Ethnicity, Race and Gender in the Caribbean

Workshop for Junior Scholars at the Latin-American Institute

February 15th, 2013, 9:00 am – 7:00 pm, Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Unversität Berlin

Organization: Birte Timm and Claudia Rauhut

The main purpose of the workshop to be held on the Latin-American Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin is to establish a network of junior scholars from anthropology, history, sociology, literature and other disciplines currently doing research on the Caribbean.

Due to its heterogeneity and its long-standing history of colonialism, the Caribbean provides a rich field of research for questions related to ethnicity, race and gender in past and present. The workshop puts a spotlight on the greater Caribbean region, (i.e. the islands as well as the surrounding mainland countries in the Americas, including the Caribbean diaspora) as an under-researched area in the German academic landscape. We wish to assess current trends and new approaches in the interdisciplinary research on the Caribbean and to provide an exchange platform especially for young scholars who especially take transatlantic relations into consideration. We are particularly interested in empirically based approaches on social practices and arenas where processes of identity-building take place: religion, social and ethno-political movements, national discourses, cultural or artistic practices and manifestations.

The workshop is designed to be a stepping stone for establishing a sustainable and lasting network of scholars. It will allow for an exchange of views of junior scholars with regard to their current academic and aspired academic activities on the Caribbean. In order to provide a long-term platform for mutual exchange and information flow, we will launch a network-website, where members can showcase their research projects and areas of interest. This platform will inspire an ongoing dialogue with researchers from Europe and the Caribbean to ensure that we not only do research about the Caribbean but interact and cooperate with scholars from the region and engage in fruitful discussions.