Newsletter No. 8 - 11/29/2011
29.11.2011
Newsletter No. 8 – November 29, 2011
Dear Members of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ and those interested in the IRTG,
With this, the eighth 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 Valentin Tritschler as the new student assistant in our Coordination Office. Valentin is studying for a Masters in Comparative Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin and will be responsible for the organisation of our programme and events. We would like to welcome Valentin to our team and we look forward to working with him.
We would also like to welcome and introduce our new intern Denis Vargas Gorenkov. Denis is studying philosophy and Romance languages and literature at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with a focus on questions of linguistics and the philosophy of mind. He will help with various activities of the Coordination Office.
Office hours of the Coordination Office in the coming months:
Room 207 (Julia) Tues 3 – 5 pm
Room 222 (Ingrid) Tues 3 – 5 pm
New members of the IRTG
New scholarship holder
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Stephanie Fleischmann as a postdoctoral fellow of the IRTG. Stephanie will begin her research in January 2012. She took her PhD from the Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz in literature and cultural studies with a dissertation entitled Literatur des Desasters von Annual: Das Um-Schreiben der kolonialen Erzählung im spanischen Marokkokrieg (1921-1927). Stephanie has worked mainly in post-colonial studies, but has also done research in other areas of Latin American and Spanish literature and cultural studies. The research project that she plans to carry out at the IRTG concerns ‘Emotional Coldness and the Symbolic Construction of Globalised Worlds in Recent Latin American Literature’.
New associated PhD student
We welcome Anne Ebert as a new associated PhD student. Anne took her degree in cultural anthropology with a dissertation entitled The Performative Production of the Transnational Indigenous Space Tawantinsuyu: The ‘Aymara New Year’ in Bolivia and Chile.
New Mexican scholarship holders
We are especially pleased to welcome four new Mexican PhD students. All four will come to Berlin/Potsdam in 2012 to research and present their projects. They are
Santiago studied anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He later took an MA in Latin American Studies at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, where he graduated with honours. Currently he is a PhD student in anthropology at the same university. He has worked on subjects related to history of science, anthropology and medicine, focusing mainly on the nineteenth century in Latin America in general and Colombia in particular. He has also worked on urban history and peasant colonization processes, focusing on the social construction of territory. His PhD project is on the movement and co-production of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century, with special emphasis on strategies used to assess, characterise and intervene in the territory and population of Latin America.
Sebastián Rivera
In the next Newsletter, we hope to be able to introduce the other new Mexican PhD students and their projects.
We would like to cordially welcome all new members of the IRTG and look forward to working with them!
Visiting Scholar at the IRTG
Since the work of our former postdoctoral fellow Dr. Adrian Waldmann comes to an end in December, it is a special pleasure for us to welcome Adrian as a Visiting Scholar in cultural anthropology at the IRTG for January and February 2012. As Visiting Scholar, Adrian will continue research on his project '”Corporate Ethnicity” of the Bolivian Indigenous Group Weenhayek’ and be available for consultation with PhD students.
Nina Elsemann: Ernst Reuter Prize 2011
We are very pleased and proud that our alumni Dr. Nina Elsemann has been named the winner of this year’s Ernst Reuter Prize of the Freie Universität in the field of history for her outstanding doctoral dissertation. Nina was our first PhD student who completed her dissertation on an IRTG scholarship. Her dissertation has recently been published as a book by Campus Publishers under the title Umkämpfte Erinnerungen. Die Bedeutung lateinamerikanischer Erfahrungen für die spanische Geschichtspolitik nach Franco. At a ceremony on December 5th, Nina and the three other winners in other disciplines will be presented with the award.
Since 1985, the Ernst Reuter Prize has been awarded annually to four outstanding dissertations on the Freie Universität’s founding day. It honours young scholars of the Freie Universität Berlin for their distinguished and pioneering research.
We congratulate Nina and join with her in celebrating this joint success for the IRTG!
Information in German on Nina Elsemann’s monograph may be found here.
Reports on events of recent months
November 3, 2011: Book presentation by Stefan Rinke
Book presentation: Las revoluciones en América Latina. Las vías a la independencia 1760-1830
On November 3, 2011, Prof. Dr. Stefan Rinke, historian at the Latin America Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin and spokesman of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’, presented his book Las revoluciones en América Latina. Las vías a la independencia 1760-1830 at the Sala Alfonso Reyes of the Colegio de México in the presence of the historian and President of the Colegio, Prof. Dr. Javier Garciadiego Dantán, many members of the IRTG and the interested public.
This edition of the book is the first joint publication of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ and the Colegio de México. The German edition of the monograph was published last year and met with considerable interest. It offers an analytic and narrative account of the era of independence in Latin America and of the related revolutions. Thanks to the generous support and strong commitment of the Colegio de México, the work is now available to readers in Latin America. Further co-editions of the Colegio de México and the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ are being planned.
The book launch was very well received. A distinguished panel discussed the work. Prof. Dr. Alicia Mayer, Director of the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), stressed the importance of the Haitian Revolution as the prelude to the wars of independence. Prof. Dr. Roberto Breña, an historian at the Centro de Estudios Internacionales of the Colegio de México, pointed out the book’s comprehensive consideration of the current state of research. Prof. Dr. Ricardo Pérez Montfort, an historian at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), called the relevance of a pan-Latin American perspective, which opens new vistas for research, the prime feature of the work. The presentation was moderated by Prof. Dr. Bernd Hausberger, an historian and Coordinator of the Centro de Estudios Históricos of the Colegio de México. Among the guests were Prof. Dr. Carlos Alba, member and Mexican spokesman of the IRTG, Bernd Hausberger and Ricardo Pérez Montfort, also members of the IRTG, and Dr. Christina Siebe, liaison lecturer of the German Research Foundation.
November 3, 2011, Lecture Series: Oscar Ugarteche (UNAM): ‘The Latin American and the European Debt: A Tale of Two Continents’
On November 3, this year’s lectures series started with a lecture by Prof. Dr. Óscar Ugarteche of the Institute for Economic Research at the UNAM and currently visiting researcher at the Institute for Latin American Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin. The subject, ‘The Latin American and the European Debt: A Tale of Two Continents’, could not be more timely. As an economist also trained in history, Prof. Ugarteche was able to discuss the current debate on the European debt crisis within a broader historical perspective, drawing on lessons from Latin America. By making economic jargon intelligible to an interdisciplinary audience, Prof. Ugarteche showed us that there is a great deal European economists can learn from the economic history of Latin America.
(Report by Christian Ambrosius, IRTG Berlin)
Alumni report
Report of Harlen Vega Soria (IRTG Mexico) about her stay at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin
My interest in the International Research Training Group ‘Between Space. Movements, Actors and Representations of Globalisation’ emerged from the subject of my research and the related need to set within context labour policy geared to the interests of workers such as originated in Mexico at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was also important for me to determine the labour policy of other countries, since the argument of my Master’s thesis, ‘Female and male role models in Mexican labour legislation’, was based on the transnational dimension of this policy.
By studying texts that were closely linked to my subject, I was able to find many similarities in the labour policy towards women in various countries in the early twentieth century. As in Mexico, in these countries reform was justified by reference to female morality and the weakness of women. At the same time, we should bear in mind the specifics of the Mexican debate when we talk of motherhood, sexual morality and the idea of the ‘angel of the household’. It is therefore the main concern of my work to analyse in terms of the transnational dimension various gender discourses that determined labour policy.
Participation in the activities of the IRTG and the great wealth of bibliographic material in the library of the Ibero-American Institute helped me to recognise both the similarities and differences between the Latin American countries in this respect and their various political realities and manoeuvrings. Although Mexico was the first country to incorporate maternity rights in its constitution (in 1917), little has been published in Mexico (by contrast to other countries) on maternity policy. During my stay, I was able to examine more closely the cases of Argentina and Uruguay, two other countries with a maternity policy. My stay thus aided me in recognising and defending the significance of my subject.
Discussions at the International Summer School greatly helped me to recognise the strengths and weaknesses of my research in defining its scope. Becoming acquainted with the many different projects and listening to the lectures and comments of professors and PhD students enabled me to solve several problems with work.
Events in the coming months
IN BERLIN/POTSDAM:
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
This semester the Interdisciplinary Colloquium has a new design. Scholarship holders will give presentations every fortnight. Meeting in work groups every other fortnight, they will discuss specific topics in their specialties,.
Programme of the Interdisciplinary Colloquium
December 06, 2011, 6 – 7 pm, room 201
Cecilia Tossounian, ‘Beauty Contests and National Identity (Argentina, 1920-1940)’
December 16, 2011, 10 am – 5.30 pm
Meeting of work groups, organised by Cecilia Tossounian and Adrian Waldmann, IRTG Berlin
The meetings of the work groups are not public.
January 10, 2012, 6 – 8 pm, room 243
Berit Callsen, “Prácticas de traducción cultural en la ‘Generación del Medio Siglo’: la crítica del arte en torno a la ‛Ruptura’”
Sven Kirschlager, „Música en movimiento – Músicos en los autobuses de largo recorrido en el sur de México”
January 17, 2012, 6 – 8 pm, room 243
Meeting of work groups
The meetings of the work groups are not public.
January 27, 2012, 10 am – 5.30 pm, room 214
Workshop with Claudio Lomnitz
The detailed programme will be announced.
Guests are welcome for the public sessions. Please register at entre-espacios@lai.fu-berlin.de.
The full programme of the Interdisciplinary Colloquium is available here.
Lecture Series (Ringvorlesung)
The aim of the lecture series this semester is to invite associated and other scholars interested in the IRTG to give lectures that will enable us to gain a better understanding of their research priorities and their work.
December 01, 2011, 6 – 8 pm, LAI, room 214
Margit Kern (FU Berlin): “Imaginaciones transculturales del sacrificio en la pintura española del Siglo de Oro”
January 19, 2012, 6 – 8 pm, LAI, room 214
Please note: Contrary to the previous announcement, this event will not take place in the Ibero-American Institute.
Barbara Göbel (Ibero-American Institute): “Conocimientos ambientales en la Puna de Atacama: dimensiones locales y globales”
January 26, 2012, 6 – 8 pm, LAI, room 214
Tanja Börzel (FU Berlin): ‘From Europeanization to Diffusion: Transformative Power Europe?’
The full programme of the meetings of the lecture series is available here.
Movie Nights ‘Entre Espacios’
This semester the IRTG again offers the opportunity to present and discuss films on Wednesday evening.
December 7, 2011, 6 - 8 pm, Institute for Latin American Studies, room 243
Los rubios, presented by Cecilia Tossounian
January 11, 2012, 6 - 8 pm, Institute for Latin American Studies, room 243
Quién mató a la llamita blanca, presented by Adrian Waldmann
January 18, 2012, 6 - 8 pm, Institute for Latin American Studies, room 243
La Ciénaga, presented by Cecilia Tossounian.
January 25, 2012, 6 - 8 pm, Institute for Latin American Studies, room 243
Documentary film, WAK MAPU NI ZUGUN. La palabra que circula en territorio Mapuche, presented by Marius Haberland
The full programme will be available here.
December12, 2011, 10 am – 6 pm, Institute for Latin American Studies, room 201
Conference in Commemoration of Friedrich Katz (1927-2010)
Friedrich Katz, one of the world’s leading scholars of Latin American history and the foremost scholar of Mexican history of his time, died on October 16, 2010. He was Professor of History at the University of Chicago for forty years and received, with many international awards and honours, including an honourary doctorate from the Freie Universität Berlin in 2002.
Both during his time at the Humboldt University of Berlin (1956-68) and later at Chicago, Katz’s work was a great inspiration for younger German historians and students of Latin American affairs, especially those interested in the comparative study of revolutions, peasant uprisings and other social movements, in pre-Columbian cultures and, of course, in Mexican politics and society. As a member of the IRTG, he was also an inspiring figure for us and a welcome guest. One of the last lectures Friedrich Katz gave was at the newly founded IRTG in December 2009. We cordially invite you to our commemorative conference in his honour.
The full programme of the conference is available here.
Christmas Party
December 6, 2011, 7 – 9 pm, Institute for Latin American Studies, room 243
Following the colloquium on December 6, we cordially invite members of the IRTG to our Christmas party.
Other Activities
We would like to draw your attention to other activities that might be of interest to you.
December 14-16, 2011, Institute for Latin American Studies
Research Colloquium of scholarship holders of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes in cooperation with the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’: ‘“Räume im Wandel”. Lateinamerika im Zeitalter der Globalisierung’ (Spaces in Transformation. Latin America in the Age of Globalisation), organised by Romy Köhler and Philip Gondecki
Papers may be submitted. The Call for Papers can be found on Blackboard and can also be requested. Guests are welcome.
To register and to get more information please contact LATglobal@gmail.com.
IN MEXICO:
Inter-institutional Colloquium
The inter-institutional Colloquium of the IRTG Mexico has a new format in this academic year. There will be four meetings of the Colloquium at IRTG participating institutions. They will present and discuss important texts that have been selected by the applicants and associate professors. Approximately one hour will be allotted for the presentation and discussion. The meetings are open to Mexican and German scholarship holders of the IRTG. All participants are expected to read the relevant texts in advance of the meetings to ensure a fruitful discussion. The texts may be found on Blackboard. In addition, two further meetings of the Colloquium are planned at which scholarship holders can present their projects. At each meeting three scholarship holders will have the opportunity to present their research.
December 5, 2011, 4 - 7 pm, office of the IRTG in Mexico
Meeting with the scholarship holders to discuss their projects
December 9, 2011, 4 - 7 pm, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales de la UNAM
The following texts will be presented and discussed:
* Fernando Aínsa (2006): Del Topos al Logos. Propuestas de geopoética, Madrid/Frankfurt a.M.:Vervuert, pp. 9-49. Presented and commented on by Luz Elena Gutiérrez de Velasco (COLMEX).
* The Karl Schlögel’s lecture at the Summer School 2011. Presented and commented on by Guillermo Zermeño (COLMEX).
January 23, 2012, 4 - 7 pm, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS)
The following texts will be presented and discussed:
* Said, Edward: “Interpretación secular, el elemento geográfico y la metodología del imperialismo”, in: Gyan Prakash (1995) (ed.): After Colonialism. Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 21-39. Presented and commented on by Ricardo Pérez Montfort (CIESAS).
*Coronil, Fernando: “La Transculturación y la política de la teoría: enfrentando el centro, contrapunteo cubano”, in: Fernando Ortiz (1995): Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, Durham: Duke University Press. Presented and commented on by Liliana Weinberg (CILAC/ UNAM).
* Richard, Nelly: “La crítica feminista como crítica cultural”, in: Debate Feminista, Año 20, Vol.40, October 2009, pp. 75-85. Presented and commented on by Marisa Belausteguigoitia (PUEG/UNAM).
The full programme of the sessions of the Inter-institutional Colloquium is available here.
Ciclo de Conferencias Magistrales Historia Fin de Siglo, organizado por Guillermo Zermeño (El Colegio de México/IRTG)
December 1, 2011, 6 pm, El Colegio de México, Sala Alfonso Reyes
Saurabh Dube (El Colegio de México/CEAA), “Desenredando la modernidad: sujetos, escándalos, historias”
December 6, 2011, 6 pm, El Colegio de México, Sala Alfonso Reyes
José Rabasa (Harvard University), “Genocidio, ciencia, etno-suicidio: la extirpación de las idolatrías en los andes coloniales y sus variantes contemporáneas”
December 8, 2011, 6 pm, El Colegio de México, Sala Alfonso Reyes
José Enrique Ruiz Domenec (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona), “La historia en perspectiva, una alternativa de futuro”
For more information on our programme and activities, please consult our website: www.entre-espacios.de.
We wish all members and friends of the IRTG ‘Between Spaces’ a marvellous Christmas, pleasant holidays and a good start in the New Year!
Best wishes,
Ingrid Simson and her team
