The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) held its 36th annual conference in Barcelona, Spain from 23 May to 26 May 2018. As the world's largest professional association for individuals and institutions involved in Latin American studies, LASA strives to foster discussion and research that focuses on the Latin American and Caribbean region. Each year the LASA International Congress provides a forum for discussion. This year the topic was Latin American Studies in a Globalised World, which examined how people around the world perceive Latin America and how Latin American studies contribute to issues within the global community.

Students and Faculty from the Graduate Institute, mostly from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, travelled to Barcelona to participate in this year’s LASA conference. With hundreds of plenary sessions to choose from, they were exposed to an eclectic mix of experts and a diverse array of research that allowed for an enriching experience and the opportunity to delve into a comparative analysis of Latin American studies in various contexts.

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Photo, from left to right: Christine Verschuur, Yira Lazala, Jonas Köppel, Clara Guardado (Universität Zürich), Urpi Saco, Diego Silva, Valerio Simoni, Valerie-Verena Gruber (PhD candidate in Social Geography at the University of Bayreuth, Germany), Graziella Moraes Silva, Paulo Shinji (IHEID), Lourdes Benería (Cornell University)
Missing from the picture: Larissa Da Silva Araujo, Rafael Sánchez