This presentation examines poetic representations of the city of Lima over the last fifty years, with a particular focus on the city’s transformation under Peru’s neoliberal project since the 1990s. Beginning in the 1970s, Peruvian poetry embraced the city and explored the possibilities of colloquial language to represent the experiences and aspirations of a rapidly expanding urban population. During the economic and political crises of the 1980s and 1990s, these representations became increasingly marked by violence, instability, and social fragmentation. In the neoliberal era, Lima emerges as a city shaped by market logic and its contradictions. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the flâneur, this presentation argues that contemporary poetry reimagines Lima as a space where political critique and poetic resistance converge.

Carlos Villacorta Gonzáles is a writer and Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of Maine. His research focuses on contemporary Peruvian and Latin American poetry, urban representations in literature, and cultural studies. His publications include Poéticas de la ciudad: Lima en la poesía peruana (2018) and the anthology Lima escrita: Arquitectura poética de la ciudad, 1970–2020 (2021). He also co-edited Vivir la violencia en el Perú del nuevo milenio (2023). He is editor in chief of the digital magazine Polis Poesía (https://www.polispoesia.com/)

Why is Bukele-style punitivism gaining traction in Latin America’s least likely democracies? This talk examines Chile and Uruguay, two countries long treated as regional exceptions because of their stable party systems, stronger states, and comparatively low levels of violence. Both now face a post-pandemic transformation of organized crime, but they processed the shock differently: Chile’s decomposed party system turned insecurity into punitive competition, while Uruguay’s more legitimate parties initially channeled it through deliberation and cross-partisan coordination. Yet both cases are converging toward the same demand for authoritarian shortcuts. I argue that this convergence reflects state erosion from below: the declining centrality of the state and formal economy in organizing citizens’ life chances, reinforced by party-society detachment, expanding informal and illegal markets, and the time compression of democratic governance. Bukelismo is less a leader-driven export than the political name for a structural demand democracies increasingly struggle to contain, manage, and fulfill.

Juan Pablo Luna is the Inaugural Diamond Brown Chair in Democratic Studies at McGill. While mainly focused on comparative Latin American politics, his research analyzes how socio-structural conditions such as social inequality and state capacity shape democratic institutions and development trajectories. In recent years, he has researched how organized crime dynamics is contributing to reshape politics, states, and markets in Latin America.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Do you need to travel internationally for your graduate research or fieldwork?

The Einaudi Center sponsors international travel for individual Cornell graduate students. If you’re traveling between the United States and a host country for activities directly related to your dissertation or thesis research, Einaudi can help you get there. See full details here.

Register here. Can’t attend? Contact travelgrants@einaudi.cornell.edu to learn more.

***

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

The Laidlaw Leadership and Research Program promotes ethical leadership and international research around the world—starting with the passionate leaders and learners found on campuses like Cornell. Open to first- and second-year students, the two-year Laidlaw program provides generous support to carry out internationally focused research, develop leadership skills, engage with community projects overseas, and become part of a global network of like-minded scholars from twenty universities worldwide.

Register here. Can’t attend? Contact programs@einaudi.cornell.edu to learn more.

***

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

The Laidlaw Leadership and Research Program promotes ethical leadership and international research around the world—starting with the passionate leaders and learners found on campuses like Cornell. Open to first- and second-year students, the two-year Laidlaw program provides generous support to carry out internationally focused research, develop leadership skills, engage with community projects overseas, and become part of a global network of like-minded scholars from twenty universities worldwide.

Can’t attend? Contact programs@einaudi.cornell.edu to learn more.

***

The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.