Maria Hermínia Tavares de Almeida is Professor at the University of São Paulo where she teaches in the Undergraduate Program of International Relations and in the Graduate Program of Political Science. She presently is deputy director of the Institute of International Relations at the University of São Paulo. She has a Bachelor degree in Social Sciences (1969) and a Ph.D. in Political Science (1979) from the University of São Paulo and engaged in post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley (1984). Her research interests focus on public policies and Brazilian political institutions, especially federal structures and intergovernmental relations. She published the book Economic Crisis and Organized Interests (São Paulo: Edusp) and some 100 articles in academic journals and books, among which are “Brazil - Privatization: reform through negotiation” and “Federalism and social policies in Brazil.” She has been Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London (1992); Tinker Visiting Professor, Stanford University (1996); Visiting Professor, Latin America Program, Ortega y Gasset Institute (1999, 2000 and 2002); Visiting Professor, Political Science Department, Université de Montréal (2006). She served on LASA’s Executive Committee (2001-2004) and has been President of the Brazilian Political Science Association (2006-2008). Presently, she is a member of the Brazilian Institute Advisory Council, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, and of the International Political Science Association’s Executive Committee. She holds the Brazil National Order of Scientific Merit (2006).
As a longtime LASA member, and having served on the Executive Committee for three years, I took my nomination to the vice presidency as a challenge and an exciting academic endeavor. I consider LASA an invaluable tool for furthering our common knowledge about Latin America through exchange between academic fields and academic communities in the Americas and, secondarily, elsewhere. LASA is a successful organization and therefore needs little change. In this sense, as vice president and then president I would basically build upon what previous presidents and ECs have achieved. But since LASA’s success can be interpreted in different ways, I would like to note the achievements that have impressed me and that I would further develop. I think LASA is an academic professional organization of enormous importance in the development of shared standards of scholarship and should continue to be so. LASA’s main achievement, in my opinion, is its capacity to be a multidisciplinary organization where fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue is possible. Multidisciplinary organizations face the challenges of their diversity. Social Sciences and Humanities disciplines have evolved in quite different — and, sometimes, divergent — theoretical, epistemological and methodological directions, besides having their own internal differences of styles, approaches and methods. LASA has succeeded in including new areas, themes and analytical approaches in the academy. The Association’s present challenge is to draw from its ingrained pluralist tradition to accommodate diversity in ways comfortable to all its members — and especially to create opportunities and venues for a productive intellectual exchange about our shared views on specific topics as well as about divergent views on where Latin American studies are and should head. Although something has already been done through the LASA Forum, more can be achieved in LARR and during our Congresses. LASA decided to go South, and that was an important decision. The 2008 Congress, in Rio de Janeiro, will be a landmark in this process of approaching academic communities dedicated to the study of Latin American issues in different countries across the Continent. This will happen in an opportune moment, since in the democratic systems now prevailing in almost all Latin American countries, Social Sciences and Humanities communities are developing in the old institutions in which they resisted the authoritarian sieges, as well as in new ones, at universities or research centers. Professional academic associations, either disciplinary or getting together different fields, have been established. Many of these can cooperate with LASA and help increase its membership. In countries where academic institutions are still weak, participation in LASA can be of great help in connecting scattered intellectual communities to the international flow of information and knowledge. For scholars living in Latin America, LASA has been a forum in which their work can reach a public well beyond national borders. The Association has also allowed for their participation in international scholarly networks as partners in building a better understanding of Latin America within a broad comparative perspective. After decades of authoritarianism and economic distress, Latin America may be about to enter a new and promising era. The combination of growth and democracy creates favorable conditions for countries to begin facing secular problems of poverty, inequalities, waste of resources by privileged elites — and also new problems regarding environmental issues, promising paths to sustainable development, ways of enforcing citizens’ rights and recognizing the legitimacy of new social identities. Scholars devoted to the study of Latin America, across the Americas, cannot replace political and social actors facing the challenge of taking advantage of favorable conditions to build a better future. But scholars certainly can produce knowledge that may help clarify the issues at stake. As an academic, professional and multidisciplinary organization, able as no other in the region to bring together an immense array of qualified scholars from different countries, fields of knowledge and specialization, LASA enjoys a privileged position as it contributes to an educated debate about Latin America’s present dilemmas and perspectives.