The American Philosophical Association is pleased to announce that Francisco Gallegos (Georgetown University) has been awarded the 2017 Essay Prize in Latin American Thought for his essay, “Surviving Social Disintegration: Jorge Portilla on the Phenomenology of Zozobra.”
The APA committee on Hispanics sponsors this annual prize, which includes a $500 monetary award, for the best unpublished, English-language, philosophical essay in Latin American thought. The winning essay will be published in an upcoming issue of the APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues in Philosophy.
Gallegos received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University in March 2017. His areas of specialization are moral psychology and phenomenology, with areas of competence in existentialism, Latin American philosophy, ethics, and social and political philosophy.
The selection committee said, “This article does a good job summarizing and interpreting Portilla’s notion of ‘zozobra,’ and states in a clear way how such notion could apply to the current U.S. political climate and reality. The essay has broad applicability in how social norms are being disrupted both inside U.S. and abroad (England here seems to be quite applicable). The feeling of zozobra seems to extend beyond America’s borders and much of the analysis found here could be used to diagnose the unrest many feel in Western societies.”
