Ibero-Amerika Studien: Masterstudiengang „Communication and Society in Ibero-America“Kursangebot Wintersemester 2023/2024

Seminar: Theories of Social Change: Contributions from Latin America

Social change, a foundational topic of sociological thinking, has received renewed attention under new names such as theories of transition and transformation research, and has mostly been discussed widely in relation to the environmental question. However, there is a growing body of literature on the need to also incorporate other dimensions of social change in order to tackle the environmental crisis. This include decolonial approaches, gender theories, critical race studies, and theories on the pluriverse and Indigenous cosmopolitics. This course will discuss Latin American theories on crises and transformation and their contribution to global theoretical and political debates on contemporary processes of social change.

Dieser Kurs ist als Seminar für Modul 1 anrechenbar.

Seminar: Socioenvironmental Change in Ibero-America: Historical Developments, Spatial Implications, and Politeconomic Contexts in Latin America

Nature and the environment are inextricably bound to social relations. In this seminar, we engange with theoretical approaches in social science research to conceptualize society-nature relations and analyse socioenvironmental change. In particular, we will engage with literature from human geography, political ecology, environmental history, science and technology studies, development studies, political science, and on social movements that shed light on historical trajectories, spatial implications, and politconomic contexts of the appropriation and use of nature, socio-ecological inequalities, and strategies aiming at sustainable development. The regional focus of the course is Latin America. Empirically, the course engages with research on agriculture, mining, bioeconomy, climate change, nature conservation, and renewable energies.

Dieser Kurs ist als Seminar für Modul 2 anrechenbar.

Seminar: Transit migration and everyday life across the Americas

The concept of transit migration was conceived in the field of European public policies, and it has been a politicized concept since its origins. For the UN Economic Commission for Europe, transit migration means migration from “one country with the intention of seeking the possibility there to emigrate to another country as the country of final destination.” Hence, in the Latin American academic field, the concept of transmigration has been discussed as a synonymous manner of referring to transit migration. But, even if there is a wealth of international literature on this concept in the academic field, how is transit migration currently discussed? What kind of migratory processes can be grasped through the lens of transit migration? What does transit migration refers to? What is a transmigrant? How and where does this kind of migration take place? What are the social processes originating from this type of human movements?

This seminar seeks to better understand the social (inter)relations occurring in the ‘in-between’ of irregularized migration. We will analyze the diverse encounters happening between people on the move, things and places along the irregularized migratory routes in the Americas. We will study diverse migratory corridors (in South America, Central America, Mexico and the U.S.) to deepen the understanding of irregular migration ‘from below.’ In spite of increased attention on irregularized migrants, there is still a lack of discussions about the implications of such migratory processes in migrants’ life trajectories and their encounters with other actors, things, and places taking part of this mobility phenomenon. In this seminar, we will look into the interior of everyday life of irregularized migration: emotions, negotiations, contestations, ‘tactics of survival’, gendered practices, health, among others, built around this kind of human movements.

Dieser Kurs ist als Seminar für Modul 2 anrechenbar.

Seminar: Comunicación y Sociedad en Ibero-América

El seminario presenta los fundamentos de los procesos comunicativos a partir de la realidad social iberoamericana. La comunicación se descompone en sus diferentes factores, que se interpretan desde una perspectiva sociocognitiva. Los contextos iberoamericanos sirven de marco para comprender cómo interviene cada factor de la comunicación y cómo contribuyen a su adecuación y eficacia. El conocimiento sobre cómo funciona cada factor y sobre cómo todos ellos interactúan entre sí contribuye una mayor comprensión y a un mejor dominio de las técnicas comunicativas, especialmente en dominios públicos.

Dieser Kurs ist als Seminar für Modul 3 anrechenbar.

Übung: Communication and Public spheres in Ibero-America

This seminar studies the public sphere, comprised of the media, civil society, and politics, and looks at their relationships from a communication perspective. The seminar, therefore, introduces a selective conceptual vocabulary that is regarded as instrumental to understanding the communicators of political information, such as journalists or today’s ‘users’. Further, the practical focuses on characteristics that typically guide the content of political information and serve to uncover structures of the communication itself. Moreover, the effects of communication are discussed applying approaches from media effects research.

The practical sets an emphasis on the context communication takes place, in three dimensions: Firstly, it focuses on the Ibero-American context, and regional case studies inform about public sphere mechanisms around actors, media content, and reception in the macro-region. Secondly, the public spheres are studied under conditions of deeply changed media environments shaped by the production and use of digital media. Thirdly, the practical addresses current debates on societal processes, such as the polarization of the public sphere, that are suspected to be fueled by virulent online communication (e.g., hate speech).

Dieser Kurs ist als Übung für Modul 3 anrechenbar.

Seminar: Entangled Geographies: Migration, Urban Space, and Infrastructures of contemporary Mexico

This seminar explores the intersections between urban space policies and migratory processes in contemporary Mexico. Furthermore, the seminar seeks to provide students with the skills to understand the urban policies and migratory processes that have shaped Mexico’s current infrastructure. The course purports to understand the interplay between migration, urban space, and infrastructures to better comprehend the socio-cultural transformations that have shaped the country that we know today. Methodologically based on the knowledge provided by history, geography, anthropology, and mobility studies, the course offers an interdisciplinary approach to grasp phenomena (that are too often studied in isolation. The seminar is divided into three sections. The first provides an account of both Mexico’s geography and history, an analyse how their interplay influenced the formation of the nation that we know today. The second section focuses on the study of (forced) migration. It will draw on the previous historical, sociological, and geographical accounts to portray the complex socio-economic nature of migratory flows that shape Mexico nowadays, whether they originate in the country (e.g., internal migration, Mexican migration into the U.S.) or rely on it as a point of transit. Lastly, the course will study processes of urban (trans)formation, and the political and economic ramifications of decades of uneven development. The growth of cities, such as Cancun, Mexico City, and Mexican border cities with the U.S. (e.g., Tijuana or El Paso), will serve as case studies to explore the backdrop of the configuration of urban spaces. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course seeks to shed light on the intricate connections between these topics. By underscoring their entangled nature, we wish to provide a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between migration, urban space, and infrastructures in contemporary Mexico. We seek to stimulate a critical discussion that inspires students to analyse urban socio-spatial dynamics, not as something isolated, but as a complex web that extends both beyond internal affairs, as well as geopolitical borders.

Dieser Kurs ist als Seminar für Modul 5 anrechenbar.

Übung: Antirassismus und Gesellschaft

Ziel dieses Kurses ist es, antirassistische Praktiken als Weg zu einer gerechteren Gesellschaft zu diskutieren. Zu diesem Zweck werden wir den Rassismus ausgehend von der Realität der brasilianischen Gesellschaft diskutieren, uns mit den historischen Aspekten der Beziehung zwischen Sklaverei und Rassismus befassen und darüber nachdenken, wie struktureller Rassismus mehr als die Hälfte der brasilianischen Bevölkerung betrifft. Grundlage der Lehrveranstaltung ist die Lektüre und Diskussion des Buchs Pequeno Manual Antiracista ('Kleines Handbuch für Antirassismus') der brasilianischen Philosophin Djamila Ribeiro.  Zur Methodik gehört auch die Übersetzung einzelner Kapitel des Buches ins Deutsche. (Vom Verlag autorisiert)

Somit können Studierende aller Studiengänge am Kurs teilnehmen, sofern sie Portugiesisch und Deutsch verstehen.

Der Kurs ermöglicht es den Studierenden, ihre Kenntnisse der portugiesischen Sprache anhand eines Fachtextes zu vertiefen, aber auch brasilianische wissenschaftliche Literatur in anderen Sprachen zu verbreiten. Im Laufe des Kurses werden die einzelnen Kapitel des Buchs besprochen, wobei die Studierenden in die soziokulturellen Themen der jeweiligen Debatte eingeführt werden. Nach der Lektüre und Diskussion in der Gruppe erhalten die Studierenden die Abschlussaufgabe, ein Kapitel des Buchs zu übersetzen. Die Lehrveranstaltung wird von zwei Dozentinnen geleitet (Marilia Pinheiro Pereira, Leitorado Brasiliero, und Rosa Rodrigues, Instituto Camões). Im Rahmen des Kurses werden auch Gastdozenten einen Vortrag halten.