Mecila - Final Phase: Medialities of Conviviality and Information Infrastructure
Key information
Duration:
01.04.2026 - 31.03.2029
Status: Ongoing
Sponsors:
Project group:
Academics:
- Prof. Dr. Barbara Göbel
Principal Investigator - Dr. Peter Birle
Principal Investigator - Dr. Christoph Müller
Leitung des Teilprojektes und Principal Investigator - Dr. Clara Ruvituso
Principal Investigator
IAI employees:
Project Manager
Coordination:
Dr. Christoph Müller
E-Mail: mueller(at)iai.spk-berlin.de (opens your email program)
Cooperation Partners / Institutions:
Description
Starting point
The Mecila - Maria Sibylla Merian International Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America (Mecila) examines past and present forms of social, political, and cultural conviviality in Latin America and the Caribbean. It employs conviviality as an analytical concept to describe ways of living together in specific contexts characterized by diversity and inequality. In order to achieve this, it links studies about interclass, interethnic, intercultural, interreligious and gender relations in Latin America and the Caribbean with studies about conviviality beyond the region. In doing so, the Centre aims to establish an innovative exchange with benefits for both European and Latin American research.
The Centre’s headquarters have been stablished in São Paulo (Brazil) by a consortium composed of three German institutions: Freie Universität Berlin (coordination); Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Berlin; and Universität zu Köln, Cologne, as well as four Latin American institutions: Universidade de São Paulo and Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento, São Paulo, Brazil, Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (CONICET / Universidad Nacional de La Plata), La Plata, Argentina, and El Colegio de México, Mexico City, Mexico. The Centre draws on the existing long-term cooperation between these institutions.
Mecila was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) from 2020 until March 2026 through a main phase. From April 2026 to 2029, the project will continue to be funded as part of a three-year final phase.
The Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI, Ibero-American Institute) coordinates together with the Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (CONICET / Universidad Nacional de La Plata) the Research Area: “Medialities of Conviviality and Information Infrastructure”.
For more information see Mecila (external link, opens in a new window).