In the summer of 2017, as Tinker Field Research Fellow through the support of the University of Oregon’s Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS), I began research for a book-length project. Undertaking archival, translation, and interview-based research at the Instituto de Historia de Cuba, I focused on the history of Cuban internationalism as a multi-faceted, cross-cultural, and transnational program of collaboration across the formerly colonized world. Specifically, I studied the proceedings of the Tricontinental Conference in 1966 and its relation to the earlier Bandung Conference in 1955. I also explored the origins and operations of OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
When I returned to the U.S., I was invited to speak at the UO CLLAS Research Series titled “Gender, Displacement & Cultural Production in Latin America,” in order to discuss my findings. For the series, I adapted my research to reflect on tendencies in European and North American left political theory in relation to the ‘counter-history’ that I developed through my archival research. This became part of the framework for a larger project on the widely held historical narrative of the development of neoliberalism and globalization.
In November 2017, I returned to Havana to revisit and present the research from the previous months at The 4th Biennial Conference of the Network for the Critical Study of Global Capitalism (NCSGC) dedicated to Global Capitalism in the Americas at San Jerónimo University. This interdisciplinary forum, composed of historians, sociologists, and international relations scholars was pivotal for developing my research in new directions and with an interdisciplinary approach in order to supplement my critical-philosophical framework.
This research has since been developed into a book chapter (See ‘Publications’ — “The Tricontinental Recollected”) which is forthcoming in 2024. The study of Cuban decolonization, politics, and internationalism continues to shape my research.
