Report on the State of UK-Based Research on Latin America and the Caribbean 2014

This report looks at how the United Kingdom is responding to and engaging with new developments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It addresses in detail the importance of carrying out research on Latin America and the Caribbean, the scope and patterns of the research being carried out, and new developments affecting LAC studies in the United Kingdom. The size and composition of the research community are profiled, along with institutional affiliations and research concentrations. Findings are presented on the shifting institutional commitments to research on Latin America and the Caribbean and the challenges faced by the LAC research community, including trends in funding for LAC research, the impact of research assessment, and constraints on dissemination and publication of research.

Antoni Kapcia is Professor of Latin American History at the University of Nottingham, where he is also Director of the Centre for Research on Cuba. His main area of research is modern and contemporary Cuban history, with a focus on ideology and also on cultural and political history. Recent publications include Cuba in Revolution. A History since the 1950s (2008),Literary culture in Cuba: Revolution, nation-building and the book (2012) andLeadership in the Cuban Revolution: the unseen story (2014).

Linda A Newson is Professor of Geography and Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, where she chairs the Latin America and Caribbean Panel of its International Engagement Committee. She has written widely on the demographic and cultural consequences of Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and the Philippines. Recent monographs includeFrom Capture to Sale: The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish South America in the Seventeenth Century (with Susie Minchin) (2007) andConquest and Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines (2009).