The Oxford Latin American Society is hosting a talk on territorial disputes in Latin America on May 30th. A complimentary wine reception will follow afterward.

Contested Territories in Latin America will explore the relationship between territory, the environment, and social movements by drawing on Latin American experiences. The talk will propose a conceptual and methodological approach for researching this relationship and will argue for the need to contest the concept of territory, using Latin American knowledges as a productive means of doing so. The notion of “socioterritorial movement” as an analytical category for political social movements, that have as their central objective the appropriation of space in pursuit of their political project, will be analysed.

The talk will be led by Dr. Sam Halvorsen from the School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London. Dr. Halvorsen is the founder of the Latin American Geographies in the UK Research Network (LAG-UK), co-convenes the Queen Mary Latin American Network (QMLAN), has held research fellowships at the University of Cambridge and the University of Buenos Aires, and is a current Leverhulme Research Fellow. His research focuses on the geographies of social change, the ways in which different spatialities are mobilised in the pursuit of political strategies, and the relationship between grassroots urban politics and territory; particularly in Latin America. He has published widely on Occupy London.

Recommended readings :
Halvorsen, S., 2018 ‘Decolonising Territory: dialogues with Latin American knowledges and grassroots politics’, Progress in Human Geography, online.

Halvorsen, S. Fernandes, B.M. and Torres, D., 2019. ‘Mobilising Territory: Socio-territorial movements in comparative perspective’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, online.