Researchers at the Center for Inter-American Studies (C.IAS) deal with the world regions of North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean on a micro, meso and macro level, including their zones of influence in the Atlantic, Pacific and on the continent of Antarctica - i.e. with the continental, insular and maritime dimensions of the Western Hemisphere. Based on post- and decolonial, trans-cultural, trans-local/regional/national, intersectional, as well as global and interdisciplinary approaches and theories, the research topics can be categorized into two main research areas: (1) Inter-American Cultures, History and Literature and (2) Inter-American and Intersectional Approaches: Gender and Generations.
The analysis focuses on cultural, social, economic and political structures, developments, processes, events, interactions, but also movements, encounters, relationships and transfers of people, ideas and goods within the Western Hemisphere and between the Western Hemisphere and the rest of the world. Also central is the examination of the "shared" history, the experiences and ultimately the legacy that centuries of colonialism, conquest and decimation of the indigenous population, slavery as well as resistance, revolution and decolonization have left behind and which still shape the societies of the Western Hemisphere today. Other approaches consist of researching the genuine societies and cultures of autochthones and Americans of African origin as well as phenomena such as power, gender, lack of freedom, slavery, dependencies, age(ing), violence, criminalization, terrorism, discrimination, inequality, revolution, conflict, migration, flight, diaspora, exile, internment, trauma, illegality, smuggling, poverty, epidemics and surveillance.
The current core topics of this research focus include
- Internment camps in the Americas and the cultural representation of such camps.
- Ecological degradation in the Americas
- History and memories of migration and flight into American exile
- Jewish diaspora in the age of colonialism
- Afro- and Indo-America, especially enslavement, conquista, frontiers and borderlands
This research area pursues an interdisciplinary and transregional perspective on a field of research that is not only relevant to the discipline, but also has direct social, political and cultural relevance due to demographic change and gender transformations. With a focus on cultural and social representations of gender and generations in the Americas, this research focus offers to bring theory, approaches and methods from Europe and the Americas into dialog in order to negotiate transnational and global entanglements of power structures from an intersectional perspective. The academic study of the intersections of gender and generations is divided into the critical examination of gender and generations in literary and cultural representations, drawing on feminist theory, the development of new feminist approaches that provide tools for the intersectional exploration of cultural and social representations of gender and generations, and the application in the educational context through the development of inclusive didactic methods and pedagogical approaches that promote a critical engagement with intersectionality
The current core topics of this research focus include
- Cultural and social representations of gender allocation, power relations and inequalities from an intersectional perspective
- Cultural studies research on generations, age/s, and the life course
- Social movements in the Americas
- Approaches and theories of intersectionality research with regard to climate change, growing inequalities, social and cultural reproduction, digitalization and education
- Development of methods for participatory and interdisciplinary research (e.g. digital storytelling, intergenerational storytelling)
Affiliations
The staff of the Center for Inter-American Studies (C.IAS) are involved in the following interfaculty profile-forming areas ("fields of excellence characterized by outstanding achievements, international success and socially relevant aspects") and research networks of the University of Graz:
The subject of analysis is "changing discourses on Europe and the transfer of concepts, values and ideas".
The network examines the "cohesion of social groups against the backdrop of increasing social diversity".