Building up research cooperation; planning joint study courses

Yesterday (29.06.2017), Professor Dr. Miguel Ángel Navarro Navarro, Vice-Rector of the University of Guadalajara, the second-oldest university in Mexico, headed a delegation to Bielefeld University. The reason for the visit is the joint development of a German–Latin American research centre in the social sciences and humanities: the Center for Advanced Latin American Studies (CALAS). In addition, the two universities are planning to cooperate even more strongly in research and teaching.

Accompanying the Vice-Rector were Dr. Héctor Raúl Solís Gadea, Rector of the Campus for Social Sciences and Humanities; Dr. Carlos Iván Moreno, Head of the International Office; and Dr. Patricia Rosas Chávez, Vice-Rector for Innovation in Teaching (all from the University of Guadalajara). „The visit of the high-ranking Mexican delegation from Guadalajara demonstrates that the intensive partnership between our universities is on a new level. Both universities understand the cooperation as a special and strategical one. It is more than just exchange and mobility”, says Professor Dr. Joahim Michael, Head of the InterAmerican Studies at Bielefeld University.

The CALAS research project is receiving up to 20 million Euros as part of the Maria Sybilla Merian Programme funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). This makes it the largest Latin American research project in Germany. For the next twelve years, the initial focus of research will lie on how society deals with crises within the project ‘Coping with Crises: Transdisciplinary Perspectives from Latin America’. Renowned intellectuals from the Americas – Aníbal Quijano, Mary Louise Pratt, and Jesús Martín-Barbero, to name just a few – will be guest Fellows at CALAS in 2018.

On the German side, participants in this cooperation are Bielefeld University, which is coordinating the project; the University of Kassel; Leibniz Universität Hannover; and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The Mexican delegation visited all four partner universities in Germany this June.

In Latin America, the CALAS Project is also represented institutionally by regional centres at the FLACSO – Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences – in Quito (Ecuador), the University of Costa Rica in San José (Costa Rica), and the National University of General San Martín in Buenos Aires (Argentina).

Bielefeld University and the University of Guadalajara can already look back on more than a decade of successful cooperation in research and teaching. Since 2005, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has been awarding three scholarships per semester to allow students from Bielefeld and Guadalajara to study abroad at the other partner university. Every year, several guest lecturers also broaden the range of courses available at the other partner university. Moreover, there have already been successful joint research groups (such as the ‘E Pluribus Unum?’ group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) that worked on ‘Ethnic identities in transnational integration processes in the Americas’), numerous conferences, and several summer schools. Future plans include launching a double-degree Master study course in the 2018/2019 winter semester between the Center for InterAmerican Studies in Bielefeld and the Maestría en Literaturas Interamericanas in Guadalajara as well as an international doctoral study course in InterAmerican Studies.

Further information:
•    CALAS: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/cias/forschung/CALAS.html
•    The Center for InterAmerican Studies at Bielefeld University: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/cias/
•    Cooperations between Bielefeld University and the University of Guadalajara: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/ias/_Kooperation_Guadalajara.html