Current Projects
PROJECTS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE MAIN RESEARCH FOCUS
German Scientists in Argentina (1850-1930)
The aim of this project is to analyze the activities of German scientists living in Argentina between 1850 and 1930. It starts from the premise that German scientists who stayed for a relatively long time in Argentina were protagonists of exchange and transfer processes between the two countries and therefore can be considered as important actors of trans-nationalization. The studied period begin with the reorientation of the research interests of the renowned zoologist Hermann Burmeister to South America, which continued with the tradition inaugurated by the American journey of Alexander von Humboldt and can also be seen as the start of a chain migration of scientists, and finishes with the end of the Weimar Republic. With its focus on the transnational aspect, the project aims to contribute to the questioning of the prevailing methodological nationalism. Finally, the analysis of specific forms of transfer of scientific practices from Germany to Argentina and vice versa by the scientists involved will allow a better understanding of the mechanisms of the cultural and scientific transfer.
Coordination: Dr Sandra Carreras; duration: 2010-2013
Formal Indexing and Scholarly Editing of Hirsch-Weber’s Papers
Wolfgang Hirsch-Weber’s papers are to be formally indexed and edited. It is through this formal indexing that the papers will for the first time be registered and made accessible on a German-wide and international basis via the Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund GBV (Collective Library Association), the Portal für Bibliotheken, Archive und Museen BAM (Portal for Libraries, Archives and Museums) and Kalliope’s database. The editing of Hirsch-Weber’s papers is informed by three main objectives: 1) preparation and publication of a critical edition of the posthumous papers’ unpublished manuscripts with Hirsch-Weber’s memories of the years 1920 to 1940, which offer illuminating material for study of the construction of memory vis-à-vis exile and migration; 2) making a contribution to research on the political activities of German immigrants in Latin America through the example of the organization “Das Andere Deutschland” (“The Other Germany”), inclusive the holding of an international symposium; 3) making a contribution to the study of German-Latin American relations, with a focus on Chile and Bolivia and through the example of the international activities of German social democracy in the region.
Coordination: Dr Sandra Carreras/ Dr Gregor Wolff; duration: 2009-2012
Modernity and Difference: Identity Constructs of Latin American "Hombres de Letras" ("Men of Letters") and Intellectuals in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
This project will investigate the postcolonial identity constructs of Latin American “hombres de letras” (“men of letters”) and intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as their relationship with European modernism. On the one hand, the hombres de letras and intellectuals drew on European cultural models, on the other, they attempted to define the ways they were different in their postcolonial worlds. In part, the project will analyze the fracturing of the intellectual elites and their discourses along feminist, postcolonial, postmodern, ethnic and other lines. It will be carried out in cooperation with the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. In 2010, the symposium “La historia intelectual como historia literaria (México y Argentina)” was realized at the El Colgio de México. In 2011, we applied for a research grant to organize an international symposium and further research activities.
Coordination: Dr Friedhelm Schmidt-Welle; duration: 2010 - 2015
From the "Field" to the City of Knowledge
This project will investigate knowledge circulation between the "field" as a specific space of knowledge production and the city of Berlin as a historically established center for the production, exchange and archiving of knowledge from non-European regions. Using historical and recent fieldwork materials, it will seek to answer the following questions: What objects and media originate in the field with respect to the material legacies of the holistic knowledge process taking place there? How do people, objects, media and knowledge circulate between the field and the city of Berlin? How are the objects and media from the field recontextualized and reorganized in Berlin—that is, how are they divided up between the city’s different archives of knowledge (the Ibero-American Institute, Ethnology Museum, Natural History Museum, Museum of Medical History, etc.)? In addition to historical analyses concentrating on the first half of the twentieth century, the project will examine the role that knowledge circulation plays for archives of knowledge today. In so doing, it will shed light on the manner in which new forms and paths of knowledge, as well as differently structured relations between the center and periphery, affect archives of knowledge today. In cooperation with Dr Sandra Carreras we are applying for a research grant for a project about circulations of knowledge between Germany, Argentina and Chile (1850-1930). Furthermore, we are preparing a sub-project which is part of the application for a cCuster of Excellence coordinated by the Humboldt-Universität.
Coordination: Dr Barbara Göbel
Scientific Exchange between Germany and Chile since the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Although Chile belongs to the smaller Latin American countries, traditionally it has exerted an important role in the scientific relations between Germany and Latin America. For its part, Germany for a long time has been an important point of reference for Chilean students and scientists. The central objective of this project is to analyze the reciprocal academic influences and the formation of scientific networks between the two countries since the Second Half of the Twentieth Century. Chilean scientists who have written their doctoral thesis in Germany, and German scientists who have spent a longer time in Chile shall be asked about to what extent the stay abroad has affected their understanding of theory and methods and what kind of scientific networks have originated from it. Besides, the importance of German scientists and researchers with regard to the development of the Chilean social sciences shall be analyzed, as well as the importance of academic exchange programs for the scientific relations between both countries. The project is realized in cooperation with Dr Enrique Fernández (Universidad Alberto Hurtado) and Prof Dr Nikolaus Werz (Rostock University).
Coordination: Dr Peter Birle; Duration: 2011-2014
PROJECTS BEYOND THE MAIN RESEARCH FOCUS
Dzehkabtun Archaeological Project
Dzehkabtun is an archaeological site of Mayan Culture from the Early to Terminal Classic Periods located in the northern part of Campeche, Mexico. It became known to the public by several photos, maps and descriptions made by Teobert Maler during a visit in 1887.
Based on a preliminary investigation by a team from the University of Bonn conducted in 2008, a new archaeological project at Dzehkabtun is being scheduled for 2012/2013. During the 2008 survey, the site's centre was mapped, and it turned out that Dzehkabtun had been much bigger and more diverse in architectural styles than assumed before: among other traits, whole patio groups seem to have been modified by large-scale building activities during the Terminal Classic. These late structures differ in some aspects of their construction and their spatial concept from the 'c-shaped structures' of the neighbouring Puuc zone.
We are planning to excavate part of them in order to answer questions about the continuity or disruption from Late to Terminal Classic times, the socio-political structure and the reasons for the abandonment of the classic centres of the central Yucatan Peninsula in a broad regional context. In addition (and as a base for further research) the mapping of the settlement will be continued. We hope to be able to delimit the archaeological site and protect it from further destruction due to seasonal burning and looting for building stones.
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Coordination: Dr. Iken Paap
Documenta Grammaticae et Historiae, Part II: Portuguese
Documenta is a project in linguistic historiography. It aims to build a corpus of Brazilian and Portuguese grammars written between the 16th and the 19th century, to situate them in the historic contexts of their production and reception, to gather the grammatical metaterms in order to build an electronic dictionary, and to make them available for further study and research. (Dr. Ulrike Mühlschlegel, in cooperation with Centro de Documentação em Historiografia Linguística (CEDOCH), Departamento de Linguística, Universidade de São Paulo).
Coordination: Dr Ulrike Mühlschlegel
Latin American Foreign Policies in Comparative Perspective
The central objective of this project is to analyze the foreign policies of eight Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela) since the end of the Cold War, trying to identify the main internal and external variables that offer explanations for the distinct national strategies of international insertion. The study focuses especially on the relationships with the respective neighbouring countries and on the attitudes towards the processes of regional cooperation and integration.
Coordination: Dr Peter Birle; Duration: 2009-2013
Literary Representations of Memory: Juan Rulfo and Julio Llamazares
Within the last 25 years, “memory” has not only turned into a transversal theme of Humanities, but also of medical science, biology, and clinical psychology. These disciplines are usually classified as neurosciences. The objective of neurosciences is to analyse the functions of the human brain. Its main interest is focused on brain damages, as constraints of the capacity of the individual to remember up to the temporary or entirely loss of the autobiographical (episodic) memory. At the same time, research in Humanities on the collective or the cultural memory has advanced. As in empirical neurosciences, nowadays Humanities consider episodic memory as a process of permanent (re-)construction. Up to now, in Spanish-speaking countries, studies on post-dictatorial memory determine the research on memory in the Humanities. Memory is mainly studied in the context of historic traumata. Our interdisciplinary research project, however, will analyse the literary representation of individual as well as collective memory by taking into account the research results of the neurosciences and the Humanities. The project includes the critique of the construction and the functionalization of the past in literature. In the first phase of the project (2011 to 2013) we will analyse the literary representation of memory in the prose of Mexican writer Juan Rulfo and Spanish writer Julio Llamazares. Memory is an essential theme and a stimulant of the narrative process in the texts of both authors. The aim is to analyse the inscription of literary memory in the collective memory and, at the same time, its dissociation from official memory as it becomes manifest in anniversaries, monuments, historiography, etc. We plan to publish an interdisciplinary volume on the cultures of memory in 2012 and a monograph on Rulfo and Llamazares in 2014.
Coordination: Dr Friedhelm Schmidt-Welle; duration: 2011-2013
Socio-ecological Inequalities in Latina America
The Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany) funds the research network “Interdependent inequalities in Latin America - desiguAldades.net". The objective of the international and interdisciplinary research network, whose spokesman are Dr Barbara Göbel (Ibero-American Institute) and Prof Dr Marianne Braig and Prof Dr Sérgio Costa (Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin), is to analyze social inequalities in Latin America, which are characterized by increasing global interdependences. One of the four research dimensions of the network analyzes socio-ecological inequalities. It is coordinated by Barbara Göbel (Ibero-American Institute) and Dr Imme Scholz (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, DIE, Bonn). Key interests of the research dimension are environmental conflicts, unequal access to natural resources and unequal distribution of environmental costs and environmental risks. In addition, knowledge asymmetries are studied. Two main foci are the trans-regional interdependencies and local social, economic and political impacts of agri-business (e.g. cultivation of soybeans, forestry) and mining. As part of this focus, Barbara Göbel is developing the project "Transnational Mining and socio-ecological inequalities: the use of lithium in the Puna de Atacama".
Coordination: Dr Barbara Göbel; duration: 2009-2013
Environment, Worldview and Resource Utilization in the Andean Highlands of Northwestern Argentina
This project will examine the way economic strategies are codetermined by culturally specific environmental perceptions, religious ideas and social interactions. Its goal is a more precise understanding of the complex links between interest, knowledge (attitudes, risk perception, information, conventions) and action. Furthermore, the intercultural comparison of the environmental conceptualizations and risk perceptions held by the indigenous residents of the highlands and representatives of state, church and political organizations will open the way for a deeper understanding of the way environmental knowledge changes in multiple cultural interaction contexts and in various power constellations. The project is based on several ethnographic field studies in northwestern Argentina and northern Chile and on extensive archival work in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. A monograph is in preparation.
Coordination: Dr Barbara Göbel