The interest in Global South as a critical concept has risen steadily in the last decade in the United States, as more and more universities have dedicated courses, centers, and whole departments to its research. However, centuries before, writers, artists, poets, and activists already conceptualized this epistemological shift from their geopolitical positions without using this term. This working group examines the emergence of the South's concept from its representation in literary and visual works produced on and from the Global South. To this end, we would like to open up an interdisciplinary discussion across languages and philosophical/methodological traditions on topics like diaspora and migrations to explore its origins and development as a field of study.
We will study how a concept such as the Global South allows us to understand the ongoing debate about colonial histories and globalization. Global South studies allow us to go beyond national borders and disciplinary boundaries to build new geographies and connect previously separated areas such as the Mediterranean, Latin American, and Transpacific studies. Only in this way we can learn to look beyond conventional patterns of migration and create significant connections between geopolitical sites that have not been explored before. We believe that paying attention to these spaces and communities through an innovative way of connecting them can help envision a new form of global connectivity. We see the erasure of geohistorical relations, populations, and origins as a form of latent violence, perpetrated through a rigid division between fields of study that prevents a holistic account of Southern dynamics and debates. Accordingly, this working group's final objective is to acknowledge that the South is not a mere object of study, but a subject producing knowledge about itself.
Conveners
Cristina Carnemolla
Ph.D. Candidate, Romance Studies
Ninel Valderrama Negron
Ph.D. Candidate, Romance Studies