Mission Statement

Our mission is to create a vivid and inspiring space for transnational knowledge production and circulation by fostering more symmetric cooperation between institutions and researchers from different disciplines, countries and career paths.

Mecila adheres to the following commitments and measures:

1.

To better position Latin American and Caribbean scholarship within the world’s geopolitics of knowledge:

by promoting more symmetric knowledge politics and practices between our European and Latin American partners;

by fostering the production and diffusion of knowledge within Latin America and the Caribbean as well as between Latin American and Caribbean countries and other regions.

2.

To promote a welcoming, collaborative, inclusive and self-reflective research environment that values caring practices, the respect of differences and horizontal interactions among all members and partners of Mecila:

by applying intersectional criteria in the evaluation of academic quality;

by supporting family and special needs of Mecila researchers;

by creating mechanisms that foster self-reflective research practices.

3.

To promote a more equal dialogue between academic and non-academic forms and subjects of knowledge:

by creating forms of dialogue with social movements, political activists and local communities in connection with the research issues raised by the Centre;

by diversifying our knowledge practices through artistic and media production and diffusion in connection with the research issues raised by the Centre.

4.

To promote the integration of young scholars into the production and circulation of knowledge:

by guaranteeing doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships and providing the necessary venues and mechanisms for the development and dissemination of their research.

5.

To foster innovative, rigorous, creative and inclusive research, based on high quality research methods and practices:

by selecting promising and well-established scholars that demonstrate research excellence and capacity for interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship.

6.

To promote transparency and accountability:

by publishing on our website information about our funding sources, selection criteria, governance structure, procedures, among others, according to current regulations.

7.

To promote research data management:

by defining a specific organisational concept which regulates the sustainable storage of research data and compliance with recognised standards and implementing a best-practice culture of research data management within the research community at Mecila as an integral part of the research process.

8.

To promote socially, politically and ethically engaged research:

by encouraging critical scholarship concerned with questions of equality, justice and emancipation;

by engaging in the socially relevant diffusion of knowledge through participation in political debate including policy briefings and media contributions.

9.

To defend academic freedom without restrictions:

by publicly denouncing practices that may compromise this fundamental right by and supporting efforts to the protect this right.

10.

To promote, as far as possible, a policy of unrestricted and free access to knowledge:

by providing free access to the members’ ongoing research through the publication of “working papers” on our website.

11.

To foster ethical and sound research and ensure a safe work environment:

by creating an ethics committee to monitor the application of international and national standards of fair science in order to prevent, receive, mediate and submit cases of violation of intellectual property rights, plagiarism, epistemic violence, discrimination, gender bias, moral and sexual harassment, abuse and misuse of power, etc.

12.

To find ways of reducing our environmental impact:

by prioritising recycling, waste reduction and fair trade, and organic products in all our activities;

through virtual meetings, digital information infrastructure;

by preferring low carbon emitting means of transport.