Our Research Line

From 2025 to 2030, research activities at the IAI will be guided by the research line "Knowledge – Cultures – Medialities. Latin America and the Caribbean in a Transregional Perspective." The IAI deliberately refers to a research line rather than a research focus. This reflects the fact that, in addition to their contributions to the research line, the institute's researchers engage in other academic activities that enable them to make optimal use of their individual expertise and networks. The IAI pursues three fundamental strategic goals with this research line. First, the focus on a research line strengthens content-related cooperation and interdisciplinary exchange within the institute. Second, the research line bundles the research activities at the IAI. This not only initiates and develops joint research projects, but also lays the foundation for acquiring third-party funding. Third, the research line communicates the institute's diverse research activities to the outside world with a clearly recognizable profile. The research line "Knowledge – Cultures – Medialities. Latin America and the Caribbean in a Transregional Perspective" builds on the results, contributions, and experiences of the IAI's previous research lines, but sets new accents and develops new questions. The research program focuses on three areas: 1) "Knowledge Production and Knowledge Circulation," 2) "Cultural Production and Cultural Transfer," and 3) "Controversial Cultural Heritage." These topics correspond to the profile of the IAI and its role within the SPK network. They draw on the institute's collections and existing scientific expertise, on its networks and collaborations, take current scientific debates into account, and address relevant global social challenges. We use cultures and knowledge in the plural to refer to the diversity and divergence of concepts of culture and knowledge in the field of tension between different disciplines, traditions, and practices. By medialities, we mean practices, contexts, and configurations that take into account both the material and immaterial dimensions of language, image, sound, and music. This also includes intermediality, i.e., the relationships, connections, and breaks between individual media, as well as the simultaneity of different – analog and digital – forms of expression, materialities, and representations.  The three central topics of the research line and the most important questions associated with them are briefly outlined below.

The IAI is, in its configuration, a unique place, where knowledge production in and about Latin America and the Caribbean can be found in a variety of media, both analog and digital, not only in the form of books, journals, and newspapers, but also in the form of estates, image documents, sound recordings, institutional archives, maps, graphics, and other collections. Against this backdrop, the Institute considers it essential to critically examine the actors, processes, institutions, and infrastructures that are crucial for the production and circulation of knowledge, as this enables theoretical and methodological reflections to be combined with practical applications. The aim is to analyze, explain, and understand in a more differentiated way the processes of knowledge production and circulation that are shaped by persistent multidimensional inequalities (including differences in income, gender, culture, ethnicity) and transregional interconnections, in order to contribute to their reduction. This also requires a more comprehensive understanding of social debates on the recognition of diversity and difference, as well as the valorization of different forms of knowledge and knowledge practices. In this context, it is very important to consider the opportunities and risks of digital transformation, not only to understand the fundamental transformations in the production, circulation, and appropriation of knowledge, but also to explore whether digital transformation reduces inequalities, or rather reinforces them or even creates new ones. 

The multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary field of knowledge production and circulation does not focus on a clearly defined subject area. Rather, it brings together different theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspectives.

Key questions in the context of this topic area include:

• Which actors, processes, institutions, and infrastructures are instrumental in the production and circulation of knowledge in and about Latin America and the Caribbean? What patterns and strategies can be identified in light of persistent multidimensional inequalities in processes of knowledge production and circulation?
• What challenges and barriers do non-Western, indigenous, and African American forms of knowledge and knowledge practices face? Can collaborative formats of knowledge production and open science practices contribute to their visibility, circulation, and reception?
• What impact is the digital transformation having on the production and circulation of knowledge in and about Latin America and the Caribbean? What consequences does the increasing penetration of artificial intelligence into scientific practices have for the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences? 

This thematic area analyzes cultural production and cultural transfer in Latin Ameri-ca and the Caribbean, considering their historical dimensions and transregional interconnections. Different theoretical and methodological approaches in the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences have developed concepts such as transculturation, mestizaje, hybridity, and creolization to explore the specific characteristics, contents, and medialities of Latin American and Caribbean cultural productions. The analysis of processes of cultural transfer, i.e., the reception, appro-priation, translation, and transformation of cultural meanings, practices, and repre-sentations, takes into account the social contexts shaped by multidimensional ine-qualities and differences.
The IAI's multimedia collections enable innovative links between text, sound, and image sources. These unique and interconnected materials are of outstanding im-portance for research on cultural production and cultural transfer due to their histori-cal depth, geographical breadth, and cultural diversity. The interface between sci-ence and culture, as implemented through the IAI's program of events, also provides important impetus in this context.
Key questions in the context of this topic area are:

• Who are the key players, intermediary groups, and institutions involved in cultur-al production and transfer in Latin America and the Caribbean? What role do they play in raising awareness of the region's cultural production in Europe, par-ticularly in Germany?
• How do technological, cultural, political, and social changes influence mediali-ties, intermedialities, and forms of representation in Latin America and the Carib-bean? Which opportunities and challenges does the digital transformation present for cultural production and distribution channels as well as for (trans)regional cultural transfer?
• How are cultural production and cultural transfers shaped by asymmetrical con-figurations? What role does the cultural and linguistic diversity of Latin America and the Caribbean play in this context?
   

In recent decades, collections and collecting institutions such as museums, libraries, and archives have become the starting point for social debates about tangible and intangible cultural heritage. This has revealed the heuristic limitations of static and essentialist concepts of cultural heritage that emerged in the context of nation states, are legitimized by certain types of knowledge, and are organized by the logic of centralized knowledge infrastructures. In contrast, practice-oriented concepts of cultural heritage that emphasize accessibility, participation, and multiple perspectives in dealing with cultural objects and media have gained importance. They view tangible and intangible cultural heritage from a dialogical and processual perspective. In the context of collections on Latin America and the Caribbean, engaging with indigenous and African American groups has become an important challenge for collecting institutions. This is accompanied by processes of recirculation, reappropriation, restitution, and reinterpretation of objects. They create new, transregional networks of relationships, but also reveal legal inconsistencies, as cultural objects may be subject to conflicting legal regimes. 

The IAI takes a critical and reflective approach to issues relating to cultural heritage, focusing on the complex relationships between the so-called Global North and the so-called Global South. In doing so, it also takes into account the fact that it is an institution of the SPK, a cultural heritage institution with national responsibilities. The institute's collections on Latin America and the Caribbean and their complementarity with the holdings of other SPK institutions, in particular the Ethnological Museum, play a key role in this context.

Key questions in the context of this topic area are:

• What conceptualizations, social debates, legal frameworks, processes, and practices exist in Europe and Latin America/the Caribbean with regard to cultural heritage? What mutual learning processes are possible between Germany/Europe and Latin America/the Caribbean in dealing with tangible and intangible cultural heritage? What forms of cooperation exist between central knowledge infrastructures on the one hand and fluid, communal knowledge infrastructures of indigenous or African American groups on the other?
• What is the impact of the digital transformation on the understanding of cultural heritage and the handling of collections? What opportunities and challenges does it bring? Which inequalities are being reduced, increased or created by the digital transformation? What questions arise with regard to data sovereignty?
• What strategies are museums, libraries, and archives developing to increase access to their collections, improve participation, and promote processes of recirculation, reappropriation, and restitution of objects?