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Dear readers,

We want to thank all of you who helped us along 2019, collaborating to create this amazing Centre and we want to especially thank those who inspire Mecila to ask the hard questions! We wish you all Happy Holidays and hope to see you around again in 2020 ;)

In our next edition we will release the program of our upcoming International Conference “Living on the Edge: Studying Conviviality-Inequality in Uncertain Times”, that will take place in São Paulo, between the 5th and 6th of March. Stay tuned!

Mecila Team

. News .

: A quick reminder - have you checked Mecila's Call for Applications?

Mecila is still receiving applications for its Senior and Junior Fellowships. The Centre will award 4 Junior Fellowships to candidates who have obtained a doctoral degree in humanities or social sciences within the last 5 years, and 5 Senior Fellowships for internationally recognized scholars who hold a permanent senior position at a university or research institution.

The scholarships will have a duration of 7 months and both positions are allocated at Mecila's hub in São Paulo. The monthly stipend is above average, covering local living costs.

Applicants should send the required documents no later than the 15th January 2020 via e-mail to the Coordination Office in São Paulo. All the requirements for the subscription are detailed in the full-texts of the calls linked above.

: IdIHCS celebrates 10 years of history

The Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IdIHCS) - one of the seven institutions that constitute Mecila - celebrates 10 years of history in 2019. The event was attended by the new Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina, Roberto Salvarezza, in addition to the president of the Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Fernando Tauber, the dean of the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, Ana Julia Ramírez and the Director of the Institute and one of Mecila's Principal Researchers, Gloria Chicote.

: CLACSO offers courses on afro-latinamerican and caribbean studies

The Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO, in the Spanish abbreviation) develops a series of postgraduate courses whose objective is to elucidate issues that concern Latin Americans, such as racism, colonialism and inequality. Among these courses, for 2020, CLACSO will provide the specialization and international course "Estudios afrolatinoamericanos y caribeños", which aims to analyze the trajectories and social dynamics of afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean from a critical perspective.

Professor Nilma Gomes, from the Federal University of Minas Gerais and a member of Mecila's Advisory Board, is among the Coordinators.

The process of oppression and violence affecting Afro-descendents has been faced mainly by the organization of black women and men. The course, which will last from February to December 2020, seeks to analyze and study these issues.

Specific information such as value and schedule can be found on the CLACSO website.

: MIASA Merian Centre secures funding for 2020-2026

The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) has been approved by the German Ministry of Education and Research to receive financing for its main phase after the Centre received the visit of a panel comprised of African and German Scholars. Working with the main theme of sustainable governance, MIASA is constituted by two African Institutions, the University of Ghana (Accra), and The Centre de Recherches sur les Politiques Sociales, at Senegal (Dakar), along with five German partners.

In this new stage, the Centre will broaden its scope of activities, hosting individual Fellows, Policy Fellows, tandem Fellowships and Interdisciplinary Fellow Groups comprising Fellows who choose to work together on a common theme. Calls for Applications will occur on the first quarter of 2020.

Series of lectures and conferences will also take place at the University of Ghana and across the African Continent, as well as writing and publishing workshops and female academic workshops, which will occur at the University of Ghana and in Dakar, Senegal.

We at Mecila are glad to be part of this expanding network of Centres throughout the world and hope to develop a fruitful connection with MIASA in the years to come.

. Publications .

El Colegio De México, one of Mecila's partner institutions, is publishing a new platform to present the Project Discriminación Étnico-Racial en México.

This wide and ambitious project aims to analyse with quantitative and qualitative instruments how the ethnic-racial questions take place in Mexico. The investigations take on themes such as how ethnic-racial characteristics have an effect on the social and economic life of individuals; which practices of discrimination take place in Mexico; how racial bias intervene when it comes to evaluating distributive public policies. Among many others.

The new website will publicize results of the investigations, but it will also host the agenda of events and other media productions of the Project.

. We recommend .

Conviviality: walking towards other knowledges, other worlds - an interview with Sérgio Costa

In this interview (in Portuguese) for the Instituto Humanitas Unisinos Online (IHU Online), professor Sérgio Costa, one of Mecila's Principal investigators and speaker of the Centre, gives a clear historical outline of the concept of conviviality, showing how its articulation with inequality provides a refined tool for observing social life and interactions beyond traditional schemes of social sciences.

With such lens, one can also be able to have new perspectives on the relations between humans and nature and humans and non-humans. Reflecting on the meaning and challenges of assuming this theoretical standpoint, Professor Costa also argues that if boundaries and limits need to be overcome between different disciplines, bonds and bridges should also be built between the academic and non-academic forms of knowledge.

Black Feminism: an interview with Márcia Lima

Márcia Lima, ilustrated by Caio Borges for the podcast Maria Vai com as Outras

Professor Márcia Lima, from the Sociology Department of the Faculty of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo and also the coordinator of the research nucleus AFRO, at Cebrap was interviewed for the podcast “Maria vai com as outras” (Revista Piauí).

The podcast discusses a variety of issues and challenges faced by women in the job market. Among other things, the researcher talked about the relations between the black and feminist movements, forced labour and the diversity of scientific research. If you want to hear more about this interesting conversation don’t miss the podcast.

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