Research

Against the backdrop of multiple environmental crises, contemporary artists and artistic collectives are increasingly exploring the complex relationships and interactions between 'natural' and social, biological and technical-cultural systems. Furthermore, with regard to ecological destruction, they also reflect on the gendered or ethnically determined power relations and neo-colonial structures that are reflected, for example, in the division between the countries of the so-called Global South and the Global North. Due to a recent expansion of the concept of ecology, such links between social and ecological processes have also recently come to the fore in scientific disciplines. Contemporary art produced in the context of the climate crisis is therefore - according to the central hypothesis of the research network - concerned with trans-ecological aspects. In order to adequately explore the complex connections between diverse socio-ecological processes and their aesthetic-artistic negotiations, the network has set itself the task of developing a trans-ecological approach for art studies. By critically revising and synthesizing existing definitions of transecology from anthropology, political philosophy and gender studies, the network members aim to develop 'transecology' as an innovative theoretical concept and a new method for art studies. With this project, the network is responding to a gap in research. Despite the evident centrality of ecological themes in contemporary art production and in cultural studies theory, a well-founded examination of these phenomena in German-speaking art studies is still in its infancy.

The Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CALAS) is a university-based Center for Advanced Studies founded by a consortium of Latin American and German universities. The University of Guadalajara, Mexico, houses the head office of CALAS while three regional offices are located at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Quito, Ecuador; the Universidad de Costa Rica in San José, Costa Rica; and the Universidad Nacional San Martín in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The German Universities Bielefeld, Kassel and Hanover are responsible for the project management. As a Center for Advanced Latin American Studies, CALAS promotes scientific, transregional, transnational, and systematic studies in the social sciences, humanities, and arts on topics relevant to Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, one of CALAS objectives is to stimulate the search for new fields of research in Latin America through the aforementioned (regional) Centers for Advanced Studies, thus providing a space for high-level transregional and international research and dialogue. CALAS is a member of the international network of University-based Institutes for Advanced Studies (UBIAS).

The research program in the 2017-2025 period focused on the theme"Coping with Crises: Transdisciplinary Perspectives from Latin America". At present, the programs are part of the agenda "Creating Horizons: Accelerations, Transformations, and Emergencies." (2025-2029).

The Cold War period and its subsequent (post-)conflicts are characterized by a remarkable amnesia and a politics of invisibilization that reflect the epistemic order of decolonization of the Global South. Yet counter-semantics that challenge historical oblivion and injustice have been articulated by artists, writers and institutional initiatives that increasingly seek to contest this amnesia with alternate narratives or dissonant archives. Transitional situations, such as negotiated in Colombia or Lebanon, reconfigured an increasingly diverse landscape of memory cultures that claim truth and justice. While some transitional societies opted for an amnesty that fosters the invisibilization of the protracted conflict, others initiated a cultural and political process through a dialogue with the creative human rights. Nurturing official silence, amnesia, and the fragmentation of society, the related violence on human and non-human life forms has generated complex and conflicting memory cultures that are shaped both by local and global biases. Drawing upon a comparative cultural analytical and art historical perspective, this project examines the role of cultural production, in particular the arts, as aesthetic inquiries and dissonant narratives in processes of reconciliation and the search for truth and justice that exists within cultures, foregrounding alternate and plural writings of history. The project thus understands contemporary global arts against this background as performative practices of human rights and ethical praxis.

The Peace and Conflict Culture Network will address the complex and contested questions that face post conflict societies, of what should we remember, what should we forget, and, ultimately, why?

The network will seek to facilitate connections with academics and other relevant stakeholders and mobilize arts and social institutions engaged in peace, conflict and cultural discourse in the UK and abroad in selected regions. It will posit a central research question: what is the role of museums and memory sites that deal with memory and conflict, and how can they more effectively promote tolerance, resilience, inter-group and inter-ethnic cooperation? Firstly, it will investigate the role of art and artists in a museum/site of memory context in contributing to peacebuilding processes. Secondly, the network will facilitate discussions around the question of how youth can be engaged actively in peacebuilding through engagement with museums/sites of memory.

The network will especially foreground the contribution from academics and institutions from post-conflict societies in particular from the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and the Great Lakes region, Lebanon and the Middle East and Colombia and Latin America.

The Peace and Conflict Cultural Network is convened by PARC and funded by the AHRC. The organizing team consists of Dr. Paul Lowe, PARC and London College of Communication; Dr. Nela Milic, PARC and London College of Communication; Professor Kenneth Morrison, De Montfort University, and Professor Liliana Gómez, University of Kassel.