Higher education as an instrument for reducing social inequalities and building the institutional foundations of democratic systems: the launch of the Julio Cotler Program
OBREAL launches the Julio Cotler Program, an initiative that aims to provide a platform for emerging voices. With this goal in mind, the program targets young university students – those who are in their final year of undergraduate studies or graduated in the past two years – across all disciplines. This includes researchers, activists and policymakers who have not yet published an article in a peer-reviewed journal or book series.
Two separate calls for applications
The launch of the Julio Cotler Program is divided into two different calls. One is designed specifically for participants from Peru, Julio Cotler’s home country, while the other is designed for participants from the rest of Latin America or university members of OBREAL.
The target of each program is different, but the methodology is the same: all participantsmust submit an abstract of no more than 400 words describing their main idea or thesis and how it contributes to the reduction of social inequalities and builds the institutional foundations of democratic systems.
A committee of experts will select 15 or 20 abstracts. The authors of said abstracts will be invited to write an extended article of about 8.000 words that will be discussed in a workshop-conference. Two of these articles will receive a financial award of €2.000 each and will be published online to be accessible to all.
The call for applications opens February 20, 2024 and closes May 15, 2024.
Julio Cotler, the main intellectual figure of OBREAL’s first era
OBREAL launches the Julio Cotler Program in the context of its 20th anniversary. Julio Cotler (1932–2019), was the main intellectual figure of the association’s first era (2004–2007).
The professional life of Julio Cotler was linked to education from his beginnings, as an elementary school teacher in Huarochiri in the 1950s while doing his fieldwork for his anthropology degree. The conviction that higher education can contribute to reducing social inequality was central to Julio Cotler’s life and intellectual activity, which was oriented, in a broader perspective, to the discussion and affirmation of democracy and the construction of the political and social institutions necessary to provide democracy with a solid foundation.
