Newsletter No.16 - 02/25/2014
13.08.2013
Dear members of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ and those interested in the IRTG,
With this, the fifteenth issue of the IRTG ‘Between Spaces’ Newsletter, we would like to inform you about our news and current events.
Important News
On November 8, 2013, the Senate and the Appropriations Committee of the German Research Foundation decided in favour of an extension of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’ for another four and a half years. The committee thus followed the suggestion of the reviewers who gave the IRTG a very positive evaluation as part of an inspection on June 12. Naturally all the members of IRTG are very happy about the decision, which may be regarded as recognition of our successful work over the last four years.
News from the Coordination Office
We would like to welcome Thilo Papacek as the new Academic Management Assistant. Thilo was previously a scholarship holder at the IRTG and is currently finishing his PhD thesis in the field of history. He will now work at the IRTG coordination office. His office has a new telephone number:
++49(0)30 838 71681.
We would also like to welcome Marcos da Silva as a new student assistant at the coordination office. His main task will be the technical support for coordination at the IRTG. Marcos is also responsible for our website. He is from São Paulo and studies Computer Sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin.
As another of our student assistants, Hendrik Kussin, will be leaving the coordination office because his contract has expired, the coordination office is looking for a replacement. The job description will be published shortly. Those interested should have a look at our website.
New Scholarship Holders
At the end of last year, the IRTG selected a new group of scholarship holders to start in January 2013. We would now like to introduce the new doctoral students in the fields of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Sociology and Economy
The IRTG has also selected recently two new postdocs:
Felipe works in the field of sociology and Nadia is a historian.
The IRTG has also selected a candidate for further qualification:
New Mexican Scholarship Holders in Berlin
The following doctoral and master students of the Mexican part of the IRTG have recently arrived or will arrive shortly in Berlin:
Bruno Felipe de Souza e Miranda
New Mexican Scholarship Holders
At the end of last year the Mexican part of the IRTG selected a new group of scholarship holders who will arrive at Berlin during the 2014 academic year. We will introduce them in the next issue of the Newsletter.
We cordially welcome all the new members of the IRTG and look forward to working with them!
Recent Events
August 30, 2013, Meeting of IRTG Alumni in Mexico
On August 30, 2013 the IRTG in Mexico invited its alumni for a second meeting. Among the guests were professors and former scholarship holders. They exchanged experiences and memories of their research stays in Berlin. They also met the new scholarship holders.
The meeting was at the same time the farewell to the assistant of the IRTG in Mexico, Saranda Frommold, who terminated her work in Mexico at the end of August. In the name of the entire IRTG the Mexican spokesperson Carlos Alba thanked Saranda for her dedication and support and wished her well in her future endeavours and her return to Berlin. He also welcomed the new assistant, Jessica Hübschmann, and introduced her to the members of the IRTG.
(Jessica Hübschmann, IRTG Mexico)
September 12, 2013, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, CIESAS
On September 12, 2013 the first Inter-Institutional Colloquium of the winter term took place at CIESAS.
Among others, Alberto Aziz, Teresa Carbó, Guillermo Zermeño, Rían Lozano (representing Marisa Belausteguigoitia) and Raúl Nivón Ramírez were present. After a short introduction of the new assistant of the IRTG in Mexico, Jessica Hübschmann, the scholarship holders José Alberto Moreno Chávez und Maira Olivo Ríos presented their current research projects.
José Alberto talked about ‘El proyecto de modernidad católica: paradoja y utopía en el siglo XIX’. His presentation was commented on by Lilia Esthela Bayardo Rodríguez (El Colegio de México), an alumni of the IRTG.
Maira presented her project ‘El parque nacional volcán Barú y la conservación ambiental en la provincia de Chiriquí. Esfuerzos hacia la participación social y la gobernanza en un área protegida de Panamá’. The social anthropologist Nicholas Matthew Risdell (ENAH) commented.
There were also lively discussions by the other participants about both projects.
(Jessica Hübschmann, IRTG Mexico)
September 23 and 24, 2013, Entre Espacios at the XXXIIIth Conference of Romance Studies, at the University of Würzburg
The International Research Group ‘Between Spaces’ was represented at the 2013 Conference of Romance Studies in Würzburg with three presentations in the section ‘Multi-perspective views of the world: re-readings and re-determinations of Latin American essays’, organized by Alexandra Ortiz Wallner, Christoph Schamm and Georg Wink. The section was opened with a lecture by Liliana Weinberg (IRTG), ‘El ensayo como espacio de amistad intelectual en América Latina’. Weinberg, who is considered an important Latin American researcher on the essay and has an impressive list of publications on the subject, defines the essay as primarily a social dialogue and the essayistic activity as an intellectual exchange that leads to extensive networking. Berit Callsen, a former PhD student at the IRTG, presented the results of her recently completed dissertation in a lecture on ‘Estrategias de la mirada: una comparación intergeneracional de la ensayística sobre arte en México’. Using the example of three Mexican writers, Octavio Paz, Juan García Ponce and Juan Villoro, she considered the inter-medial questions of the art criticism essay. In a lecture on ‘Los ensayos de Jorge Luis Borges: reflexiones sobre la consolidación de un género’, Ingrid Simson, academic director of the IRTG, focused on the essayistic works of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. She argued that although Borges’s essays have inspired philosophers such as Michel Foucault and important representatives of world literature, they have nevertheless been little noticed and discussed by critics. In his essays, Simson maintained, Borges created a model of a worldwide rhizombic network of intellectual exchange and so revolutionized the traditional author-reader relationship.
(Ingrid Simson, IRTG Berlin/Potsdam)
October 10, 2013, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, UNAM
On October 10, 2013, the second Inter-Institutional Colloquium of the winter term took place at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales of the UNAM.
Among the participants were Carlos Alba, Alberto Aziz, Rían Lozano, Luz Elena Gutérrez, Bernd Hausberger, Lorenza Villa Lever, Guillermo Zermeño and Tanja Wälty.
At this session, the two scholarship holders Meztli Yoalli Rodríguez Aguilera (CIESAS) and Cuauhtémoc Pérez Medrano (IRTG Berlin/Potsdam) presented their research projects.
Meztli Yoalli talked about her projected master’s thesis ‘Entre el discurso y la vivencia propia: derechos humanos y seguridad con mujeres centroamericanas en Tapachula’. Verónica López Nájera (UNAM) commented on the lecture.
Cuauhtémoc presented his projected dissertation thesis ‘Insularidad y Postmodernidad en Cuba contemporánea’. His presentation was commented on by Sergio Ugalde Quintana (UNAM).
There were also lively discussions by the other participants about both projects.
(Jessica Hübschmann, IRTG Mexico)
October 24, 2013, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, CIESAS
On October 24, 2013 the third Inter-institutional Colloquium of the winter term took place at CIESAS in Tlalpan.
Among the participating professors were Alberto Aziz, Lorenza Villa Lever, Bernd Hausberger and Teresa Carbó. The scholarship holders José Alberto Moreno and Raúl Nivón Ramírez were also present.
At the start, the PhD candidate Bruno Miranda (UNAM) presented a lecture on his research project ‘Relaciones entre reestructuración productiva, migración indocumentada/clandestina y discriminación étnico-racial hacia bolivian@s en la industria textil de São Paulo’. His presentation was discussed closely and commented on by all participants.
Later, the scholarship holder from the IRTG Berlin/Potsdam Tanja Wälty presented her dissertation project ‘”¡Porque somos mujeres combativas, cansadas de que por ignorancia no seamos escuchadas!” Mujeres en el movimiento punk en la Ciudad de México’. Ludmila Gaudad, visiting scholar at the Programa Universitario de Estudios de Género of the UNAM, commented on Tanja’s lecture.
There were also lively discussions by the other participants about both projects.
(Jessica Hübschmann, IRTG Mexico)
October 24, 2013, Workshop: Marco Estrada Saavedra (UNAM), ‘Estado, hegemonía y protesta social: el caso del movimiento magisterial oaxaqueño (1980-2006)’ Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
On October 24, 2013, the IRTG at Berlin/Potsdam hosted a lecture by Marco Estrada Saavedra, Professor of Sociology at the Colegio de México. In his presentation, ‘Estado, hegemonía y protesta social: el caso del movimiento magisterial oaxaqueño (1980-2006)’, Estrada Saavedra focused on how teachers’ unions in Oaxaca vie for political power within the state education sector. He made compelling arguments for how the battle for power by differing sides weakens the institutions they represent, raises levels of political corruption and prevents reform of the educational system..
In examining a specific case, Estrada Saavedra demonstrated how interdisciplinary research advances the creation of knowledge and, equally important, provides an example for junior researchers of a number of approaches that can only benefit their future academic work.
(Felipe Rubio, IRTG Berlin/Potsdam)
November 21, 2013, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, El Colegio de México
On November 21, 2013, the last session of the Inter-institutional Colloquium of the year took place at the Colegio de México.
Among the participating professors were Alberto Aziz, Carlos Alba, Bernd Hausberger, Marisa Belausteguigoitia, Mariano Torres and Marianne Braig. The scholarship holders Tanja Wälty, Bruno Miranda and Sherin Abu Chouka were also present.
Ximena Alba, a scholarship holder from the IRTG Berlin/Potsdam, opened the session with the presentation of her project ‘Mujeres chinas dentro y fuera de los circuitos diaspóricos. Formas de reapropiación económica y construcción de nuevas redes sociales’. The anthropologist Federico Besserer (UAM) commented on the presentation.
Following Ximena, Carlos Pérez Ricart, also from the IRTG Berlin/Potsdam, presented his research project ‘Agencias anti narcótico norteamericanas en México: transferencia, convergencia y reproducción de políticas’. The political scientist from the Colegio de México, Mónica Serrano, commented on the lecture.
The third presentation of the session was given by Marco Antonio Aranda Andrade. In his lecture ‘¡Si nos tocan a unx, nos tocan a todxs! Un estudio sociológico sobre la solidaridad neozapatista: 1994-2011’, he presented the preliminary results of his field research, which he conducted this year during his stay in Germany.
There was a lively discussion by the other participants of the three rather diverse projects from different disciplines.
(Jessica Hübschmann, IRTG Mexico)
December 16-18, 2013, International Colloquium: ‘Between Spaces. Thinking the categories of analysis for the study of globalization’
From December 16 to 18, 2013, the International Colloquium ‘Between Spaces. Thinking the categories of analysis for the study of globalization’ was held at the Institute for Latin American Studies in Berlin.
Closing the extremely successful year of 2013 with a joint event, the Research Training Group held the International Colloquium ‘Entre Espacios. Pensar las categorías de análisis para el estudio de la globalización’ at the Latin American Institute in Berlin. From December 16 to 18, members from Mexico and Germany met in honour of Marianne Braig and shared current research drawing on a ‘Between Spaces’ perspective. During three exciting days, we discussed matters of globalization from a transdisciplinary perspective, constantly sharpening our tools of analysis and sharing experiences in order to enrich each other’s current projects. Nineteen professors from seven universities presented their work and contributed their thoughtful comments to multifarious discussions. On December 16, Anne Huffschmid and Kathrin Wildner presented their new book Stadtforschung aus Lateinamerika. Neue urbane Szenarien: Öffentlichkeit - Territorialität – Imaginarios, which provides a compilation of ground-breaking Latin American contributions to urban studies translated into German for the first time. On December 18, the event culminated in a beautiful fiesta celebrating Marianne Braig’s 60th birthday with friends and colleagues from various countries and institutions.
(Tabea Huth, IRTG Berlin/Potsdam)
January 14-24, 2014, Seminar: Teresa Carbó, Anne Huffschmid: ‘Mirar. Leer. Investigar. Seminario-Taller de análisis visual’
On seven occasions, from January 14 to January 24, 2014, Teresa Carbó and Anne Huffschmid held a seminar on visual analysis at the Institute for Latin American Studies in Berlin. The course consisted in an introduction to the visual dimension, especially to photographic images, in the form of a lecture and discussion of texts that are considered to be classics in the study of photographic phenomena and their ontological nature. Among the authors of those texts and ‘indispensable masters’, to employ the phrase used by Carbó and Huffschmid, are Roland Barthes, Susan Sonntag and John Berger. Besides texts of other intellectuals, the writings of Huffschmid and Carbó were also read during the course and gave the students insights into their respective studies of the analysis of visual, verbal discourse and visual ethnography.
Each session was divided into two parts. In the first part, the previously mentioned texts were read and discussed, while the second part concentrated on visual materials presented by the students and lecturers. The objective of the course was to facilitate the integration of methodologies and techniques of visual analysis in the research projects of the PhD candidates, all of whom are doing their research in a variety of disciplines (sociology, anthropology, history, literature, economy, etc.). This course helped to sharpen the students’ reflections on their own investigations and their critical contributions to the projects of their colleagues.
(Lorena López, IRTG Berlin/Potsdam)
January 17, 2014, Interdiciplinary Colloquium, Institute for Latin American Studies, Berlin
On January 17, 2014, another session of the Interdisciplinary Colloquium ‘Perspectivas Entre Espacios: proyectos y debates sobre globalizaciones’ was held at the Institute for Latin American Studies in Berlin. Scholarship holders and PhD candidates Manuel Aßner, Katharina Farys, Fernando da Sousa and Deepika Teckchandani presented their respective projects, spoke about the progress of their research and about their specific methodological approaches.
Manuel Aßner gave the presentation ‘Do paper matter? Impact of illegal residence on transfers from Ecuadorian and Columbian migrants in Spain’. Fernando dos Santos Baldraia da Sousa talked about ‘Time of Between Spaces: the Black Atlantic in the recent Brazilian Historiography of Slavery’. Deepika Teckchandani presented her project ‘Metempsychosis and Dystopia in Borges’, and finally Katharina Farys gave some insights into the current status of her research under the title‘Entre la primera y la segunda estancia del trabajo de campo. Auto-percepciones y representaciones de los habitantes de la Biosfera de Calakmul, México’. There were lively discussions of all the presentations by the participants.
(Thilo F. Papacek, IRTG Berlin/Potsdam)
January 23, 2014, Workshop: Franco Farinelli (Bologna), ‘The Invention of Geographical Space’, Institute for Latin American Studies, Berlin
On January 23, 2014, we welcomed the Professor of Geography from the University of Bologna, Franco Farinelli at the Institute for Latin American Studies in Berlin. Professor Farinelli gave a fascinating lecture on the ontological power of maps. He argued that maps describe not what exists, but rather decide what exits, that is, map makers decide what things matter and what don't by including or excluding them in maps. Map-making is thus a process that constitutes reality (e.g., the reality of national territory) and forms the modern world in a decisive way. Farinelli argued that modernizing the world means to transform the face of the world into maps, that is, mapping the world. His enlightening lecture crossed the borders of diverse scholarly disciplines with ease and fit very nicely into the interdisciplinary make-up of the IRTG, which also emphasizes space and spatial representations. After the lecture, the IRTG postdoc Felipe Rubio presented his project ‘Shifting Spaces: The Chinese “Coolie” Trade in Peru, 1849-1874’. Then, PhD candidate Cuauhtémoc Pérez presented his project on ‘Insularity in Cuban contemporary narrative’. Franco Farinelli commented on both presentations and the other participants of the workshop contributed to the lively and fertile discussion.
(Thilo F. Papacek, IRTG Berlin/Potsdam)
February 6, 2014, Opening of the Inter-Institutional Colloquium 2014
On February 6, the first Inter-Institutional Colloquium of the new year took place at CIESAS.
The participants included the professors Carlos Alba, Alberto Aziz, Bernd Hausberger and Lorenza Villa Lever, the students Sherin Abu Chouka, José Alberto Moreno, Ximena Alba and Tanja Wälty, and the new Mexican IRTG fellows Selen Catalina Arango, Ybeth Arias Cuba, Yoer Javier Castaño, Amor Teresa Gutiérrez and María Valeria Montoya.
After a short introduction and presentation of the new fellows and the other participants, the doctoral students Amor Teresa and Selen Catalina (both UNAM) each introduced their current research projects.
Amor Teresa spoke on ‘La función pedagógica de la maternidad hegemónica: del discurso ‘oficial’ a las prácticas disidentes en México’ with a comments by Nina Höchtl (Instituto de Estudios Críticos).
Selen Catalina presented her project ‘Voces y silencios en la Pedagogía: de/formaciones en la narrativa chicana, mexicana y colombiana’ with comments by María del Socorro Gutiérrez Magallanes (UNAM).
Both research projects stimulated lively discussion and response from the other participants.
(Jessica Hübschmann, IRTG Mexico)
Book Publication
Stephanie Fleischmann, José Alberto Moreno Chávez, Cecilia Tossounian (eds.), América Latina entre espacios. Redes, flujos e imaginarios globales, Berlin: edition tranvia, 2014
In the midst of global flows, the geographical zone of Latin America appears to have particular importance for global experience. This anthology, which was compiled in the context of the research programme of the International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces. Movements, Actors and Representations of Globalisation’, attests to that special significance and points to the linking of processes with which the inhabitants and institutions of Latin America have contributed to global events. The analyses take as their starting-point the temporal and spatial complexity required by a study of globalisation processes.
Thinking in ‘between spaces’ opens innovative analytical perspectives for Latin America studies and at the same time influences academic practice in its traversing of national, disciplinary and scholarly cultures.
Upcoming Events
IN BERLIN
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
The Interdisciplinary Colloquium during summer term will again be organised in blocks. It will take place on May 9, June 13 and June 27, 2014. For further details of the programme, please visit our website.
Summer School of the IRTG ‘Between Spaces’, September 2-5, 2014
On September 2-5, 2014, all members of the IRTG of Mexico and Germany will meet together with interested scholars at Berlin to discuss projects and the programme of the IRTG. For further details, please visit our website.
XVII Congreso Internacional de AHILA, September 9-13, 2014
From September 9 to 13, 2014, the XVII World Conference of the AHILA, the Asociación de Historiadores Latinoamericanistas Europeos, organized by the International Research Training Group, will take place at the Freie Universität Berlin. The theme of the conference is the motto of the IRTG: ‘Entre Espacios: La historia latinoamericana en el contexto global’. Several hundred historians from around the world are expected, who will discuss various aspects of Latin American history in over 100 symposia. The conference will be accompanied by an interesting and attractive supporting programme. For further information, please visit our website.
IN MEXICO:
February 20, 2014, 5-7 pm, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, El Colegio de México
Sherin Abu Chouka (IRTG Berlin/Potsdam): ‘Los festivales de oposición mexicanos espacios de redes del intercambio internacional y de las transferencias culturales para la izquierda mexicana (1977-1982)’
María Valeria Montoya García (IRTG Mexico): ‘Trabajo y condiciones de vida de los hogares en México, 2008 y 2010’
March 6, 2014, 5-7 pm, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, El Colegio de México
Dieter Ingenschay (IRTG Berlin/Potsdam): ‘De Bolivia a Buenos Aires y del premio al plagio. Migración, escritura y 'entre espacio' en la obra de 'Bruno Morales’
March 20, 2014, 5-7 pm, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, CIESAS, Tlalpan
Nino Vallen (IRTG Berlin/Potsdam): ‘Andrés Dorantes de Caranza and the Mapping of the Social Order of the “Lands Between Asia and Europe”’
April 3, 2014, 5-7 pm, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, UNAM
Katharina Farys (IRTG Berlin/Potsdam): ‘“¿Quiénes fuimos, quiénes somos y quiénes queremos ser?" Auto-percepciones y representaciones de los habitantes de la Reserva de la Biósfera de Calakmul, México’
Yoer Javier Castaño Pareja (IRTG Mexico): ‘Comercio, Mercados y Circuitos Pecuarios en el Nuevo Reino de Granada y la Audiencia de Quito, 1580’
April 24, 2014, 5-7 pm, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, El Colegio de México
Bernd Hausberger (IRTG Mexico): presentación de la película ‘Viva Villa’
May 8, 2014, 5-7 pm, Inter-Institutional Colloquium, El Colegio de México
Kenya Herrera (IRTG Berlin/Potsdam): ‘Las Buchonas: performatividad femenina y narcocultura en la frontera norte de México’
Ybeth Arias Cuba (IRTG Mexico): ‘Representaciones de Santa Rosa de Santa María en el mundo católico, 1668-1737’
For more information on our programme and activities, please visit our website: www.entre-espacios.de
Best wishes,
Ingrid Simson and the IRTG team
