Call for proposals for the year 2025

Digital change and knowledge production in and about Latin America and the Caribbean

For 2025, only projects that deal with the effects of digital change on knowledge production in and about Latin America and the Caribbean and the international circulation of this knowledge will be considered. The use of knowledge as a resource is a much-discussed topic today. New technologies and media formats enable better access to knowledge as a resource, but at the same time they lead to debates and conflicts about the usability, dissemination, monopolization, democratization and diversification of knowledge and thus raise questions of social, political and economic power. The topics of digitization and digital transformation have become central subjects of study in the humanities and social sciences. Concepts such as digital humanities and the digital turn play an important role in this context.

Examples of topics that can be funded in 2025:
- Historical aspects, framework conditions and contexts of digital change in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Effects of the digital transformation on the production of knowledge, on the development of scientific disciplines, on scientific practices, on scientific innovation processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Impact of the digital transformation on the national, regional and international distribution, dissemination and circulation of knowledge produced in Latin America and the Caribbean (e.g. digital humanities, open access, open science, citizen science) and the resulting opportunities and challenges.  
- Effects of digital change on the perception and circulation of non-Western, local and indigenous ontologies and knowledge practices.
- Effects of digital change on the global production of knowledge about Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Literary and cultural treatments of digital change in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Fictions and representations of artificial intelligence: what role does "other" knowledge play in the arts?

Application deadline for 2025 is Friday, August 23, 2024.

The minimum requirement for an application is a first university degree and the beginning of a doctorate at the time of application. The amount of the scholarhip is 1,300 € per month for doctoral candidates, 1,600 € for those with a PhD or equivalent qualification, and 800 € for people who do not need a full scholarship due to their other income, as well as up to 1.000 € for travel expenses.

Applicants must submit all documents via email to the following address: <becas@iai.spk-berlin.de>. The application must include the following documents:
- A completed application form;
- A resume (maximum 10 pages);
- A publication list (if any publications exist);
- Copies of university diplomas conferring academic degrees;
- Two letters of recommendation from university teachers, if possible with reference to the submitted project (applies only to Ph.D. candidates). You can submit the letters of recommendation with the other documents, but it is also possible that reviewers send them directly to the IAI.
- A detailed description of the project according to the following framework (the character limits apply including spaces):
1) Abstract (max. 1,500 characters);
2) Definition of the topic and the guiding questions of the study. The following questions should also be considered: What makes the project innovative? What connects it to other disciplines? (max. 6,000 characters);
3) Theoretical-conceptual and methodological approach (max. 6,000 characters);
4) Current status of the project (max. 3,000 characters);
5) Description/mention of the most important materials to be consulted during the research stay at IAI (max. 3,000 characters).
6) Bibliography (max. 20 titles, please highlight the 5 most important titles for the project).

You can submit applications and documents in German, English, Portuguese and Spanish. The size of an e-mail must not exceed 5 MB. We will not consider applications that do not meet these requirements.

Privacy policy for the processing of personal data in your scholarship application.

Due to the high number of applications, it is unfortunately not always possible for IAI to answer individual inquiries from applicants immediately. If you have any questions, please consult our list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) first.

The decision on the awarding of scholarships for the year 2025 is expected to be made by the end of November. Applicants will then be informed of the outcome of the selection process by email as soon as possible.

Contact

Scientific Director
Dr. Peter Birle
becas@iai.spk-berlin.de

Scholars 2024

Balutet, Nicolas (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France Campus Mont Houy, France): El transclase en el mundo hispánico: formación, inclinación, creatividad

Barros, Ewerton (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil): Desejos em comum: itinerários científicos, redes intelectuais e circulação de ideias do Clube Internacional de Folclore (América Latina, 1951-1964)

Becerril Aceves, Josemaria (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France): Felling Trees Without Losing the Forrest? Indigenous Labor and Cosmopolitics in a Germano-Mexican Sustainable Forestry Program in Southeastern Mexico (Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo)

Bello, Eduardo (Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA): Visual culture and Mexican modernization: reexamining documentary photography of built environments in Mexico (1880s-1970s)

Fortes, Alexandre (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Nova Iguaçu, Brasil); A Segunda Guerra Mundial e o nacionalismo latino-americano: Uma análise comparativa entre Brasil, México e Argentina

Garay Montaner, Gerardo (Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay): Cultura escrita y educación en el siglo XIX. Modos de lectura y prácticas de escritura en la inmigración valdense, Uruguay, 1858-1900

Garzón Mantilla, Juan (California State University, Fresno, USA): La caída de los Scyris y el auge de Tiahuanaco: Max Uhle, Arthur Posnansky y la pseudoarqueología de los Andes

Gómez Rendón, Jorge (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador): La influencia del castellano en el kichwa de Imbabura a partir de un estudio comparativo de corpus de narraciones recogidas por Roswith Hartmann (1970-1973)

Jaramillo Restrepo, Sandra (Centro de Documentación e Investigación de la Cultura de Izquierdas , Buenos Aires, Argentina): Los largos años sesenta colombianos: de la crítica a la radicalidad discursiva. Trayectorias y revistas en las tramas latinoamericanas

Krause, Ines (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germersheim, Deutschland): Der Übersetzer Curt Meyer-Clason und seine Art des Übersetzens

Rajmanovich, Jacqueline (Colegio Goethe Buenos Aires, Argentina): Las escuelas alemanas en Argentina y la ideología nacionalsocialista durante el Tercer Reich hasta su confiscación por parte del Estado argentino (1933-1946)