LACAS SIXTH UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE
"The Body Tells the Story: Embodied Histories and Social Change in Latin America and the Caribbean"
Date: April 18, 2026
Location: Binghamton University Downtown Center
This year’s theme recognizes bodies as a dynamic site of memory, resistance, and social transformation throughout the region and its diaspora. The LACAS conference encourages participants to think of themselves as active producers of knowledge about the past and present, out of which we generate alternatives for the future. We take what we learn in our research, classes, and personal experiences to think deeply and creatively about important questions facing us today. This conference draws undergraduate students from across Binghamton University departments and programs and around the Northeast.
Call for Proposals
Submission Deadline: February 1, 2026
The Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACAS) Program invites undergraduate college students to submit proposals for original research and creative presentations at our research conference, to be held Saturday, April 18, at the Binghamton University Downtown Center in Binghamton, NY. See information on the theme below. Students enrolled in any college or university are eligible to apply.
Please submit a brief abstract (about 200 words) of your fifteen-minute presentation through the on-line submission form below.
LACAS Conference Submissions Form
We welcome submissions on all topics related to Latin America, the Caribbean, and people of Latin American and Caribbean diasporas. We particularly welcome projects that students have undertaken as part of their capstone seminars, advanced coursework, or theses. We welcome works-in-progress and finished projects. Presenters are encouraged to explore this year’s theme, but we welcome submissions on all topics related to Latin America, the Caribbean, and people of the Latin American and Caribbean diasporas in any subject area.
Theme: The Body Tells the Story: Embodied Histories and Social Change in Latin America and the Caribbean
We recognize bodies as a dynamic site of memory, resistance, and social transformation throughout the region and its diaspora. Bodies are living archives – repositories of historical narratives, cultural practices, and political struggles. Bodies can be human or non-human, physical or metaphorical. The Body Tells the Story will explore this concept from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Presentations might address topics related to embodied resistance (protest, social and labor movements), embodied cultural memory and performance (dance, ritual, bodily expression), bodily health (social factors, state policy, community-based practices), the body as archive (history, trauma), migration and embodied experience (of borders, migration, displacement, diaspora), and more.
This conference encourages students to think of yourselves as active producers of knowledge about the past and present, out of which we generate alternatives for the future. We take what we learn in our research, classes, and personal experiences to think deeply and creatively about important questions facing us today.
2026 LACAS undergraduate conference presenters are expected to present in person. Only rare exceptions may be made on a case by case basis.
There is no registration fee for this conference. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Presenters from outside Binghamton University are encouraged to seek out funding from their home institutions for travel and/or lodging.
We recommend that you find a mentor who is an instructor of a course you are taking, or from your major who can speak to your research. If needed, we can help you connect with one.
Questions?
For more information please contact LACAS@binghamton.edu.