The first graduate school of Latin American economic studies (ESCOLATINA) between "autochthonous" and international logics (1956-1964)

After World War II, international organizations and research institutes dedicated to the development of local expertise thrived in Latin America. The desire to produce appropriate knowledge to solve the region's socio-economic problems raised the question of the intellectual and material autonomy of these organizations. This article combines intellectual and social history to investigate the early years of the first Graduate School of Latin American Economic Studies (ESCOLATINA), founded in Chile in 1956. The mixture of archival research, collective biography, and sequence analysis allows us to examine the tensions between, on the one hand, the quest for epistemic autonomy and rapprochement with other social sciences, and, on the other hand, the influence of the US model of graduate schools of economics together with the dependence on foreign resources and experts. The history of ESCOLATINA also reveals how the academic and political environment in Chile shaped the school and transformed it over time.