harvard Kennedy School will also participate, offering a perspective on the regional implications of these debates.

📅 TODAY @ 6 pm EDT
💻 This event will be livestreamed
🗣️ In Spanish

Learn more: https://loom.ly/k4SxHwg

Cátedra de Economía Manuel José Cabral Tavares: El Estado de la Democracia en el Mundo y las Implicaciones para la Economía Global | David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies La Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) presentará la conferencia magistral “El Estado de la Democracia en el Mundo y las Implicaciones para la Economía Global”, a cargo del reconocido politólogo de Harvard University Steven Levitsky. La actividad se realizará el próximo...

The State of Democracy in the World and Its Implications for the Global Economy | El Estado de la Democracia en el Mundo y las Implicaciones para la Economía Global

Join us for the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) keynote lecture featuring Steven Levitsky, Director of DRCLAS and Professor of Government at Harvard University.

The lecture will examine the resilience of contemporary democracies in the face of rising populism, institutional weakening, and growing public discontent, as well as the challenges of governance, institutional strength, and public trust in Latin America. Juan Ariel Jiménez of Harvard Kennedy School will also participate, offering a perspective on the regional implications of these debates.

📅 Tuesday, June 2 @ 6 pm EDT
💻 This event will be livestreamed
🗣️ In Spanish

Learn more: https://loom.ly/k4SxHwg

Cátedra de Economía Manuel José Cabral Tavares: El Estado de la Democracia en el Mundo y las Implicaciones para la Economía Global | David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies La Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) presentará la conferencia magistral “El Estado de la Democracia en el Mundo y las Implicaciones para la Economía Global”, a cargo del reconocido politólogo de Harvard University Steven Levitsky. La actividad se realizará el próximo...

DRCLAS to Welcome Two Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Scholars for Fall 2026 Research Stays

DRCLAS is pleased to welcome Laura Fahrenkrog and Sebastian Gallegos, both Associate Professors at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, for research stays in Fall 2026. Their visits are supported through the Harvard-UAI Collaborative Research Grant, a partnership that has fostered academic exchange and collaborative research between Harvard and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez since 2016.

At Harvard, Fahrenkrog and Gallegos will pursue research in the libraries and archives, participate in workshops and academic activities across campus, and engage with faculty, students, and the broader DRCLAS community.

Read more: https://loom.ly/OQjL21k

prod-drclas2.drupalsites.harvard.edu

✨ On view at DRCLAS: Three Variations of a Diasporic Landscape

In how many ways can you be from the same place? What is a “place” after all?

This exhibition brings together Sandra Gamarra (Madrid), Naomi Gamarra (Geneva), and Sarah Zapata (New York), three female artists of Peruvian descent. Through landscapes of nostalgia and belonging, their works ask why the liminal identities of the diaspora are barely considered when thinking about the Latin American region.

📍 Visit the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University.

🔗 Learn more: https://loom.ly/zY9ostI

Vanda Witoto, a climate activist, educator, Indigenous leader from the Amazon, and participant in the 2026 Lemann Dialogue, visited the Office of the University Marshal and signed the University Guest Book.

How is national identity forged in the aftermath of conquest?

In this talk, Christopher Carter presents current research on how conquest continues to shape national identity over time, drawing on his broader work on extraction, domination, and Indigenous politics across the Americas.

With Christopher Carter, DRCLAS Central America Visiting Scholar, Spring 2026; Assistant Professor of Politics and John L. Nau III Assistant Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy, University of Virginia.

🗓️ Wednesday, April 8, 2026
🕛 12:00–1:20 PM EDT
📍 CGIS South, Room S-216

https://loom.ly/nYMKHLQ