The Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CALAS), with its headquarter in Guadalajara, Mexico, announces that it invites applications for its various research formats that will be installed in 2019. According to the CALAS research program “Coping with Crisis: Transdisciplinary Perspectives from Latin America”, applicants are expected to contribute from diverse angles and disciplines to the development of new methodological and analytic approaches to understand the changes and crises in Latin America. This may include a revision of Latin-American approaches, theories, and methodologies that deal with crises.

Starting not before May 1, 2019 the following scholarships are offered:
- 5 x fellowships Laboratory of Knowledge "Visions of Peace: Transitions between violence and peace in Latin America ", located in Guadalajara, México
- 6 x fellowships invited senior scholars, located at the different CALAS headquarters
- 4 x fellowships “Transatlantic Tandem” (for early career researchers from Europe and Latin America), located at the different CALAS headquarters
- 1 x CALAS guest Chair in Cuba, located in Havana
- 2 x Coordination of a “Platform for Dialogue”, located in Guadalajara, México
The fellowships are open to scholars with an academic background in the Social Sciences or the Humanities. All selected fellows are expected to spend their fellowship in residence, to work on a research project and to participate actively in the activities and events of the CALAS.

1) Laboratory of Knowledge: Visons of Peace: Transitions between violence and peace in Latin America
CALAS offers five fellowships for researchers, but also for intellectuals and other distinguished personalities that are destined to collaborate in its research line on transitions between violence and peace in Latin America. The fellowships cover stays of 3 to 9 months at the main headquarters of CALAS at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, between May 2019 and October 2020.
Applicants are expected to contribute with innovative methodological and analytical approaches for the development of new research proposals on violence and peace in Latin America in a historical and transregional perspective that allows advances in critical reflection on the transitions and passages between violence and peace. This involves research proposals that study both situations and constellations in the past and in the present in which peace is imposed in states of violence (armed conflicts, wars, crime and conditions of inequality) as well as the historical and present circumstances in which peace is lost and violence tends to predominate.
To consult the full application please click here.
Application deadline: January 6, 2019

2) Senior research fellowships
CALAS visiting researcher grant is awarded to consolidated academics who intend to complete a research project that addresses in one way or another the guiding questions of CALAS regarding the search for political and cultural strategies to face the multiple crises in Latin America. To publish the research results, CALAS offers its scholars to publish them in the form of a long essay (pocket books with approximately 80 pages), edited by the CALAS international publisher cooperation.
The call is open to scholars with a university education in the Humanities or Social Sciences. The minimum academic degree is the doctorate. In total, six fellowships for a period of 3- to 9-month will be awarded (3 at the CALAS headquarters in Guadalajara, Mexico, one in each of the three regional offices of CALAS in Central America and the Caribbean (San José, Costa Rica), the Andean Region (Quito, Ecuador) and the Southern Cone and Brazil (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
To consult the full application please click here.
Application deadline: January 6, 2019

3) Transatlantic tandem
To promote dialogue and exchange between early-career researchers from Latin America and Germany, CALAS is accepting applications for a total of four dual research fellowship (3 to 9 month) inside its program “Transatlantic Tandem”. There will be one Tandem located at each of CALAS four Latin American offices, its headquarters in Guadalajara, México and its regional offices in San José, Costa Rica, Quito (Ecuador) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). Two researchers – one from Latin America and one from Europe (Germany) – will work in a collaborative manner on a particular research topic related to the CALAS research approach. Their joint application must highlight the additional academic value of their cooperation. The application should also define the concrete results and objectives of their collaboration.
The call is open to applicants with a university education in the Humanities or Social Sciences, although applications are also accepted in which one of the two persons does not have a postgraduate degree but has proven experience in civil society functions related to the research subject.
To consult the full application please click here.
Application deadline: January 6, 2019

4) CALAS guest chair Cuba
In cooperation with the University of Havana, the CALAS convenes a scholarship to occupy the newly created CALAS Guest Chair at the Faculty of Philosophy, History and Sociology at the University of Havana, Cuba. The chair is financed by CALAS and the Thyssen Foundation and covers a period of 4 to 6 months. According to the CALAS research program, applicants are expected to contribute to the development of new methodological and analytic approaches to understand the changes and crises in Latin America.
For the 2019 call, the research project that will be carried out must be related to the search for peace and the resolution of conflicts. In this way it is intended to promote the investigation of peace processes and efforts for the resolution of conflicts, the transitions between violence and peace in Latin America from a historical, interdisciplinary and transregional approach, starting from a novel vision of the intertwined relationship between violence and peace.
To consult the full application please click here.
Application deadline: December 15, 2018

5) Platform for dialogue
To foster international academic exchange and discussion, CALAS calls for applications to organize two “platforms for dialogue” at its headquarter in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Platform for Dialogue is a collaborative format to promote interdisciplinary, interregional, and intergenerational dialogue in relation to a delimited topic. It is an academic event for a group of 15 to 30 participants, and may last from two to five days. Financial support can be granted up to EUR 20,000.
Applications can be submitted by scholars of Social Sciences and the Humanities. At least one of the conveners is expected to hold a post-doctoral degree and experience in the organization of scientific events. As CALAS promotes an international, interdisciplinary and transatlantic dialogue, preference is given to small groups of 2 to 3 conveners with different disciplinary backgrounds from Europe and Latin America.
To consult the full application please click here.
Application deadline: January 15, 2019

All calls are subject to the granting of funds by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Due to the number of applications, rejections will not be justified.

For further information please contact: Dr. Jochen Kemner, Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies, Tlf: ++ 52 33 3819 3300, ext. 23594, info@calas.lat