About us:

Purpose: Latin America and the Caribbean can be misunderstood in the Global North with often disastrous consequences for the region’s peoples and ecosystems. The LAC Research Network at Sussex promotes a more critical approach to understanding the region to inform academic and policy debates to secure better outcomes for LAC’s people and biodiversity. 

Vision: Researchers are empowered and connected to promote a more inclusive, fairer, safer and sustainable future for Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Mission: Foster a vibrant critical research culture of empowered and connected members, which harnesses the university’s engaged research and critical pedagogy to generate knowledge to build an inclusive, fairer, safer and sustainable future for LAC

Our history: the network was launched in November 2023, which was attended by around 20 members of the university community including postgraduate students, faculty, alumni and professional service staff. In March 2024, we successfully secured funding from the Sussex Research Culture Open Call to help support the development of the network. 

Aims:  we currently have short and longer-term aims. In the short term, we are focusing on building up the network to bring together people from across campus and also alumni. Our goals include the creation of a database of all network members (55 to date) available to everyone participating to help build connections and facilitate collaboration. We also produce a monthly newsletter on the network’s activities and also with key information on funding opportunities, key events and other useful information. Our longer-term aim is to position Sussex University as a leading centre of critical studies on the LAC region in Europe. Our goals include organising strategic and timely events to promote our research and provide a space to empower marginalised LAC voices; the promotion and dissemination Sussex research and policy work on the LAC region with external audiences; increase the number of publications by Sussex academics and postgraduate researchers on the region and increase the participation of Sussex academics and postgraduate researchers in LAC research conferences. 

How we work: The network is housed in Global Studies and is a cross-school and multidisciplinary initiative coordinated by post-graduate researchers in International Relations, International Development and Anthropology. The network is the first cross-school initiative on campus involving postgraduate researchers, visiting fellows, faculty, professional service staff and alumni from IDS, SPRU, Strategy and Marketing, Art History, Education, History and the Brighton & Sussex Medical School. We are working to encourage collaboration, foster belonging, and stimulate the production of research between network members. We are also attempting to build capacity in various areas in the areas of engagement, influence and impact; research governance and organisation; and knowledge and intellectual abilities as outlined in the Researcher Development Framework.

Our activities: To date, we have organised three events. To welcome new colleagues, reconnect with others, share what the network is doing this year and discuss opportunities to get involved, we organised a social event in Global Studies. This was followed up with a workshop to support network members to learn and share experiences on carrying out research on a LAC-related topic in the UK. Lastly, we organised a Multilingual Symposium on Latin America and the Caribbean to provide an opportunity for all members to present their draft and completed research products in either English, Spanish or Portuguese. All of our events have been very well attended with between 11-17 people participating. 

Open invitation to collaboration: We invite Sussex alumni and academics and policy experts from other organisations to get in touch with us.