We are pleased to announce the “Catholicism and the Cold War in Latin America” conference to be held from November 21-22, 2024 at the University of Oxford with support from “The Global Pontificate of Pius XII” project directed by Dr Simon Unger (GHI Rome). We seek contributions from scholars working on Roman Catholicism and the Cold War in Latin America from c. 1940 to c. 1990. Participants may be invited to contribute to a related edited volume co-edited by Dr Daniel McDonald (Oxford), Professor Jaime Pensado (Notre Dame), and Dr Simon Unger. The conference will include both panels and a workshop to further develop the volume. We especially encourage applications from scholars based in Latin America as well as from Early Career Researchers. The conference endeavours to assist with travel costs and accommodation for as many participants as possible, prioritizing those without institutional support and Early Career Researchers.

Latin America comprised a central arena in both the global transformation of the Catholic Church and in the Cold War during the twentieth century. The elevation of Pope Francis (2013-present) to become the first Latin American pope reopened fraught questions about the role of the Catholic Church during the Cold War. Similarly, the opening of new archival collections, most notably that of the papacy of Pius XII (1939-1958), have invigorated an already thriving historiography. Here, we take inspiration from recent work on the Cold War that has moved beyond conceptualizing the conflict as a clash between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies. Rather, Latin America’s Cold War consisted of overlapping layers of conflicts of local, national, and transnational scales wherein struggles over culture, social citizenship, inequality, local issues, and more became enmeshed with one another.

Key questions we will collectively address include:
- How did the different Latin American Churches influence the global Catholic Church’s actions amid the Cold War?
- How can examining transnational religious networks and cultural discourses reshape our understanding of the global Cold War?
- How did the Vatican intervene in Latin America during the Cold War, including but not limited to measures to prevent the spread of communism and its relations with authoritarian regimes?
- And finally, how can unpacking these complex processes simultaneously help us move beyond established narratives while establishing new frameworks and periodizations?

While we welcome submissions on any topic that addresses these questions, we are especially interested in transnational approaches that place Latin America in a global context. Along these lines, possible topics may include but are not limited to works that examine the Catholic Church, Catholicism, and the Cold War with regards to:
- Inequality and poverty, including social Catholicism; liberation theology; and, relations with social revolution, communism, and socialism.
- Culture, including conflict over morality; gender and sexuality; race and racism; as well as counterculture, student movements, and 1968.
- Layperson movements, including Catholic Action and its specialized branches (JOC, JUC, JEC, JAC, etc.); Pax Romana; Base ecclesiastical communities (CEBs); as well as right-wing Catholic movements such as Family, Tradition, and Property and the National Synarchist Union, among others.
- Global connections, including with decolonization in the Global South; the Vatican and its diplomatic outreach; inter-American networks; democratizing and post-WWII Europe; as well as international NGOs.
- Politics and political Catholicism, including Christian Democracy; dictatorships and state terror; as well as human rights and transitional justice.
- Ecclesiastical and theological approaches, including accounts focused on specific clergy, national Churches, missionaries, orders, and the papacy; the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965); the Conferences of Medellín (1968) and Puebla (1979); papal encyclicals and their reception; as well as theological debate on the aforementioned issues.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words including a presentation title, author(s) name(s), and affiliation(s) no later than April 1, 2024. In the abstract, please indicate whether you would contribute to the edited volume. Abstracts and any questions should be submitted to Daniel McDonald (daniel.mcdonald@history.ox.ac.uk) and Jaime Pensado (jpensado@nd.edu).