CLAS Hosts Discussion on COVID-19 in Latin America
On July 27, the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), an affiliated regional center of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, hosted a virtual event on the COVID-19 crisis in Latin America and its disproportionate affects on indigenous people and Afro-descendants.
The discussion featured Janine Ferretti, Professor of the Practice of Global Development Policy at the Pardee School, and Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Pardee School’s Global Development Policy Center. The event was moderated by CLAS Director Adela Pineda.
Ferretti and Gallagher argued that the pandemic has laid bare the deep fault lines of inequality around the world. In Latin America specifically, COVID-19 is exacerbating many of the historic inequalities and the social exclusion experienced by indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities since the colonial era. As some of the most vulnerable groups in Latin American society, there is a great risk that the long-term consequences of the pandemic will further entrench their socio-economic marginalization.
The speakers went on to say that the coronavirus crisis presents an opportunity for the international community, national governments, and the private sector to restructure their social contracts with vulnerable populations, not only to correct the legacy of inequality and exclusion, but also to build resilience in vulnerable communities.
A recording of the event can be viewed below.
The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) provides students with a versatile and powerful vehicle to develop an in-depth and interdisciplinary understanding of the Latin American region. The program offers students a wide variety of regionally-focused courses in Latin America, which are taught by a range of academic departments. The interdisciplinary nature of the program provides the necessary breadth and depth for students to understand the complexities and remarkable diversity of Latin America, defined as the 20 independent countries in the Western Hemisphere south of the United States with Spanish, French, or Portuguese as their official languages. Learn more here.