This collaborative research initiative among academics, researchers, and writers from the U.S., Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay led to a symposium held in Santiago, Chile, in August 2003, organized by Harvard Romance Languages and Literatures Professors Bradley Epps and Luis E. Cárcamo Huechante in conjunction with Raquel Olea from the University of Santiago, Chile, and Chilean poet Carmen Berenguer. The project brought together individuals working on topics of gender and sexuality in the fields of literature, visual arts and cultural critique in the Southern cone of Latin America and in the U.S. The objective was to deepen and expand dialogue between the theoretical and critical frameworks from the north and the south. Topics included the post-dictatorial democratic transformations of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay as related to questions of gender and sexuality (personal and collective liberty; social tolerance; equal rights, etc.). The conference led to the creation of an international network of scholars working together to co-edit essays that will be published in a volume.

Participating Harvard faculty: Bradley Epps, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, (RLL); Luis Cárcamo Huechante, Assistant Professor of RLL; Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams Jr. Professor of RLL; Diana Sorensen, Professor of RLL.

Collaborating Institutions: Universidad de Santiago, Chile