Mecila’s Kick-Off Workshop 2025

Mecila’s Kick-Off Workshop 2025 – Relationalities

São Paulo, CEBRAP, 8-9 April 2025

Mecila is a joint project of the following German and Latin American research institutions: Freie Universität Berlin (coordination); Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin); Universität zu Köln (Cologne); Universidade de São Paulo and Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (São Paulo); Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (Universidad Nacional de La Plata/Conicet, La Plata); and El Colegio de México (Mexico City).

Funded since 2017 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research  (BMBF) and established in São Paulo, Mecila focuses on the co-constitution of conviviality and inequality from an interdisciplinary and non-anthropocentric perspective. Accordingly, the Centre addresses the processes of negotiation, legitimation, transformation, and representation of existing hierarchies as they take place in everyday interactions, within institutions, as well as within relations between humans and non-human actants.

Several of Mecila’s activities in 2025 are dedicated to the topic relationalities. Relationalities have marked the Mecila Centre’s research program since its beginning. The very name of the Centre, Conviviality-Inequality, refers to two relational concepts which, additionally, are in a relationship of co-constitution. Moreover, relationalities shape the process of knowledge production at the Centre, understood not as the isolated action conducted by an abstract cognising subject but as a dialogical and relational practice involving researchers from different generations, disciplines and regions as well as non-academic experts such as activists and artists.

In the first workshop of the academic year 2025, we want to explore the potential of relational approaches for discussing contemporary pressing issues, including violence, intersectional alliances, digital inequalities, re-nationalisation trends, as well as tensions in human and more-than-human interactions. 

Preliminary Programme

Tuesday, 08 April 2025

9h30 – Welcome address
Adrian Lavalle (CEBRAP President, Universidade de São Paulo)
Rúrion Melo (Mecila Director, Universidade de São Paulo)

10h – Panel: New Faces of Violence
Although wars and violence have been recurrent and persistent events in modern societies, the forms, intensity and character of violence in various regions of the world seem to have substantially changed more recently. We refer particularly to the prominence acquired by the use (or threat of use) of violence outside the limits established by (international) law for maintaining or expanding the power of individual actors, organisations, and entire countries. In this panel, we want to assess conceptually but also starting from concrete empirical cases, how new patterns of violence are re-framing international relations as well as power dynamics at the domestic level in different countries.

Beatriz Besen de Oliveira (Universidade de São Paulo)
Karolina Wigura (Freie Universität Berlin, University of Warsaw)
Pedro Dallari (Universidade de São Paulo)

Moderation: Marcos Nobre (Mecila PI, CEBRAP, Universidade de Campinas)

11h30 – Coffee at CEBRAP

12h – More–than–Human Relationalities
The so-called ontological turn has brought new challenges for humanities and social sciences and their inherent anthropocentrism. In this panel, we will address responses to these challenges found in recent years in different disciplines. We are particularly interested in discussing non- or post-anthropocentric ways of approaching the constitutive nexus between conviviality and inequality.

Alexandre Nodari (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina)
Anne Broocks (Freie Universität Berlin)
Renato Sztutman (Universidade de São Paulo)*

Moderation: Samuel Barbosa (Mecila PI, Universidade de São Paulo)

13h30 – Lunch at CEBRAP

15h00 – Panel: Roundtable: Intersectional Alliances and the (Fallacious) Critique of “Identitarianism”
In recent decades, social movements articulating gender, sexuality, ethnoracial, and climate issues have been the driving forces of progressive politics in various regions of the world, and particularly in Latin America. Nevertheless, they face harsh criticism from both conservative and progressive forces for supposedly defending identitarian and non-universal interests. Drawing on relational perspectives, this roundtable combines arguments from academia and political activism to build responses to the critique of “identitarianism”. 

Bianca Santana (Casa Sueli Carneiro)
Nitzan Shoshan (El Colegio de México)
Sérgio Costa (Mecila Director, Freie Universität Berlin)

Moderation: Mário Medeiros (Mecila PI, CEBRAP, Universidade de Campinas)

16h30 – Coffee at CEBRAP

17h00 – Fellows Introduction
Ana Coutinho (Mecila Junior Fellow)
Hanna Nohe (Mecila Senior Fellow)
Igor Sousa (Mecila Junior Fellow)
Monica Cerqueira Cardim (Mecila Thematic Fellow)

Moderation:  Tomaz Amorim (Mecila Academic Manager)

Wednesday, 09 April 2025

9h30 – Institutional: Research Areas
Carlos Nupia (PDI of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut: Medialities of Conviviality)
Philipp Naucke (PDI of the Freie Universität Berlin: Politics of Conviviality)
Tilmann Heil (PDI of the Universität zu Köln: [Hi]Stories of Conviviality)

10h-11h30 – Roundtable: Merian Centres: Challenging Re-Nationalisation Tendencies
The five existing Merian Centres (based in Delhi, Guadalajara, São Paulo, Accra, and Tunis) were created during the heyday of multilateralism and under the appraisal of science diplomacy. They should foster cooperation on an equal footing between partners from the Global North and Global South and encourage academic and social innovation. Currently, the nationalist and anti-science backlash in various countries confronts the Merian Centres with new challenges but also new responsibilities. How are the Merian Centres reacting to this new conjuncture? How much of their initial ambitions and expectations have come true? What can we expect from the Merian Centres in the coming years? 

Barbara Potthast (Mecila PI, Universität zu Köln)
Laila Abu-Er-Rub (ICAS:MP Academic Manager)
Brenda Focás (CALAS/Escuela Interdisciplinaria de Altos Estudios Sociales -EIDAES)

Moderation: Moacyr Novaes (Mecila PI, Universidade de São Paulo)

11h30-12h: Coffee at CEBRAP

12h-13h30: Knowledge Asymmetries and Digital Inequalities
Starting from conceptual discussions and empirical cases, this panel will discuss how the acceleration of digitalisation, including the growing use of artificial intelligence by institutions, companies, and individuals in everyday life affects conviviality-inequality. We will particularly address transformations in the spheres of work, education, and daily relations: How does the platformisation of work create new inequalities within countries and between countries? What kind of new asymmetries and social disruptions emerge when everyday practices (learning, loving, leisure, etc.) become more and more digital?

Alvaro Comin (CEBRAP, Universidade de São Paulo)
Carolina Parreiras (Universidade de São Paulo)
Paula Menezes (Universidade de Campinas)

Moderation: Gloria Chicote (Mecila PI, IdIHCS/Universidad Nacional de La Plata)

13h30-15h – Lunch at CEBRAP

15h-15h30 – Fellows Introduction
Letizia Patriarca (Mecila Junior Fellow)
Livia de Souza (Mecila Junior Fellow)
Wolfram Nitsch (Mecila Senior Fellow)

Moderation: Roberta Hesse (Mecila Fellow’s Assistant)

15h30– 16h00 Final Remarks
Barbara Potthast (Mecila PI, Universität zu Köln)
Sérgio Costa (Mecila Director, Freie Universität Berlin)
Tomaz Amorim (Mecila Academic Manager)