Political science research and teaching at the LAI (Institute for Latin American Studies) deals with fundamental questions of statehood and governance, political authority and culture, state and society, politics, and inequalities in different political spaces of Latin America. It also focuses on the changing role of the subcontinent through transformation and globalization processes, and addresses the evolving positioning of Latin America in relation to other world regions.

Political science at the LAI is involved in the Excellence Cluster SCRIPTS and in research networks of the LAI (trAndeS, Merian International Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences Conviviality in Unequal Societies: Perspectives from Latin America, and Temporalities of Future).

In various research projects, which include numerous doctoral and postdoctoral projects, there is a focus firstly on critically examining phenomena of limited statehood, authoritarianism, and populism. Secondly, the projects investigate the causes and effects of global inequality processes and practices of different forms of conviviality. Thirdly, the formation of new movements and their positioning within the Americas, as well as processes of interconnection, are at the center of the analyses.

In teaching, the department participates in the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training Program, in the MA “Interdisciplinary Latin American Studies,” and in the BA module of the LAI, as well as in various Bachelor's and Master’s programs at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences.

Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig

Secretary: Claudia Daheim

Rüdesheimer Str. 54-56 - Raum 216
14197 Berlin

Tel.: 49 (0)30 838-55573
Fax: 838 55464
E-Mail: daheim@zedat.fu-berlin.de