{{Short description, Non profit organization The European Council for Social Research on Latin America (CEISAL, for its Spanish name "Consejo Europeo de Investigaciones Sociales sobre América Latina) is a scientific association that brings together 35 research institutes, university faculties and other organizations in 16 European countries that study Latin American affairs.

Bodies and meetings

The CEISAL is a non-profit scientific association. Its main objectives are the contribution to research work, the production of knowledge through research and the recognition of the work that social science does to better understand the social, political and economic development of the Latin American region. All of the above is possible thanks to the close collaboration among its members, as well as with organizations and institutes in Latin America. The main bodies of CEISAL are the General Assembly, composed of the member institutes/associations, and the Board of Directors, elected by the General Assembly and composed of a maximum of nine members. Both bodies meet annually, either physically or online. According to th
statutes
the Steering Committee elects the Presidency of CEISAL for a period of three years. The current chair is held by Francisco Sánchez of the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca () is a public university, public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by Alfonso IX of León, King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the ...

in Spain. Every three years CEISAL organizes an international congress. For more information, see list below.

Congresses

I: Salamanca June 26–28, 1996 II: Halle 4–9 September 1998 III: Amsterdam July 3–6, 2002 IV: Bratislava 4–7 July 2004 V: Brussels 11–14 April 2007 VI: Toulouse 30 June - 3 July 2010 VII: Oporto 12–15 June 2013 VIII: Salamanca June 28 - July 1 2016 IX: Bucharest 29–31 July 2019 X: Helsinki 13–15 July 2022 XI: Paris 2-4 June 2025
CEISAL 2025
XII: Valencia, 2028

Institutional History

CEISAL was founded in Rheda Castle,

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

, on April 16, 1971, as an initiative to build a bridge between Western and Eastern

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The intention was to open a space of academic freedom and critical exchange between the two regions in order to contribute to the development of European Latin Americanism. Twenty-four research and teaching institutions from eight

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

an countries as well as from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

participated in the founding event. The protagonist of this initiative was Hanns-Albert Steger, sociologist at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, who chaired CEISAL for 24 years. The statutes were officially registered by the Austrian state in 1980 and the legal seat is still at the Austrian Institute for Latin America in Vienna. CEISAL was recognized by

Unesco The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in 1984 and in 1997 was granted official status as a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

in operational relations with Unesco. The statutes were amended in 1998 and 2002 for greater flexibility, efficiency and transparency of the organization. In 2024 CEISAL has 35 members - institutes and centers specialized in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

studies and national associations, representing 16 European countries. CEISAL collaborates closely with the European Network for Information and Documentation on Latin America (REDIAL). Together with the Professor Andrzej Dembicz Foundation, CEISAL regularly organizes the Professor Andrzej Dembicz Award for the best doctoral thesis on Latin America and the Caribbean. List of CEISAL presidents: 1971-1995: Hanns-Albert Steger, University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. 1995-2001: Romain Gaignard, University of Toulouse II - Jean Jaurès, France 2001-2007: Andrzej Dembicz, University of Warsaw, Poland 2007-2010: Klaus Bodemer, Institut für Iberoamerika-Kunde (today: GIGA Institut for Lateinamerican studies), Germany 2010-2013: Miguel Carrera Troyano, University of Salamanca, Spain 2013-2016: Carlos Quenan, Institut des Amériques, France 2016-2019: Jussi Pakkasvirta, University of Helsinki, Finland 2019-2022: Maria Clara Medina, University of Gothenburg, Sweden 2022-2025: Merike Blofield (until 2023) and Bert Hoffmann (2023–2025), German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) 2025-2028: Francisco Sánchez, Universidad de Salamanca

Members

International

* Centro de Estudios, Formación e Información de América Latina (CEFIAL)

Germany

* German Association for Latin American Research (ADLAF) * Grupo de Investigación Literaturas y Culturas en América Latina (GILCAL), University Halle * Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage ( IAI), Berlín * Latin American Institute (LAI) of the

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

* German Institute for Global and Area Studies (

GIGA Giga- ( or ) is a metric prefix, unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of a Long and short scales, short-scale billion or long-scale milliard (109 or 1,000,000,000). It has the symbol G. ''Giga-'' is derived from the Ancient Greek, ...

) *

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

Belgium

* (IRELAC/ICHEC) - Institut Interdisciplinaire pour les Relations entre l’Union Européenne, l’Amérique Latine, l’Afrique et les Caraïbes

Spain

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

* Instituto de Iberoamérica y el Mediterráneo, Fundación Laboral de Asistencia y Promoción de Empresas (FLAPE), Valencia * Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos (IELAT),

University of Alcalá The University of Alcalá () is a public university located in Alcalá de Henares, a city 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Madrid in Spain and also the third-largest city of the region. It was founded in 1293 as a ''Studium Generale'' for t ...

* Instituto Interuniversitario de Estudios de Iberoamérica,

* Instituto Universitario de Estudios sobre América Latina (IEAL),

University of Sevilla The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, in 2022 it has a student body of 57,214,U-Ranking Universidades español ...

Finland

* Department of World Cultures,

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

France

* Centre de recherche et de documentation de l'Amérique latine (CREDA), Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III * Institut des Hautes Etudes de l‘Amérique Latine (IHEAL), Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III * Institut des Amériques; Centre national de la recherche scientifique. SCTD, GIS IDA, 3486 (C.N.R.S.) * (IPEAT) Institut Pluridisciplinaire pour les Études sur les Amériques à Toulouse

Norway

* Norwegian Association of Latin American Studies (NALAS)

Hungary

* Centro Iberoamericano,

University of Pécs The University of Pécs ( , PTE; ) is one of the largest higher education institutions in Hungary. The history of the university began in the Middle Ages, when in 1367, at the request of Louis I of Hungary, King Louis I the Great, Pope Urban V gr ...

* Departamento de Estudios Hispánicos,

Szeged University The University of Szeged () is a public research university in Szeged, Hungary. Established as the Jesuit Academy of Kolozsvár in present-day Cluj-Napoca in 1581, the institution was re-established as a university in 1872 by Emperor Franz Jose ...

Netherlands

* Centro de Estudios y Documentación Latinoamericana (CEDLA),

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

Italy

* Associazione di Studi Sociali Latinoamericani (ASSLA) * Centro Studi Giuridici Latinoamericani (CSGLA), Università degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata'

Poland

* Institute of Iberian and Ibero-American Studies,

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

* American Studies Center of the

Portugal

* ISCTE (CEI-IUL) Istituto Universitário de Lisboa

United Kingdom

* Latin American Centre,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Russia (Federation)

* Ibero-American World Studies Association (AEMI) * Institute of Latin America (ILA ACR),

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

* Center for Ibero-American Studies,

Saint Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

* People's Friendship University of Russia, Moscow

Sweden

* Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies (NILAS),

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

* School of Global Studies,

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

Serbia

* Departamento de Estudios Italianos e Iberoamericanos, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (CIBAM),

University of Novi Sad The University of Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Универзитет у Новом Саду, Univerzitet u Novom Sadu; ) is a public university in Novi Sad, Serbia. Alongside nationally prestigious University of Belgrade, University of Novi Sad is ...

Invited members

* Red Europea de Información y Documentación sobre América Latina ( REDIAL) * Fundación Profesor Andrzej Dembicz
FUNDACJA
* Latin American Studies Association (LASA) * University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas (UMIA)