Prof. Dr. Barbara Göbel
Director
- E-Mail: goebel(at)iai.spk-berlin.de (opens your email program)
- Tel: +49 30 266 45 1500 (starts a telephone call, if your device allows this)
- ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0583-9265 (external link, opens in a new window)
Social and Cultural Anthropology
- Management
- Researchers
I have been the director of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI, Ibero-American Institute) since 2005 and an honorary professor at Freie Universität Berlin (external link, opens in a new window) since 2017. I am also a member of the interim board of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, SPK (external link, opens in a new window)) and have been an honorary professor at the Freie Universität Berlin since 2017. As part of the international collaborative project Mecila “Maria Sibylla Merian Center Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America (Mecila (external link, opens in a new window))” funded by the BMFTR (external link, opens in a new window), I am contributing my expertise as Principal Investigator. In 2024, I took over the chair of the German Latin America Research Association (ADLAF (external link, opens in a new window)) for the IAI. In addition, I serve on several advisory boards and scientific committees at the national and international levels.
After earning my doctorate in 1990 in ethnology, prehistory and early history, as well as economic and social history, I worked at the universities of Göttingen (external link, opens in a new window), Tübingen (external link, opens in a new window), Köln (external link, opens in a new window), Hohenheim (external link, opens in a new window), Bonn (external link, opens in a new window) and at the Collège de France (external link, opens in a new window) (Paris). As part of several international projects, I conducted ethnographic and historical research in northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. From 2002 to 2025, I directed the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which was sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC) (now the International Science Council (ISC (external link, opens in a new window)) as well as the United Nations University UNU (external link, opens in a new window). As a visiting professor, I have taught at universities in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and the United States. In 2021, I was awarded Argentina’s Leloir Prize for my contribution to the internationalization of the social sciences and the humanities.
