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

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

News from the Coordination Office

We are pleased to welcome Saranda Frommold as the new student assistant in our Coordination Office. Saranda studied Spanish philology, Political Science and Anthropology of the Americas, and will be responsible for the editing and updating of our electronic platform on Blackboard. Over the next few months she will also take charge of the homepage, for which Henning Müller is now responsible. We would like to give him our heartfelt thanks for his reliable work.

The responsibilities of the rest of the office staff are as follows:

Julia Zahn: supervision of all matters concerning the scholarship holders Berlin/Potsdam and Mexico, of the library and of the blog; Julia is also the contact person for all scholarship holders.

Diana Grothues: supervision of events; she is also the contact person for questions about the programme.

Ingrid Simson: planning, organisation, administration and finances

We note that, apart from Ingrid, all the staff is working part-time, and Diana and Saranda for only a few hours each week. We would like to ask all members of the IRTG to take this into consideration in their inquiries and requests.

 

Current openings

The IRTG Berlin/Potsdam is pleased to announce two post-doctoral positions. Deadline for applications is soon, February 20, 2011. We ask all members of the IRTG to disseminate the call for applications. The announcement can be found at our homepage in English, German and Spanish.

 

Reports on events of recent months

Workshop: Kaciano Gadelha (IRTG), Tabea Huth (IRTG), Ísis Fernandes Pinto (LAI), Wagner Xavier de Camargo (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) and Zeljko Blace (University of Leiden), ‘Queer Corporealities: Media, Sport and Performance’, January 17, 2011

The workshop Queer Corporealities: Media, Sport and Performance took place on January 17, 2011, as part of the activities of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ at the Latin American Institute. It was organised by the IRTG doctoral students Kaciano Gadelha (sociology) and Tabea Huth (cultural anthropology), Ísis Fernandes Pinto (doctoral student and research assistant at LAI), Wagner Camargo (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) and Zeljko Blace (University of Leiden). The workshop focused on the discussion of queer corporealities, gender and representations of non-heteronormative sexuality. The five organisers presented their research projects and the progress they have made in the field of gender studies. The same questions emerged in all the presentations: What is ‘queer’? What concepts can we use to research queer? In what scenario does the question about queer appear?

First, Wagner Camargo and Zeljko Blace presented the engagement of queer subjects in sports events such as the Gaygames and World Out Games. This engagement places in question our traditional and (hetero) normative ideas about sports, gender and competitiveness. Tabea Huth then presented the performance of the luchadora exótica Ruby Gardenia as an ‘agency’ that raises questions about the two-sex model. In his talk, Kaciano Gadelha considered imagery, sexuality and new forms of socialisation in virtual spaces, followed by Ísis Fernandes Pinto, who discussed representations of homosexuality in contemporary Brazilian film.

The various research subjects and interests stimulated a promising discussion, whose results could be carried over to other projects and collective initiatives.

(Kaciano Gadelha, IRTG Berlin)

 

2nd IRTG Study Day in preparation for Summer School, January 14 and 15, 2011

The second Study Day in preparation for the Summer School in June took place at the Seminaris Hotel Potsdam on January 14 and 15. On Friday morning (January 14) two Mexican scholarship holders, José Antonio Brambilla and Rubén Chávez Cruz, both Master students in International Relations at the Colegio de México, presented their projects: “La televisión, el derecho a la comunicación y la consolidación democrática: el caso de la cobertura informativa televisiva de la Compañía de Luz y Fuerza del Centro” and “Políticas de inmigración: un estudio comparativo de las migraciones México-Estados Unidos y Turquía-Alemania” respectively. Both presentations gave rise to stimulating discussions, which posed questions about, for example, the advantages of comparative studies.

After lunch, Karina Lins held a workshop on the presentation of lectures and the preparation of discussion strategies. The workshop followed a constructivist method, that is, its contents were based on foreknowledge of the participants. The evening ended with the showing of the documentary film Apfelstrudel ─ oder deutsche Spuren in Mexiko (i.e., Apple Strudel ─ or German Traces in Mexico) by Janina Möbius, which afforded an interesting panorama of the life stories of German immigrants in Mexico.

On Saturday, January 15, the day began with a discussion of a text selected by the students: the Introduction of The Location of Culture by Homi K. Bhabha. The discussion proposed by the students addressed a theoretical and methodological question: How could the problems raised by Bhabha enrich reflection on interdisciplinary approaches in the students’ research projects?

After this, Dr. Ingrid Simson presented the programme for the coming semester, with a focus on the practical aspects of organising the Summer School. In the afternoon the students met to exchange their impressions of the weekend and to plan the next student activities. Both meetings resulted in a number of practical arrangements, which should be useful at future activities.

(Rafael Mondragón, IRTG Mexico)

 

Workshop: ‘Asia y América’ with Carlos Alba, Ximena Alba, Mariano Bonialian, Marianne Braig, Viola König, Stefan Rinke, Nino Vallen; February 1, 2011

On February 1, 2011, as part of the IRTG programme ‘Between Spaces’, the first workshop took place on the influences and relations between America and Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. The broad subject enabled participation by doctoral students and professors from various disciplines in the social sciences. The lectures and the constructive discussions with the audience endeavoured to trace the close historical, economic and cultural relations that could link the two continents. The historically oriented presentations focussed on three phenomena. First, the workshop discussed the influence of the Pacific countries and Asia on the gradual emergence of a Creole identity in New Spain during the sixteenth century. There followed an analysis of the routes that linked Asian economies to American countries during the entire colonial era. Then at the end of this first part of the workshop, the participants considered the peculiarities of Russian and European settlements on and expeditions to the north coast of the American Pacific at the end of the eighteenth century. All the presentations and discussions led to a general conclusion: the need to pay heed to the processes that were then taking place in the Pacific space in order to understand the cultural, economic and geo-political developments of American societies.

In the second part of the workshop, the presentations focussed on two topics of great relevance. The first paper was about the informal network of Chinese and Mexicans that has established a notable black market in the leading country within the grand scenario of capitalist globalisation. The last paper presented a picture of the strong influence of Chinese immigrants and their cultural practices in Mexicali, a region in northern Mexico. The workshop discussed whether the term ‘transnational district’ would be an appropriate designation to describe the transformation taking place in this region.

Given the relevance of the topics that brought the workshop together, and the fact that they are gaining increasing importance in academic circles, the participants saw the need to rethink the sense and meaning of concepts such as space, border, transnational, identity, circulation, globalisation and others key terms.

(Mariano Bonialian, Visiting Professor at the IRTG)

 

Events in the coming months

IN BERLIN/POTSDAM:

 

The Interdisciplinary Colloquium during summer semester will take place in two blocks, on May 13 and May 20, 10 am – 5 pm. Further details to follow.

 

May 11, 2011, 4-8 pm, Workshop with Bernd Hausberger (El Colegio de México)

Further details to follow.

 

May 28, 2011, 5 pm -1 am, Latin American Institute

Long Night of the Sciences - Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften

The Long Night of the Sciences, an annual event in Berlin and Potsdam, will take place on May 28 from 5 pm until 1 am. On this night, teaching and research facilities will open their doors to the public. Freie Universität Berlin will offer an extensive program of events hosted by the departments, institutes, research groups, and other institutions in Dahlem, Düppel, and Lankwitz. Lively lectures, guided tours, interactive experiments, readings, panel discussions, workshops and much more will give visitors an impression of basic and applied research, including interdisciplinary collaboration. Researchers from all the departments and institutes of the Freie Universität and from other research institutions in Berlin-Dahlem will be on hand to explain their innovative work.

The theme of the Latin American Institute and the IRTG on the Long Night of the Sciences this year will be “Cruzando fronte(i)ras: Ways through Latin America”, on the subject of travel. Those interested are invited to participate with their ideas and projects. Please register soon at entre-espacios@lai-fu-berlin.de.

And of course everyone is cordially invited to visit the Latin American Institute on the Long Night 2011. Information and entertainment are guaranteed!

 

IN MEXICO:

 

February 28, 2011, 4-6 pm, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (IIS), UNAM

Inter-Institutional Formative Seminar – Student Presentations

• Selen Catalina Arango Rodríguez, `La formación femenina en Colombia y en México: Un estudio comparativo a través del análisis de cuatro novelas de formación femenina´

• Ana Susi, `La auto-representación del sujeto militante en las organizaciones guerrilleras latinoamericanas´

• Boerris Nehe, `Tierra de nadie, tierra de todos. Lucha de clases y construcción del estado en tiempos del plurinacionalismo en Pando, Bolivia´

 

February 28, 2011, 6-8 pm, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (IIS), UNAM

Inter-Institutional Formative Seminar

• Silvia Inclán, `Case-studies and experimental method´

 

March 11, 2011, 4-6 pm, Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios (CELL)

Inter-institutional Formative Seminar- Students Presentations

• Stephanie Brewster Ramírez, `Cine, espacio social y creación cinematográfica´

•  Rubén Chávez Cruz, `Políticas de inmigración. Un estudio comparativo de las migraciones México-Estados Unidos y Turquía-Alemania´

• Harlen Vega Soria, `Género, políticas laborales y maternidad en las primeras décadas del siglo XX´

• Nimbe Montserrat Algarabel Rutter, `De subversión, transgresión y alteridad: reconstrucción analítica de los discursos de la censura y el escándalo en el cine mexicano (1968-2002)´

• Lizbeth Pérez Tejada Munguía, `Estudio de las políticas públicas de combate a la corrupción administrativa en México, 2000-2010´

 

March 11, 2011, 6 – 8 pm, Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios (CELL)

Interinstitutional Formative Seminar

• Luz Elena Gutierrez, `From autobiography to autofiction in contexts of globalization´

 

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

 

Best wishes,

Ingrid Simson and her team