ALAA/LASA-VCS Afro Latin American/Afro-Latinx Scholarship Prize*

Award submissions are currently closed. Awards will be announced in February 2026. The next cycle of award submissions will open in Spring 2026.

Competition for the 2026 ALAA/LASA-VCS Afro Latin American/Afro-Latinx Scholarship Prize (now closed):

The Association for Latin American Art (ALAA), an affiliate of the College Art Association (CAA), and the Visual Culture Section of the Latin American Studies Association (VCS-LASA), are pleased to sponsor the Annual ALAA/LASA-VCS Afro Latin American/Afro-Latinx Essay Prize for an especially distinguished scholarly essay published on a topic related to Afro-Latinx Art and Afro-Latin American Art and Visual Culture, broadly defined. We will consider scholarly essays published in a peer-reviewed journal, edited volume, or exhibition catalogue during the previous year, on any aspect of Afro Latin American and Afro-Latinx art, architecture, or visual culture in Latin America and the diaspora, covering any period from the colonial era to the present. The award consists of a $500 honorarium and will be presented at the ALAA business meeting at the annual conference of the College Art Association in February 2026 in Chicago as well as the LASA Visual Culture Studies Section business meeting at the Latin American Studies Association conference. The name of the recipient will appear in the newsletters of both ALAA and LASA.

For the February 2026 Award, we will evaluate essays on Afro-Latinx Art and Afro-Latin American Art that meet the following criteria:

• Publication date between September 1, 2024 and July 31, 2025

• Essays may be written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese

The essays will be evaluated by a three-person committee of accomplished scholars in the field, each with expertise in a wide geographical and temporal range.

For consideration, authors should contact committee chair Carlos Rivas at rivas.91@osu.edu no later than August 1, 2025 8:00 PM EST and send their submission as a PDF. Peer nominations will also be accepted and are encouraged.

Afro Latin American/Afro-Latinx Scholarship Prize Committee

Carlos Rivas, Chair, rivas.91@osu.edu
Rosita Scerbo, rscerbo@gsu.edu
Kency Cornejo, kcornejo@g.ucla.edu