Mecila: Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality Latin America

19/05/2026

👉 O Mecila está com 1 vaga de estágio aberta!

O Mecila está com uma oportunidade aberta para estudantes das áreas de Humanidades, Ciências Sociais ou Comunicação que desejam atuar em um ambiente acadêmico internacional e interdisciplinar. 🌎📚

A/o estagiária/o irá apoiar atividades nas áreas de comunicação, publicações, eventos acadêmicos e coordenação institucional do Centro.

📍 Local: São Paulo (presencial – Cebrap/USP)
🕒 Carga horária: 20h semanais
📅 Início previsto: julho de 2026

Benefícios do Estágio:
💰 Bolsa-estágio
🍽️ Vale-refeição
🚊 Vale-transporte
🛡️ Seguro de vida

📅 Inscrições abertas até 29 de maio.
👀 Saiba mais: https://buff.ly/FDb4f2D

13/05/2026

📅 Next week!!!
Join us on Wednesday, 20 May 2026, at 18:00 CET for a lecture by Maristella Svampa (CeDInCI, Universidad Nacional de San Martín / Conicet, Argentina):
“Policrisis, conflictos y narrativas sobre la transición ecosocial. Perspectivas desde América Latina”.

In this lecture, Maristella Svampa will analyze the polycrisis from four different perspectives. First, she wil present some aspects of the civilizational polycrisis and the asymmetries of the Anthropocene era. Secondly, she'll address the connection between the technocratic narrative, the energy transition, and green colonialism. Thirdly, she'll characterize the role of the radical right in establishing a new scenario of asymmetric polarization. Finally, she'll highlight the importance of promoting relational narratives and their association with the new economy of affect, in contrast to the affective economy mobilized by the far right.

📍 Location: Conference Room, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI), Potsdamer Str. 37, Berlin
🎥 Streaming: https://buff.ly/82YkT4I
This event is part of the Mecila Lecture Series Diversity / Medialities.

More information: https://buff.ly/2wadIhc

07/05/2026

No dia 29 de abril, Marcial Suárez (Universidade Federal Fluminense/ Ex- Fellow Mecila) e Juliana Lugão (Mecila Scientific Manager) participaram do “Fórum sobre democracia, soberania e participação: perspectivas da diversidade social”, promovido pela Clacso - Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales em parceria com a PUC Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo.

Marcial e Juliana, juntamente com Gloria Amézquita (Diretora Acadêmica do CLACSO), apresentaram o livro “Violência e Cuidado: Abordagens para uma Relação Ambivalente”, que faz parte da coleção de livros Mecila-CLACSO. A obra organizada por Raquel Rojas, Marcial Suarez e Izadora Xavier do Monte foi publicada em dezembro de 2025 e está acessível em formado aberto por meio deste link: https://buff.ly/wD7QJSb

Assista à Apresentação do Livro por este link (02:09 – 02:31): https://buff.ly/32SNVwz

O Fórum faz parte da agenda estratégica da CLACSO para 2025-2028, que visa fortalecer a democracia a partir do pensamento crítico e transformador da América Latina e do Caribe, promovendo articulações multissetoriais que incorporem e reconheçam diversas perspectivas do Sul Global.

06/05/2026

📅 Next week!!!
Join us on Tuesday, 12 May at 18:00 CET for a lecture by Miguel A. García (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Conicet, Argentina / Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung):
“Un archivo en el que todo confluye. Sobre los procesos de datificación, plataformización y virtualización del sonido”.

This lecture by Miguel A. García will explore how sound archives and digital platforms increasingly intersect through processes like datafication, platformization, and AI.
It critically examines how sound recordings circulate between institutional collections and global platforms, reshaping access, control, and meaning.

📍 Location: Conference Room, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI), Potsdamer Str. 37, Berlin
🎥 Streaming: https://buff.ly/fzCBh3y
This event is part of the Mecila Lecture Series Diversity / Medialities.

More information: https://buff.ly/aZRZlUC

Los registros sonoros habitan dos mundos diferentes. Uno es el de las instituciones, la conservación, las donaciones, las bodegas, los estantes. El otro es el de las redes, las grandes empresas tecnológicas, las plataformas, la Big Data, la mercancía. Aunque son mundos archivísticos divergentes ...

28/04/2026

👉 Mecila recomenda

Congresso de 2026 da Associação Alemã de Pesquisa sobre a América Latina (ADLAF). “Democracias em conflito: América Latina em Perspectiva Transregional”. Berlim, 18-20 de junho de 2026

O congresso da ADLAF abordará os múltiplos aspectos da luta pela democracia na América Latina a partir de uma perspectiva multidisciplinar, mas também pretende olhar além das fronteiras da região, sobretudo para a Europa, onde muitas democracias enfrentam problemas semelhantes. Serão também abordados os processos transfronteiriços de interligação e cooperação internacional, que podem ter efeitos tanto favoráveis como desfavoráveis para a democracia.

📋️ Inscrição para o Congresso da ADLAF 2026 aqui: https://buff.ly/nYYOurJ

23/04/2026

📅 Next week!!!

Join us on Wednesday, 29 April at 18:00 CET for a lecture by Carolina Correia dos Santos (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Alexander von Humboldt Foundation / Research Fellow at the IAI):

“The Writing of the River: Winding Lines between Science, Power, and Ecology in Euclides da Cunha’s Amazon.”

In this hybrid lecture, Carolina Correia dos Santos explores Euclides da Cunha’s Amazonian writings—particularly those later compiled in À margem da história (Land Without History). Taking into account da Cunha’s lasting influence on Brazilian cultural and intellectual history, the talk reflects on how his ideas resonate today, especially in the context of the climate crisis and ongoing debates on the Anthropocene.

📍 Location: Conference Room, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI), Potsdamer Str. 37, Berlin

💻 Streaming: https://buff.ly/z58PLns

This event is part of the Mecila Lecture Series Diversity / Medialities.
🔗 More information: https://buff.ly/ZhlbiOy

15/04/2026

🎉 Great news for transregional Latin American studies!
As of the bginning of the month, the Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America (Mecila), coordinated by the Freie Universität Berlin, enters a new funding phase through March 2029.

Since 2017, Mecila has collaborated with partners in Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina to investigate conviviality and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean from interdisciplinary perspectives.

In this new phase, the research will focus especially on:
- the social consequences of digitalization and related inequalities
- the impacts of the climate crisis on coexistence — among humans and also between humans and other living beings

Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, this continued funding reinforces Mecila’s commitment to excellent research, multilingual knowledge exchange, and equitable collaboration across regions, disciplines, and career stages.

We are excited for the years ahead and for the important conversations, partnerships, and research this new chapter will make possible.

Read more here: https://buff.ly/HUrpjFa

Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt unterstützt Forschungszentrum bis März 2029

08/04/2026

O Mecila convida para o colóquio "Sobre la colonialidad del Estado", com apresentação da ex-senior Fellow Ina Kerner, e com comentários do também ex-senior Fellow, Marcial Suarez.

📅 Data: 16 de abril de 2026
⏰ Horário: 14h
📍 Local: Auditório do Cebrap (São Paulo)
🗣️ Idioma: Espanhol

Em sua apresentação, Ina Kerner propõe uma reflexão crítica sobre a chamada “crise da democracia”, questionando em que medida essa crise é de fato recente. A partir da análise dos rastros coloniais presentes nos Estados-nação ocidentais, a autora discute como estruturas históricas de desigualdade — especialmente aquelas baseadas em diferenciações raciais — continuam a moldar a participação democrática e os processos de tomada de decisão. Ao discutir a "colonialidade do Estado", Kerner investiga como o reconhecimento de um padrão de colonialidade pode contribuir para a compreensão do mundo contemporâneo e, eventualmente, para sua transformação.

06/04/2026

👉 Activities in Germany with Makato Tapirapé and Paroo’i Tapirapé and Mecila Researcher Ana Coutinho

In late March 2025, two Indigenous representatives of the Apyãwa-Tapirapé people, Makato Tapirapé and Paroo'i Tapirapé, travelled to Germany alongside Ana Coutinho (Mecila Junior Fellow 2025) for a week-long visit focused on cultural heritage, ancestral collections, and the ongoing debate around restitution.

For more information, we suggest the interview with social anthropologist Dr Ana Coutinho (MECILA Junior Fellow 2025) by the Blog for the Humanities and Social Sciences of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space: https://buff.ly/Nazxp9c

02/04/2026

In late March 2025, two Indigenous representatives of the Apyãwa-Tapirapé people, Makato Tapirapé and Paroo'i Tapirapé, travelled to Germany alongside Ana Coutinho (Mecila Junior Fellow 2025) for a week-long visit focused on cultural heritage, ancestral collections, and the ongoing debate around restitution.

The final leg of the trip brought the group to Bochum, where they participated in the symposium “Knowledge Infrastructures of Extraction & Return: Indigenous Materialities between Brazil and Europe” organized by Tomaz Amorim (Ruhr-Universität Bochum/ Mecila) and Jörn Etzold (Ruhr-Universität Bochum). The event brought together anthropologists and Indigenous specialists to discuss what their research contributes to broader conversations about restitution and the historical relationship between European institutions and Indigenous communities.

The symposium highlighted the Apyãwa-Tapirapé resistance, exploring how “convivial pacts” and the strategic negotiation of ritual objects served as tools for demographic and ritual reestablishment. Finally, the Tapirapé ritual specialists themselves addressed the contemporary fight against extractivism—specifically the agrotoxic threats to their territories — and how they seek new alliances to support Indigenous sovereignty and physical survival.

More information on the event here: https://buff.ly/5MhEO7v

31/03/2026

Join us on Wednesday, 29 April 2026 at 18:00 CET for a lecture by Carolina Correia dos Santos (UERJ/ Alexander von Humboldt Foundation / Research Fellow at the IAI):

“The Writing of the River: Winding Lines between Science, Power, and Ecology in Euclides da Cunha’s Amazon.”

In this hybrid lecture, Carolina Correia dos Santos explores Euclides da Cunha’s Amazonian writings—particularly those later compiled in À margem da história (Land Without History). Taking into account da Cunha’s lasting influence on Brazilian cultural and intellectual history, the talk reflects on how his ideas resonate today, especially in the context of the climate crisis and ongoing debates on the Anthropocene.

📍 Location: Conference Room, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI), Potsdamer Str. 37, Berlin
💻 Streaming: https://buff.ly/nJN6lcW

This event is part of the Mecila Lecture Series Diversity / Medialities.
🔗 More information: https://buff.ly/dp0niqK