New Research Network Investigates Social Inequalities in Latin America

International Research Network Sets Up Executive Office at Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute for Latin American Studies / Inaugural Conference on December 2 to 4

Social inequalities in Latin America are the focus of a new interdisciplinary Research Network on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America, desiguALdades.net. The research network is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The executive institutions are the Institute for Latin American Studies (LAI) of Freie Universität Berlin and the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI) of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. The inaugural conference Social Inequalities and Global Interdependencies: Latin American Configurations, to be held from December 2 to 4, 2010, will provide insight into the research of desiguALdades.net.

The conference to be held at the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut aims to advance transatlantic academic dialogue. Experts from Germany, other European countries, and North, Central, and South America will discuss the influence of increasing global interdependence on social inequalities in Latin America as well as the role these relationships play in the subcontinent. At the conference the basic research questions of the new research network will be addressed in three thematic blocks. The participants will analyze how socio-economic, socio-political, and socio-ecological dimensions of inequality are constituted, transformed, and contested by growing transregional and global interconnectedness, from historical and current perspectives.

Researchers and institutions in Germany and Europe as well as North, Central, and South America are associated with the research network desiguALdades.net. The network offers scholarships and fellowships for Ph.D. students and post docs and funds research stays for visiting scholars. Conferences, summer academies, seminars and workshops promote academic exchange as well as the research profile of the network. The executive office of desiguALdades.net is at LAI of Freie Universität.

The research network is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through its funding program to support and develop area studies. It aims to work toward a paradigmatic shift in the research on social inequalities in Latin America. Other partners are the German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn and the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg.

Time and Place: • December 2 to 4, 2010, Opening: December 2, at 2 p.m. • Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Potsdamer Str. 37, D-10785 Berlin, U/S-Bahn Potsdamer Platz, U-Bahn Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park, Bus M48/M85 (Bus stop: Kulturforum), Bus M29 (Bus stop: Potsdamer Brücke) For further information, please contact: • Dr. Anna Spiegel, desiguALdades.net at Freie Universität Berlin, Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 838-58544, Email: contacto@desiguALdades.net.