Contributing to a better future? The role of Norway based Latin

First Annual Norwegian Latin America Research Conference:
Contributing to a better future?
The role of Norway based Latin America research
12-13 November 2009, University of Oslo
Keynote Speakers:
ATILIO A. BORÓN (Argentina, 1943)
Atilio Borón is political scientist and sociologist with a Ph.D. in Political Science from
Harvard University (USA). He has been a professor of political and social theory on the
Social Sciences Faculty at the University of Buenos Aires since 1986. He is also Director of
PLED (Programa Latinoamericano de Educación a Distancia en Ciencias Sociales) and
senior researcher at CONICET (Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical
Research). He is the former Executive Secretary of the Latin American Council on Social
Sciences (CLACSO; 1997-2006). Atilio Borón has taught for many years in some of the
most important academic institutions of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
In the United States he was visiting professor at the universities of Columbia, MIT, Notre
Dame and UCLA, and in Europe he lectured at Warwick and Bradford in England. He is
also Chair of CROP's Scientific Committee. In 2009 he was awarded the International Jose
Marti Prize by UNESCO to reward his “tireless intellectual commitment to the unity and
integration of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
Atilio Borón has published widely in several languages books and articles on political
theory and philosophy, social theory, and comparative studies on the capitalist
development in the periphery. See list of publications here.
PAMELA CALLA (Bolivia)
Pamela Calla is a Bolivian anthropologist wit ha Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in
the US specialized on cultural and education policies, state creation and the articulation
of gender, ethnicity and class and on topics linked to inter-culturality, racism and antiracism. She is currently rector of the Universidad de la Cordillera de La Paz and
coordinator of the Racism Observatory in Bolivia. She has published, among others
‘Género y etnicidad como transversales en la educación boliviana’ in Género, etnicidad y
educación en Bolivia (comp. Inge Sichra, Madrid, 2004). She has coordinated the
research and the book ‘Rompiendo silencios’ together with ‘Una aproximación a la
violencia sexual y al maltrato infantil en Bolivia’ (La Paz, 2005) and the action-research
programme ‘Género, etnicidad y participación política’ UNDP (La Paz, 2007). She
participated in the research team for the UNDP national report on human development
in Bolivia in 2007, ‘El estado del Estado en Bolivia’ (La Paz, 2007). She has compiled with
María Lagos the book ‘Antropología del Estado: Dominación y prácticas contestatarias en
América Latina’ (2007).
CARLOS SOJO (Costa Rica, 1963)
Carlos Sojo is sociologist with a Ph. D. in social science from University of Utrecht
(Holland). He is an international consultant and director of Socioanalysis América Latina
and has from 2000 to 2008 been director of the Costa Rican branch of the Latin American
Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO). He has been a consultant for the World Bank, the
Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations and the European Union among
others.
In the field of political sociology he has been focusing on economical processes and their
impacts on social institutions and the state, with special competence in social exclusion,
poverty, socio-political dynamics of economic reforms, democratic governance, and
social dialogue. He has published a great number of books and articles. See list of
publications here.