The Network for the Study of Punitive Systems and Social Control (RECSA) opens call for papers on convergences between penal and migratory control in the Americas
The Network for the Study of Social Control in the Americas (RECSA) has opened its call for papers "Convergences of Penal and Migration Control in the Americas," aimed at researchers, academics, and doctoral students interested in studying how mechanisms of coercive control are currently being constituted in the region.
RECSA is an initiative that brings together Chilean universities (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and Universidad Austral de Chile) and American universities (including UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, Rutgers University, and UMass-Boston). The project adopts an interdisciplinary perspective that combines law, criminology, legal sociology, and migration studies, and is funded by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID-FOVI250186).
The call seeks to gather comparative research on social control in the Americas, considering that tools traditionally confined to administrative or penal spheres—such as detention, pretrial detention, expulsion, and various forms of surveillance—are now intertwined in regimes that restrict the exercise of rights for individuals in contact with the criminal justice system and migrant populations.
Proposals must fall within one of the following thematic lines:
Social control through detention centers. Addresses the detention and confinement of migrants in facilities not associated with the penal system, including their regulatory frameworks and comparative practices in Latin America and other regions.
Social control through pretrial detention. Examines pretrial detention as a routine instrument of social control, its expansion and selectivity, and its effects on vulnerable populations.
Migration and the transformation of social control in the Americas. Examines the governance of migration and how control functions are channeled into the criminal justice system through border securitization, judicial expulsion, and the retreat of migration regimes.
Both comparative studies across cases in the Americas and specific case studies will be accepted, either individually authored or co-authored.
The process will unfold in three stages:
An online workshop with three sessions via Zoom in December 2026
An in-person conference in Valdivia (Universidad Austral de Chile) between March and April 2027
And the submission of a proposal for a special issue in an academic journal, to be determined.
Each proposal must include the title of the work, an abstract of up to 250 words, 4 to 6 keywords, the corresponding thematic line, the authors' academic affiliation, and a brief biographical note for each author. A total of eight proposals will be selected, distributed equally among the three thematic lines, and RECSA has funds available to partially finance the participation of up to four individuals.
The deadline for submitting proposals is September 30, 2026. Applications and inquiries should be directed to: [email protected].