Call for Papers – Dossier “Public History, Memory, and Political Passions in Latin America” - NUPEM Journal
Dear Readers and Researchers,
NUPEM Journal invites the academic community to submit articles for the thematic Dossier “Public History, Memory, and Political Passions in Latin America”, scheduled for publication in Jan./Apr. 2027.
Submission period: de 1º de maio a 30 de junho de 2026
Publication: v. 19, n. 46, jan./abr. 2027
Organizers:
Ian Farouk Simmonds Ariza – Universidad del Magdalena / Asociación Española de Historia Pública (Colômbia e Espanha)
Francisco J. Eversley Torres – Universidad del Atlántico (Colômbia)
Michel Kobelinski – Universidade Estadual do Paraná (Brasil)
Latin America remains a region marked by intense struggles over memory, sovereignty, and the meaning of the public sphere. Its recent history – shaped by colonization, dictatorships, popular resistance, and new forms of authoritarianism – calls for an approach that combines historical rigor with the critical sensibility of public history. In this context, collective memory is not only an object of study but also a field of political, pedagogical, and symbolic action, where struggles over the past become battles over the present and the future.
The contemporary resurgence of political passions, on both the right and the left, has reopened debates about collective and public emotions, forms of participation, and the instrumental use of the past in the construction of national identities. This phenomenon cannot be understood in isolation: it responds to structural transformations that, in part, mirror dynamics previously observed in Europe. As Ronald Inglehart noted in the late 1970s, the “silent revolution” of post-materialism – driven by the adoption of cultural and identity-based values by generations living under greater material security – created a new arena of ideological conflict. In Europe, the shift away from class as the central axis of political mobilization opened space for conservative reactions that today feed the far right.
In Latin America, the situation is more ambivalent. Persistent inequalities keep material demands central, yet the expansion of progressive agendas – on gender, race, and the environment – has triggered backlash. Cultural advances associated with the “Pink Tide” reshaped social imaginaries, but also deepened polarization. Conservative movements and religious groups have successfully politicized non-economic issues, turning moral resistance to changes in family life, sexuality, and racial justice into political capital. Fear and moral resentment have become mobilizing forces, embodied – mong others – in figures such as Jair Bolsonaro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Javier Milei, José Antonio Kast, and Nayib Bukele.
This dynamic reveals a paradox. While the left often fragments between material and cultural struggles, the right has combined law-and-order rhetoric and traditional morality with anti-corruption and anti-establishment discourses that speak to disillusioned popular sectors. Its effectiveness rests less on strong party organization than on emotion: direct, unmediated communication that channels social outrage.
These are the conditions under which right-wing politics has increasingly positioned itself in a culture war that the left has not constantly confronted openly. The right has also benefited from social media and so-called influencers who amplify its message, helping to set everyday agendas around a return to conservative ways of life. In this landscape, we can observe tensions over memory and historical reinterpretations that reshape ideas of “progress” as they were understood and built since the late twentieth century – within a broad social agreement to confront inequality, at least in terms of equal rights for women and men and for LGBTQIA+ people.
For these reasons, Latin American public history is not mere outreach: it is an emancipatory and affective practice. It involves reactivating forgotten archives, reinterpreting national symbols, and creating spaces where communities are producers of meaning. In the face of reactionary advances, the challenge is to sustain pluralism, strengthen democracy, and cultivate a critical memory that not only remembers but also inspires. Between Macondo and Mompox, between memory and action, Latin America continues to write its history – a living history, shaped by political passions that can still transform it.
NUPEM Journal provides immediate open access to its content, in line with its policy of democratizing scientific knowledge. We warmly invite the academic community to enrich this issue with critical, innovative, and interdisciplinary submissions.
Suggested themes: Processes of memory construction and and political party identities; public history and disputes over political memory; narratives of dictatorships, transitions, and reconciliations; museums, archives, commemorative spaces, and their links to political movements; comparative studies of the right and left in the public sphere; activism, social movements, and their relations with political parties; historical re-readings of traditional parties and new political forces; political communication and the resignification of the past in campaigns and speeches.
Articles must be submitted exclusively through the journal’s system, in accordance with the Submission Guidelines, available at the following link: https://periodicos.unespar.edu.br/nupem/about/submissions.
Sincerely,
NUPEM Journal
State University of Paraná – UNESPAR
