HCIAS Collaboration Network

At the HCIAS, we understand that the complexities of the Ibero-American macroregion demand a plurality of voices, perspectives, and approaches. We believe that meaningful progress in research, study and teaching arises from dialogue and exchange across disciplinary, institutional, and national borders to engage in joint projects, co-authored publications, and shared events. We collaborate with individual scholars from around the world whose research aligns with our regional and thematic priorities and actively partner with other research units of Heidelberg University, national and international academic as well as cultural institutions to bring together diverse perspectives and expertise. The resulting HCIAS cooperation network opens new pathways for research and teaching and contributes to a deeper understanding of Ibero-America and its dialogue with other world regions. 

Within Heidelberg University, the HCIAS partners with different faculties, institutes and departments, as well as central research institutions of the humanities, the social sciences, and the environmental sciences to foster a dialogue across disciplines that enriches our academic community and deepens our understanding of Ibero-America and its entanglements with other world regions. The result of this intra-university collaboration are joint research projects, future-oriented academic programs, and workshops, summer schools or public lecture series that focus on issues which are of particular relevance for the macro-region of Ibero-America. 

With the goal to build structures at Heidelberg University that focus on the social, cultural, and linguistic complexity of the macro-region of Ibero-America, the HCIAS also collaborates with non-university partners in networks that promote both academic and cultural dialogue with specific areas of this macro-region. There are two units under the roof of the HCIAS that come out of these partnerships and that are integrated into a worldwide network of similar structures: with a focus on the region of Galicia, the Centro de Estudos Galegos (CEG), supported by the Ministry of Education, Language and Youth of Galicia, Spain, and part of the Rede de Centros de Estudos Galegos network; and with a focus on the lusophone regions of the world and particulary Brazil the Leitorado Brasileiro Guimarães Rosa Heidelberg, funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and part of the Instituto Guimarães Rosa network. Besides, through collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes Madrid, the HCIAS is promoting, since 2020, a series of demolinguistic studies on Spanish, and is, since 2023, home of the research unit Observatory of Spanish in Europe (OSE).

To promote joint research and facilitate study or research stays abroad, the HCIAS has established partnerships with universities in Ibero-America in order to foster scholarly exchange and jointly generate knowledge in the field of interdisciplinary area studies, while also supporting the development of intercultural competencies among students. We maintain specific cooperation agreements with universities, in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Spain.

In pursuit of our mission to advance cutting-edge research and global impact, the HCIAS holds active memberships in several international area studies associations. These affiliations enable our researchers to contribute to and benefit from a dynamic global network, fostering interdisciplinary cooperation and enhancing our international visibility.