Stories, Migrations, Memories
The Mecila Center, the Institute of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (IdIHCS, CONICET-UNLP), the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences of the National University of La Plata and the University of Cologne, with the participation of CLACSO, are organizing two workshops on “Stories, Migrations, Memories. Convivialities in dispute shaped by differences and inequalities".
From November 3 to 7 in La Plata and Beriso, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Various CLACSO Working Groups will participate.
Mecila Thematic Workshop: Histories, Migrations, Memories. Convivialities in dispute shaped by differences and inequalities
November 3-5 in La Plata
This workshop explores the connections between memory and migration within the context of diverse forms of coexistence marked by differences and inequalities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe. The workshop is structured around panels that examine these themes from various conceptual and methodological perspectives, offering a historical overview of migration processes from Europe to the Americas and vice versa, as well as intraregional flows within both continents, from the 19th and throughout the 20th centuries, up to the current global migration crisis.
Panel 1, on Monday, November 3rd at 11:00 AM Argentina time, will feature Pablo Vommaro, Executive Director of CLACSO, together with Juan Piovani (Mecila-CONICET-UNLP); Ana Barletta (CONICET-UNLP); Elizabeth Jelin (IDES) and Isabel Piper (University of Chile).
Pablo Vommaro with Elizabeth Jelin and Ana Barletta
The program is completed with a keynote lecture, an open discussion with leading international experts on the subject and a final round table intended to offer a first assessment of the discussions and their connection with the Civil Society Workshop, which will take place on November 6 and 7, co-organized by the IAI and the Institute of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences.
Program-Workshop-Thematic-Mecila-2025-1Civil Society Workshop: Histories, Migrations, Memories. Convivialities in dispute shaped by differences and inequalities
November 6th and 7th in Berisso and La Plata
The Mecila Civil Society Workshop addresses central themes of the current research program, which analyzes the complexities of living together in a society shaped by difference and inequality through two social phenomena of great importance to both Latin America and Europe: transnational migration and plural, yet controversial, memories. In conceptualizing both events, special attention was paid to a multidisciplinary, comparative, and transregional perspective. The focus is on practices, narratives, and discourses, but also on the medialities and material expression of migration and controversial memories. In this sense, both events address key thematic areas and interrelate Mecila's Research Area (Hi)stories of Conviviality and Research Area Medialities of Conviviality. This is reflected not only in the programs of both events, their central themes, and their participants, but above all in their complementarity.
Program-Workshop-Civil-Society-1While the Thematic Workshop has a more academic character, the Civil Society Workshop focuses on specific civil society projects related to migration, histories, and memories. The experience of implementing concrete activities, creating or opening spaces for collective memory, and exchanging ideas with different actors significantly complements the theoretical and methodological discussions of the Thematic Workshop. This collaborative practice not only allows for new perspectives but also promotes transregional comparisons and opens new spaces for exchange on important social issues and demands addressed within the Mecila context.
The Maria Sibylla Merian International Centre for Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America (Mecila) is an academic consortium comprised of three German institutions: Freie Universität Berlin (coordinating), Universität zu Köln, and Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz); and four Latin American institutions: Universidade de São Paulo, Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento, El Colegio de México, and the Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (Conicet Universidad Nacional de La Plata). Headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, the Centre aims to develop cutting-edge research through horizontal, interdisciplinary cooperation among researchers from Germany, Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions of the world, relying on long-term collaborative relationships among the consortium's member institutions.
