Main Seminar: Fifty Years of Human Rights in Chile: Essays in Honour of Alan Angell
Convener(s): Leigh A. Payne (University of Oxford)
Speaker(s): Richard D. Wilkinson (Royal Holloway, University of London); Valentina Infante-Batiste (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile); Cath Collins (Ulster University); Francisco Bustos (University of Chile); and Marcela Ríos (IDEA International). Comments: Susan McRae (Emeritus Oxford Brookes); Ximena Fuentes (Chilean Ambassador to the UK); Carlos Huneeus (University of Chile).
To attend in Zoom, please register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/EDM5Yal2Q5mMe9j-0RYspg
The seminar will present a book in honour of LAC-St Antony's Emeritus Fellow Alan Angell. Alan joined the Latin American Centre in 1966 after spending a year in Colombia with UNESCO and previously lecturing at the University of Keele. He retired in 2006. His work primarily focused on Chile. Following the 1973 coup in that country, Alan managed a programme for academic refugees from Chile. He also wrote extensively on various aspects of Chilean democracy and the left in Latin America.
The volume is a tribute to Alan's commitment to human rights during the 50 years since the coup. It begins with an essay by Alan, a personal and historical account of life under the dictatorship, highlighting the pervasive atmosphere of fear and repression. The essays that follow include: an account by Gloria Miqueles of her experience as a Chilean political exile in the UK and the role that Alan and others played in building a transnational solidarity network and providing support for hundreds of students and academics in the UK fleeing political persecution in Chile; a study by Richard D. Wilkinson situating Alan's academic and advocacy contributions within the broader framework of UK solidarity campaigns and human rights advocacy; Valentina Infante-Batiste’s chapter on the Pinochet’s legacy in Chile today; an analysis of the coup's 50th anniversary events in 2023 by Marcela Ríos Tobar; an overview of transitional justice and human rights struggles in Chile within the broader South American framework by Antonia Urrejola and Alexandro Álvarez; an assessment of the human rights judicial processes in Chile by Cath Collins and Francisco Bustos; a study of the emergence of 'a right against rights' in Chile by Simón Escoffier, René González, Leigh A. Payne, and Julia Zulver; an understanding of the 2019 social uprising and State responses by Hugo Rojas Corral; and an epilogue by Carlos Huneeus reflecting on Angell’s lifelong dedication to Chilean studies and his profound impact on the academic and human rights community.
This book is part of the St Antony's Palgrave Macmillan series founded in 1977. It is the first volume in the series' new 'Fresh Riff’ initiative, a tribute to Centre fellows who have made a significant contribution to academic life in the College, the University, and in the world. These volumes will form part of the College's 75th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of St Antony’s Palgrave Macmillan series.
Notes on Speakers:
Susan Mcrae. Awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, she became a student of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford and graduated with her DPhil in 1984. A ten-year research career at the Policy Studies Institute in London was topped and tailed by fellowships at Nuffield College, Oxford: a Post-doctoral Fellowship in 1984-85 and a Norman Chester Fellowship in 1995. Subsequently, she combined academic management with research at Oxford Brookes University, as Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Law and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Consultancy and Graduate Studies.
Valentina Infante-Batiste studied History (2011) and later obtained her Pedagogical Training (2012) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2015, she earned her master’s degree in Cultural Heritage from University College London (UCL), and in 2023, she obtained her DPhil in Sociology from the University of Oxford.
Richard D. Wilkinson is a PhD student in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. He holds an MSc in Social Research from Goldsmiths, University of London and an MSc in Latin American Studies from the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College.
Leigh A. Payne is a Professor of Sociology and Latin America at the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College. Since she arrived in Oxford over a decade ago, she has been inspired by Alan Angell, her colleague at the Latin American Centre and St Antony’s College. Her work is broadly situated within the study of responses to past atrocity.
Cath Collins is political scientist, translator, and language editor, and currently Professor of Transitional Justice at the Law School of Ulster University, Northern Ireland (2013- ). She is also director of the Observatorio de Justicia Transicional of the Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile, where she was associate professor of politics between 2006 and 2013. She has lived and worked in Chile since 1996, first as a youth and community worker, then, after the 1998 Pinochet case, on matters related to truth and justice for dictatorship-era crimes against humanity.
Marcela Ríos is a Chilean sociologist, political scientist, and politician. She is currently director for Latin America and the Caribbean at IDEA International. From March 2022 to January 2023, she served as the Minister of Justice and Human Rights under President Gabriel Boric’s administration.
Francisco Bustos is a human rights lawyer. Bachelor of Law and Social Sciences (University of Chile) and a master’s in Law from the University of Chile, UDP, and the University of Bologna. He is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law (University of Chile) and a researcher at the Observatory of Transitional Justice (UDP).
Carlos Huneeus is a Chilean lawyer, Professor, and diplomat. He studied Law at the University of Chile and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Essex. In 1980, he earned a PhD in Political Science from the University of Heidelberg. During Patricio Aylwin’s government (1990–1994), he was Chilean ambassador to Germany. Since August 2003, he has been a professor at the Institute of International Studies at the University of Chile and the general director of the Opinion Polling Institute at the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Reality (CERC).
Ximena Fuentes, currently the Ambassador of Chile in the UK, is a lawyer from the University of Chile and a professor in the Department of International Law at the Faculty of Law. She served as Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs from 2022 to 2023 and as Chile’s agent before the International Court of Justice in the Case Concerning the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala River from 2016 to 2022. From 2015 to 2022, she was the National Director of Borders and Boundaries of the State. She also worked as legal advisor for Chile in the case filed by Peru before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and was the executive coordinator of Chile’s defense in the case Obligation to Negotiate Access to the Pacific Ocean (Bolivia v. Chile). Dr Fuentes completed her DPhil in Law at St Antony's College, University of Oxford.
