Newsletter No. 5 - 05/05/2011
05.05.2011
Inhalt
Dear Members of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ and those interested in the IRTG,
With this, the fifth issue of the IRTG ‘Between Spaces’ Newsletter, we would like to inform you about our news and current events.
We are very pleased to welcome the following new members:
Stefanie Gänger, Associate Post-doctoral Fellow
Romy Köhler, Associate PhD student
Adrian Waldmann, Postdoctoral Fellow
Adrian Waldmann is an anthropologist and took his PhD degree at the Latin American Institute of Freie Universität Berlin under Jürgen Golte. He is an expert on Bolivia and has spent years researching in the Bolivian lowlands. His current research project is on the indigenous group of the Weenhayek, who are settled in the Bolivian lowlands in the region bordering on Argentina. He will begin his work as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the IRTG on June 1, 2011.
Cecilia Tossounian, Postdoctoral Fellow
Cecilia Tossounian is a historian and took her PhD at the European University Institute in Florence under the supervision of Giulia Calvi and Rebecca Earle (University of Warwick). The title of her dissertation, which was completed in 2010, is: The Body Beautiful and the Body of Nation: Representations of Gender and Modernity (Buenos Aires, 1918-1940). Her current research project concerns the feminist vision of the Argentine woman; she is also pursuing a comparative approach to the study of national and global concepts of beauty in Europe and Latin America. Cecilia Tossounian will begin her work as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the IRTG on June 1, 2011.
We would like to welcome the new members and look forward to working together with them. We would also like to welcome the newly arrived Mexican scholarship holders:
New visiting professor at the IRTG Berlin: Dr Ricardo Pérez Montfort
Ricardo Pérez Montfort of the CIESAS is a historian who has done research on the discourse and representation of nationalism and regionalism in the founding phase of the modern Latin American states, particularly Mexico. With this work, he made a major contribution to the study of the spatial concepts of the twentieth century that have pervaded national and regional thought and academic and popular culture. In other work, he has combined the theme of representation with that of remembrance, with a regional focus on Mexico and Latin America. Monfort is particularly active as a producer of film and radio documentaries and as a curator of museum exhibitions, in which he has made history and cultural processes accessible to a broader public.
Ricardo Pérez Montfort will work at the IRTG from April to July, 2011, and participate in various forms in the activities of the Group.
Reports on events of recent months
International Workshop ‘Gender, Ethnicity and Migration’ with Ingrid Kummels (IRTG), Stephanie Schütze (IRTG), Verena Stolcke (University of Barcelona), Laura Velasco (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte), Peter Wade (University of Manchester), Laurel Smith (University of Oklahoma) and Gabriela Zamorano (El Colegio de Michoacán), February 10 and 11, 2011
The international workshop focused on the intersection of gender, ethnicity and migration processes in Latin America. In times of globalisation, transnational and transcultural processes have changed traditional forms of migration. These new forms of geographical and virtual mobility have also brought about changes in gender relations, ethnic identities and relations of equality and inequality.
In the first panel of the workshop, the intersection of gender, ethnicity and mobility was discussed from the perspective of different historical backgrounds and regional settings. Verena Stolcke (University of Barcelona) considered the intersections between class, gender and ‘race’ by analysing the historical creation of the ‘mestiz@s’ in Latin America. Laura Velasco (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico) discussed how gender and ethnicity are lived in the Mexican-U.S.-border region. Finally, Peter Wade (University of Manchester, UK) analysed the ‘domestication of blackness’ by focusing empirically on black servants and black music in Colombia.
The second panel discussed how women and indigenous actors have appropriated media in global spaces. Laurel Smith’s presentation (University of Oklahoma) inquired about the activism, the advocacy and the access of indigenous video-makers in Oaxaca, Mexico, from a feminist perspective. Also focusing on indigenous video, Gabriela Zamorano (El Colegio de Michoacán) talked about the politics of distribution in Bolivia at rural, urban, and transnational venues. Finally, the filmmaker Yolanda Cruz presented her new film Reencuentros: 2501 Migrantes about an art project of an indigenous artist from Oaxaca.
The workshop was organized and moderated by Ingrid Kummels, Stephanie Schütze and the students from the Master programme of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Students and doctoral candidates from the IRTG presented their work during the workshop; the international guests commented extensively on their papers during the workshop and the dialogue among the participants continues.
(Stephanie Schütze, IRTG Berlin)
Workshop ‘Indigene Räume’ (Indigenous Spaces) with Hans-Joachim König (Katholische Universität Eichstätt), Michael Riekenberg (Universität Leipzig), Stefan Rinke (IRTG), Ingrid Kummels (IRTG), Antje Dieterich (IRTG) and Anne Ebert (Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin), February 16, 2011
The conference ‘Indigenous Spaces’ was held at theInstitute for Latin American Studieson February 16, 2011. With it, the IRTG honoured its long-time mentor and supporter, the Eichstätt historian of Latin America Hans-Joachim König, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Lectures were given by the guest ofhonour and by Michael Riekenberg, professor for Latin American History at Universität Leipzig, Anne Ebert (FU Berlin) and three members of the IRTG, Ingrid Kummels, Stefan Rinke and Antje Dieterich. The lectures were all discussed intensely by the large audience. They concerned the importance of indigenous actors in locating interspaces in the American past and present.
Alumni report
Francy Liliana Morena Herrera (IRTG Mexico): Stay at Universität Potsdam and Freie Universität Berlin (November 2010 – February 2011)
My intention in taking part in this programme was to make progress on my research project ‘The Universalism of Latin American Journals between 1940-1956’. This project is part of my work for a doctorate degree in the Humanities at the UNAM and is supervised by Dr Liliana Weinberg. By studying the critical work of Ottmar Ette and various investigations of the idea of “world literature”, I particularly wanted to undergird critically and methodologically my interpretation of the concept of universalism, which is the focus of my analysis. At the same time, I wanted to take advantage of the holdings of the library of the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin in order to examine journal sources that are either unavailable or difficult to get hold of in Mexican libraries.
In Potsdam I had meetings with Prof. Dr. Ette. In Berlin I became acquainted with Prof. Dr. Susanne Klengel and realised that we are doing research in the same context and share several points of emphasis. And I also became acquainted with Prof. Dr. Dieter Ingenschay, who commented on my project and made perceptive proposals concerning it. My research on journals in the library of the Ibero-American Institute proved very successful, and I very much appreciated the optimal research conditions of the library and the friendliness, patience and helpfulness of the librarians.
I also took part in the inter-disciplinary colloquium ‘Movements between Spaces: Concepts and Analysis of Transnational and Transcultural Processes’, in the ‘Romance Studies Literature Colloquium – Forum for New Research’ at the Romance Studies Institute of Universität Potsdam, and in ‘Study Day II’, organised by the IRTG ‘Between Spaces’. Back in Mexico, I continued to participate in the events of the Seminario Inter-Institutional at the Colegio de México and the UNAM.
These experiences in Berlin, Potsdam and Mexico, and the activities in which I took and continue to take part, have enriched my critical views and source material and helped me to solve several theoretical and methodological problems. Being a member of ‘Between Spaces’ furthermore gave me the opportunity to meet other members of the Group, both professors and doctoral candidates, and to enter into an exchange of ideas and views, non-academic as well as academic. It was highly stimulating to meet people and observe research that, like me and my work, had reference to ‘Between Spaces’ and to learn what had moved them to raise questions that went beyond the processes of capitalism and crossed the borders of both disciplines and countries – people who understand that, as Eric Wolf says in his Introduction to Europa und die Menschen ohne Geschichte, we cannot really understand society and its processes, whose products we are and which in many ways we reproduce, if we do not learn to make visible the relationships and dependencies that occur in space and time.
(Francy Liliana Moreno Herrera, IRTG Mexico)
Events in the coming months
IN BERLIN/POTSDAM:
May 11 and 12, 2011, 4-8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
Workshop ‘El Cine: Imaginarios de la nación’ with Montserrat Algarabel (CIESAS) and Bernd Hausberger (Centro de Estudios Históricos, El Colegio de México)
Guests are welcome. Please register at entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de
May 13, 10 am – 6 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
Interdisciplinary Colloquium ‘Movimientos y espacios: representaciones de procesos de globalización’
The programme is available here.
Guests are welcome. Please register at entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de
May 18, 6 pm - 8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
‘México de injusticias y otros pormenores’, film screening with Carla Valdespino Vargas (UNAM)
Film ‘Los invisibles’
The triumph of the film industry in Mexico City began at the end of the nineteenth century, thanks to Porfirio Díaz’s interest in this art form. Since 1896, the seventh muse has influenced the history of Mexico.
Film contributed to creating an image of the nation: it encompassed a spectrum ranging from the idealising of country life through the surrealism of El Santo, el enmascarado de plata to the underworld of Las ficheras – a spectrum that detached itself from reality.
But there were always parallel developments. Thus the camera of Luis Buñuel afforded us glimpses of the problems in the big cities: the so-called ‘poor belt’ where those forgotten by the system survive in a space of the excluded.
It is noteworthy that the Mexican cinema in the last decade of the last century then embarked on different paths. Since then, it has portrayed the everyday problems that occur mainly in the cities. In various instances, film has also developed into an instrument of indictment against the system. In this film series, we will view this kind of film and documentary – films of Mexico constituting itself ‘between the spaces’ that define it. Migration, drug trafficking and the weak legal system currently determine the reality of this nation; and the images on the screen tell of this. The aim of these film screenings is to show contemporary Mexico through its cinema, a panorama that is not exactly pleasant, and one against which we must set our faces.
This is not a public viewing. Those interested should register with entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de
The programme is available here.
May 20, 10 am – 5 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
Interdisciplinary Colloquium ‘Movimientos y espacios: representaciones de procesos de globalización’
The programme is available here.
Guests are welcome. Please register at entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de
May 25, 6 pm - 8 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
‘México de injusticias y otros pormenores’, Film Screening with Carla Valdespino Vargas (UNAM)
Film ‘Presunto culpable’
This is not a public viewing. Those interested should register with entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de
The programme is available here.
May 28, 2011, 5 pm -1 am, Institute of Latin American Studies
Long Night of the Sciences - Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften
Cruzando fronte(i)ras: Ways through Latin America
The Institute of Latin American Studies invites the interested public to a journey through Latin America, on which many borders will be crossed: national boundaries, gender boundaries, scholarly boundaries, imaginary and social boundaries. We want to take you on an enjoyable and instructive trip along the paths of immigrants, researchers, students, and artists – paths of ideas, cultures, literature and knowledge.
The work of the Institute of Latin American Studies requires many trips and border crossings. Researchers and students move between imaginary and real worlds, between past and future, between various scholarly disciplines and cognitive systems.
The talk show ‘With the LAI round the World’ is only one feature of the Long Night programme that gives an impression of these cognitively enhancing movements. Alumni and excursionists will tell of their experiences. The film Apfelstrudel will take you to the Mexico of German immigrants and their descendants. Migration is also the theme of the comic book exhibition ‘Aliens or Superheroes’. The ensemble KACATRAM offers a special kind of border crossing with their unusual musical contribution to Latin America in the form of German hit songs. You can take part in movements yourself at a tango taster course. A workshop will offer a journey into the past to the only recently deciphered Mayan script. And our Literary Quartet would like to treat you to literary titbits about travelling.
And, as always, there will be delights for the palate, a coffee bar and our distinctive caipirinhas.
Preliminary Programme:
Workshops:
Capoeira for children, 5-6 pm, R. 201
Yan Geoffroy, Crash course in the Mayan script, 7-8:30 pm, R. 214
Tango taster course and performance, 9-10:30 pm, Foyer Ground floor
Discussion:
Talk Show ‘With the LAI round the World’, 7:30-8:30 pm, R. 201
Alumni and excursionists report and discuss
Reading:
Literary Quartet, ‘There and Away – Up and Down: Journeys through Literatures’, 10-11 pm, E-Learning Room
Screenings:
Film Apfelstrudel – oder deutsche Spuren in Mexiko (Janina Möbius, 2010), 8:30-10 pm, R. 214
KACATRAM (The Karamba Centre of Applied Transcultural Musicology), Lateinamerika im deutschen Schlager, 11 pm, R. 214
Sven Kirschlager, Adriana María Elías Maxil, Corridos, Katastrophen und Erinnerung in Mexiko, flash presentation, 10-12 pm, R. 243
Florian Walter, ‘On the Road with Maruch’, 8:30-10 pm, R. 243
Participants in the project seminar ‘Libertadores: der Bicentenario im Film’, film Revolución de Mayo, 7-8 pm, R. 243
Project group Gabriel Ceballos, film: Cantar contra el olvido, 9-10 pm, E-Learning Room
Börries Nehe, lecture: Landbesetzungen in Bolivien, 6-7 pm, R. 207
Exhibitions:
Tabea Huth, ‘Talking Walls and Multiple Crossings: Street Scenes from a Mexican Border Town’, photo exhibition, first floor foyer
Henning Müller, ‘Aliens or Superheroes? Representations of Mexican/American Migration in Comics’, passageway in front of Room 214, and presentation at 7 pm, R. 207
Institute for Geographical Sciences, Anthrogeography, Work Group Segebart, ‘Social-Ecological Research in Latin America’, exhibition, passageway in front of the offices, presentation 6-7 pm, R. 243
Culinary:
Catering with Aurelio
Coffee bar and cocktails
Bookstalls
Everyone is welcome!
June 1, 6 pm - 9 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
México de injusticias y otros pormenores, film screening with Carla Valdespino Vargas (UNAM)
Film ‘El infierno’
This is not a public viewing. Those interested should register with entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de
The programme is available here.
June 7, 2011, 6 pm, house of desiguALdades, Boltzmannstr. 1, 14195 Berlin
Lecture by Ricardo Pérez Montfort (CIESAS)
Followed by a fiesta
Further details to follow
All members and friends of the IRTG are invited and welcome!
June 9, 2011, 12 pm – 4 pm, Latin American Institute, Room 243
Workshop ‘¿Weltliteratur / Literatura global? Teorías (Moretti y Casanova) y práctica literario-cultural‘ with Hanno Ehrlicher (Universität Heidelberg)
In this workshop we will discuss two current concepts of ‘world literature’, which are based on the theories of Pascale Casanova and Franco Moretti. Both have attracted much attention within the field of international literary criticism. We will interpret and analyse the interested and at the same time critical reception of these theories by various Latin America specialists. In the second part of the workshop, we will apply the theories to some modernist and avant-garde Latin American journals.
Guests are welcome. Please register with entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de
June 27 – July 1st, 2011, Logenhaus, Emserstr. 12-13, 10719 Berlin
Summer School
The preliminary programme is available here.
IN MEXICO:
May 16, 2011, 4pm – 8 pm, Inter-Institutional Seminar, Ciesas, Juárez 87, Tlalpan Centro, room: sala Juárez
The IRTG invites you to our inter-institutional seminar in Mexico, which will take place on May 16 from 4 to 8 pm at CIESAS in Tlalpan. In addition to student presentations, there will be a lecture by Dr Alberto Aziz: ‘A Revision of the Mexican State after the Democratic Transition’.
For more information on our programme and activities, please consult our website: www.entre-espacios.de
Best wishes,
Ingrid Simson and her team
