Annual Student Conference

15th Annual Student Conference to be held on campus on 4th and 5th of May, 2023. 

Oye Como Va: Sound, Voice, and Movement in the Americas

Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center 

LACS Graduate Collective

15th Annual Student Conference 

University of Maryland, College Park 

May 4 and 5, 2023

Call for Proposals

The University of Maryland, College Park’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center (LACS) and the LACS Graduate Collective call for proposals to participate in the conference Oye Como Va: Sound, Voice, and Movement in the Americas. The 15th Annual Student Conference will be held on May 4th and 5th, 2023, at the University of Maryland and will include a series of public programs, academic panels, workshops, and art-based presentations, and a keynote panel.

The word “Oye” (“Listen”) commands attention, invites us to listen, and is indicative of something to come. “Oye Como Va,” the conference title, is borrowed from the song of the same name and translates to “Listen to How it Goes.” Written by Puerto Rican musician Tito Puente in 1962, the catchiness of this cha-cha-cha song has been covered by numerous musicians who proliferated the rhythm into non-Latin-majority music markets. It particularly played a part in connecting diasporic communities to their homelands via sonic familiarity and community building. The following verse, “Oye Como Va/ Mi Ritmo” (“Listen to How My Rhythm Goes”) also implies an evolution, an invitation to participate in a non-static polyphony already in progress. Its multilayered song structure and history—that also exemplifies the distinct understandings of Latinidad, Afro-descendant rhythms, and heritages—is one that guides the multifaceted, open, evolutionary, and interdisciplinary approach to this conference. Latin America, the Caribbean, and its Diasporas are, were, and will be in all its many facets interdisciplinary; we invite our audiences and participants to oye como va across all fields.

The conference committee invites proposals from graduate and undergraduate students, emerging scholars, established faculty, artists, activists, and every person interested (including those outside of traditional academic spheres) presenting in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and/or French. We encourage contributions that propose solidarities between disciplines and types of knowledge.

We invite contributions that address themes related to Latin America, the Caribbean, and its diasporas, including, but not limited to:

●      Histories, development, and contexts of music and dance genres

●      Use of sounds, music, and the body in social movements, activism and social justice. Aural experiences of protest.

●      Soundscapes and sound tools

●      Discourse, speech, rhetoric, and communication surrounding sound

●      Phenomenology of sound, noise, and “unsounds” (potential of sound, infrasound, and ultrasound)

●      Spirituality and its connection to performativity (dance, music)

●      Case studies of performance and performativity

●      Mobility, migration, and movement in music

●      Silence and the silencing of voices: Exiles, torture and political prisoners

●      The interpersonal or interspecies acts of listening

●      Sound as embodied practice

●      Sounds, genres, and dances as embodiments of race, gender, sexuality, and social class

●      Noise pollution, harmonization, and the impact of sound on environment

●      Afro-Latinidad and multifaceted experiences of Blackness

●      Latinidad, sonic (musical) whitewashing, and other forms of re-appropriation

●      Mestizaje of the body

●      Music, sound, and rhythm as stimulants in teaching and learning

●      Syncopated identities, queerness, and polyphonies

●      Echoes and reverberations to crises and changes

●      Indigenous sounds, movements, and struggles

The conference features a keynote panel with scholars, community members, artists, and activists. It includes graduate and undergraduate student research panels and innovative sessions offering different ways of exchanging ideas. 

Interested participants are invited to submit a 300-word abstract and a short CV/Resume (two pages) to lacs@umd.edu by March 24th. Accepted participants will be notified by March 31st, 2023. The conference will be held in person in College Park, Maryland, U.S. and on hybrid platforms.

It is expected that conference participants will cover their travel and participation expenses. We are working on alternatives to defray costs of attendance. Please direct any questions to the Conference Committee at lacs@umd.edu.