Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies


Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies is a regional Latin American studies association founded in 1954. It meets annually at varying locations in the Southwest of the U.S.

History

The Pan American Union was an early force in the creation of regional Latin American area studies associations of which RMCLAS is one, and the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies is another. The 1954 founding of RMCLAS antedates the 1966 formation of the Latin American Studies Association. In 1955, RMCLAS adopted a constitution and elected officers for the new organization. Its main activity is its annual meeting. Plans for a journal connected to the association did not come to fruition. The membership of RMCLAS steadily increased from its early small numbers in its early years and then growth in the 1970s. An important demographic change was the expansion in the number of female academics participating.
The 2016 annual meeting in Santa Fe, N.M. had 74 panels with 269 participants. RMCLAS encourages participants from a variety of fields, “including, but not limited to Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Cultural Studies, Economics, Environmental Studies, Ethnomusicology, Film Studies, Gender Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, Political Science, and Sociology.” Although nominally a regional meeting, participants came from universities all over the U.S., as well as some from Mexico, Canada, and Europe. The wide geographical draw of the meeting is of long standing. Meetings have been held in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
The organization awards a number of named prizes awarded at its annual meeting.

Prizes