Summer Schools
Call for Applications:
Third desiguALdades.net Summer School, 2012
Knowledge Asymmetries
Unequal Knowledges – Knowledge Inequalities
Cooperation: Research Network desiguALdades.net and
Department of Geography of National University of Colombia
Bogotá-Villa de Leyva (Colombia), October 29 - November 3, 2012
Deadline for applications: July 9, 2012 (see details below).
Download:
Call for Applications (PDF)
Application Form (PDF)
The Third Summer School on interdependent inequalities, organized jointly by desiguALdades.net and the Department of Geography of the National University of Colombia (Departamento de Geografía, Universidad Nacional de Colombia ), will take place in Bogotá and Villa de Leyva, Colombia, from October 29 to November 3, 2012.
The organizers will welcome up to 30 junior researchers from around the world for this intensive program, including participants from desiguALdades.net, participants from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and external participants from Latin America.
The Organizers
desiguALdades.net is an interdisciplinary, international, and multi-institutional research network on social inequalities in Latin America, supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) in the frame of its funding line on area studies. The Lateinamerika-Institut of the Freie Universität Berlin (LAI, Institute for Latin American Studies) and the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz Ibero-American Institute IAI, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin) are in overall charge of the research network. For the research concept of the network, please see www.desigualdades.net.
Universidad Nacional de Colombia is an autonomous university corporation at the national level, connected to the Ministry of Education of Colombia. The goal of the Department of Geography is to train geographers that are able to understand the interaction process between nature and society that takes place in geographic space, and who will be prepared to contribute to the reflection about these dynamics, with the final objective of producing knowledge and information for territorial planning, natural risk studies, and diverse environmental, economic and social problems. To learn more about our department please visit http://www.humanas.unal.edu.co/geografia/acerca-del-departamento/historia/.
Scope of the Summer School
Following up on the First Summer School on Interdependent Inequalities (São Paulo, Brazil, November 2010) which focused on transregional configurations of inequalities, and the Second Summer School (Buenos Aires, Argentina, October-November 2011) which focused on interdependent inequalities in a global perspective: class, racial, gender and ethnic asymmetries in Latin America, this Third Summer School is intended to continue to create space for researchers to explore the different axes through which inequalities are produced and reproduced in Latin America.
The objective of the Third Summer School is to promote a debate on progress on social inequalities related to knowledge asymmetries. To this end, the Third Summer School will foster discussion of both theoretical and empirical conditions and processes in Latin America, including how social inequalities related to knowledge are produced, reproduced and function, and how they are interconnected with the national and global levels.
This Summer School will have the following topics:
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Introduction:This section seeks to highlight the discussions about knowledge, traditional knowledge and experiences, with an emphasis on the construction of knowledge since modernity and its implications in the current inequalities. At the same time we will explore and discuss the temporality, spatiality and materiality of knowledge.
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Politics and Asymmetries of Knowledge. Here, we will discuss how politics (sub national, national, transnational) produce asymmetries between different forms and practices of knowledge as well as the process by which the exclusion of knowledge is generated and reproduced through these policies. We also discuss the existent asymmetries between politics of knowledge (eg. between the global North and the global South or between natural sciences and social sciences).
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Production and Legitimation of Inequalities through Knowledge. We will emphasize about how differences of race, gender, ethnicity and class are produced and reproduced through knowledge.
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Knowledge and Conflicts: We will analyze how social conflicts generate and transform knowledge and how this in turn transforms interactions and social processes. We will center the discussion around conflicts linked to “extractivism” (agribusiness and mining) and processes of armed violence.
Format of events
- Classes, workshops and lectures with international specialists.
- Discussions of research proposals prepared in advance by the participants.
- Interdisciplinary readings (a basic bibliography will be distributed in advance).
- Field visits to urban areas and social projects related to topics discussed in the Summer School.
The activities will be conducted at a postgraduate / Ph.D. level.
Language
Spanish and English. The organizers assume the candidates are fluent in at least one of the working languages (English or Spanish). They should also have at least good passive knowledge (listening and reading comprehension) in the other language.
Participants
The main target group of the Summer School is doctoral students from different social science disciplines with strong interest in inequalities in Latin American contexts. In addition, postdoctoral researchers who have (since 2009) concluded their doctoral studies within the last three years are welcome to apply. Finally, researchers may also apply if they have a Master degree and research experience relevant for the topic of the summer school.
Eligibility/requirements for researchers with Master degree:
- An outstanding academic degree in social sciences (MA, MSc or equivalent) completed within the last three years.
- Research in topics related to the Summer School.
- Research background in Latin America.
- Currently living in Latin America.
Eligibility/requirements for doctoral students:
- An outstanding academic degree in social sciences (MA, MSc or equivalent) completed within the last three years.
- Enrollment as a student in a Ph.D. program in Latin America for at least three semesters.
- Research background in Latin America.
- Currently living in Latin America.
Eligibility/requirements for postdoctoral researchers:
- An outstanding doctoral/PhD degree in Social Sciences completed within the last 3 years.
- Research background in Latin America.
- Currently living in Latin America.
Costs: Travel, Health Insurance
The courses of the Summer School are free of charge. The organizers will provide accommodation and basic meals for all participants. As for travel expenses, the candidates are encouraged to search first for sponsorship from their home institutions. In case this is not possible, the organization will consider the possibility of financing partially or completely the participant’s travel expenses.
All admitted participants should provide proof of health insurance for the duration of the Summer School. The organizers are not able to assume health and other care costs of participants.
How to apply?
Candidates should provide:
- Application form
- CV.
- Certificate of being engaged/enrolled in a graduate program.
- A brief essay with details of the candidate’s current research project as well as its connections with the themes of the Summer School (up to 1500 words).
- One letter of recommendation assessing the candidate’s skills and how the knowledge acquired in the Summer School would help the development of his/her own project.
Deadline for applications: July 9, 2012
All the material required for the application should be sent in electronic version to the e-mail address: summerschool2012@desigualdades.net
On July 23, 2012, a list of eligible and pre-approved candidates will be announced. These candidates must confirm their participation and submit all necessary additional documents by September 10, 2012. Applications without the complete set of documents requested above will not be accepted.
Yearly summer schools in Latin America are carried out by Latin American partners. They contribute to the exchange of research within the Network.
Second Summer School on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America
Buenos Aires, Argentina
October 31- November 4, 2011
First Summer School on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America
São Paulo, Brazil
November 1-5, 2010
