Illicit ideologies in Latin America

November 14, 2025 - 9:00 am

Skylight Room
The Graduate Center, CUNY

While crime is often seen as driven by private gain rather than ideology, recent research challenges this view. Across contexts—from alternative courts in Brazil to neo-paramilitaries in Colombia and Pentecostal gangs in Central America—criminal actors display patterned behaviors that suggest underlying belief systems. This project brings together leading scholars to explore the ideological dimensions of criminality. Discussions will address three core questions: What is ideology, and how can we identify it? What similarities exist among criminal actors with ideological elements? And how do these ideologies interact with those of political parties, governments, and states?

More than fifteen speakers, including Nick Barnes (University of St Andrews); Andreas Feldmann (University of Illinois Chicago); Verónica Zubillaga (Universidad Simón Bolívar); Inés Fynn (Universidad de la República, Uruguay) will join the event alongside leading scholars whose work explores the intersection of crime, politics, and ideology.

*Registration begins at 8:30 AM

SCHEDULE:

9:00-9:15 Welcome

9:15-10:45  Panel 1: Illicit Ideologies in Central America and the Caribbean

Dennis Rodgers, University of Lyon

Lahoma Thomas, Toronto Metropolitan University

Angélica Durán-Martínez, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Moderator:  Zachariah Mampilly, Baruch College & The Graduate Center, CUNY

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 Panel 2: Ethnographies of Illicit Ideology

Verónica Zubillaga, University of Illinois Chicago

Dairee Ramírez, El Colegio de México & Barnard College

Anthony Fontes, American University

Discussant: Angélica Durán-Martínez, University of Massachusetts Lowell

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-15:00 Panel 3: Illicit Ideologies in the Amazon and Southern Cone

Kristina Hinz, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Inés Fynn, Universidad Católica del Uruguay

Mark Ungar, Brooklyn College & The Graduate Center, CUNY

Discussant: David Smilde, Tulane University

15:00-15:15 Break

15:15-16:45 Panel 4: Ideology, Gangs, and Mano Dura

Nicholas Barnes, University of St. Andrews & Columbia University

Sonja Wolf, Universidad Panamericana

Discussant: Philip Johnson, Flinders University

16:45-17:15 Concluding Thoughts

TO REGISTER send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu