Research Streams

Political culture, memory and human rights

This research stream addresses the individual and collective processes associated to the construction of political culture, dynamics of appropriation and reconstruction of social memories, as well as mechanisms used to transition from contexts of political violence to periods of peace. To do so, we evaluate public policies, social representations, and the actions of grass-roots movements (whether elite, poor, or social movements). The objective is to grasp an understanding of new forms of citizenship and political participation (conventional and nonconventional); the struggles surrounding memory, its adopted forms, and how it questions official narratives; and the social impact of political violence. Therefore, we analyze the challenges afflicting societies fractured by this kind of violence and explore the possibilities of constructing a culture based on a set of values, attitudes, behavior, and lifestyles that prevent conflict through dialogue and negotiation.

Affiliated professors

Patricio Herrera (coordinator), Adolfo Vera, Claudia Montero, Elisabeth Simbürger, Félix Aguirre, Juan Sandoval, María Angélica Cruz, Manuel Cárdenas, Ximena Faúndez.

Current projects

1. “Articulation between gender and social memory of the Chilean civic-military dictatorship from current political practices.” Fondecyt Initiation Project No. 11150115 (2015), three years: 2015-2018. Principal investigator: María Angélica Cruz.
2. "Women’s suffrage in the Americas – Chile.” US National Endowment for the Humanities / Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin SN (2016), two years: 2016-2017. Principal investigator in Chile: Claudia Montero. US directors: Stephanie Mitchell and Patricia Harms (Carthage College).
3. “Post-traumatic growth and recovering the meaning of life as a response to trauma in people affected by political violence in Chile.” Regular Fondecyt Project No. 1140890 (2014), four years: 2014-2017. Principal investigator: Manuel Cárdenas.
4. “Psychosocial trauma in the construction of intergenerational narratives: Children and grandchildren of female and male victims of political violence in the Chilean military dictatorship.” Fondecyt Initiation Project No. 11140137 (2014), three years: 2014-2017. Principal investigator: Ximena Faúndez.
5. “Unity at all costs. The Latin American Confederation of Workers and its influence in the Southern Cone labor movement, 1938-1953.” Fondecyt Initiation Project No. 11140839 (2014), three years: 2014-2017. Principal investigator: Patricio Herrera.
6. “Discourses on politics and democracy and nonconventional forms of political action by university students who participate in different forms of Youth associations.” Fondecyt Initiation Project No. 11130690 (2013), three years: 2013-2016. Principal investigator: Juan Sandoval Moya.

 

Politics of knowledge, ideology, and power

In this stream, researchers delve into ideology and discourses related to politics of knowledge in a globalized and postcolonial context. The collapse of real socialism, the role of (multi)media, the globalization of consumerism, and societal unrest toward democracy—expressed in various international social movements during the last quarter of the century—have opened an extensive debate around the contribution of knowledge and information to civil society. The main questions that guide this research stream include: How are relationships shaped between social sciences, humanities, art, and politics? In what ways does knowledge production reproduce, question, or revert hegemonic forms of domination? How can we imagine politics of knowledge in a postcolonial era and include racial, sexual, and gender diversity as analytical categories? What are the epistemological transformations of disciplinary and interdisciplinary spaces in social sciences, humanities, and arts derived from the dominating politics of knowledge in higher education? What kind of methodologies are becoming favored in the current production of scientific knowledge and how can new formats of knowledge be integrated, primarily visual and sensorial?

Affiliated professors

Paola Bolados (coordinator), Elisabeth Simbürger, Félix Aguirre, José Jara, Juan Sandoval, Manuel Cárdenas, María Angélica Cruz, Patricio Herrera.

Current projects

1. “Neoliberalism, nature, and neoextractivism: Socio-environmental/territorial conflicts and the emergence of post-neoliberal identities (Region of Valparaíso - Chile).” Fondecyt Initiation Project No. 1140795 (2014), three years: 2014-2017. Principal investigator: Paola Bolados. Dissertation students: Ivana Olivares. Research assistant: Sebastián Balbontín
2. "Logistical Worlds / Global Ports – Valparaíso.” Australian Research Council (2015), two years: 2015-2016. Principal investigator in Chile: Elisabeth Simbürger. Australia directors: Ned Rossiter and Brett Neilson (U. of Western Sydney). Co-researchers: CRAC Valparaíso, Alejandro Donaire, and Jorge Budrovich.

Previous projects

1. “Voices on globalization. Dimensions of international mobility and the sociocultural phenomenon of internationalization in a group of foreign students who chose the University of Valparaíso to complete their undergraduate studies.” DIUV Regular Project No. 51 (2011), two years: 2013-2015. Principal investigator: Félix Aguirre.
2. “Academic identities and practice in changing institutional contexts of Chilean Higher Education. The case of sociology, education and biology.” Fondecyt Initiation Project No. 11110528 (2012), three years: 2012-2015. Principal investigator: Elisabeth Simbürger. Dissertation students: Felipe Ubeira, Camila Claps, Carolina Chaparro, Manuel Barros, Mauro Galasso, and Ignacio López. Research assistant: Alina Donoso.

 

Language strategies: comunication, art, and technology

This research stream looks into contemporary changes produced in social relations, communication, and other aspects of our intellectual, sensorial, and emotional interaction with the world, society, and culture. A crucial task is encouraging interdisciplinary reflection on the notion of representation that spans the various fields in this line. This objective reveals the current transformations of interdisciplinarity in relation to the impact, development, and specificity of new technology; the problem of discourses on alterity in the context of new cultural-artistic manifestations and practices; contemporary conceptions of representation and its crisis from paradigms of action or performance; the political consequences of these changes; among others.

Affiliated professors

 Nicolas Clerbout (coordinator), Adolfo Vera, Carolina Benavente, Gustavo Celedón, Juan Redmond, Miguel Alvarado.

Current projects

1. "Aesthetics of sound in the films of Raúl Ruiz.” Fondecyt Initiation Project No. 11150655 (2015), three years: 2015-2018. Principal investigator: Gustavo Celedón.
2. "Cultural consecration, spectacle, and women in Latin America: Carmen Miranda, Yma Sumac, and Eva Perón.” Regular Fondecyt Project No. 1151112 (2015), three years: 2015-2018. Principal investigator: Carolina Benavente. Co-researchers: Claudia Montero, Gustavo Celedón, and Miguel Alvarado. Research assistants: Luis Pinto and Sibila Sotomayor.
3. “Racism and xenophobia in the basis of a vision of national identity in South America”. DAAD Project A/15/600257 two years, 2015-2016. Principal investigator: Miguel Alvarado.
4. “Modelling in science and abstract objects: For a fictional artefactual approach.” Regular Fondecyt Project No. 1141260 (2014), three years: 2014-2017. Principal investigator: Juan Redmond.

Previous projects

1. “Fernando Balmaceda: Archives of the labor condition.” National Film Archives of Chile (2015), one year. Investigators: Gustavo Celedón Bórquez and Edgar Doll (UV School of Film).
2. "Lower scene. Cultural-artistic practices in Chile, 1990-2013.” National Book Fund Project No. 55476, Creative Writing Fellowship in the Essay category (2014): completed in 2015. Investigator: Carolina Benavente.
3. "Politique des image à l’époque des images numériques.” Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Paris Nord (2013), three years: 2013-2015. Principal investigator: Adolfo Vera.