OPTIONS - scope of studies ***NB JOINT EDITING IN PROGRESS**** Join in editing write to coordinator

1. Peruvianist disciplines
   By this is meant the fields of scholarship which are usually encompassed within the academic activity of the Centres /Institutes of Latin American Studies in Europe or in the membership of the Society of Latin American Studies or in the papers of the Society's annual conference. Until recently these fields have been applied to Peru but studies of (or for) the diaspora (in Ireland, UK, Europe) have not been seen as a mainstream activity.
2. All disciplines but applied to Peru and the Peruvian diaspora
   This option would extend the network to cover all disciplines but only where some application to Peru and/or its diaspora was concerned. For example referring to the UK: biology, botany, weaving . . . have not been core studies of the Peruvianist centres but these fields have produced seminal papers in which Peru is the area of application and/or of field research.
3. All disciplines without restriction
   Many if not most students from Peru in Europe are engaged in "non-Peruvianist" studies: financial economics, civil engineering, informatics, management and so on. Project work, independent study, dissertations and theses may have no reference to Peru. This network - if it is to be of use to students in this category in the future - should be more than purely "Peruvianist".

PROPOSAL
The network should not exclude any discipline from the scope of its activities and should - through its projects and consultative organisation - "embrace" the diaspora. However the focus should be on "Peruvianist" projects or "applied to Peru and/or its diaspora". There is scope for the network to facilitate staff and student exchange in any field between Peru and Ireland/UK.

OPTIONS - geospecificity

Is "Peruvian" Studies too narrow a specialism?
There really is no one unique identity: Peruvian, Latin American, Andean, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, European, British, English, Maltese or hyphenated combinations of these adjectives and others will be heard as a response to the question "Who are we?".

PROPOSAL Coordinating bureau in Peru
The network should specialise on Peru and its diaspora, but within the context of wider, Latin American studies in Ireland and the UK and the overall context of Peruvian(ist) studies in other European countries. It is proposed that a coordinating bureau for developing collaboration between Peru and the various European-languages nets for Peruvian studies be set up in Lima or other Peruvian location (to be decided by the Peruvian consultative group). Pending funding, a volunteer group in Peru - perhaps from amongst recently returned students / becarios in Europe - could coordinate the net, reply to emails and undertake other administrative tasks.

OPTIONS - structure

Should the new Peruvianist network be independent of the existing academic structures (e.g. the centres for Latin American studies in Ireland and the UK) or closely linked to them? On option - reflecting the existing role of SAS-ISA (previous ILAS) would be for the London Institute to host the "Latin Americanist" network in conjunction with the "diasporic associations" and for centres which have a track record of specialising in country or regional studies (in the case of Peru: Liverpool and Oxford and other universities with Peru specialisations) could consider this on a rota basis. Another option is for the associations jointly to host the network or for the network to eventually have its own persona juridica (e.g. status as a non-profit organisation).

PROPOSAL