Dear Members of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ and those interested in the IRTG,

With this, the third issue of the IRTG ‘Between Spaces’ Newsletter, we would like to inform you about our news and current events.

New members of staff at the Coordination Office

Julia Zahn is already well known to most of you. Even before the start of Entre Espacios, she worked on a freelance basis for the project. We are therefore all the more pleased that since early December Julia has permanently joined our team with a half-time position as Assistant to the Coordination Office. She is responsible for scholarship holders’ support and is the first point of contact for all German and Mexican scholarship holders in Berlin.

The filling of the second student assistant position is also in view. We hope to be able to introduce the candidate in the next Newsletter.

Office hours of the Coordination Office in the coming months:
Room 207 (Julia/Diana) Tues 3 – 5 pm and Thurs 10-11 am
Room 222 (Ingrid) Tues 2-4 pm and Thurs 11 am – 1 pm

 

Reports on events of recent months

Lecture: Antonio Ibarra, ‘Globalización y articulación commercial en Nueva España y el Río de La Plata, siglo XVIII’, November 3, 2010

On November 3, 2010, Prof. Dr. Antonio Ibarra visited the LAI, Berlin, where he held a lecture entitled ‘Globalización y articulación comercial en Nueva España y el Río de la Plata, siglo XVIII’. Mr Ibarra studied Economics and obtained his PhD in History at the Colegio de México in 2000. Currently he is Professor of Economic History at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

In his presentation, Prof. Ibarra examined the transformations taking place in the organisation of trade within the Spanish Empire during the second phase of globalisation. Concentrating on the cases of Guadalajara (northern silver trade) and Buenos Aires (harbour and slave trade), he showed how the commercial elites of these cities began to organise themselves in newly founded, but typically ancien régime, trade consulates in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Owing to the establishment of corporate institutions, local traders in these cities were able to expand further and integrate their businesses into the internal market dynamics of the American continent. Acting as a collective body, they were able to obtain corporate and fiscal privileges from the Crown and to promote internal coherence, which led to a better climate for investment. The new networks that formed round the consulates promoted more vigorous political representation, circulation of information, juridical control over trade practices and the decrease of fiscal expenditure and other transactional costs. Although these arrangements did not put an end to internal competition amongst the traders, the new consulates were able to challenge the dominance of the traditional American trade centres of Mexico City and Lima. This signified a profound change in the economic situation in New Spain during the late colonial period.
(Nino Vallen, IRTG Berlin)

Seminar Teresa Carbó, ‘On the Analysis of Verbal and Visual Texts. Concepts and Research Practices’, November 8, 9 and 12, 2010

Over three days in early November, Dr Teresa Carbó gave a seminar ‘On the Analysis of Verbal and Visual Texts. Concepts and Research Practices’. Dr Carbó is a professor and researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) in Mexico City.

The seminar focused on concepts that are important for social scientists in the construction of methodology, such as dimensions of analysis for the investigation of verbal and visual texts (time, space, the census of actors, processes, etc.). Dr Carbó maintained that social scientists should be educated by their own objects of research through maps, lists and series of questions. In her own studies on visual settings, these means are considered as evidence and as an evaluation of the world. One of their disadvantages, however, is that pictures always support a series of interpretations that depend on the ideas and beliefs of the observer.

Dr Carbó asked the participants of the seminar to submit texts about the basis of their research. These texts were reflections not only on the object of study, but also on the material used to achieve the goals outlined in the research.
(Florencia Faccio, IRTG Berlin)

Workshop Teresa Orozco, Christine Färber, Jochen Geppert, ‘Gender Competence for Nomad Scholars’, November 29 and 30, December 1, 2010

From Monday, November 29, to Wednesday, December 1, the workshop ‘Gender Competence for Nomad Scholars’ took place at the IRTG. It was conducted by Prof. Dr. Christine Färber, who is Professor for Empirical Social Research and also works as a consultant and coach in various academic and political contexts.

In organising and realising the workshop, Prof. Färber was assisted by Dr Teresa Orozco, who provided the first input about the concept of the workshop on Monday. As Dr Orozco is researching aspects of gender and mobility, she gave a short and very interesting overview of the current research and presented some ‘hard’ facts about gender-based differences in academic work-life and the influence of the increasing importance of mobility in an academic context.

The second day of the workshop focused on the practical aspects of gender, mobility and an academic career. The participants were asked to define some aims of their lives, present them, consider how these aims might interact and how to obtain support to achieve them. By performing role-playing games, participants also had the opportunity to look critically at the way in which they present their academic personalities.

On the last day the workshop turned to another focus. Prof. Färber was assisted by the psychologist Jochen Geppert, who works on gender policies and possibilities of gender mainstreaming. He provided input not only on the complex and diverse problems of discrimination towards women, but also explained gender as an intersectional concept which has to include aspects such as race, class, sexual orientation, religion. In defining the different levels of gender inequality (such as who works for how much money, what is the object of research, who are the decision-makers), the discussion also took up the goal of gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming means not only more fairness, but also the better use of resources by providing more people with access to research resources. In sum, the concept of the workshop – interaction with practical ‘every-day-situations’ and information about the structural perspective, including lively discussions – gave the participants a compact and useful overview of the problems and offered some possible solutions relevant to their personal lives and to the organisations in which they will be working.
(Antje Dieterich, IRTG Berlin)

 

Events in the coming months:

January 4, 2011, 6-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 201
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Rafael Mondragón (Mexico), ‘Formas de sociabilidad y valores estéticos en la bohemia anarquista rioplatense’

 

January 11, 2011, 6-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 201
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Tabea Huth (Berlin), ‘Key Issues of Space and Gender in the Context of Genderqueer Performance in Tijuana’

 

January 14 and 15, 2011, Seminaris Seehotel Potsdam, An der Pirschheide 40, 14471 Potsdam
IRTG Study Day

This will be the second Study Day as a preparation for the 2011 Summer School, which will take place from June 27 to July 2, 2011. In addition to discussing the first Study Day in October, participants will consider other key concepts on the basis of several texts. There will be discussions about the practical side for setting up the Summer School and about the IRTG’s programme for 2011.

This is a mandatory event for all members of the IRTG. There are also a few places for interested non-members. If you are interested in participating in the Study Day, please get in touch with us at the following address: entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de

 

January 17, 2011, Latin American Institute, time and place to be announced
Workshop ‘Queer Corporealities’, organised by Wagner Camargo (LAI), Isis Fernandes Pinto (LAI), Kaciano Gadelha (IRTG) and Tabea Huth (IRTG)
Further information and programme to follow

 

January 18, 2011, 6-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 201
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Francy Moreno (Mexico), ‘El deseo de una cultura universal. Políticas editoriales en revistas literarias latinoamericanas 1940-1956’

 

IN MEXICO:
January 24, 2011, 4-8 pm, room to be announced
Inter-institutional Formative Seminar
Marisa Belausteguigoitia Rius (UNAM), ‘The Emergence of Fields of Studies’

The ‘Studies’ regimes as a methodological, visual and pedagogical tool: the emergence of the liminal fields of Gender, Cultural, Queer, Latino, Chicana and Postcolonial Studies. This seminar focuses on the emergence of different perspectives and ‘views’ through the epistemological figure of ‘Studies’. I shall concentrate on the pedagogical, theoretical and methodological aspects of the configuration of this trans-disciplinary terrain as mobile, portable and dis-placed conceptual interventions clustering round the notions of vision, body, power and subjectivity. What I want to underline is the epistemological and pedagogical interventions inside hegemonic disciplines as a way of expanding, reorganizing and mobilizing concepts of discipline and academia, through the intervention of a specific form of administrating the notion of limit and border. These ‘Studies’ are considered inter-disciplinary, and as such emerge on the border, on the margins, of other disciplines. Consequently, I work with the expanding trans-disciplinary notions of border, limit, frontier and the ways in which liminal notions intervene in the construction of diverse ‘Studies’. The final purpose is to rethink critically the emergence of ‘new subjects’ of transformation (indigenous, transsexual and performative).

Students’ Presentations (6-8 pm)

• Vega, Mirna Yazmín Estrella, ‘Impactos de la migración femenina en Centroamérica’
• Elenes, Evelyn, ‘Estética de la indigencia’
• Arango Rodríguez, Selene Catalina, ‘La formación femenina en Colombia y en México: un estudio comparativo a través de del análisis de cuatro novelas de formación femenina’

 

January 25, 2011, 6-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 201
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Marius Haberland (Berlin), ‘Transnational Protest Movements in Mesoamerica’

 

February 1, 2011, 9 am – 1 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
Workshop ‘Asia y América’ (in Spanish)
Lectures by Carlos Alba, Marianne Braig, Mariano Bonialian, Stefan Rinke and Nino Vallen. Detailed programme to follow.

Places are limited. We request those interested in taking part in the workshop to register at entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de

 

February 1, 2011, 6-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 201
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Claudia Damián (Berlin), ‘Las linternas mágicas de Franz Mayer; recorridos en cristal’

 

February 8, 2011, 6-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 201
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Kaciano Gadelha (Berlin), ‘Narrativas virtuales del deseo’

 

February 10 and 11, 2011, Latin American Institute, Room to be announced
International Workshop ‘Gender, Ethnicity and Migration’ (in Spanish), organised by Ingrid Kummels and Stephanie Schütze

A detailed programme is available. Places are limited. For a detailed programme and registration, please contact entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de

 

February 15, 2011, 6-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 201
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
Sonia Roitman (Berlin), ‘Gated communities and Segregation in Mexico’

 

New Visiting Scholar at the IRTG in the coming months:

Dr Mariano Bonialian

Mariano Bonialian holds a doctorate in History at the Colegio de México. His dissertation will be published soon in book form under the title El Pacífico hispanoamericano. Comercio asiático en la América española (1680-1784). His current project is also dedicated to trade relations between America and Asia. In addition, Dr Bonialian has worked on the history of globalisation, on New Spain, Peru and the Río de la Plata of colonial times, Spanish economic history, the mercantilism and liberalism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and trade relations within the Spanish Empire.

Dr Bonialian will be a Visiting Professor at the IRTG from December 2010 to February 2011. He will be working on his new research project and will also participate in the activities of the IRTG, including a workshop on February 1 on relations between America and Asia.

For more information on our programme and activities, please consult our website: www.entre-espacios.de

2010 was an important and very busy year for the IRTG ‘Between Spaces’. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed and continue to contribute in many different ways to the success of our project. We would also like to wish all members of the IRTG, and all those interested in our project, a merry Christmas, a restful holiday, and all the best for the coming year!

The season’s greetings,
Ingrid Simson and her team