CENTRE for LATIN AMERICAN
RESEARCH and DOCUMENTATION

Other Possible Futures: Art, Memory, and Care in Exile

SPEAKERS: Open call – scholars, artists, community organisers and people with direct experience are invited to contribute

DATE: Saturday, 17 October 2026

TIME: 16:00–21:00

ACTIVITY: Roundtable – Other Possible Futures: Art, Memory, and Care in Exile

VENUE: Lola Lieven, Amsterdam

ORGANIZATION: This roundtable is organized by Nicaraguan and Colombian communities in exile in the Netherlands, together with dr. Julienne Weegels, Adrián Ortega Lobo and Mick Sarria, with the support of the University of Amsterdam Centre for Migration studies (ARC-M) and the ARTES Violence & Political Justice cluster.

REGISTRATION: Open call for presentations – deadline Monday, 14 September at 17:00. Submit here

Building on Nicaraguan and Colombian exiles’ artistic communal practices in the Netherlands, this roundtable invites the sharing of art initiatives and research by and/or with refugee communities. At once subject to political persecution in their countries and to various forms of othering in and through the Dutch asylum system, these communities seek ways to process their grief, remain culturally or politically active, and build transformative futures. With this roundtable, we aim to explore connections along the lines of care practices, art, memory, solidarity, communal organization, and future imaginaries with other exile communities and researchers in the Netherlands/Europe. It is a space to think together about memories of exile, while also holding space for the present and for imagining other possible futures in and beyond exile.

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This space intends to open discussions on:

1.      Methodological and theoretical ways to think about the political, social, and creative dimensions of refugee community and solidarity organizing

2.      Textual and non-textual narratives of exile that decenter the past as the only exile narrative

3.      The multiple ways of care among human and more-than-human bodies amid the political tensions in Europe around asylum seeking

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We invite scholars at any career stage, as well as anyone outside academia with direct experience, artistic practice, or reflection on these themes, to share a short presentation at this roundtable, which is envisioned for a broad public and will take place with exile participants. Presentations may take the form of a brief talk, a reading, or the sharing of a creative or community-based project. Below are some of the themes we hope to explore in conversation, along with guiding questions for those who wish to present:

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·         Art in exile. What role does art play in processing and expressing the experience of exile? How do these creative practices intertwine with political denunciation and memory preservation? What possibilities, and what limits, does communal art hold for building solidarity and dialogue across different exile communities?

·         Exilic memory. How is the memory of exile transmitted within exile communities living in the Netherlands/Europe? What justice-seeking and memory-preserving initiatives do exile communities build, and toward what ends?

·         Care practices in exile. How is care, individual and collective, sustained and practiced among exile communities? What forms of mutual support emerge in the face of the emotional toll of persecution, displacement, and the asylum system? How is this work of care recognized, or not, by institutions, academia, or the ‘host society’?

·         Other possible futures. What futures do exile communities already imagine and practice, in the present? How do restorative and future-making imaginaries take shape within communal and creative exile initiatives?

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Please submit your expression of interest in presenting by Monday 14 September, 17:00, here. We will then be in touch with you and compose the program, which will be shared with all participants and the public on 21 September. Much looking forward to hearing from you!

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The Brazilian Elections of October 2026:
Interpretations and Consequences for Brazil and the Wider Region

SPEAKERS: Edmund Amann, Leiden University; Kees Koonings, CEDLA – UvA; Nayara Macedo de Medeiros Albrecht, UvA

CHAIR: Barbara Hogenboom, CEDLA – UvA

DATE: Wednesday, 4 November 2026

TIME: 16:00–17:30

ACTIVITY: Roundtable

VENUE: Leiden University Faculty Club, Rapenburg 73, 2311 GJ Leiden

ORGANISATION: Hosted by Leiden University and co-organised by Leiden University and CEDLA – University of Amsterdam.

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The Brazilian elections this October will see contests for the presidency, the National Congress, state governors and state legislatures. Their outcomes will have a profound impact on Brazil’s economic, social and political development over the coming years.

The presidential race directly pits the left, under Lula, against a resurgent right headed by Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. At stake are not only Brazil’s domestic political direction but also its wider position in the region and the world, at a time when the United States is becoming increasingly engaged in developments across Latin America.

Bringing together scholars from Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam/CEDLA, this roundtable will examine the election results and discuss their political, economic and social consequences for Brazil and the wider region.

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PROGRAMME

• Welcome and overview
  Barbara Hogenboom, Chair
   

• The economic and social background
  Edmund Amann
   

• The politics behind the election result
  Kees Koonings 
   

• Longer-term political implications for Brazil and the wider region
  Nayara Macedo de Medeiros Albrecht 
   

• Public discussion
   

Drinks and snacks will be served following the event.

South-South migration, urban informality and transnational care:
The migrant body and an embodied research approach    

SPEAKER:  Tanja Bastia, University of Manchester
DISCUSSANT: Paolo Boccagni, University of Trento
DATE: 6 November 2026
TIME: 15:30-17:00
​ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE
VENUE:  VOX-POP, Binnengasthuisstraat 9, Amsterdam

​Tanja Bastia's lecture brings migration studies and urban informality into dialogue by showing how each has overlooked dimensions central to understanding contemporary urban life. It argues that migration research has often been constrained by methodological nationalism, while studies of urban informality have tended to treat migrants primarily as neighbours, overlooking how legal status, transnational ties, cultural practices, and mobility shape urban experiences. Drawing on recent research on transnational care, the lecture explores how migration reconfigures care for ageing parents across and beyond urban, rural, and peri-urban spaces. Finally, it proposes the migrant body as a unifying analytical lens to bridge disciplinary divides and illuminate the intersections of migration, care, embodiment, and urban transformation.    

Multispecies technical democracy: Earth observation and the rights of nature in Ecuador

SPEAKER:  Jorge Núñez Vega, UvA
DISCUSSANT: Karolien van Teijlingen, Radboud University
DATE: 4 December 2026
TIME: 15:30-17:00
​ACTIVITY: CEDLA LECTURE
VENUE:  VOX-POP, Binnengasthuisstraat 9, Amsterdam

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Since the 1970s, states and corporations have produced satellite images to map, manage, and exploit the environment. Earth observation, as this practice is called, has mostly been deployed in resource extraction, scanning the planet for minerals, petroleum, and natural gas. But in recent decades, this technology has been taken up by new hands for environmental justice and ecological reconstruction. In this talk, Jorge Núñez Vega analyzes the formation of a research collective concerned with the defense of the rights of nature in Ecuador, amid a government-declared internal armed conflict. The Earth Imagination Network brings together communities affected by contamination, remote sensing experts, environmental lawyers, and multimodal artists. Through collaborative satellite visualizations, this collective explores who can speak for nature in the realms of politics, economics, and ethics. Ultimatelly, what is at stake is the possibility of seeing Earth not only as a damaged environment in need of protection, but also as a living ecology with democratic voice.