Call for papers
Open submissions
Special Issue 2025
Connections and networks of the Rockefeller Foundation in Latin America
Topoi. Revista de História will receive original articles in English, Portuguese or Spanish for its special issue Connections and networks of the Rockefeller Foundation in Latin America which will be published in the 2025 volume. We also welcome reviews of books that address the subject.
Introduction:
The Rockefeller Foundation (RF) is an international agency founded in 1913 on the philanthropic principles of John D. Rockefeller, an American millionaire who invested money from oil exploration, refining, and trading. He argued that philanthropy should not be mistaken for charity. Instead, it should be seen as an investment offered to government agencies rather than individuals, with a limited duration to avoid dependency. Moreover, he believed philanthropy should be directed towards organizations committed to sustaining the work even after the aid they receive ends.
Prior to the establishment of the World Health Organization in 1948, the International Health Division (IHD) of the RF played the most important role in public health work in the world (Farley, 2004). Following the closure of the IHD in 1951, the international agency reduced its funding for public health projects and began to invest more heavily in basic and laboratory sciences, in a true process of molecularization of the sciences (Kay, 1993).
This dossier aims to contribute to understanding the networks and connections established by the American philanthropic agency, which resulted in the formation of human resources in Latin America throughout the 20th century, with particular emphasis on its Scholarship Program. It is also noteworthy that, aside from offering financial support to academic institutions, the agency sponsored the dispatch of scholars abroad with the aim of training professionals who could later return to their home countries and share the knowledge they acquired. The professional trajectory of these scholarship holders did not always align with the interests of the RF, which demonstrates the complex relationships established between the local and the global. It is evident that the actions of the RF were clearly influenced by the specificities of local contexts, rather than being constrained by the directives of an international agency.
The objective of this call for papers is to solicit articles that demonstrate the complexity of the relationships established between the RF and governmental agencies, state departments, universities, and science and health institutes in Latin America. In particular, the articles should highlight the formation of science and health professions, the circulation of knowledge, international exchanges between countries, among other possibilities.
Submissions Information:
Articles must be original, unpublished and have between 40,000 and 60,000 characters. Book reviews should have between 10,000 and 18,000 characters with spaces and contemplate only works published in the last two years, (or four years, in case of foreign publications). All manuscripts must follow Topoi guidelines, which can be found in the instructions to authors: https://revistatopoi.org/site/en/instructions-to-authors/
Submissions must be made via ScholarOne. Please check the special issue option: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/topoi-scielo
Submissions will be accepted until January 31, 2025. Articles will be initially evaluated by the special issue editors, as to their relevance to the theme and the quality of the journal. Upon preliminary acceptance, manuscripts will be evaluated by at least two anonymous external referees, in the double-blind peer review system. Authors will be informed of the decision approximately three months after manuscript submission.
Editors:
If you have additional questions, please contact kadobatista@hotmail.com, karinaramacciotti@gmail.com and topoi@revistatopoi.org
Ricardo dos Santos Batista (Uneb) and Karina Ramacciotti (UBA), Guest Editors
Silvia Liebel, Editor-in-chief